Jake Lee vs. Ren Ayabe – Royal Road Tournament (Round 1)
JTO’s Ren Ayabe has been working his way up the All Japan undercard for the past few months. Due to his unfair height and frequent use of the Giant Baba running neckbreaker drop, many see him as a natural fit in AJPW aka. the land of Very Tall People. I am one of these Ayabelievers and this match reinforced my polital beliefs.
Props to the Dark Gentleman Jake Lee, who made the youngster look like a big deal and cooked up a tasty stomach-work subplot – BUT also props to Ayabe himself for going full Big Match mode and wow’ing Korakuen with a bunch of crazy dropkicks. A rock-solid start to this blessed tournament. ***1/4
Takuya Nomura vs. Atsuki Aoyagi – Royal Road Tournament (Round 1)
Two guys who have been making waves this year in the workrate spreadsheet microcosm. BJW native Nomura killed it in the Champ Carnival with memorable bouts against the Kento’s and Yuma’s of the world. Meanwhile, Atsuki’s been repeatedly stealing the show with ridiculous performances on nearly every single card. To no one’s surprise, they gelled beautifully here and had a terrific wrasslin’ match.
Everything was anchored in a clear-cut Flippy High Flyer vs. Traditionalist esthetic – Aoyagi pushing back against Nomura’s No-Bullshit-ISM by stringing wild acrobatics and elaborate late-match rollup drama. This kid is already an expert at the ending stretch fireworks and seeing him work against top-tier dudes is a serious treat. ***3/4
Yuma Aoyagi vs. Naoya Nomura – Royal Road Tournament (Round 1)
From dojo mates to tag partners to bitter frenemies – the latest chapter of the Yuma/Naoya arc might’ve been the best one yet. Without spending hours on Wikipedia, you could tell this was a match heavy on back story.
All of the wrestling reviewer’s adjectives were accounted for: intense, hard-hitting and physical. Yuma looked properly Ace-like with his fresh bleach job and Nomura wrestled like he had something to prove. It made for a combustible dynamic, both guys finding new ways to one-up themselves.
The finisher thievery, Yuma’s crazy-ass bump for the through-the-ropes spear, Naoya having to reinvent himself with the INVERTED MAXIMUM – all highlights of this wild match. Naoya’s return to AJPW is one of the best stories of the year. This was more proof that the dude belongs in the main event scene. ****
Kento Miyahara vs. TARU – Royal Road Tournament (Round 1)
If you look at this as a wrestling match, it was slightly better than expected. Some acceptable arm work drama sprinkled with a few excellent 2.999 kickouts from Kento. However, viewing this as one unified piece of comedic storytelling/Twitter social experiment – it was grandiose.
The crying kid subplot (complete with insane post-match payoff), the HAYATO swerve, the unhinged Kento promo. One might say that this is what wrestling is all about!? And by one I am referring to myself. I am saying this. Thank you All Japan Pro-Wrestling for sports entertaining me. ***
