Izanagi & Black Menso-re vs. TAJIRI & Takuro Niki
Friends, we are live from Giant Baba’s hometown and this audio is very much out of sync. Consequently, we must realign our brain frequencies to properly appreciate the subtleties of Black Menso-re. This can be accomplished by consuming large amounts of LSD or simply fast forwarding until the sound syncs up again. If you chose the latter option, you may have caught a few pleasant high spots from 2AW’s Takuro Niki. **
Shuji Ishikawa vs. Rising HAYATO
8 minutes of pure undercard bliss. The kind of match you could put on any TV wrasslin’ program and successfully get HAYATO over as a star. They played within the David vs. Goliath subgenre, tweaking it just enough to make Rising look as cool as possible. Big Shuj made the kid fight for everything and here’s the deal – the kid brought the fight and MORE. The crowd seemed in awe of his whole repertoire: nastiest overhand chops since Masato Yoshino, GIF-ready guardrail spots and crafty babyface counters all over the place. Welcome to Captain Lou’s Review, also known as the Rising HAYATO Appreciation Hour. ***1/4
Jun Saito & Rei Saito vs. Hikaru Sato & Dan Tamura
This was the Saitos’ first official outing as Voodoo Murderers and I’m happy to report that they’re not deviating much from the powerhouse shtick of their return matches. Save for a few additional chair shots, it’s still two big dudes clobbering people. There were some miscues between Jun and Dan, but the core story of Evolution fighting from underneath worked well enough. **1/4
Suwama vs. Yoshitatsu
Look. Congratulations to All Japan for making it 50 years in the business, but how about WORLD FAMOUS Yoshitatsu celebrating his 20th wrestling anniversary by getting murked by Suwama? That’s way more important! The match was Wama/Tatsu by the numbers, but it did introduce a brand-new source of potential anguish for the AJPW fanbase. Yes, I am referring to the Saito Brothers as ring-side enforcers. No matter where you stand on interference tropes in wrestling, you can’t deny that double choke slam on the floor looked like white hot death. **1/2
Atsushi Onita, Masanobu Fuchi & Yuma Anzai vs Jinsei Shinzaki, Masao Inoue & Ryo Inoue
The wacky adventures of super rookie Yuma Anzai continue as he travels to MASAO WORLD in his fourth match ever. A Future Ace must take on all challenges. In terms of AJPW old men tags, this was probably amongst the better ones from this year. Onita/Masao worked a legit-great mist spot and the good people in Sanjo popped for all the geriatric antics. **3/4
Jake Lee, Yuma Aoyagi, Hokuto Omori & Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Shotaro Ashino, Ryuki Honda, Yusuke Kodama & Seigo Tachibana
Gungnir of Anarchy have a new group theme and it sounds like the All Japan equivalent of the Steve Carrell LOUD NOISES scene from Anchorman. It’s a lot. In better news, these eight professional wrestlers had a fun crowd-pleaser where everyone got a chance to shine. The juniors brought the high-flying and their thicker counterparts supplied the beef. I don’t need a whole lot more from my house show multiman tags. ***
Kento Miyahara © vs. Takao Omori – Triple Crown
An absolute miracle of a match that confirmed my long-held theory that Kento can plug anyone into his four-star formula and come up with pro-wrestling magic. This isn’t a slight on Omori (who looked great here), but you could tell Miyahara was doing everything in his power to turn a cold challenger into a main event-level threat.
Judging by the pop for that mind-shattering Axe Bomber near-fall near the end – it worked. Let me reiterate: the concept of 2022 Triple Crown Challenger Takao Omori worked.
The story was crystal-clear from the get-go: grizzled old vet (backed by actual AJPW royalty in Masanobu Fuchi and MASAO INOUE) making his last stand against present-day Superhuman Ace. Miyahara leaned into his heelish side to babyface the living hell out of the old man – working the arm (!?), talking trash and forcing the 50+ year old City Hunter aficionado to dig deep.
Thanks to time-tested wrestling plot devices (Fuchi nearly throwing the towel after Kento started beating the shit out of Omori!), the drama reached fever pitch and Omori started feeling 20 years younger. All near-falls landed right on the money, the Sanjo crowd losing their shit for every scrap of Omori offense.
Peak wrestling content from bell to bell – Omori following his strong Budokan showing with an even better performance and Kento once again cementing his status as Best of the Best. One of the year’s most pleasant surprises. ****1/4
