Happy New Year to all the Lounatics out there on the World Wide Web.
Ryuki Honda, Yusuke Kodama & O Hanabatakemasa vs. Dan Tamura, Ryo Inoue & Yuma Anzai
If one thing became clear during the show’s opening tracksuit reveal ceremony, it’s that the All Japan roster – once fairly old-adjacent, is now very youth-centric. This match offered a solid peek into the company’s refreshed state and featured pleasant performances from guaranteed Future Players. Everyone kept it moving and supplied the energy required to deliver opening match THRILLS. ***
Takao Omori, Kaz Hayashi & Rising HAYATO vs. Yoshitatsu, Mitsuya Nagai & Black Menso-re
An enjoyable undercard visit from GLEAT’s own Kaz Hayashi and Dradition’s Mitsuya Nagai. 2022 Most Improved Wrestler Rising HAYATO got a lot of shine during the opening and worked out some fun acrobatics with Resident Lucha Libre Expert Yoshitatsu. No complaints. **1/2
Shuji Ishikawa & Hokuto Omori vs. Minoru Suzuki & Naruki Doi
Hopefully you’re hungry for subplots because there was a lot going on here. First, the AJPW introduction of brand spanking new Freelancer Naruki Doi. This man knows how to work a crowd and Big Shuj was game to make his Bakatare Sliding kick look like white hot death.
Second, we saw the continuation of Hokuto and Suzuki’s Budokan blood feud, which led to some hard-nosed forearm festivities. The match stuck with basic Southern heel tropes and inspiring Omori comebacks, but it was the post-match that presented a potentially game-changing scenario. Are we looking at Suzuki-Gun 2.0 in All Japan? STAY TUNED. ***1/4
Yuma Aoyagi & Naoya Nomura vs. Jun Saito & Rei Saito
NOMUYAGI! Back in 2018, I attended an All Japan Korakuen show as a total neophyte to the modern product. Afterwards, I went up to the merch section looking for a classic AJPW t-shirt, but they were all sold out. A very young Yuma Aoyagi offered me a Nomuyagi shirt as an alternative and I politely declined – being somewhat unfamiliar with these lads at the time. Not buying this shirt is my greatest regret and I will forever CARRY THIS PAIN INSIDE ME! In better news, the boyz are back and pulled three stars out of the Saitos – a well-built ending stretch escalating nicely into a Yuma upset. ***
Atsuki Aoyagi © vs. Hikaru Sato – AJPW Jr. Heavyweight Title
The New Ace vs. Old Ace story tends to be my favorite match format in wrestling, but there’s something about the Atsuki/Hikaru dynamic that keeps them from reaching the level of a pairing like Kento/Suwama. Sato seemed intent on teaching the champion a wrestling lesson by focusing the match on Classic Puro Tropes – gnarly forearm exchanges and limb work. Wise choice in theory, but this isn’t exactly the type of wrestling that Aoyagi excels at.
The boy wants to flip and the old man wants to shoot. There’s a story to be told with these polar opposite mind-sets and I don’t think we’ve seen the best version of it yet. Large parts of the match worked perfectly well, while others felt a bit flat since Atsuki hasn’t fully mastered big match emoting/selling. Despite some of the uneven execution, I’m glad we got the post-match passing of the torch moment. ***1/2
Suwama & KONO © vs. Kento Miyahara & Takuya Nomura – AJPW Tag Team Titles
Quite the episode of RAW is ZEN NIHON to kick off 2023. We did end up with a lovely, feel-good conclusion to this thing, but getting there was a psychologically-challenging journey. You might be familiar with the underground performance art subgenre known as voodoo murdering? Well, there was a lot of it here and it somehow felt clumsier than usual. We are talking Botched TARU Interference Spot-level clumsiness. To be fair, there were also a bunch of super fun moments (Miyaken To Takuya Stacked German Tease!?) that kept this from being a total disaster. And the next World Tag match is looking like a certified banger. ***
Battle Royal
The cinematic event of the year back in its rightful place as a Korakuen Hall headliner. You love to see it. Nomura/Ryo was a pretty tantalizing final pairing, but from a purely scientific perspective, the ultimate highlight here was Kento cheerleading Fuchi through his body slam routine. Beautiful.
