Kotaro Suzuki, Rising HAYATO & Ryo Inoue vs. Hikaru Sato, Dan Tamura & Oji Shiiba
Korakuen Hall is freakin’ packed and ready to witness junior heavyweights wrestle professionally. These six gave the people their money’s worth – Kotaro and Hikaru providing some pretty tantalizing Veteran On Veteran violence. That being said, my biggest highlight was Shiiba coming out with the Independent Jr. Heavyweight title. This legendary indie ARTIFACT – a belt that traveled all the way from early FMW to BattlARTS and K-Dojo, is now property of our boy OJI. The AJPW Undercard Cinematic Universe wins again. **1/2
Shotaro Ashino, Ryuki Honda & Masao Hanabatake vs. Yoshitatsu, Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato
First of all – how over was Master Wato here? The ladies of Korakuen had their eye on the grandmaster and who can blame them!? I’d love to see this blue-haired legend in a less Taguchi-centric environment, with some of the actual All Japan juniors. And this is no slight on the Ass Man, as his interactions with Ashino here were extremely good. The whole thing was a ton of fun – GOA clearly enjoying the interpromotional challenge. ***
Shuji Ishikawa, Ren Ayabe & Oskar Leube vs. Takao Omori, Toru Yano & Black Menso-re
More crowd-pleasing festivities to liven up your undercard journey. There was real Jackass energy to the giants elaborately murdering Menso-re. The New Japan Dojo’s latest large man fit like a glove as honorary Triple Tower, learning many valuable lessons along the way by mixing up with King’s Road royalty (Black Menso-re). **1/4
Suwama, Jun Saito & Rei Saito vs. Yuto Nakashima, Ryohei Oiwa & Kosei Fujita
There’s been a constant stream of controversy surrounding the Saito Bros ever since they returned from excursion. Are they good? Are they bad? Have they been miscast as Voodoo Murderers? Until we find all the answers, we can likely agree that this match showed them in their absolute best light.
If you remove all the clunky cheating, something can be done with these middle-aged youngsters. Rei was especially great here as a full-on Young Lion Destroyer, the bearded bruiser just mauling everything in his path. Not to be outdone, the usual star of these AJPW young lion matches (Nakashima) again managed to steal the show by busting out a 1-count off a Suwama lariat. The balls on this kid. ***1/2
Shingo Takagi vs. Yuma Anzai
At this point, Yuma Anzai may not even need a classic Japanese wrestling style trial series. Thrown in buzzy spotlight matches since his debut, the guy’s entire career has been a gigantic trial series. This was another one to add to the list – a hard-hitting wrestling lesson from one of the modern greats.
Even in a midcard match focused on the basics, Shingo made everything feel high-stakes. He was casually chewing the scenery and guiding young Anzai through main event-level strike exchanges – just another day on the job for the KOPW ace. While Anzai didn’t get the same tradition-defying shine as in his recent match with Big Shuj, he still across as a big deal and hung with Takagi every step of the way. ***1/2
Yuma Aoyagi & Naoya Nomura vs. Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori
For his first (?) encounter with Naoya Nomura, Suzuki pulled the 2018 Tanahashi playbook and cooked some highly-compelling, limb-focused wrasslin’. Ever the consummate professional, Nomura went out of his way to please the most annoying people on Twitter and sold the leg like someone who’d win an Oscar for Best Leg Injury. Getting a singles match between these guys has just become one of my top priorities in life. Meanwhile, Aoyagi took on the coveted role of Hot Tag Receiver and worked a swell ending stretch with the newly-heavyweight Omori. ***1/2
Atsuki Aoyagi © vs. Naruki Doi – AJPW Jr. Heavyweight Title
All Japan pulled a booking tour de force (I’m French Canadian) with this Atsuki reign. They stuck to their guns and showed real commitment to establishing a new junior ace, having the boy run through all the Ghosts of Junior Wrestling’s Past. Even if Atsuki’s still learning on the job, the company treated him like a star and he ended up becoming one. Crazy how that works!
In the Freelancing Fiend Naruki Doi, AJPW found the perfect guy to end this reign. With his Dragon Gate background, the Doister added some proper speed to the Atsuki title match template and patched the weaknesses with pure veteran craft. You know you can trust a man who makes the old luchadore ‘yayaya’ sound effect when running the ropes.
Like in Aoyagi’s last defense against Kotaro Suzuki, there was some proper drama here and Doi had to break out the big guns (aka. MUSCULAR BOMB~!). As much as I enjoyed this, it did feel like they saved the real epic for later – probably when Aoyagi gets the title back. In the mean time, I am all in on this Naruki Doi reign. ***3/4
Kento Miyahara © vs. Yuji Nagata – Triple Crown
Putting aside my feelings on the result and strictly looking at the wrestling from a fact-based, academic perspective – this was pretty fucking great. Another miracle match in the same genre as Takao Omori’s recent Triple Crown challenge – the one where Miyahara takes an old man by the hand and gives him his greatest match in years.
Kento worked off the shockingly split crowd and put in a masterclass performance – blurring the line between Prideful Ace and Wounded Egomaniac. To Nagata’s credit, he fed off the champ’s energy and worked harder than in any of his recent AJPW appearances.
Even at 20% mobility, Nagata’s Greatest Hits whipped Korakuen into a god damned frenzy. While Miyahara did the heavy lifting for the most elaborate sequences, there was something undeniably infectious to Nagata’s fighting spirit and it was hard not to get caught up in the wild chain of events that led to his upset.
In the end, the match’s secret weapon turned out to be the 1400 Zen Nihon Freaks in Korakuen. The tug of war between good, reasonable people (Kento fans) and state traitors (Nagata supporters) made for a completely batshit atmosphere – the kind that’s been missing in Japanese wrestling for years. Make some time for this one. ****1/4
