Today, we only have time for tournament matches. Apologies to Bodyger.
Hikaru Sato & Dan Tamura vs. Naruki Doi & Naoki Tanizaki – Junior Tag Battle of Glory
This junior tag league has been a steady stream of reliable, fast-paced TWO ON TWO professional wrestling. If you thought this match would deviate from the norm, then I’m here to tell you that you were wrong. It was more of the same good stuff, with the heels cutting the ring in half like freakin’ Southern tag wrasslin’ experts but without the racism. Hikaru’s ankle lock counter to the Bakatare sliding kick continues to rule and so did the finish between Dan and the Doister. ***1/4
Kaito Ishida & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO – Junior Tag Battle of Glory
Outside of a slight miscue during the final moments, these teams made the most of the 20-minute draw format and cooked some nutritious content. The chemistry between Ishida and Aoyagi gets tighter with every match, what with the high-difficulty reversals and assorted GIF-ready material. Meanwhile, HAYATO is still perfectly cast in the role of the guy who gets his stomach torn apart by Kotaro Suzuki before gradually making a sweet babyface comeback. This party shall continue in the league finals and we are all invited. ***1/2
Manabu Soya vs. Takao Omori – Champion Carnival (Block B)
These two can’t quite capitalize on the potential drama of a GET WILD singles match, but this was slightly better than their barebones offering from last year. We got a bit of floor action, a bit of limb action and a bit of beef action. An acceptable variety of wrestling where old man Takao took about four more bumps than expected. Respect. ***
Hokuto Omori vs. Yuma Anzai – Champion Carnival (Block B)
Hokuto having the hierarchical advantage here added a bit of a mean streak to his performance, which I appreciated. Structure-wise, it was one of the more pleasant Omori matches of the tournament, with very little down time and some well-thought-out sequences (RKO countered into the German suplex~!). Still, it says a lot about both guys’ current standing that the Anzai loss felt a bit jarring. Blame it on Hokuto’s finisher not looking super great or blame it on Anzai simply feeling like a much bigger deal already. ***1/4
Suwama vs. Rei Saito – Champion Carnival (Block B)
As hilarious as I find the Kyohei Wada vs. Voodoo Murders feud and Suwama’s commitment to selling the boos as psychic damage, I was really hoping for a more straight-forward hoss battle here. Still, lurking underneath the layers of Wada Dementia and Wammer performance art, there was some good shit to be found. Rei worked surprisingly well as the cuddly babyface monster, probably because his offense is so god damned visceral. The countout finish sucked for sure, but I did appreciate them cranking up the violence and truly beating the shit out of each other during the last pullapart. ***
Shuji Ishikawa vs. Shotaro Ashino – Champion Carnival (Block B)
A proper slobberknocker to send off perennial All Japan underdog Shotaro Ashino straight to the Carnival finals. Big Shuj’s Kaiju presence always brings out Ashino’s best assets, namely his natural likability as an undersized babyface and his technical know-how as a Worker of The Leg. They never fail to deliver against each other and this was their best match yet.
The David/Goliath routine was injected with a healthy dose of horse steroids – every Big Guy vs. Lil Guy trope cranked up to 11. Ashino made the Shoojster’s offense look as deadly as it ever looked, bumping like a fucking pinball for the giant knees and leaning into every forearm to extract maximal AUDITORY IMPACT.
Like a true wrestling surgeon, Ashino kept the leg subplot lurking in the background and wisely went back to it whenever he wasn’t too busy getting obliterated. This led to some slick-as-fuck counters, including a Kamigoye-turned-into-ankle-lock that would’ve made Kurt Angle cry tears of fatherly pride. Tremendous piece of business, on both the star ratings and booking front. ****
