Naruki Doi, Naoki Tanizaki & Oji Shiiba vs. Hikaru Sato, Dan Tamura & Ryo Inoue
These men did not reach the end of the junior tag league, but they won the next best thing – the honor of opening a Korakuen card. Solid wrestling was on the menu today, as it is most days if you identify as a Zen Nihon Freak. Highlight-wise, this peaked when Tamura and Doi threw their upcoming title match in the oven and turned on the heat. Who ever thought Daniel would take so well to the Doister’s sprinty shenanigans? ***
Suwama, KONO & Rei Saito vs. Shuji Ishikawa, Yuma Anzai & Takao Omori
These men did not reach the end of the Champion Carnival, but they won the next best thing – the honor of working the second match on a Korakuen card. Also, KONO was here to remind us that he somehow grifted himself into Suwama’s quest to reclaim the World tag belts. The match was mostly midcard filler, but the Rei/Anzai portion was kind of wonderful so I am contractually obliged to give this two and a half stars. **1/2
Yuji Nagata & Shotaro Ashino vs. Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori
Stupidly fun midcard adventure where Ashino asserted his badassery against the two NJPW guest stars. The Ashino vs. New Japan Dojo Trauma story is one of the great recent All Japan subplots. It’s been brewing since last year and it blew up here in the best possible way when Ashino slapped the shit out of his own partner. Tension stayed in the red all the way through, Ashino matching well with MiSu whenever he wasn’t busy hating on the current Triple Crown champ. ***
Yuma Aoyagi vs. Yoshitatsu – Champion Carnival (Block A)
WORLD FAMOUS Yoshitatsu using his Performance Center Fighting Spirit to control the majority of a wrestling match can be a gamble, but it worked here thanks to Aoyagi’s endless reliability. Indeed, Yuma dared to bust out his own facewash and immediately sealed his destiny as babyface in peril. There was a satisfactory amount of Good Shit in the ending stretch, what with both guys dropping each other right on their freakin’ heads and Aoyagi finding a swank new counter for Tatsu’s finish. ***1/4
Ryuki Honda vs. Jun Saito – Champion Carnival (Block A)
A tasty slice of Champ Carnival midcard wrasslin’. It continued to make the case for Jun Saito as an acceptable wrestler – the kind capable of delivering a respectable amount of stars if faced with the right opponent. Playing the role of ‘the right opponent’, Honda worked in full babyface mode and helped the vibe tremendously. We got apron spots, false finishes up the ass and even Honda busting out a god damned Tornado Clutch – shades of MEN’s Teioh. TAKE THESE STARS! ***1/4
Satoshi Kojima vs. Cyrus – Champion Carnival (Block A)
Thanks to the inclusion of an Honest to God finish, this would rank pretty high among Cyrus’ Carnival matches. The big man went down fighting but he went down for real, no tomfoolery or cheap rollup anti-climax. In terms of story, we got the efficient tale of Kojima struggling against both his own age and Cyrus’ size advantage – a handicap match for the ages. Korakuen was red hot here and reacted in equal measure to Kojima’s comebacks and Cyrus crushing his geriatric ass. No complaints. ***1/4
Kento Miyahara vs. T-Hawk – Champion Carnival (Block A)
As a licensed Kento/Hawkster match historian, I can confidently tell you that this landed right in the middle of their series. Better than the 2021 Royal Road match, but not nearly as good as the 2022 Triple Crown war. There was a rough patch right before the ending stretch where both guys got slightly lost and it stuck out like a sore thumb in a match with such high stakes.
A shame, because everything that came before and after was pretty great. In the last few years, T-Hawk has evolved his crowd connection to the point where he can now confidently hang with Miyahara and feel like a star. There was an icy serial killer demeanor to his work in the first half of the match, Kento going out of his way to sell his chops like murderous death.
In the end, they came close to a full recovery thanks to a bomb-heavy finish that pit Kento’s Blackout against Hawk’s Cerberus in traditionally-epic fashion. Our Carnival final is now set and WRESTLE-1 nostalgists across the World Wide Web are shedding tears of joy. ***3/4
Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Kaito Ishida – Junior Tag Battle of Glory (Finals)
Outside of a few structural hiccups and a controversial Sad Ending, the junior tag finals earned its spot as the Korakuen main event. They took the same approach as their time-limit draw on the last show – the heels cutting down the heroes’ fancy team work by isolating HAYATO and forcing him into the Babyface in Peril archetype.
It all made sense except for a bizarre segment where old man Kotaro seemed to misread the vibe and unleashed headlock-intensive chain wrestling right in the middle of the match. The wildly cutting-edge shit between Ishida/Atsuki made the whole Headlock Experiment all the more jarring, but the action did get back on track for the final third.
HAYATO lived up to his big match reputation and completely Sabu’d himself on a top-rope hilo to the floor. The insane bump cranked up the drama to new heights as you couldn’t quite tell if HAYATO was expertly selling his brutal death or if he was now working the match half-concussed. Gotta love when wrestling competently blurs the line between fiction and reality. ***3/4
