Suwama vs. Ryuki Honda – Royal Road (Semi-Finals)
This lacked the spark of Honda’s previous tournament matches, but the result made up for any shortcomings. The young lariat enthusiast now has wins over the current Triple Crown champion and the company’s dueling aces, making him one of the fastest rising stars in 2023 AJPW lore. In terms of star rating distribution, the action felt a bit directionless until Wammer got pissed and started wailing on the Gungnir Goofball like only he can. A suitable amount of beef-throwing ensued, but these two clearly have a much better match in them. ***1/4
Shuji Ishikawa vs. Satoshi Kojima – Royal Road (Semi-Finals)
The vibes are not quite there in Nagoya. After the Shoojster’s epic massacre of Dan Tamura, everything here seemed a bit tame. That being said, they still managed to whip up a decent underdog story for old man Kojima. The Breadman spent most of this on the defense, selling and absorbing Ishikawa’s king-sized offense until everyone was sufficiently warmed up for the babyface comeback. A wrestling match! ***1/4
ATM, Takao Omori & Black Menso-re © vs. Yukio Sakaguchi, Saki Akai & Hideki Okatani © – AJPW 6-Man Tag Team Titles + KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Titles – Double Title Match
Once upon a time, I used to follow Eruption’s adventures in DDT. Now that I have reached the end of my life (36 years old), I no longer have the brain bandwidth to keep up with multiple promotions. I want to thank the Zen Nihon booking committee for allowing me to reconnect with my old Dramatic Dream pals in the best possible setting – a two-star match in the Undercard Cinematic Universe. God bless. **1/2
Jun Saito & Rei Saito © vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Hartley Jackson – G-INFINITY Tag Team Titles
With Onita taking the All-Asia tag straps hostage, the G-INFINITY belts have turned into AJPW’s secondary tag titles. A blessed development considering the Saitos’ rapid growth and their affinity with GLEAT wrestlers. This latest defense was a supremely enjoyable plate of meat and potatoes, everyone walking the line between no-non sense tag team basics and creative thinking. Rei cutting off Kotaro’s drop toe-hold attempt by walking in with the splash was pretty fucking great. As was the RAYMOND POUNCE into Psycho Break finish. Life is good for Saito Truthers. ***1/2
Satoshi Kojima vs. Ryuki Honda – Royal Road (Finals)
Should they have pulled the trigger on Honda here? Absolutely. Does AJPW have the financial stability to refuse the Nooj Black Money that comes with these forced pushes for the New Japan Dads? Probably not. Wonky politics or not, Honda completed his transformative tournament run by scoring another banger with a motivated Kojima.
Most boxes of the classic Japanese tournament final were checked. If you are true wrestling scientist, you are already familiar with these boxes, but I will list them for you anyway. Major league intensity, well-structured escalation and some wild false finishes that got Nagoya’s grey crowd going. Kojima’s limits kept this from reaching the heights of peak 2023 AJPW MOTY territory, but the match did accomplish its most important goal (obtaining four stars from Captain Lou).
It is worth noting that Honda continued his tournament-long theme of Trying New Stuff with great success, casting himself as a Worker of the Arm and adding nerd-baiting psychology behind his Nagata Lock usage. Watching him kick ass throughout this entire Royal Road was a blast and I can’t wait to see where he lands next. ****
