It’s All Japan’s biggest show of the year as they celebrate their 45th anniversary at the Ryogoku Kokugikan with the much anticipated re-match between Kento Miyahara and Shuji Ishikawa headlining the show.
Dark Match – Yusuke Okada vs. Keiichi Sato
So they actually aired this during half-time, It was fun three minute match with Okada wasting no time coming right at Sato and elbowing the crap out of him, Sato gets back into things though and they blast through the match until Sato gets Okada with a bridging German suplex. Very enjoyable overall, lads made the most of their time.
Winner: SAto (via german Suplex hold) ***
Dark Match 2 – Natsumi Maki & Saori Anou vs. Miyuki Takase & Tae Honma
They also aired this during the half time show, it’s a Joshi tag match and it was another fun watch with them keeping the action constant. I’m not familiar with any of the competitors but they did well.
Winners: Maki/Anou (via fisherman suplex hold) ***
Match 1 – Takuya Nomura & Yuya Aoki vs. Fuminori Abe & Yohei Nakajima
Good little opener to get things going, had some fun action and Nomura and Abe have a really nice strike exchange. In the end of course Nakajima gets the win over newbie Aoki.
Winners: Nakajima/Abe (via spin kick to head) ***
Match 2 – Danny Jones, Massimo & Sam Adonis vs. Ishikiri, Masakado & Ryouji Sai
Decent tag match. It’s great seeing fellow Welshman Danny Jones working this tour, he certainly seems to fit in well, though he unfortunately takes the fall. The international team take control right away and keep it for a good portion, until Sai’s team come back and eventually get the win.
Winners: Sai’s team (via 450 splash/double stomp) ***
Match 3 – Dory Funk Jr. & Hiro Saito vs. Masanobu Fuchi & The Great Kabuki
Special 45 anniversary match with a combined age of 263 and a combined 188 years of wrestling experience, this is one of the worlds oldest tag matches. There’s not really much to expect from this Saito pretty much takes all the bumps since he’s the youngest and even busts out a senton and then you’ve got Funk and Kabuki who can barely move going at it. In the end Funk gets misted by Kabuki but he still manages to lock in spinning toehold on Fuchi making him submit. Would be easy to completely shit on this but I’m happy to let the old guys do their thing, it certainly is quite fascinating in any case.
Winners: Saito/Funk (via spinning toehold) NR
Match 4 – !BANG! TV World Heavyweight Title Battle Royal: Osamu Nishimura (c) vs. Abdullah Kobayashi, Aisawa NO. 1, Akira Shinose, Atsushi Maruyama, Carbell Ito, Dinosaur Takuma, Great Kojika, Kazuhiro Tamura, Kotaro Yoshino, Naoshi Sano, Rey Paloma, Rikiya Fudo, Shota Nakagawa, Taishi Takizawa & Yutaka Yoshie
Cetainly quite the mix of talent here, it was quite fun though. In the end Kojika and Nishimura are the final two and Dory comes out onto the apron and confronts Kojika, he gives him a forearm and Nishimura rolls him up fort he pinfall to defend his title.
Winner: Nishimura (via Roll-up) **3/4
Match 5 – Caristico vs. Diamante
Fun little Lucha exhibition to break things up. Had a fair amount of enjoyable action and it’s good seeing Caristico doing well again.
Winner: Caristico (via La Mistica) ***
Match 6 – All Asia Tag Team Title Match: Atsushi Aoki/Hikaru Sato (c) vs. Taka Michinoku/Black Tiger
This was a good tag match, they kept it back and froth with a consistent pace and it was enjoyable. In the end Tiger gets the win with a La Magistral making him and Taka new champs.
Winners: Taka/Tiger (via La Magistral) ***1/4
Match 7 – Taichi vs. Yuma Aoyagi
I’m sure alot of people where dreading this match but it was actually quite good. Taichi does some of his usual dirty tactics to get control but Aoyagi did his best to try and thwart Taichi and it was really good performance that made the match. In the end though Taichi gets the best of him with a powerbomb emulating his trainer Kawada.
Winner: Taichi (via powerbomb) ***1/4
Match 8 – Jun Akiyama, Takao Omori, Koji Iwamoto, Minoru Tanaka vs. Zeus, Bodyguard, Joe Doering, Kotaro Suzuki
fun little multi-man match, everyone did their own little bit aside from Tanaka who I don’t think did much. Interestingly Doering came in once took out everyone, he’s been very focused on getting back into the title picture though so he probably found the match to be a waste of time for him. Kotaru and Iwamoto start the match and end up brawling after the match has ended, then Kotaru has a small confrontation with Zeus so there’s some potential feuds brewing.
Winners: Akiyama’s team (via Axe bomber) **3/4
Match 9 – AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Title Match – Tajiri (c) vs. Ultimo Dragon
This was a lovely little match-up, it was nice seeing these two junior veterans go at it. They kept things quite simple and there was quite a bit of mat wrestling, it overally an enjoyable contest with Dragon picking up the belt.
Winner: Ultimo Dragon (via Asia DDT) ***
Match 10 – AJPW World Tag Title match – KAI/Naoya Nomura vs. Strong BJ
Great tag title match here. BJ get a big of control but it’s mostly a very back and forth contest with a really good finishing stretch. Nomura put on one hell of a performance here, trying his damn hardest to keep up and pickup the belts but unfortunately big splash from Okabayashi kept him down for the count, allowing Strong BJ to pick up the belts. What a standout match for him though. Tag titles have been all over the place for the last couple of months, so I’m hoping BJ get at least a good little run with them.
Winners: Strong BJ (via Golem Splash) ****
-Post-match Wild Burning (Akiyama & Omori) come out to challenge Strong BJ for the belts.
Match 11 – Suwama vs. Satoshi Kojima
So before the match starts Doering attacks Suwama and proclaims to Kojima that this should be his match. The crowd aren’t sure how to react to it all, so the match ends up having a bit of an weird vibe to it. Kojima proceeds to control the majority of it working on Suwama’s neck. Suwama starts to mount somewhat of a comeback but a Lariat abruptly puts an end to things. Match was pretty solid aside the odd atmosphere and rather anti-climatic finish. Dunno if Kojima’s win is gonna mean anything but I still enjoyed it nonetheless.
Winner: Kojima (via Western Lariat) ***1/4
Main Event – Triple Crown title Match: Kento Miyahara vs. Shuji Ishikawa (c)
Yeah this was awesome and I’d say even on par with their previous match, I know some people feel the finish was a little flat but I disagree and think it worked with Miyahara winning back the title with a Shutdown German Suplex. Shuji got control for a good portion of the first half but once Kento gets back into things the match becomes straight up fire, with both guys giving it all they’ve got. Incredible main event and a great end to the show.
Winner: Miyahara (via Shutdown German Suplex) ****1/2
This was quite an enjoyable show overall for AJPW the tag Title and Main Event are definitely worth checking out and there were some fun moments spread throughout the rest of it. Very solid stuff overall.
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