A Fantastic All Japan Event

Summer Action Series 2014

(2014/7/12)

1.      SUSHI & Ryuji Hijikata vs. Big Guns (Zeus & The Bodyguard)

Good match, quite a surprise. Maybe it was SUSHI getting thrown around (hate that fuck), I dunno, but I liked this, Hijikata was rock solid, and Big Guns are a nice duo of muscleheads, bringing the highly Americanized powerhouse style (think Steiner and Goldberg) with them. Nice match with good pacing and everyone played off each other very well.

***1/4

2.      Osamu Nishimura vs. Masanobu Fuchi

Nish is old and Fuchi is 20 years older than him, yet I’m not even slightly surprised they had a borderline great match here. Simplicity is the key to brilliance. Why can’t today’s young wrestlers be like Nish and Fuchi? Why aren’t Nish and Fuchi celebrated all over the world as two undisputed geniuses?

***3/4

3.      Menso~re Oyaji vs. Kotaro Suzuki

Totally mindblowing, I don’t even want to waste too many words on this one, I’ll just say Oyaji overdelivered and deserves an Oscar or two for his impeccable selling here. Different Junior style here, ground-based and punishing instead of being spot heavy.

****1/4

4.      Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Hikaru Sato, Billy Ken Kid vs. Atsushi Aoki, Ultimo Dragon, Super Delfin

By-the-numbers 6-man tag with a swell finish, cool prelude to Sato/Aoki for the Jr. title.

***1/4

5.      Kento Miyahara vs. Suwama

Great match. Watch it, it contains Suwama demolishing Miyahara with heavy smacks, what else do you need? /review. If this happened in the G1, people would lose their shit. /review x2.

****

6.      AJPW World Tag Team Championship: KENSO & Mitsuya Nagai vs. Burning Wild (Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori) ©

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a match like this where I was up and down on it throughout its entire duration, first something awesome happens like Akiyama throwing kitchen sinks at people, then a dull minute or two with Nagai dominating Omori happens, and the match is also long… but then it gets brawly and wild and… REALLY good, and it’s not coming back. Akiyama digging out his inner Tenryu, uh oh!

***3/4

Fantastic show with four good and two great matches.