All Japan 3/27

Dream Power Series 2015

(2015/3/27)

1.       Naoya Nomura vs. KENSO

A Nomura rookie match, which means solid. And it’s refreshing to see a KENSO match without Dark Kingdom interfering.

**3/4

2.       Kengo Mashimo & Tank Nagai vs. Big Guns (Zeus & The Bodyguard)

Damn fine tag clash, this was very manly and every advantage was hard-earned, the sense of scrapping and heavy fighting was strong. All the combos were good, Zeus looked particularly awesome, and the finishing run with Kengo and Bodyguard was nifty. Swell match, I recommend it.

***3/4

3.       Jun Akiyama, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Masanobu Fuchi, Yuma Aoyagi vs. Takao Omori, SUSHI, Ryuji Hijikata, Yohei Nakajima

Fun sprint, Akiyama and Omori were bossing around and it was awesome, also the obvious fallman survived this one, so there you go…

***1/4

4.       Evolution (Suwama, Joe Doering, Hikaru Sato) vs. Akebono, Yutaka Yoshie, Keisuke Ishii

Hey now, this was great! There was a fabulous face-in-peril segment on Yoshie where he got manhandled by Suwama and Doering, it was super, such a hard-hitting struggle for every move right there, it was awesome watching the Evolution big men taming the fat beast via all the brawling methods. Like, they were giving their very best, like two lions trying to slay a big ass buffalo. Really, the entire match was put together very well, the big men clash was obviously the centerpiece, but both Hikaru and Ishii added a lot too. Smashing match!

****

5.       AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Championship: Kotaro Suzuki vs. Atsushi Aoki ©

Their Jr. Battle of Glory match from one month earlier was fantastic, but unfortunately they didn’t repeat that success. This one was good, even great at parts, but overall it felt too ordinary and its structure and body of work were kind of too conventional. But still, good enough match.

***1/2

6.       AJPW Triple Crown Championship: Kento Miyahara vs. Go Shiozaki ©

Man, they crammed so much in this one, but strangely it didn’t feel disjointed and all over the place, no, somehow things were kept tight and organic and the result is a furious sprint. The opening feeling out process was cool but short, they moved onto hellish smacks very fast and it was intense. Go was like “remember who’s the boss, mate” every time Kento tried to beat the shit out of him, many hateful strikes and death stares were exchanged, it was like they’re bitter rivals instead of stablemates. They wrestled a hectic rollercoaster pace with zero holds, everything was a movement, one gigantic sprint, and it fucking worked big time. Great match!

****1/4