All Japan 3/27

Dream Power Series 2015

(2015/3/27)

All Japan 3/14

Dream Power Series 2015

(2015/3/14)

All Japan 2/20: Aoki vs. Kotaro

Excite Series 2015

(2015/2/20)

1.       Naoya Nomura vs. Shigehiro Irie

***1/4

2.       Yuma Aoyagi vs. Masanobu Fuchi

bad

3.       Takeshi Minamino, Hikaru Sato, Keisuke Ishii, SUSHI vs. Ultimo Dragon, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Soma Takao, Yohei Nakajima

**

4.       KENSO, Akebono, Yutaka Yoshie vs. Go Shiozaki, Kento Miyahara, Zeus

**1/2

5.       AJPW World Tag Team Championship: Suwama & Joe Doering vs. Wild Burning (Jun Akiyama & Takao Omori) ©

Manly match for sure, but needed more color for greatness, there were middle parts that were just… there. Too by-the-numbers, I guess, something like that. That FIP session on Omori should’ve been longer. Not to mention very weak execution at times. Good match, though, all the pairings were fine enough, especially Suwama/Akiyama and the awesome climax with Omori and Doering. I loved Doering here with all the headsweeping Hansen lariats. Pure force of nature he is, he’ll also piledrive you into oblivion. But there is one problem – sure, he and Suwama are a good, compelling duo, but they’re struggling to find a formula that leads to excellent matches, unlike Akiyama & Omori and Go & Miyahara who make good shit out of thin air.

***3/4

6.       Jr. Battle of Glory 2015 – FINAL: Atsushi Aoki vs. Kotaro Suzuki

AA is probably my favorite Junior in the world in the past two years of so. He works a sluggish heavyweight style and is a relentless dick. Here, after a couple of stand-offish minutes, he targets Kotaro’s arm and works over it viciously, using some very innovative and dangerous looking moves. Great work by Aoki and Kotaro sold it perfectly, there was struggle for every move and Kotaro had to dig down very deep in order to survive, and this is where all the Misawa trainings came into play as Kotaro’s elbows proved to be the key, seriously, that finish was fucking fabulous. This was a rough and punishing Junior match, and with Aoki in charge (plus Hikaru Sato lurking somewhere) All Japan Jr. Division has profiled itself as unique in Japan, nurturing slow paced, human chessgame and highly punishing style.

****1/2

Dead Baba Draws Better Than Current All Japan

Giant Baba 17^th Death Anniversary

(2015/1/31)

1.       Yuma Aoyagi vs. Yohei Nakajima

Neat little opener, the crowd totally bought into Aoyagi winning during that one roll-up since Nakajima is a total jobber. Perfect opening match.

***1/4

2.       Naoya Nomura vs. SUSHI

Oh look, a SUSHI match where SUSHI didn’t suck a bag of dicks! Good effort from both.

***

3.       KENSO vs. Masao Inoue

A KENSO match mixed with an Inoue match.

**

4.       Jinsei Shinzaki & TARU vs. Taiyo Kea & Yuto Aijima

It was nice to see Kea back. Aaaand, that’s pretty much it. Painfully average and pointless match.

**

5.       Genichiro Tenryu, Akebono, Ultimo Dragon vs. Evolution (Suwama, Atsushi Aoki, Hikaru Sato)

The greatest wrestler of all time is fucking 65 years old (or young) and can barely walk properly, but his right hand still serves him well and Suwama’s mouth, nose and throat can testify to that.

***1/4

6.       Jun Akiyama, Takao Omori, Masanobu Fuchi vs. Xceed (Go Shiozaki, Kento Miyahara, Kotaro Suzuki)

Good main event with some really nifty moments, such as Akiyama/Kotaro closing, it would’ve been great with less Fuchi and his old man selling shtick. I did like him getting his ass kicked by Go, though, you mess with the bull, you get the horns. Go didn’t care about Fuchi’s age, he treated him like any other punchbag out there.

***1/2

All Japan 2015/1/3

New Year Wars 2015

(2015/1/3)

1.       Yohei Nakajima, Naoya Nomura, Yuma Aoyagi vs. Masanobu Fuchi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Ultimo Dragon

Fun opener with a peculiar underdog trio led by jobber Nakajima battling against the super experienced trio, they stood no chance and the story went exactly that way.

**3/4

2.       Soma Takao vs. Atsushi Aoki

Killer little match, rough and heavy, Aoki was relentless with attacking Takao’s back and it paid off. There was that one totally fabulous sequence with Aoki shoving Takao into the guardrails repeatedly, smashing shit. Also, the finish was excellent.

***1/2

3.       GAORA TV Championship: Ryuji Hijikata vs. KENSO ©

This was actually passable until the unnecessary ref bump.

bad

4.       Jun Akiyama, Takao Omori, SUSHI vs. Akebono, Shigehiro Irie, Shuji Ishikawa

So cool to see my man Shuji in All Japan, man I wish it could happen more regularly. Anyway, fuck SUSHI, there was too much of him in the match and he brought it down, because that’s what he does best. Fuck SUSHI. Sure, he was the obvious fallman, but still – FUCK HIM.

***1/4

5.       Shingo Takagi & Zeus vs. Suwama & Hikaru Sato

The fallman is obvious here but it didn’t prevent the match from being really good. That’s because they worked smart and didn’t get overambitious. It was cool to see Shingo in All Japan, just like Shuji Ishikawa earlier, hopefully they come back.

***3/4

6.       All Asia Tag Team Championship: Mitsuya Nagai & Takeshi Minamino vs. Kento Miyahara & Kotaro Suzuki ©

This was really awesome until KENSO decided to stick his beak in, and it was all downhill from there.

bad

7.       AJPW Triple Crown Championship: Go Shiozaki vs. Joe Doering ©

Unfortunately, this didn’t live up to the massive hype, as much as it really pains me to say. Good title match, but nowhere near the MOTYC level or something. Also the atmosphere was falsely advertised as “red hot Korakuen”. The pacing was kind of off and some moves/transitions were too botchy and weird, dunno how it got overlooked by the smarks, lol. Go did some things that were awkward and had me scratching my head a lot. Their September slugfest was much, much better. But like I said, good match though, and even though I was disappointed because I expected a bonafide classic, I’m still very happy for Go and have big hopes for his reign. However, All Japan is going produce at least 20 matches in 2015 better than this one, you can put that in the bank.

***1/2

All Japan 2014/12/14

Kyohei Wada Produce

(2014/12/14)

1.      Yuma Aoyagi Debut Match: Yuma Aoyagi vs. Kento Miyahara

What an awesome debut match, probably the best one I’ve ever seen unless I’m missing something embarrassingly obvious. Miyahara was such a proper and surly aggressor towards Aoyagi who took the beating like a true pro, but he also gave him a lot, totally did not expect that. Obviously the kid is immensely talented and it showed in his debut already, and of course Korakuen recognized it and gave him good time. Damn good match with a great story.

***3/4

2.      Hikaru Sato vs. Yohei Nakajima

Tight little match that built and built until the satisfying finale, poor Yohei was doing everything in his power to fight off the savvy shooter, it looked like a mongoose vs. snake fight, awesome shit. The defensive portions of the match were shooty, loved it. Yohei removing the mask half a year ago and abandoning the Menso~re Oyaji persona did wonders for him, he’s a great lowcard underdog now, and Hikaru Sato is continuously one of the most underappreciated wrestlers on the planet. I knew this would rock, and it did.

****

3.      Osamu Nishimura, Ryuji Hijikata, Naoya Nomura vs. Tamon Honda, Masao Inoue, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi

Kikuchi still looks good and can go. And someone book Nishimura in a singles match please.

**

4.      Mascara vs. Mascara: Masked Burning No. 2 & Ultimo Dragon vs. Mr. Christmas & SUSHI

Decent semi-comedy match.

**1/2

5.      GAORA TV Championship: KENSO vs. Kotaro Suzuki ©

Great match with KENSO’s nose being busted open, it added to his character here, the brawling portions of the match were rough and awesome. This was your classic big guy vs. small guy structure done right, the selling was excellent and the finishing run was well done. After the match Ryuji Hijikata came out to challenge the new champion KENSO and I have no idea why, he just lost the title match two weeks ago, ffs.

****1/4

6.      AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Championship: Masanobu Fuchi vs. Atsushi Aoki ©

Smart match worked around Fuchi’s athletic limitations, simple and clever contest with lots of pure struggle, Aoki did a fine job in adjusting to Fuchi’s pacing.

***1/4

7.      Kyohei Wada 40^th Anniversary Match: Akebono & Takao Omori vs. Suwama & Go Shiozaki

Really fun match built around the intriguing Suwama & Shiozaki one night only partnership, and that was the story of the match, there were awesome interactions and tension between the two. Omori was great here with all the punches, uppercuts and big boots, Akebono was his normal self (weight and all that jazz), and together they made for a good foe duo to fight against the Dream Team. Quality entertainment.

***3/4