The match is rediculously clipped so there is not much to comment on. Kotaro Suzuki looked pretty good. He had some nice junior moves like a 619 attempt and he sold the leg from being in the figure four.
Hikaru Sato vs Kento Miyahara
Sato has an MMA background and uses a ground attack with some kicks, while Miyahara on the other hand is more of a typical junior wrestler. Sato seemed to be leaning towards a ground based offense of grapevining the leg. He controlled the first portion before Miyahara exploded with some forearms. Miyahara's nice strikes, killing Sato on the floor with a DDT, and muscling up Sato for a suplex were all impressive. First time seeing either man wrestle and Miyahara performance was more impactful, though I would certainly like to see what Sato can do given a little more time and offense which his offense is more suited for.
Sato has an MMA background and uses a ground attack with some kicks, while Miyahara on the other hand is more of a typical junior wrestler. Sato seemed to be leaning towards a ground based offense of grapevining the leg. He controlled the first portion before Miyahara exploded with some forearms. Miyahara's nice strikes, killing Sato on the floor with a DDT, and muscling up Sato for a suplex were all impressive. First time seeing either man wrestle and Miyahara performance was more impactful, though I would certainly like to see what Sato can do given a little more time and offense which his offense is more suited for.
Jon Bolen, SUSHI & Tyson Dux vs Team Dream Futures (Ishii, Irie & Takao)
Bolen and Dux are well traveled gaijin from PA and NB respecively. Both do relatively nothing in the match. The one highspot from the duo was a swinging powerslam from Bolen. Irie and his green mohawk was the most impressive wrestler of the match. When he tagged in he was a house of fire straight through to the end.
Bolen and Dux are well traveled gaijin from PA and NB respecively. Both do relatively nothing in the match. The one highspot from the duo was a swinging powerslam from Bolen. Irie and his green mohawk was the most impressive wrestler of the match. When he tagged in he was a house of fire straight through to the end.
Go Shiozaki vs KENSO
KENSO is apart of Dark Kingdom while Shiozaki rolls with Xceed. This match was more middle of the road for me. I do not believe KENSO, who has two tag title reigns in his decade plus career, will beat a former GHC heavyweight champion. KENSO brought an Americanized feel to the match by doing some brawling in the crowd and especially throwing the referee over the top rope. This is the first AJPW show I have seen in a year so it is quite possible that Dark Kingdom is a poor mans Bullet Club. KENSO is a scrappy fighter but poses little threat to Shiozaki who finishes the match with the Go Flasher.
KENSO is apart of Dark Kingdom while Shiozaki rolls with Xceed. This match was more middle of the road for me. I do not believe KENSO, who has two tag title reigns in his decade plus career, will beat a former GHC heavyweight champion. KENSO brought an Americanized feel to the match by doing some brawling in the crowd and especially throwing the referee over the top rope. This is the first AJPW show I have seen in a year so it is quite possible that Dark Kingdom is a poor mans Bullet Club. KENSO is a scrappy fighter but poses little threat to Shiozaki who finishes the match with the Go Flasher.
AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Title
Ultimo Dragon© vs Atsushi Aoki [***]
At the end of 2013 the 47 year old Ultimo Dragon won the AJPW World Junior Heavyweight title from Kanemaru and this is his first defense. Aoki is a NOAH transplant and spends a large part of the match working in the arm of Dragon. My favorite piece of armwork is the Kamura after a pin attempt, which if done with supreme intensity, can be very effective. Sadly intensity is the main element missing from this match and drags the match from great to good. I appreciate Dragon selling the arm well after the match was over but he did little to move the match any higher. The ending was La Magistral cradle which was reversed twice, and thanks to the WWE I have completely soured on any finish involving a roll up. I was hoping for a lot more but sadly this is not worth going out of your way to see.
Akebono, Suwama & Taiyo Kea vs Burning & Takao Omori
I really like the phrase 'They had a match' Bryan Alvarez uses when reviewing wrestling describing a match that was neither good nor bad yet nothing particularly stood out. The little Kanemaru, though heel, is able to draw some sympathy from me for having to tangle with his three oversized opponents. Suwama hit a lariat on Kanemaru that turned him inside out. Good booking rears its ugly head in the ending where Omori, who is challenging for the Triple Crown title the next night, pins the champion Akebono. Omori sold this as a big accomplishment and sells me on their match to come.
17 Man Battle Royal
This event could have easily been called 'Night of Omori' as he takes the win in the main event too. I expected the Battle Royal to be a comedic playground for Fuchi and in some ways it was and I was very disappointed when he was eliminated. Eliminations come can come by pinfall and a lot of the early portion of the match was everyone standing around until two competitors were prone in a submission or pinning combination then they all covered both for the double elimination. There was a fun moment near the end where Omori went to make a handshake alliance with SUSHI, but SUSHI made the alliance with the other four men in the match as they all turned again Omori. The final two were SUSHI and Omori. I almost lost it when SUSHI got a close near fall but Omori finishes SUSHI in short order to complete a super push towards the title match tomorrow night.
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