AJPW hosted their second show in as many days in Korakuen Hall as part of their New Year Wars tour. This show was significantly better than the first show on this tour. There were three championship matches and a solid undercard. However, the undercard was not very newsworthy, so there is no need to go in to too much detail. Some highlights included:
- Rookies Danji Tamura, Hokuto Omura, and Atsushi Aoyagi impressed again in a tag-team match also involving Yusuke Okada
- Sweeper (Jake Lee, Ryoji Sai and Koji Iwamoto) def. Jun Akiyama, Zeus and Atsushi Maruyama
- Lee and Zeus were at each other’s throats the entire match, so maybe they will have a singles match during the next tour
- Suwama, Shuji Ishikawa and Atsushi Aoki def. Joe Doering, Dylan James and Gianni Valletta
- Osamu Nishimura and Hikaru Sato def. Masanobu Fuchi and Yoshitatsu
- A video played hyping up matches in the upcoming Junior Battle of Glory tournament, including Iwamoto vs Kotaro Suzuki
TAJIRI © def. Minoru Fujita to retain the GAORA TV Championship
These two men have great respect for each other. Because of this, there was great tension about if one of them would fight dirty to try and win the match. So, it started off with some solid mat wrestling, with neither man gaining a clear advantage.
This whole match was kind of slow, with both men feeling each other out and trying to gain the advantage the entire time. They took turns working each other over for long periods of time.
TAJIRI spit green mist in Fujita’s face, then caught him in a small package for the win.
NEXTREAM (Naoya Nomura and Yuma Aoyagi) © def. Takao Omori and Black-Menso Re to retain the All-Asia Tag Team Championships
The crowd loves NEXTREAM, especially Nomura. They also have great respect for the veteran Omori, and Menso Re is very funny. This made for a very hot crowd throughout the match.
All four men felt like stars at some point in this match, including Omori. Even though he does not move as well as he used to, he can still work a crowd beautifully.
This match did a great job of making the audience think Omori and Menso Re would win the titles. Just when the match reached its crescendo, Nomura would kick out of a big move, and the match would somehow find the next gear.
2018 was such a great year for tag-team wrestling, and this felt like a continuation of that.
After a ton of near-falls, Nomura pinned Omori with a Death Valley Driver. Excellent match.
Kento Miyahara © def. KAI to retain the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship
This match was a big test for both men, as KAI has never been taken too seriously as a threat in AJPW. Especially since they had to follow that tag title match.
They passed with flying colors.
During their entrances, Miyahara was clearly the more popular of the two wrestlers. However, when the bell rang, it was split down the middle. At first, the pro-KAI crowd was very vocal, but then Miyahara’s fans brought it up and it made for a great atmosphere.
Miyahara did what he does best in big matches: sell. He is at his best when he works from the bottom before making a big comeback and winning, and this match was no different. It was seriously every big Miyahara championship match ever, except KAI worked over his knee for the whole match, which was a nice change of pace.
If there was one critique I had for this match, it was that Miyahara’s bad knee did not factor in to the finish. His finishing move is a straight-jacket German suplex with a bridge. This means he Germans his opponent and shoots his hips into the air for extra leverage for the pin. It would have been nice to maybe have his knee give out when going for the bridge, just to tie the whole story of the match together. It is a small complaint, but it felt like a missed opportunity.
Otherwise, this was another excellent match. KAI is not the strongest challenger in the world, so they did a great job teasing the idea that he could potentially win and become the top champion of the promotion. Miyahara is still one of the best wrestlers in the world. AJPW got the year off on the right foot with these two shows.
What did you think of the show? Leave a comment below and keep following Pro Wrestling Journal for more!
