Cero Reviews AJPW Champion Carnival 2021 4.28

[cero2k]

AJPW Champion Carnival 2021, Day 8
April 28th, 2021
Yokohama, Japan


Akira Francesco & Alejandro vs. Evolution (Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato) - 6/10
Good opener, short but effective. Sato and Tamura pretty much dominated the whole thing, Sato against Alejandro, and Tamura over Francesco, who he submitted with a Scorpion Deathlock.

NEXTREAM (Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO) vs. TOTAL ECLIPSE (Hokuto Omori & TAJIRI) - 6.5/10
This was great! Best TOTAL ECLIPSE match of the tour, no shenanigans, just good action, even with TAJIRI there instead of Kodama, it was great. Omori won with a Michinoku Driver on HAYATO.

Izanagi, Ryuki Honda & Yoshitatsu vs. Black Menso-re, Koji Iwamoto & Takao Omori - 4.5/10
Good match, but nothing special. This was all about building Iwamoto a bit as he is going to be going after CIMA's title in two weeks.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Koji Doi [2] vs. Yuma Aoyagi [6] - 6.5/10
I know that Doi was already mathematically eliminated prior to the match, but I still considered this was a chance to get the win. Doi was somewhat dominant and lasted more than I expected, but at the end, Aoyagi locked in the End Game and won.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Zeus [6] vs. Shotaro Ashino [6] - 7/10
Match was good, but I just don't like what Ashino has become in this tournament, I totally understand it, he has the work ethic and everything with him, he just lacks the support of Enfants Terribles

With this loss, Ashino is eliminated. The most he can do now is 8, but even if Sato vs Lee goes into a DCO and lose their remaining matches, he'd still lose the tie breaker with them. In addition, Miyahara would need to lose his remaining matches too.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Kohei Sato [8] vs. Jake Lee [8] - 7.5/10
This was way more enjoyable than I would had expected, turns out that Sato is quite entertaining when he's in the mat chain wrestling, and to say this about a match with Lee, who A LOT of people (not me) consider a bore. This was as basic as it can get, two dudes chain wrestling, chasing a submission to finish the other, a couple strikes here and there, but always back to the mat, and at the end, Lee connected a knee that knocked out Sato and got the pin.

With this win, Lee also eliminates Otani, win or lose against Suwama next, he only has one match left after this show and could only achieve 8 pts total.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Shinjiro Otani [4] vs. Suwama [6] - 7/10
Story of the match was that early on, during a struggle, Otani was sent to the floor with a bad landing, and so he had to wrestling with a bum neck and shoulder. Suwama targeted the shoulder, but it also meant that the match's pace went down significantly.

After the injury, it was all Suwama going for Otani's arm, and old man Otani having a couple of hope spots, making comebacks by striking with his left arm and kicks. As much as Otani fought back, there was never that one spot that makes you think that Otani could get an upset win, no Magistral or submissions out of nowhere. At the end, it was Suwama choking out Otani with a headlock, probably out of mercy.

I was really looking to seeing these two geezers going at it.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Shuji Ishikawa [4] vs. Kento Miyahara [8] - 8/10
Good match. Similar to other Miyahara matches, it played out that Ishikawa was dominant for a while, Miyahara made a comeback going after Ishikawa's head, but when other stories would had ended with Miyahara going all the way until he hit the Shutdown German, this time, Ishikawa broke the straightjacket hold, hit a TSUNAMI and the Giant Killer for the win. Easily the most action packed match of the night, but the story wasn't as intriguing as others.

Ishikawa ends the night at 6 points, he's not officially eliminated, but he would need for both Sato and Zeus to lose their matches tomorrow, and hope that no one else makes it past 10 points, plus Ishikawa has to win the rest of his matches. It's a complex combination, but it's possible.

Post-match - Ishikawa cut his winner's promo.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Good show, while not the best match, I'm surprised that the match that I liked the most at the end was a Kohei Sato match, nothing against the rest, but I really enjoyed seeing him and Lee mat wrestle. Otani vs Suwama could had been that match, but they went for the psychology route, and not the old-men-hitting-each-other-hard route.

Final Standings
Jake Lee - 10
Kento Miyahara - 8
Kohei Sato - 8
Koji Doi - 2
Shinjiro Otani - 4
Shotaro Ashino - 6
Shuji Ishikawa - 6
Suwama - 8
Yuma Aoyagi - 8
Zeus - 8