April 17, 2019
Tokyo, Japan
Hokuto Omori & Koji Iwamoto vs. Atsuki Aoyagi & Yusuke Okada - 5/10
Okada beat up Omori for a while until Iwamoto came in and kicked his ass. Good young boy action as usual. Iwamoto tapped out Aoyagi with a Boston Crab.
Atsushi Maruyama, Jun Akiyama, & Zeus vs. Black Menso-re, Takao Omori, & Yoshitatsu - 6/10
I don't usually feel bad for Menso-re getting his ass handed by Akiyama, but when he got chopped by Zeus, I legit felt bad for him. He's just out there trying to make people happy. Akiyama and Omori were barely in there, and at the end, it was mostly Maruyama doing comedy leading up to him getting pinned by Yoshitatsu, who was good in this match. Fun stuff.
Champion Carnival Block A Match
Atsushi Aoki (2) vs. Ryouji Sai (5) - 8/10
Aw man, this was a great technical bout that got more intense by the minute as they kept introducing strikes and moves. Aoki is such an underrated participant in the tournament that even as a replacement, I wish was getting a better showing than what he is, since he's just here to the spoiler of Block A. Granted he picked up the win with the a roll up, but he carries himself with so much calm yet wrestles with so much intensity and crispness to his moves.
The match started with both men trading mat based wrestling moves and towards the end, it was mostly Sai being on top and coming close to winning. With this win, Aoki leaves Valletta at the very bottom, who has a chance next at leaving Sai at the bottom of the group.
Champion Carnival Block A Match
Gianni Valletta (2) vs. Shuji Ishikawa (7) - 3/10
Valletta jumped Ishikawa at the ramp, only to bring him in to the ring, only to throw him outside the ring. The brawl outside was short and they just headed back to the ring. The match inside the ring was if Valletta was playing at Toru Yano, constantly going for cheats, except he's not a mastermind and thus nothing worked until he bumped the ref, low blowed Ishikawa, hit him with the chain, and stole his second win, and got out of the bottom of the block. Finish aside, the 'match' in the ring was weak.
Dylan James, Joe Doering, & Naoya Nomura vs. Joel Redman, Sam Adonis, & Suwama - 7/10
We got a good pair up with Doering and Redman. Adonis and James did something similar to yesterday with Adonis running away from James, but he did get the upper hand at the. And finally, Suwama came in for like one minute against Nomura, who rather had a better pair up with Redman at the end where he submitted him with the Nomura Lock.
Champion Carnival Block B Match
Jake Lee (4) vs. Takashi Yoshida (4) - 6.5/10
Lee tried to have a civil bout, but Yoshida blindsided him with throat thrusts and then low blowed him on the ropes, pissing Lee off, forcing him to get more vicious and playing Yoshida's game. Yoshida had some trouble, but at the end he won with a modified Udegatame. Match was ok, judging by the tournament, Yoshida ain't the type of wrestler that reaches second gear, he just does his few moves over and over. Lee sold nicely and took a good beating, so once the finish came, the fans were excited for him.
Champion Carnival Block A Match
Kento Miyahara (4) vs. Yuma Aoyagi (4) - 9/10
This was a really fun match that did a lot of comparing between Miyahara's personality and Yuma's, and the acceptance of it from everyone. Like comparing how the ref reacted to both men's spots on the ringpost.
Miyahara worked over the head, while Yuma focused on Kento's legs. They pretty much went 60mph back and forward from the start, but as soon as Miyahara captured control of the ring, he slowed down the match. They would eventually pick up the pace again when Yuma made his comeback. The last few minutes with Yuma chasing the End Game submission, and Kento going for the Shutdown German were great. We got a bunch of great near falls for Yuma and he was showing a lot of fire that I thought he really had it, but at the end, the champ prevails with the Shutdown German for the win. Awesome match!
Post-match - Kento messed with the ref, cut his closing promo, and sent us off.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Decent show overall as we go into a three day break. Tournament matches were either great or bad, there was barely an in-between, but given that we're half way there, we're getting a lot of point racking matches for guys like Valletta, who won't get clean wins, but also needs wins.
Block A Block B |
Kento Miyahara [6] Joe Doering [4] |
Atsushi Aoki [4] Jake Lee [6] |
Yuma Aoyagi [4] Yoshitatsu [4] |
Zeus [8] Takashi Yoshida [6] |
Gianni Valletta [4] Daichi Hashimoto [4] |
Ryouji Sai [5] Suwama [6] |
Dylan James [6] Sam Adonis [4] |
Shuji Ishikawa [7] Joel Redman [4] |
Yuji Okabayashi [4] Naoya Nomura [8] |
