April 20, 2019
Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
Atsushi Maruyama vs. Yuma Aoyagi - 5.5/10
Short technical match that ended with Yuma submitting Atsushi with the End Game. Maruyama did no comedy for this match.
Aisawa NO. 1, Jun Akiyama, & Zeus vs. Black Menso-re, Joe Doering, & Takao Omori - 4/10
We got the usual Akiyama vs Menso stuff. Zeus paired up with Doering. Aisawa and Menso did some other comedy too. Finish saw Zeus's team gang up on Menso, who got pinned by Akiyama. Usual filler match.
Champion Carnival Block B Match
Sam Adonis (4) vs. Yoshitatsu (4) - 6.5/10
If anything else, this match is worth checking out just to see Yoshitatsu do his 'Sexy Man' dance. Give these men shit for their past wrestling experience, but they both came in to the tournament ready to work and this was a good clash of the two roles they've been playing all tournament. Adonis was the loud mouth heel beating up the underdog Yoshitatsu, who fights from underneath. Adonis had a great near fall after a frog splash. Yoshitatsu would follow with the Yoshitatsu Fantasy to submit Adonis. This was good for the time it got.
Hokuto Omori, Jake Lee, & Koji Iwamoto vs. Atsushi Aoki, Noriyuki Yoshida, & Shuji Ishikawa - 6.5/10
Ishikawa and Lee paired off and it got really good towards the end. Yoshida and Iwamoto got in there too, but they didn't do as much. Aoki worked with Hokuto, with the young kid actually getting a lot of offense in, but submitting at the end to a Boston Crab. Good stuff.
Champion Carnival Block A Match
Dylan James (6) vs. Yuji Okabayashi (4) - 9/10
Big hoss fight, not much other than tests of strengths, strikes, and just ramming each other around all over the arena. I think we need to develop the Muta scale version of how hard chops are, and I think these two threw a couple here that were up there on the scale, especially Dylan James. Anyone who likes hoss fights, two huge dudes just going stiff on each other has to check this match out. These dudes are fucking beasts! Not gonna spoil the winner, go watch it yourself, but i'll tell you, it was ballsy given the nature of the match. James did end up with a bloody eye and a small mouse, I wasn't sure when it happened, but I suspect it had to be in the last brawl outside the ring.
Dylan James isn't the greatest actor, so a lot of his selling lacks drama. The selling we saw here was legit pain. If he were to improve that aspect, his matches would improve a lot.
Champion Carnival Block B Match
Joel Redman (4) vs. Suwama (6) - 8.5/10
Suwama just had his best match of the tournament thanks to Redman, because I'm sorry to Suwama fans, but Redman just wrestled circles around him. Redman was all technical while Suwama did more of the power moveset. There were some good near falls towards the end, mainly because I wasn't expecting Redman to win here, and because at one point, it came to mind that maybe just maybe, they were going for the time limit draw.
Champion Carnival Block B Match
Daichi Hashimoto (4) vs. Naoya Nomura (8) - 6/10
I kind of feel bad for this match, they're coming off of a huge hoss fight and a good technical match, so both men's styles are somewhat under the spotlight if they need to follow. They had a fighting spirit type match, not as hard hitting and somewhat sloppy at times. Crowd was somewhat dead and Hashimoto won clean to barely any reaction.
Hashimoto has really failed to impress me and he shouts too much.
Champion Carnival Block A Match
Gianni Valletta (4) vs. Kento Miyahara (6) - 6.5/10
Pretty bad match given the position in the card and not even taking in account the finish. Most of the match was Kento's style of comedy, which somewhat undermines Valletta's brawl. Last minutes of the match was Miyahara chasing his finisher while Valletta kept trying to cheat, eventually doing it and earning a win over the champ. Of all people, Valletta pinned Miyahara. Bad choice.
Post-match - Valletta cut a promo that was harder to understand than the Japanese promos, and I don't speak Japanese.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
A great show that just went downhill at the end. I don't know why James vs Okabayashi wasn't the main event, it was far superior to almost everything else, I understand that Miyahara is the champ and what not, but Valletta is a geek, I think it balances out, right?
Block A Block B |
Kento Miyahara [6] Joe Doering [4] |
Atsushi Aoki [4] Jake Lee [6] |
Yuma Aoyagi [4] Yoshitatsu [6] |
Zeus [8] Takashi Yoshida [6] |
Gianni Valletta [6] Daichi Hashimoto [6] |
Ryouji Sai [5] Suwama [6] |
Dylan James [7] Sam Adonis [4] |
Shuji Ishikawa [7] Joel Redman [6] |
Yuji Okabayashi [5] Naoya Nomura [8] |
