April 25, 2019
Tokyo, Japan
Atsushi Maruyama & Dan Tamura vs. Hikaru Sato & Yusuke Okada - 6/10
Tamura paired with Okada, Maruyama with Sato, with the former not doing comedy tonight, he was serious and it was great. All four men are just great solid workers. Sato submitted Tamura with an armbar. Great short opener.
Atsuki Aoyagi, Jun Akiyama, & Koji Iwamoto vs. Black Menso-re, Masanobu Fuchi, & Takao Omori - 5/10
DANGER ZONNEEEE! Best thing abotu Fuchi wrestling. While there was a lot with Fuchi's palm strikes and Akiyama attacking Menso-re, the match was kept to minimal comedy too. Menso-re picked up the win over Aoyagi with a double foot stomp.
Gianni Valletta, Joe Doering, Joel Redman, & Naoya Nomura vs. Jake Lee, Sam Adonis, Suwama, & Yoshitatsu - 6.5/10
Neither Adonis or Yoshitatsu had their opponent's for tomorrow's date, so they worked with Redman and Valletta respectively, who are done with their tournament matches. The action was good, Redman vs Adonis specially. Suwama vs Nomura was good, made me root for Nomura more than usual. Yoshitatsu defeated Valletta for the teams' win.
Champion Carnival 2019 Block A Match
Ryouji Sai (7) vs. Yuma Aoyagi (4) - 8.5/10
Both men are numerically eliminated, they're just fighting for bragging rights at this point. Yuma attacked Sai during his entrance, they brawled in and outside the ring. Sai tried to introduce chairs behind the ref's back, but he shot didn't land anyway. Sai went to work on Yuma's chest and back with a ton of kicks. Yuma would go for the neck and head, chasing End Game, which Sai would submit to at the end. Great match.
Champion Carnival 2019 Block A Match
Atsushi Aoki (6) vs. Dylan James (9) - 7/10
If Dylan James wins, he would only need Okabayashi to lose to win, otherwise, he'd go into a tie breaker. Unfortunately for James, the smaller Aoki played spoiler and defeated James in under 10 minutes.
The match saw Dylan James completely dominated Aoki, just a powerhouse playing with his pray, getting cockier and cockier until the smaller Aoki hid underneath the ring, surprising James from behind for a series of roll ups that James kicked out off. This woke up James, but after surviving some more punishment, Aoki reversed a chokeslam to steal the pin and kill James' hopes for the Block A win. Mostly one sided, but a good match.
Champion Carnival 2019 Block A Match
Shuji Ishikawa (7) vs. Zeus (8) - 9.5/10
With Dylan James out, Zeus would need to win this match and for Miyahara to defeat Okabayashi in order to win the block as he has a win over Kento. Again, unfortunately for him, Ishikawa also played spoiler and defeated him.
Story of the match was that Zeus came in with the plan of toppling down the giant and targeting his head to choke him out, and while it seemed his plan would work, Ishikawa is not someone to take lightly, who slowly but surely, made a comeback and turned things around when he dropped Zeus on top of his head on the apron. They started going back and forward with an incredible striking bout that ended with Ishikawa dropping Zeus again with a Tiger Suplex, Kamigoye, and a Bomb for a big near fall. After kicking out of a Kamigoye and two TSUNAMIs, Ishikawa finally put down Zeus with the Giant Killer for the win. Awesome match, everyone needs to watch this one.
At one point, Zeus hit an impressive deadlift suplex from the second rope, bringing Ishikawa into the ring, at which point nothing mattered and I thought Zeus should win. This was an awesome match, one of Zeus' best. Even in defeat and losing the block, I feel that Zeus' performance all around has really shown him as the top level contender regardless of who wins the Carnival.
Champion Carnival 2019 Block A Match
Kento Miyahara (8) vs. Yuji Okabayashi (9) - 9.25/10
It all comes down to this and Miyahara HAS to win to advance; meanwhile, Yuji is one point above and a tie would give him the win. This was really heated, right when the match started, both the fan's reactions and Miyahara's mannerisms really sold Okabayashi as a dangerous contender.
Story of the match was pretty much that Okabayashi is a beast that not even Kento will take lightly, and thus, Okabayashi beat the shit out of Kento, but the champ kept coming back, and back, and back again. Kento's explosiveness was the key to his success, but Okabayashi was like a train without breaks, only able to stop him when you put obstacles in front, in this case, in the form of jumping knees to the face. Kento's chase for the Shutdown German was incredible since Okabayashi kept breaking the hold, but at the end, after a long battle, Kento managed to close the grip and hit it for the win Block A.
Another great match to close the show and Block A's Champion Carnival. This match brought out the ace in Miyahara, this match was for the most part on a different level as his other matches throughout the tournament. Okabayashi, in defeat, had a great tournament, and with this match, he gave a performance that puts him in good light for a credible title match if Kento were to keep the title long past the Carnival.
Post-match - Okabayashi got a good ovation from the fans and made peace with Kento, who close the show cutting a promo asking the fans who would win the Champion Carnival, to which the fans shouted 'Kento' in unison.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Awesome show, it was at the level of what a Block Final's should be. AJPW knew exactly what pair ups to leave for the final day of Block A. Kento captured Block A and awaits the winner of Block B now.
Block A Block B |
Kento Miyahara [10] Joe Doering [8] |
Atsushi Aoki [8] Jake Lee [8] |
Yuma Aoyagi [6] Yoshitatsu [8] |
Zeus [8] Takashi Yoshida [6] |
Gianni Valletta [6] Daichi Hashimoto [8] |
Ryouji Sai [7] Suwama [8] |
Dylan James [9] Sam Adonis [4] |
Shuji Ishikawa [9] Joel Redman [6] |
Yuji Okabayashi [9] Naoya Nomura [8] |
