AJPW Champion Carnival 2019 Day 17
Atsuki Aoyagi, Atsushi Maruyama, Dan Tamura, & Jun Akiyama vs. Black Menso-re, Hokuto Omori, Koji Iwamoto, & Takao Omori - 6.5/10
Great stuff from all the young kids pairing up, even Omori vs Akiyama was good. Obvioyusly Menso-re got worked on by Akiyama. There was a sequence with Koji going against Tamura and Maruyama that looked great. Koji tapped out Tamura to win the match. Good opener.
Gianni Valletta, Joel Redman, & TAJIRI vs. Atsushi Aoki, Keisuke Okada, & Shuji Ishikawa - 7/10
Story here is that Valletta and TAJIRI just wanted to brawl and break the rules and Redman was doing everything possible to keep things in order because he wanted a fair fight. Thank the booking Gods that they gave us Redman vs Aoki, it was a beautiful British style hold-by-hold match up, at one point they even high-fived out of how much they were enjoying themselves. Valletta and TAJIRI worked over Okada while Redman tried to stop them from cheating. Eventually, Ishikawa came in and had a good short hoss fight with Valletta.
Finish saw Valletta go attack Aoki with the chain, but Aoki reversed it and locked in an armbreaker, submitting Valletta. Interesting that Valletta would take the loss when Okada was in the other team. Really good match given it's position in the card.
Post-match - Aoki cut a promo challenging Iwamoto to a Jr. heavyweight title match.
Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi vs. Dylan James & Zeus - 6/10
A lot of the match was Zeus and James beating the shit out of Yuma with Keno coming in and out to run wild, but really, Kento was barely in the match. There was a part when they brawled outside the ring and Zeus did the most awesome and ridiculous ramming of Kento into a wall with them running from one side to the other side of the building. It was awesome.
Finish saw Zeus win with a Jackhammer. Good match that could had been great with more time and more Kento.
Quick Point Analysis - There is a 6-way tie with 8 points. I don't believe that AJPW does win/loss spoilers to pick who takes the position on the table, but for the fuck of it, here it goes. Obviously everyone needs to win to get the proper advantage since a tie leaves them at 9 pts. The spoiler combinations are the following:
Hashimoto needs Doering and Suwama to lose in order to win.
Nomura needs Doering and Hashimoto to lose in order to win.
Jake Lee needs Suwama and Nomura to tie, and Hashimoto to lose.
Joe Doering needs Suwama and Yoshitatsu to lose.
Yoshitatsu needs Nomura, Jake Lee, and Hashimoto to lose.
Suwama needs Yoshitatsu to lose only, as his other two loses were Adonis and Redman, both out of contention.
Champion Carnival 2019 Block B Match
Daichi Hashimoto (8) vs. Sam Adonis (4) - 6.5/10
It's a Hashimoto match, he didn't shout as much, but the story was the same with the big foreigner beating up Hashimoto, then there's a small comeback, and in this case, Adonis pinned Hashimoto with a top rope Plancha and eliminating him from contention.
Now that Hashimoto is done, I have to say, in a tournament with names like Valletta and Adonis, Hashimoto was the most underwhelming wrestler in the tournament. I can't even pinpoint what he's trying to be, sometimes he looks like a generic Deathmatch punk, sometimes he wants to be his father, sometimes he wants to be this fired up strong style wrestler, and in all cases, he's a half ass version of it. He's not a bad wrestler, his basics are there and he doesn't botch or mistime anything, but his overall presentation is flawed. I can't say I've followed him throughout his career, but I think he's a guy that could benefit a lot from leaving BJW, cutting his hair, and just work straight matches for a while, trying to find his strengths and see if his thing is being strong style or not.
On the other side of the coin, I'm really sold on Sam Adonis, maybe it's the AJPW, but he really looked exceeded my expectations I had of him from CMLL, and at the end, he just naturally became a babyface, which says a lot about his charisma.
Champion Carnival 2019 Block B Match
Takashi Yoshida (6) vs. Yoshitatsu (8) - 6.5/10
In a way, this was similar to the previous match with Yoshitatsu being worked on for a while, making a comeback, and getting pinned at the end after a lariat. The big difference is that Yoshitatsu is actually a better babyface than Daichi, and when he locked in the Yoshitatsu Fantasy, I hoped he would submit Yoshida, who also played his part right, cheating to gain advantage that would pay off at the end.
Yoshida was a guy that during the tournament, I liked enough, but I also kept forgetting he was even part of the tournament. It's like he was just there to adjust points for people, not like Shingo's participation when he actually was a force to be reckon with.
Yoshitatsu, I have to say, I was jaded from his career in WWE and NJPW, but I think I've turned a page on him. I still don't see him as an ace or future of the company, but I can appreciate his work.
Champion Carnival 2019 Block B Match
Jake Lee (8) vs. Joe Doering (8) - 8/10
Lee came in all cocky and then he realized that Doering ain't no push over, while the Top of the Class nerd still prevailed, he had a hard match to get there. The one and only real complain that I could have was that I thought the finish lacked power, I'm still not accustomed to seeing backdrops end matches, even if it's Lee's Signature High Angle Backdrop. Nonetheless, Jake Lee takes the lead, yet he needs Suwama and Nomura to tie.
Champion Carnival 2019 Block B Match
Naoya Nomura (8) vs. Suwama (8) - 9/10
Awesome match, Nomura is the fucking man! and I have to give credit where it's due, Suwama was great in this match, pretty much playing the older version of Nomura's babyface fire. Each man had their time with control of the match, but I'd argue this was more back and forward than not. The last third of the match was freaking intense. The story was basic, only way to advance is winning, a time limit draw eliminates both men, and we have the young up and coming Nomura who wants another shot at Kento, and you have old timer Suwama making a stand, and then they proceed to try and break each other's necks. Naoya had to pull out Maximum to win. This is the Suwama I like to see, and this is the Nomura that is getting closer to becoming a top guy in AJPW.
Announcement - Due to Jake Lee and Naoya Nomura going to a tie, there will be a tie breaker and a short intermission.
Champion Carnival 2019 Block B Tie-Breaker Match
Jake Lee (10) vs. Naoya Nomura (10) - 8.5/10
No matter how you want to twist it, Jake Lee had an extra 30 minutes or so to rest and his match was considerably easier than Nomura's. In day one when these two faced off, I wrote "This was great glimpse of the future of AJPW.", and I think it was only fitting that I would be writing about it again as we close off the Block's calendar. Miyahara is the Ace, but these two are going to be the future players to help Kento take AJPW to new heights.
The start of the match felt like a Feast or Fired cash in with Jake Lee going after Nomura an trying to finish things quick with crazy stiff looking strikes and trying to choke out Nomura, but he just couldn't get the job done. Nomura made a comeback and attacked Lee's upper body which had taken the most punishment in Lee's earlier match. Final minutes were intense again, Nomura kicked out of Lee's Giant Killing and dodged a fourth without the knee padding, only to come back and strike the shit out of Lee. Nomura went for Maximum, but Lee reversed it into the High Angle Backdrop and one final Giant Killing for the win. Awesome match, even for the short time it got.
Post-match - Lee offered Nomura a hand shake, but either Nomura rejected, or he was just way to beat up to take it. Lee cut a promo afterwards, pretty much copying what Kento said yesterday. He is Kento's anti-thesis and I hope Akiyama sees that too.
Jake Lee vs Kento Miyahara, your 2019 Champions Carnival Finals!
OVERALL THOUGHTS
This show started slow, but damn, it ended with super high notes. The final three matches were just fantastic, worth checking out if you've ever had any curiosity about getting into AJPW.