April 10, 2019
Hiroshima, Japan
Atsushi Maruyama, Jun Akiyama, & Takeshi Okada vs Atsuki Aoyagi, Rey Paloma, & Yusuke Okada - 5/10
Aw man, they didn't book Akiyama against Black Menso-re today. Also, they booked two Okadas and they actually paired up together, so fans can just chant one name. This was a fun, funny match, the only thing I didn't like was Akiyama not selling against the other team, I can understand that against Aoyagi and Paloma, but not Okada. Finish saw Takeshi submit Aoyagi.
Shuji Ishikawa, Atsushi Aoki, & Hikaru Sato vs Jake Lee, Koji Iwamoto, & Hokuto Omori - 6.5/10
Ishikawa's team worked over Hokuto more about half of the match. We had a good little match up with Ishikawa and Sato, that later became Sato vs Iwamoto. Sato would end up pinning Omori after a high angle backdrop. Good match given that these are usually weaker.
Champion Carnival 2019 Block A Match
Joel Redman (0) vs Sam Adonis (0) - 7/10
Redman wrestled in a singlet, he looked weird. Match was a babyface technician vs a heel power brawler, so we saw the former do a lot of nice, crisp submission based wrestling, while the latter was more of a BLAH! type just throwing Redman around and hitting a lot of strikes. It was good for the time it got, but I also think both men held off a lot. Redman capture the win with a roll up. They shook hands afterwards. Redman is showing a lot of potential and given he has already been released by WWE once, other companies need to capitalize on him.
Post-match - Redman cut a promo backstage, or better said, they aired the backstage promo. He said that tonight he was faster and stronger than Adonis, and he'll win the CC.
Champion Carnival 2019 Block B Match
Yuma Aoyagi (0) vs Zeus (4) - 7.5/10
A power vs speed match where the power, straight up dominated all match except for a couple of hope spots here and there, at least until the end that Yuma made a proper comeback and went back and forward. Zeus worked the upper body while Yuma focused on the neck, leading up to the finish when he got a guillotine locked in for the submission. Good match.
I've been finding it weird how they place matches because Zeus closed out yesterday with a huge win in a huge match, and now he tapped out in the second tournament match of the day, pretty much killing the momentum he had from the win and post-match promo.
Post-match - Yuma cut a backstage promo laughing about surviving Zeus.
Kento Miyahara, Black Menso-re, & Takao Omori vs Dylan James, Gianni Valletta, & Kyboku Futoshi - 6/10
We got some Miyahara vs James, but not long after that, Black Menso-re came in for some comedy and ended up becoming the babyface in peril for a while. At the end, Miyahara had another run against James and then Futoshi, who he pinned for the win. Good stuff, I got a tease of Miyahara vs James.
Champion Carnival 2019 Block B Match
Joe Doering (0) vs Naoya Nomura (6) - 7/10
I really don't know why this isn't the main event. This was another power vs speed match with pretty much the same formula of the bigger dude dominating, the smaller dude making a comeback and toppling the giant down, both men going back and forward, giving one a couple of near falls, and in this case, it was the bigger man that captured the win with a crossbody. Finally Joe wins, but it seems they're trying to keep everyone pretty much at the same amount of points. Ok match.
Post-match - Doering put over Nomura, saying he is getting better and better and this could had easily been his third defeat.
Champion Carnival 2019 Block B Match
Suwama (2) vs Yoshitatsu (2) - 7.5/10
This match proved that the red hair streak is superior than the blonde hair streak. Match was similar to Yoshitatsu's previous match with him getting his ass handed for a while until he got his comeback going. My issue with this match is that if this is going to be the story, this can't be the longest match of the night, Suwama beating up Yoshitatsu went on way too long in my opinion, and it was a lot of neck submissions to make matters worse.
Towards the end of the match, they did start going back and forward with a bunch of kicks and germans that was fun. Past that, they hit each other with more moves and constant two falls, which lost emotion as they went. Finish eventually saw Yoshitatsu hit an MX, lock in the Koji Clutch, and choke out Suwama for the win.
This was a prime example that long doesn't always equal quality.
Post-match - Yoshitatsu cut a promo to close the show.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Ok show, nothing especially bad, but completely skippable. Zeus vs Yuma was arguably the best thing on the show and it happened 4th from the top.
Block A Block B |
Kento Miyahara [2] Joe Doering [2] |
Atsushi Aoki [0] Jake Lee [2] |
Yuma Aoyagi [2] Yoshitatsu [4] |
Zeus [4] Takashi Yoshida [2] |
Gianni Valletta [0] Daichi Hashimoto [4] |
Ryouji Sai [1] Suwama [2] |
Dylan James [4] Sam Adonis [0] |
Shuji Ishikawa [3] Joel Redman [2] |
Yuji Okabayashi [4] Naoya Nomura [6] |
