Cero Reviews AJPW Champion Carnival 2021 4.9

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Cero Reviews AJPW Champion Carnival 2021 4.9

Post by cero2k » Apr 9th, '21, 19:01

AJPW Champion Carnival 2021, Day 1
April 9, 2021
Osaka, Japan

**Dark Matches**

Evolution (Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato) & Koji Iwamoto vs. NEXTREAM (Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO) & Yasutaka Oosera - 5/10
Ok match, it really was all about the Sato vs HAYATO stuff at the end, with the former tapping out the latter.

Akira Francesco, Black Menso-re & Takao Omori vs. TOTAL ECLIPSE (Hokuto Omori, TAJIRI & Yusuke Kodama) - 5/10
Another ok match, Hokuto Omori did most of the work, Kodama and TAJIRI were barely in for TOTAL ECLIPSE. Finish saw Omori use the belt on Menso-re behind the referee's back after TAJIRI tossed it in, which seemed really unnecessary since they weren't doing so bad.

**Main Show**

Participant Introductions - Great, it was just the normal ceremony, but when everyone left, Zeus and Miyahara stayed in their place, just eyeing each other.

Izanagi & The Bodyguard vs. Ryuki Honda & Yoshitatsu - 4/10
Match was somewhat better than I expected, it's been about a year or so that I hadn't seen Bodyguard, and I've never been that impressed to begin with, so I wasn't exactly hyped to see him. I like Izanagi and Yoshitatsu tends to be a good tag wrestler, but I wouldn't say they're match savers either.

Anyway, Bodyguard just did some powerhouse stuff, working over Honda and taking on Yoshitatsu's hot tag. At the end, it came down to Izanagi pinning Honda for the win.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Shuji Ishikawa vs. Koji Doi - 6.5/10
Good hoss fight. A bit of a brawling vs technical match, with Doi working over Ishikawa's arm a lot, but Doi also kept up with Ishikawa, going for slams and lariats, The match was just starting to hit second gear when Ishikawa won with a Thesz like flying body press like if it was Lou Thesz vs Ruffy Silverstein back in 1950. I really could have gone 5 more minutes with this.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Kohei Sato vs. Suwama - 7/10
I'm not the biggest fan of either, I find both incredibly boring, even if Sato's lack of 'crispness' make his matches look slightly real. This was just another hoss fight, a shortened version of their title match early this year, but with no limb work. A lot of striking, a lot of Germans and backdrops, and at the end, Sato won with sickening headbutt, and later a German Bridge for the pin. A lot of people love these two, the matches are violent, but they're a charisma void that suck the life out of me.

The interesting thing here is that Sato pinned the champion, which would mean he gets yet another title shot. I'm hoping the winner ends up taking the title before Sato can challenge.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Shinjiro Otani vs. Yuma Aoyagi - 8.5/10
This was interesting, I kinda figured it would play out like this, but it ended up a little bit more disjointed. At first, it seemed like Aoyagi wanted a clean friendly match, but I take it Otani took it as disrespected, fired back with stiff kicks, and from there on, he woke up Aoyagi who came in full force. Otani took in all the offense, came back, and won. Good match, just wasn't crazy about the finish either.

Given Otani's surprise return and well, his age, I kinda hoped he would have the slow start and rank up wins as the tournament went on, but that's out now. It's ok to build him as the old man that is kicking ass, but Sato and Suwama are also kinda the same.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Jake Lee vs. Shotaro Ashino - Dud, but good for what it was.
I gave this a low rating, but it really felt more like an angle, especially given how little All Japan uses referee bumps. They were having a match and Ashino was being dominant, he's been waiting for this day for a while, he wanted to get his revenge on Lee, and he went straight for his ankle, but at the first chance, Lee pushed the referee in front of him as Ashino was rushing in. Lee used the distraction to attack Ashino from behind, finish him off a couple of knees and brainbuster. Altogether, this went less than 5 minutes.

At the end, the right man won, this couldn't be Ashino's big revenge match, that is gonna take some time to get to. If anything else, this could be the finals, but even then, I rather have Lee win over Zeus or Miyahara, win the title, and then Ashino can chase and dethrone.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Zeus vs. Kento Miyahara - 9/10
This was a rematch from last year's finals, where Zeus defeated Miyahara to win the 2020 Carnival, and a year later, Miyahara still couldn't get the job done. The match was similar to that one, it too felt like a summarized version of that match.

Both men worked each other's heads, Zeus with slams and lariats, while Miyahara relied on Germans and jumping knees. The match started with good energy, but it really kicked in later on as they headed to the climax, where Miyahara seemed to be closing in on the win, but Zeus turned it around, straight up broke out of the Shutdown German midair, came back, and finished Miyahara.

Post-match - Zeus cut his winner's promo saying he'll win the Carnival back to back.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
This show on paper looked amazing, and while it was good, I think I may have overhyped myself, because the show went on and I kept thinking, that was good, but nothing blew my mind. It's a strong field this year, there will be several shows that will definitely deliver, and I'm looking forward to them.

Final Standings
Jake Lee 2
Kento Miyahara 0
Kohei Sato 2
Koji Doi - 0
Shinjiro Otani 2
Shotaro Ashino 0
Shuji Ishikawa - 2
Suwama 0
Yuma Aoyagi 0
Zeus 2
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