Cero Reviews AJPW Champion Carnival 2021 4.10

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Cero Reviews AJPW Champion Carnival 2021 4.10

Post by cero2k » Apr 12th, '21, 18:12

AJPW Champion Carnival 2021, Day 2
April 10, 2021
Nagoya, Japan

Evolution (Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato) & Akira Francesco vs. NEXTREAM (Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO) & Izanagi - 6.5/10
Good stuff from everyone, Tamura didn't do much and Izanagi was kinda there for the submission to Sato only, but they still helped the match. The HAYATO vs Sato rivalry has been good.

Black Menso-re, Koji Iwamoto & Takao Omori vs. TOTAL ECLIPSE (Hokuto Omori, TAJIRI & Yusuke Kodama) - 5/10

Ok match, but not much to it, a lot of heel heat for TE. Omori pinned Menso-re after hitting him with the belt behind the referee's sight.

Ryouji Sai & Yoshitatsu vs. Daimonji So & Ryuki Honda - 5.5/10

Boring match, talk about a combination of guys that I'm not super invested in. Yoshitatsu pinned Honda with a Lungblower.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Shotaro Ashino [0] vs. Yuma Aoyagi [2] - 7/10
This was a good match by all means, nicely worked and all, but I found it kinda disappointing. I'm currently 0-2 in Ashino matches being good, I kinda hoped and expected a strong tournament were he would have banger matches now that he's a babyface, but instead, they're doing the losing streak story with him, losing to Lee first, and now tapping out to Aoyagi.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Kohei Sato [2] vs. Koji Doi [2] - Dud
I think they tried to play the idea that this match was a bit of a brutal exchange, because the match lasted less than 5 minutes, and it consisted of shoulder blocks, strikes, a Torture Rack, and a super shitty finishing sequence that saw Sato knockdown Doi with a chop, who sold it for about a minute, then just got up, hit a brainbuster and two lariats.

Second match in, and I still don't know what people like in Sato.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Zeus [2] vs. Shuji Ishikawa [2] - 8/10
This was a good hoss fight, great back and forward action, but it only went about 10 minutes, when I could have taken double of that. This had in a way, the same components as the previous match, but done with way better energy, progression, selling, time to play out the damage being dealt, and most of all, a more credible finish for the time in the match, being Zeus submitting Ishikawa with the arm trap facelock.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Shinjiro Otani [2] vs. Kento Miyahara [0] - 8.75/10
With referee Wada back, Miyahara just had to do his schtick, but he did do it early, and it did play out with him showing off early on, pushing Otani to lash back at him. The match eventually became angry old man versus the young showoff, but a case where both are great, and as explosive as Miyahara can be, Otani has the experience to counter anything. At the end, Miyahara kept going for Otani's head with the running knee until Otani just couldn't keep up.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Suwama [0] vs. Jake Lee [2] - 7.5/10
This was a really good match, but I not fully married with how they laid out the match, if Suwama was going to win. I do agree that Suwama should had won here, with him being the champion, and Lee being my pick to win the whole thing, I thought that Suwama winning cleanly here was good. The thing that I wasn't crazy about was that Lee had the whole match under control until the very finish, it even go to the point that Suwama was falling over by himself.

I like seeing heels lose their whole game for one mistake, but for stories like that, I rather see a babyface that can't catch a break, not a babyface that is falling by himself.

Post-match - Suwama cut his winner's promo.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
The good and the bad continued with this show. On one side, great wrestling and hoss fights between certain wrestlers. A couple of combinations are yielding some good beat downs.

On the other side, the opening tag matches feel unnecessary and make some of the show drag and potentially forcing some matches go under 5 minutes. Total Eclipse becoming the 'weapon and ref bump' heels doesn't help, it's not overused like the other Japan Pro Wrestling company, but it actually feels heavier in this promotion for the nature of the wrestling. Nonetheless, this Carnival is painting to be better than last year's.

Final Standings
Jake Lee 2
Kento Miyahara 2
Kohei Sato 2
Koji Doi - 2
Shinjiro Otani 2
Shotaro Ashino 0
Shuji Ishikawa - 2
Suwama 2
Yuma Aoyagi 2
Zeus 4
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