Cero Reviews AJPW Champion Carnival 2021 4.11

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Cero Reviews AJPW Champion Carnival 2021 4.11

Post by cero2k » Apr 13th, '21, 13:20

AJPW Champion Carnival 2021 Day 3
April 11, 2021
Bandaijima, Niigata, Japan

Evolution (Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato) & Akira Francesco vs. NEXTREAM (Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO) & Izanagi - 6/10
Virtually the same thing as yesterday, but a lot more Aoyagi vs Sato, with the latter getting the pin with a backdrop.

Ryuki Honda 7 Match Trial Series Match #4
Koji Iwamoto vs. Ryuki Honda - 6.5/10
Good match, it being a trial match, Iwamoto controlled most of the match with Honda having a couple of hope spots here and there, but at the end, Iwamoto got the win via Kimura lock.

Black Menso-re, Takao Omori & Yoshitatsu vs. TOTAL ECLIPSE (Hokuto Omori, TAJIRI & Yusuke Kodama) - 5/10
Another match that was virtually the same as yesterday, with Omori using a title belt to attack Menso-re again and get the pin.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Jake Lee [2] vs. Koji Doi [2] - 7/10
This is a battle of TOTAL ECLIPSE members, so they tried to play the same story that White and Yujiro did in last year's G1 Climax, except, with zero character development, zero drama. Then they just proceed to have a normal match that they could had easily had without doing that dumb tease at the start.

The match was good, Doi got a lot of offense and looked strong over his 'leader', but at the end, Lee got a strong win with a Brainbuster. It was the right decision, if we were a year into TE existing, maybe Doi getting the win would had been interesting, but it's too soon to have Lee lose to any of his guys.

Post-match - The rest of TOTAL ECLIPSE came in and Lee and Doi embraced, just in case someone had questions about dissension.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Shuji Ishikawa [2] vs. Yuma Aoyagi [2] - 8/10
This was a sprint, a power vs speed sprint, though Aoyagi is not a small guy. They went about 10 minutes, but the action rarely slowed down, with small exceptions of someone going for a move and the other blocking such move, or a double knockout tease towards the end. About half of the match was back and forward action with lariats and slams, but towards the end, the match became a race to get the win, first with Aoyagi going for the Guillotine, but later a couple of near fall exchanges until Ishikawa got a roll up reversal and pinned Aoyagi. Match made it seem like it was anyone's match at that point, with a great sense or urgency to get the win before things got harder.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Kento Miyahara [2] vs. Shotaro Ashino [0] - 8/10
Good match, with the exception that Ashino was acting somewhat heelish early on, this played out nicely. Miyahara went for the head and neck, while Ashino kept going for the ankle lock, so at the end, after a long struggle, he tapped out Miyahara. Match was about 12 minutes, and so it makes me wonder why we're getting 10 minute openers, when those minutes could go to this match.

With such a small block, Ashino couldn't go long without getting wins, three straight loses would be too much to have hopes for the finals, but that being the case, I'm not super excited about how they calendarized the tournament, Ashino beating Miyahara should had been milked for a bigger do or die match, or the one match that Ashino needs to make it to the finals.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Suwama [2] vs. Zeus [4] - 9/10
This was great, just two mean dudes beating each other up. Zeus was fantastic in all he did, Suwama had his little things that annoy me in his selling or how he executes a couple of moves, but I loved that whatever he did that I didn't like, Zeus was there to bring him down. This was similar to the Ishikawa match, in the sense of a back and forward beat down, tons of striking, lariats, slams and drops. Zeus had an early good near submission with the facelock, but Suwama made it out, which kinda made me think Suwama was taking this one, because of the comeback he started, but at the end, Zeus regained that upper hand, brought down Suwama with a lariat and brainbuster combo.

This is the second fall that the champion falls in the tournament, and we're only 3 shows in. At this pace, he'll have challenges for the rest of the year. Meanwhile, Zeus is undefeated, which is pretty saying that he'll fall from grace sooner or later.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Good show. We had one less Carnival match, letting Sato and Otani rest for a day, which makes it easier to watch, should let everyone take one date off to rest. I think this night had a strong compilation of matches, but the first night still feels like the best day so far.


Final Standings
Jake Lee - 4
Kento Miyahara - 2
Kohei Sato - 2
Koji Doi - 2
Shinjiro Otani - 2
Shotaro Ashino - 2
Shuji Ishikawa - 4
Suwama - 2
Yuma Aoyagi - 2
Zeus - 6
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