Cero Reviews AJPW Champion Carnival 2021 4.18

[cero2k]

AJPW Champion Carnival 2021, Day 5
April 17, 2021
Chiba, Japan

Izanagi vs. Ryuki Honda - 4/10
Nothing match, mostly mat work until Izanagi got a twisty pin. After the match Honda attacked Izanagi for no reason.

Black Menso-re, Koji Iwamoto & Takuro Niki vs. NEXTREAM (Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO) & Akira Francesco - 6/10
This was was the Akira Francesco match, he was in there with everyone until he lost to Iwamoto. Aoyagi and HAYATO came in for a couple of team moves, but that was it. I do enjoy these three as a team though, with better competition, they could be having banger matches. They need to get themselves booked in a PWG or X Division match one day.

Evolution (Dan Tamura, Hikaru Sato & Suwama) vs. TOTAL ECLIPSE (Hokuto Omori, Kuma Arashi & TAJIRI) - 5.5/10
Just like the previous match was all Akira, this was all Sato, who paired up with Omori, got cut off and worked by TAJIRI and Arashi, then again Omori. Suwama was only there for a warm tag, and Tamura to get pinned by Arashi after a top rope Senton. Stuff with Omori and Sato was good, the rest meh.

Different Martial Arts Fight
Yoshitatsu vs. Takatoshi Matsumoto - 3/10
What the hell is a different Martial Arts fight and why are we having one in a random CC show. The show is already packed with 7 matches, we don't need more filler. Yoshitatsu came out only wearing black trunks and nothing else, is this a Yarouz show?

And to make things worse, this 'shooty' style match has rounds, so even more wasted time. Anyway, I hated this, Matsumoto dominated Yoshitatsu for a while, going for an armbar, but in the third round, he started dropping Matsumoto with backdrops until he won by KO.

Round robin tournaments are tasking and hard enough to follow, even with time in-between shows, can we now overload shows with irrelevant stuff?

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Kento Miyahara [2] vs. Koji Doi [2] - 7.5/10
Early on, they brawled to the ramp where Doi dropped Miyahara with a DDT, from there on, he worked over Miyahara's head. Miyahara made a comeback and did the same with the jumping knee. There was a good near submission from Doi, but Miyahara escaped, survived a couple of near falls and landed the Shutdown German for the win. Good match.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Shinjiro Otani [2] vs. Shuji Ishikawa [4] - 7.5/10
Great and simple, it was a striking match, and when Otani realized that he couldn't take down Ishikawa with strikes, he got a sleeper and choked him out. The action was stiff and brutal, sometimes hard to watch with a 48 yr old Otani, but the man can go.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Kohei Sato [4] vs. Zeus [6] - 6.5/10
Another AJPW show, another boring Sato match, and unfortunately, he beat Zeus with the most unclimactic ending sequence of headbutt punch German suplex. Match was a lot of back and forward strikes,

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Jake Lee [6] vs. Yuma Aoyagi [4] - 8.5/10
This was great, a good wrestling match with a dominant heel and a never give up babyface. Story of the match was that Lee beat up Aoyagi from the start, he worked over his chest and head for most of the match. Aoyagi had a couple of comebacks, but kept getting cut off again by Lee, eventually reaching the point that Aoyagi is barely making the 10 counts before being declared Knocked out. Lee gets extra cocky, thinking that he has the match won and tell the referee to stop counting, he'll finish Aoyagi, but as he takes too long, Aoyagi used the momentum of a Brainbuster to come down, lock Lee in a Guillotine, and after some struggle, tap him out.

Post-match - Aoyagi cut his winner's promo. I'm starting to suspect Aoyagi makes it to the finals.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
This was a pretty decent crop of Carnival matches, that unfortunately, had to follow a terrible bunch of filler matches that made the whole thing harder to watch because by the time they started, I was already tired and my mind jumping around.

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