Cero Reviews AJPW Champion Carnival 2021 4.24

[cero2k]

AJPW Champion Carnival 2021, Day 6
April 24, 2021
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan

Announcement - Audio was kinda bad, but what I seemed to get was that this was the announcements of the upcoming shows after news that the Japanese government has established a new emergency lockdown for certain prefectures of Japan, Tokyo included.

Akira Francesco & Koji Iwamoto vs. NEXTREAM (Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO) - 6.5/10
Good match, but it being the opener, it only got less than 6 minutes. Iwamoto won with a Judo takedown that Aoyagi didn't throw himself into that much, so the landing didn't see as strong for the finish.

Evolution (Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato) vs. Purple Haze (Izanagi & Zeus) - 5.5/10
Yet another unnecessarily long match (it was 8 minutes, but felt like 15) in the openers with yet another finish that has the wrestler in the Carnival lose to people not in the tournament, when Tamura surprisingly made Izanigi tap out. Zeus did some stuff with both Tamura and Sato, but it kinda came off as like he was taking the night off.

Black Menso-re, Ryuki Honda, Takao Omori & Yoshitatsu vs. TOTAL ECLIPSE (Hokuto Omori, Jake Lee, TAJIRI & Yusuke Kodama) - 4.5/10
Omori once again won by using the belt to take out Menso-re, so yet another show, and nothing new, not even because Lee was there, they had a TOTAL ECLIPSE combo for the win. Nothing match.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Shinjiro Otani [4] vs. Koji Doi [2] - 7.5/10
Otani is so awesome, he is close to being my MVP of the tournament, Zeus has had better matches, but Otani is the one that I look forward the most for. This was short, but it worked for what they did, they went straight into exchanging strikes and getting hot until they fell to the floor, and with them being hot, they were more focused on beating up each other instead pacing attention to the referee's count and double count out draw.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Shuji Ishikawa [4] vs. Shotaro Ashino [2] - 5.5/10
I was disappointed by how this went down, it was what I sometimes call a reverse squash, it was Ishikawa dominating the match and Ashino throughout the match, and then at the end, Ashino locked in an ankle lock and submitted Ishikawa. The finish coming from an ankle lock and it coming under 8 minutes helped to keep the credibility, at least when comparing it against other promotions doing this layout of the match.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Kohei Sato [6] vs. Kento Miyahara [4] - 6.5/10
Confirmed, not even Miyahara can get a good match out of Sato, but he did get the best Sato match I've seen out of him. The match even failed to really tell a good story. It started with a promising spot where Sato knocked out Miyahara with one strike and kinda established the idea that Sato the brawler was too much for Miyahara, he even gave time to the referee to check on him before he just tossed him out of the ring like if he was accepting the count out win; but then, no more than a minute later, he chased after Kento the floor, got his leg taken out, and Miyahara was out there like nothing, working on Sato's leg.

From there on, they just went back and forward, they both got a couple of near falls, and at the end Miyahara got a couple of knees in and won with the Shutdown German. They had a good story there, and they let it escape for no reason, a story that could had worked for Sato for once.

Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Suwama [4] vs. Yuma Aoyagi [6] - 8.5/10
Easily the match of the night, it was paced quite slow, but with a good amount of intensity from Suwama and a type of work that warranted the pacing, as opposed to the previous match. Suwama worked over Aoyagi's back from the get go, Aoyagi made a comeback, and then they headed to the last minutes with both men getting a couple of near falls before Suwama got the win. Without the face and heel dynamic, this had a similar energy to Lee vs Aoyagi, with Suwama feeling really dominant while he worked over Aoyagi's back, and every time he dropped him with a lariat; but also, Aoyagi still had that never give up fire in him, even ending in defeat this time around.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Ok show. Looking at the calendar, it seems like we're heading into some promising shows, Miyahara for instance is done with the lackluster pair ups, so hopefully we got some exciting matches, because this Carnival has been quite underwhelming so far. At least this show went by fast.

Final Standings
Jake Lee - 6
Kento Miyahara - 6
Kohei Sato - 6
Koji Doi - 3
Shinjiro Otani - 5
Shotaro Ashino - 4
Shuji Ishikawa - 4
Suwama - 6
Yuma Aoyagi - 6
Zeus - 6