AJPW Champion Carnival 2019 Day 8

Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Yusuke Okada - 6/10

The usual hard hitting Okada torture over Aoyagi. This got more time that I would have expected, and Aoyagi had a good showing. Okada won with the Boston Crab.

Hokuto Omori, Jun Akiyama & Naoya Nomura vs. Black Menso-re, Dan Tamura & Takao Omori - 5.5/10

It was the usual stuff with Tamura vs Omori, and Akiyama attacking Menso-re, this time Menso tried to stop the fans from chanting since it didn't work out the last time. We actually got a good small run with Nomura and Menso-re that was pretty good. Nomura also had a great ending sequence with Tamura, who he pinned with a Gutbuster.

Jake Lee, Koji Iwamoto & The Bodyguard vs. Futoshi Kyoboku, Yoshitatsu & Yuma Aoyagi - 6.5/10

This was surprisingly great. Tatsu vs Lee was great, Lee makes me root for Yoshitatsu for god's sake. Yuma paired up with Iwamoto. And Bodyguard and Futoshi had a little hoss clash that ended with Futoshi tapping out to BG's Camel Clutch.

Atsushi Maruyama, Dylan James & Gianni Valletta vs. Atsushi Aoki, Hikaru Sato & Suwama - 5/10

The evil foreign giants worked over Sato for a while. Suwama had the comeback, and Aoki kicked Maruyama's ass. It was ok, the action was good, but I just didn't find it exciting at all. If anything else, Aoki was the only good thing going on.

Champion Carnival Block B Match
Joe Doering (2) vs. Sam Adonis (2) - 4/10

Adonis was a chicken shit heel that ran around dodging Doering, that took every cheap shot available, and was only able to win due to a lowblow. I'm close to calling this a dude since I feel I didn't get the match advertized, but it was long enough that I can't just pretend they didn't try. I'm not liking Doering's booking for the tournament.

Champion Carnival Block B Match
Joel Redman (4) vs. Takashi Yoshida (2) - 7.5/10

Technitian vs brawler, Redman dominated early with submission based offense, that as much as Yoshida tried to coutner with, he was no match for Redman, so instead, Yoshida turned the match into a striking battle. Redman made a comeback and brought it to Yoshida with kicks and big moves, but at the end, Yoshida caught Redman with a sitdown powerbomb for the win. This was short, but really good, arguably Yoshida's best match of the tournament, Redman brings the best out of everyone.

Champion Carnival Block A Match
Ryouji Sai (3) vs. Zeus (6) - 9.5/10

I don't really know the history between these two, nor what they told each other before the bell rang, but this was a heated match. They chopped each other, they kicked each other, they threw each other into the rails, the chairs. Sai released the inner beast in him, and then Zeus decided he was done with Sai's shit. They traded a buch of huge moves, at one point Sai hit a top rope Brainbuster that Zeus barely kicked out of. Zeus would hit a chokeslam that he wasn't able to capitalize on. Sai would hit Zeus with a running knee and a top rope foot stomp to finally put Zeus down.

This is up there as a Match of the Tournament contender.

Champion Carnival Block A Match
Kento Miyahara (4) vs. Shuji Ishikawa (5) - 9/10

Kento got a big streamer reception for this match. Ishikawa started the match with the upper hand, but overall the match was back and forward as Kento went for the head, and Ishikawa worked the midsection. Towards the end, Miyahara hit Iwhikawa on the head as much as he could, but he couldn't put him down, instead, it was Ishikawa hit his friend Kota's Kamigoye, a sit down Razor's Edge, and an Olympic Slam for his first win and Miyahara's first loss. Awesome match, I take it Ishikawa won't win the tournament now since he can get a title shot by other means now.

Post-match - Ishikawa cut the closing promo.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Awesome show, the tournament matches tonight were great aside from the Adonis vs Doering one which for all means, may just be my personal preference. I'l willing to say that this was the best show so far of the tournament.