AJPW Champion Carnival 2019 Day 13

Hokuto Omori vs. Koji Iwamoto - 5/10

The usual good young boy opener match. Iwamoto gave a lot to Omori, who looked good, but ended up submitting to Iwamoto. After the match, they embraced. Short but sweet.

Aisawa NO. 1, Atsushi Maruyama, & Jun Akiyama vs. Black Menso-re, Noriyuki Yoshida, & Takao Omori - 5.5/10

I've seen so much Menso in the last month that I think this was the first time he walked the ropes successfully, even if he ended up getting his ass handed to him by Akiyama seconds later. The match played into some of the jokes we've seen all tour with Menso and Maruyama. Omori pinned Aisawa with a lariat. Ok match, it was fun.

Champion Carnival 2019 Block B Match
Joel Redman (6) vs. Yoshitatsu (6) - 7.5/10

Yoshitatsu studied his Bryan Danielson tapes for this match, they had as much of a technical match that Yoshitatsu's abilities allowed, which sounds bad, but it was actually quite good. Redman worked the leg masterfully, which Yoshi sold nicely. Yoshi kinda went for the neck chasing Fanstasy, but his offense was far less by the time he locked it in at first. Yoshi won with a Codebreaker and locking in the Yoshitatsu Fantasy. As of this point in the show, Yoshitatsu is second from the top of both blocks, I don't think anyone saw that one coming.

Champion Carnival 2019 Block B Match
Daichi Hashimoto (6) vs. Joe Doering (4) - 6/10

Big man vs Loud man match, bit boring to be honest. Doering worked over Hashimoto for a while, who had some hope spots, but he's just not fast enough for what they were trying to do. Hashimoto also worked over Doerin's leg, which we JUST saw Redman do it masterfully, thus Hashimoto's work looked subpar. Doering won with the running crossbody.

Dylan James & Gianni Valletta vs. Naoya Nomura & Sam Adonis - 6.5/10

James is sporting a shiner after yesterday's brutal battle with Okabayashi. After last night's match, I just can't stop looking at Dylan as a babyface now, especially since he has been pairing up against Adonis in these tag matches.

Match itself was good except when Valletta was in there, he wasn't pairing up nicely with Nomura or Adonis. James and Adonis brawled a lot outside the ring. Nomura submitted Valletta with the Nomura Lock, making me wonder, why defeat him right after he pinned Miyahara?

Post-match - Adonis got Nomura to do the sexy guy dance, so Adonis looked like a babyface as they embraced at the end.

NEXTREAM (Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi) vs. Atsushi Aoki & Shuji Ishikawa - 7/10

This was great, fast paced and all pairings were great. The finish was done that none of the men looked weak, but rather just a lucky pin.

Champion Carnival 2019 Block A Match
Yuji Okabayashi (5) vs. Zeus (8) - 8.5/10

Dude, Okabayashi was in a war yesterday, and now he has Zeus of all people! When they started chopping each other, you could tell that Yuji wasn't fully ready excited for another chop match. When they started doing the Kobashi spot, I just couldn't take it myself, I can see how this may be the best for his cardio today, but Jesus fuck man. Couldn't they just do forearms for tonight?

The match was a hard hitting chop fest, but they also went for more moves than yesterday, giving the match a faster pace and good drama with several near falls. At one point Zeus survived the Torture Rack and a huge lariat, while Okabayashi kicked out of the chokeslam. Yuji won with a beautiful top rope plancha.

Champion Carnival 2019 Block B Match
Jake Lee (6) vs. Suwama (6) - 7/10

Once again I have to say it, they have matches like the previous one and they decide to close the show with old man Suwama. The match wasn't bad, but it just wasn't as exciting and it showed by the fan reactions. They went back and forward with Suwama worked the back while Lee went after the arm. Towards the end of the match, they did slow down a lot hitting a couple of moves, kickout, sell, and they kicked out A LOT. Suwama eventually won with a Bridging Belly-To-Back Suplex.

The one ray of light in this match was that next to Suwama, Jake Lee's charisma showed

OVERALL THOUGHTS

A bit of the same thoughts as yesterday with a good show that failed to choose their main event. As I close day 13, I may be missing them, but I fail to see any real story going through the tournament with anyone. There's really no one running away with the points, and there really isn't anyone with a losing streak. I can see Suwama being the old man surviving, or Valletta getting wins via cheating, but neither really strikes me as a big story going on. Everyone's points are around the same area, and when it seems like someone can escape, they get beaten by someone that needs to rank up numbers.

I may just need to find me a translation of the post-match promos.