AJPW Champion Carnival 2021 5.3
Notice: After suffering an injury, Shinjiro Otani dropped out and forfeited his match tonight against Zeus.
Ok match, quite uneventful, it kinda felt like they were building Izanagi for a while, but he's the champion, so I don't know why exactly. At the end, they also tried to imply that Izanagi won by upset over Francesco, but it was a legit roll up.
Post-match - While Sato and company complained to the referee, Zeus and Izanagi squared up with Tamura and Sato, kinda saying they're offering them a title shot. This was so backwards.
Probably one of the better TOTAL ECLIPSE matches, it just had more action and less shenanigans
Post-match - TE attacked everyone with belt shots, even Carbell Ito.
Champion Carnival 2021 Match
I was going to complain about the placing of this match, but it really doesn't matter, both men are eliminated anyway. This was a really good match, well wrestled, and easily the most dominant we saw of Ashino all tournament, he kinda beat up Doi in the most technical way possible, even submitting him with the ankle lock. My only disappointment here was that I was kinda hoping to see a more vicious Ashino, someone out to injury the man that betrayed him, and instead, he was just technically wrestling.
Doi ends the tournament with 1 win, 2 DCO, and the rest loses. He was never supposed to have a strong tournament, but I' still kinda surprised he didn't get at least a second win. Ashino ended with 8 points total, not THAT bad, but a consensus of really underwhelming booking. A lot of people thought that he had a chance at winning, or that at least, would be making it to the finals.
Post-match - Arashi came out and attacked Ashino, but then Honda of all people beat the shit out of Arashi. At the end, Ashino and Honda walked out together, so it seems that Ashino may be building himself a new group. I'm guessing this also sets up Arashi vs Honda and Arashi vs Ashino down the line.
This was #STRONGHEARTS to their very best, the controlled this match, even when they were not with the upper hand, it was all #STRONGHEARTS. The match is building CIMA vs Iwamoto, but most of the match went to #STRONGHEARTS beating up Aoyagi and HAYATO, the latter being the babyface in peril, and the former, the man that took the pin at the end after several triple team moves. CIMA pinned Aoyagi while he mockingly looked straight into Iwamoto's eyes.
Post-match - CIMA cut another promo, shorter than the one from a few days ago, this one only lasted 3 days instead of 7. He talked about him defending against Iwamoto and about the greatness of #STRONGHEARTS.
Champion Carnival 2021 Match
I feel like Sato read my praise for the Jake Lee match and knowing that his striking bores me, he just did striking in this match. This was really just about Aoyagi playing spoiler on Sato, who could still potentially win the whole thing if Suwama loses and the main event goes into a DCO.
The match was a good mix of Aoyagi's type of wrestling, with a fair mix of strikes, big moves, and a couple of top rope stuff, while Sato really just did strikes, kicks and chops and elbows, the usual. The match saw Sato be in more control, Aoyagi had a lot of flurries of offense, but the sustained control was kept by Sato, but similar to some of Sato's matches in the tournament, mainly Zeus, as he was about to get killed, he sprung into action, got Sato in a Japanese Clutch, and took the win.
Post-match - Sato has happy of the match and asked Aoyagi for a rematch. They fist bumped, and for the first time since 1995, Kohei Sato smiled.
Champion Carnival 2021 Match
The Violent Giants collide. This was a really good match, it started as a big lads match, nothing seemed special for a couple of minutes, just the usual striking into submissions stuff, but then the big spot came when Ishikawa hit a draping DDT on Suwama to the floor. Given the Otani injury, I gave them some leeway, because it did take the referee ages to start counting for the countout while Ishikawa was just waiting in the ring. After that spot, it was all Ishikawa working over Suwama's neck.
Suwama slowly made a comeback, he kept getting cut off by Ishikawa, but he didn't give up, he kept landing big moves on Ishikawa, also going for his neck. Beyond that, it was a lot of back and forward for a while, where I started to get hints that these men were going the 30 minutes, but around the 25 minute mark, Ishikawa hit the Giant Killer and won the match.
Ishikawa plays spoiler and also stops Suwama on 10 points. Ishikawa reaches 10 points.
Champion Carnival Standings - They explained what I was saying about Lee and Miyahara needing to win, but they point out that a draw would mean a 7-way draw.
Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Awesome match, worthy of the finals of the Champion Carnival. This was bell to bell a back and forward match with Lee working the chest, towards the Giant Killing, while Miyahara worked the head from the get go, towards the Shutdown German. As the match went on, Lee did start to punish the head too, to set up the D4C.
As good as AJPW has been able to handle empty arena shows, this match could have benefited from a crowd, a hot crowd, Kento's energy was up to 11 and yes, the first ever kickout of the Shutdown German could have had blown out the roof.
The layout of the match was quite similar to how Kento worked his matches this tournament, with momentum trading, a long heat segment, and then a comeback that leads him to victory. In this case, the comeback only led to the Shutdown being kicked out, Lee recovering and finishing Kento with the D4C.
Post-match - The rest of TOTAL ECLIPSE came out to celebrate with Lee, who cut his winner's promo and closed the show.
Overall, I'd say it was a good show, two great matches, I'm sure the main event will end in many people's MOTYC list. The CC matches were quite predictable tonight, but most of the still delivered, and the undercard for once was all good.
As for Lee winning, that is the person I picked months ago when the participants were announced, it was who made the most sense after the disbanding of Enfants Terribles and the creation of TOTAL ECLIPSE. It's time for Suwama to lose the title, and there is no guy with more natural opponents as Jake Lee, his history with Miyahara, the betrayal of ET on Ashino, the history with Zeus or Suwama too.
Evolution (Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato) & Akira Francesco vs. Purple Haze (Izanagi, UTAMARO & Zeus) - 5.5/10
Ok match, quite uneventful, it kinda felt like they were building Izanagi for a while, but he's the champion, so I don't know why exactly. At the end, they also tried to imply that Izanagi won by upset over Francesco, but it was a legit roll up.
Post-match - While Sato and company complained to the referee, Zeus and Izanagi squared up with Tamura and Sato, kinda saying they're offering them a title shot. This was so backwards.
Black Menso-re, Ryuki Honda, Takao Omori & Yoshitatsu (w/Carbell Ito) vs. TOTAL ECLIPSE (Hokuto Omori, Kuma Arashi, TAJIRI & Yusuke Kodama) - 6.5/10
Probably one of the better TOTAL ECLIPSE matches, it just had more action and less shenanigans
Post-match - TE attacked everyone with belt shots, even Carbell Ito.
Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Koji Doi [2] vs Shotaro Ashino [6] - 7/10
I was going to complain about the placing of this match, but it really doesn't matter, both men are eliminated anyway. This was a really good match, well wrestled, and easily the most dominant we saw of Ashino all tournament, he kinda beat up Doi in the most technical way possible, even submitting him with the ankle lock. My only disappointment here was that I was kinda hoping to see a more vicious Ashino, someone out to injury the man that betrayed him, and instead, he was just technically wrestling.
Doi ends the tournament with 1 win, 2 DCO, and the rest loses. He was never supposed to have a strong tournament, but I' still kinda surprised he didn't get at least a second win. Ashino ended with 8 points total, not THAT bad, but a consensus of really underwhelming booking. A lot of people thought that he had a chance at winning, or that at least, would be making it to the finals.
Post-match - Arashi came out and attacked Ashino, but then Honda of all people beat the shit out of Arashi. At the end, Ashino and Honda walked out together, so it seems that Ashino may be building himself a new group. I'm guessing this also sets up Arashi vs Honda and Arashi vs Ashino down the line.
NEXTREAM (Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO) & Koji Iwamoto vs. #STRONGHEARTS (CIMA, El Lindaman & T-Hawk) - 7/10
This was #STRONGHEARTS to their very best, the controlled this match, even when they were not with the upper hand, it was all #STRONGHEARTS. The match is building CIMA vs Iwamoto, but most of the match went to #STRONGHEARTS beating up Aoyagi and HAYATO, the latter being the babyface in peril, and the former, the man that took the pin at the end after several triple team moves. CIMA pinned Aoyagi while he mockingly looked straight into Iwamoto's eyes.
Post-match - CIMA cut another promo, shorter than the one from a few days ago, this one only lasted 3 days instead of 7. He talked about him defending against Iwamoto and about the greatness of #STRONGHEARTS.
Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Kohei Sato [10] vs Yuma Aoyagi [8] - 7/10
I feel like Sato read my praise for the Jake Lee match and knowing that his striking bores me, he just did striking in this match. This was really just about Aoyagi playing spoiler on Sato, who could still potentially win the whole thing if Suwama loses and the main event goes into a DCO.
The match was a good mix of Aoyagi's type of wrestling, with a fair mix of strikes, big moves, and a couple of top rope stuff, while Sato really just did strikes, kicks and chops and elbows, the usual. The match saw Sato be in more control, Aoyagi had a lot of flurries of offense, but the sustained control was kept by Sato, but similar to some of Sato's matches in the tournament, mainly Zeus, as he was about to get killed, he sprung into action, got Sato in a Japanese Clutch, and took the win.
Post-match - Sato has happy of the match and asked Aoyagi for a rematch. They fist bumped, and for the first time since 1995, Kohei Sato smiled.
Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Shuji Ishikawa [8] vs Suwama [10] - 9/10
The Violent Giants collide. This was a really good match, it started as a big lads match, nothing seemed special for a couple of minutes, just the usual striking into submissions stuff, but then the big spot came when Ishikawa hit a draping DDT on Suwama to the floor. Given the Otani injury, I gave them some leeway, because it did take the referee ages to start counting for the countout while Ishikawa was just waiting in the ring. After that spot, it was all Ishikawa working over Suwama's neck.
Suwama slowly made a comeback, he kept getting cut off by Ishikawa, but he didn't give up, he kept landing big moves on Ishikawa, also going for his neck. Beyond that, it was a lot of back and forward for a while, where I started to get hints that these men were going the 30 minutes, but around the 25 minute mark, Ishikawa hit the Giant Killer and won the match.
Ishikawa plays spoiler and also stops Suwama on 10 points. Ishikawa reaches 10 points.
Champion Carnival Standings - They explained what I was saying about Lee and Miyahara needing to win, but they point out that a draw would mean a 7-way draw.
Champion Carnival 2021 Match
Kento Miyahara [10] vs Jake Lee [10] - 9.25/10
Awesome match, worthy of the finals of the Champion Carnival. This was bell to bell a back and forward match with Lee working the chest, towards the Giant Killing, while Miyahara worked the head from the get go, towards the Shutdown German. As the match went on, Lee did start to punish the head too, to set up the D4C.
As good as AJPW has been able to handle empty arena shows, this match could have benefited from a crowd, a hot crowd, Kento's energy was up to 11 and yes, the first ever kickout of the Shutdown German could have had blown out the roof.
The layout of the match was quite similar to how Kento worked his matches this tournament, with momentum trading, a long heat segment, and then a comeback that leads him to victory. In this case, the comeback only led to the Shutdown being kicked out, Lee recovering and finishing Kento with the D4C.
Post-match - The rest of TOTAL ECLIPSE came out to celebrate with Lee, who cut his winner's promo and closed the show.
OVERAL THOUGHTS
Overall, I'd say it was a good show, two great matches, I'm sure the main event will end in many people's MOTYC list. The CC matches were quite predictable tonight, but most of the still delivered, and the undercard for once was all good.
As for Lee winning, that is the person I picked months ago when the participants were announced, it was who made the most sense after the disbanding of Enfants Terribles and the creation of TOTAL ECLIPSE. It's time for Suwama to lose the title, and there is no guy with more natural opponents as Jake Lee, his history with Miyahara, the betrayal of ET on Ashino, the history with Zeus or Suwama too.