~ SUSHI formally announced that he would be leaving All Japan at the end of the month. He stated that he will continue to compete as a pro-wrestler in the future, but freelance. Though it was also hinted that he also plans to do activities outside of his pro-wrestling life.
~ He requested his final match for All Japan on 1/28 to be against Jun Akiyama.
- Yohei Nakajima vs. Yusuke Okada
Nakajima is pretty good in the ring but holy crap his ring gear is terrible. It's the usual speedo undies but he has this extra garter thing which make him look like an extra for an Anne Summers party. Hard to take him serious in it. Okada is doing well for being a rookie, but it also means there is no doubt as to who is going to win.
Nakajima gets the win after applying an STF
- SUSHI, Yutaka Yoshie (FREE) & Koji Nozomi (Kageki) vs. Keisuke Ishii (DDT), Ultimo Dragon (Toryumon MEXICO) & Minoru Tanaka (FREE)
OK match but to be honest SUSHI won't be missed. Even with his retirement coming up they aren't making him look strong going out at all as he gets pinned when Ultimo Dragon just applies a La Magistral on him for the loss. Doesn't even butter him up with a move, just pins him. [Meh]
- Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato vs. Mitsuya Nagai (DRADITION) & Takeshi Minamino (Toneri Family)
Sato (he off the fringe) goes straight into the crowd with Minamino and instead of waiting for people to move he just pushes him straight into people trying to scramble out of the way. Absolutely no shits given. Minamino looks like a drunk Japanese Elvis who's having a midlife crisis. He has a really impressive hair do for a wrestler too.
Theres a bit of cheating by Nagai as he's brought this massive Makabe style chain to the ring. He ends up getting the pin following the ROD on Hikaru. The ROD is a really nice move and I've not seen it done before. I can only describe it as a double arm underhook brainbuster. Although he's got stupid hair, I really enjoy most matches that I've seen with Sato in. Would be interested to see if he can pull a singles match off though. [Good]
~ Nagai and Minamino stated that they want the Asia Tag belts.
- Jake Lee, Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi vs. Ryoji Sai (LAND’S END), Rikiya Fudo (LAND’S END) & Atsushi Maruyama (FREE)
Typical six man tag, nothing notable happened other than it featuring a couple of LAND'S END guys in it. Jake Lee looks like he's come straight from the dirty south, USA. It's not really clicked before but he has the muscular build, but not defined/roided look and he has undies which are slightly too big like all the good Gajins of the early 90's.
After the match I realised that all i'd written down was 'Jake wins following a Backdrop on Fudo'. Didn't leave a very good impression [meh]
- Suwama vs. Koji Iwamoto
I enjoyed this match as a bigger guy taking on the plucky smaller challenger style. It didn't outstay its welcome and by the end Suwama was just having his way with Iwamoto. Really throwing him around and beasting him. Suwama wins following a Last Ride where he just bounces him off the mat. [Good]
~ Suwama declared that he aims to remove the recent influx of invaders from All Japan. This stems more from Manabu Soya and now KAI’s return to competing in the promotion.
~ Suwama cannot forgive what happened years ago with most of everyone leaving and the formation of W-1. He said that he will protect All Japan as he remained to do just that in the first place.
Zeus & The Bodyguard (FREE) vs. Jun Akiyama & Kendo Kashin (FREE)
Kashin just isn't very good, but so far he's been inoffensive since I've restarted watching. I'm possibly biased from previous matches of his years back. The more I see of Zeus the more impressed I am with him and he and Akiyama have good chemistry.
Overall this was a pretty good tag. It had some hot sections where they went brawling outside and Akiyama took some nasty guardrail bumps. Zeus and Bodyguard do a nice Legion of Doom impression with a Doomsday Device. Bodyguard gets the pin following the Bounce on Kashin. [OK]
~ Even in defeat, Kashin still remained interested in challenging for the Asia Tag belts. Though Atsushi Onita wants the match to be an “Electric Current Blast Death Match”. Kashin is in total favor of the match, but Akiyama is not in favor of that match taking place. Kashin appeared frustrated at Akiyama being opposed of the match.
~ Akiyama stated that he would accept a single match against SUSHI on 1/28, that now being SUSHI’s final match as an All Japan wrestler.
- Triple Crown Championship Match: Kento Miyahara vs. Takao Omori
The last few weeks has been building up towards this match and here we get the pay off. Omori is still is an odd one to me. Older guys of his era tend to look comfortable in their position and how they are presented but Omori looks like a bit of a Dad who still thinks he's cool. He's got bleached hair (which normally means he's an asshole in puro), wears this animal skin throw thing to the ring and has leopard print undies on which say 'WILD'. All seems a bit try hard.
When I looked back at my notes i'd written this in mostly bullet points. Overall, I was definitely impressed with this match and the ending was really fun to watch, if nothing groundbreaking.
Omori gave Miyahara a piledriver onto the apron, they end up going back into the ring and for his trouble Omori hits a really good snap piledriver which Miyahara kicks out off. Miyahara definitely spams the old knee kicks, with variations on Shining Wizards and the like. He does a nice shining wizard into a brainbuster combo which could have ended the match.
Another nice exchange was when Omori misses a sliding elbow and as Miyahara sits back up, Omori just knees him back in the head which looked really brutal. Omori also gets him with a dangerous looking reverse piledriver. They run the ropes and tease a missed lariat by Omori, missed knee by Miyahara followed up by a huge lariat by Omori.
Omori takes lots and lots of knees to the face and then we get to a elbow exchange which breaks down into Miyahara just headbutting old guy Omori constantly.
Match ends when Miyahara lands the Shutdown German Suplex Hold. For this move he grabs Omori round the waist but traps both arms too, before he sends him flying he holds him still, in the air, so he can contemplate ladning on the back of his head.
After the match we get a respectful handshake to finish the show. Really, really good match with some nasty looking offense. [excellent]
~ 7th successful title defense.
~ The Bodyguard stepped forward to challenge Miyahara for the next defense.
~ Though Miyahara and Jake Lee also look for another chance to go after the World Tag belts as well.
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