ALL JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
7TH ŌDŌ TOURNAMENT NIGHT 4
SEPTEMBER 18, 2019
SHIN-KIBA 1ST RING
TOKYO, JAPAN

Watch: AJPW.TV

7TH ŌDŌ TOURNAMENT QUARTER FINALS
SHUJI ISHIKAWA DEF. TAISHI TAKIZAWA

This was a solid match. Takizawa went after Ishikawa’s left arm early, and Ishikawa managed to sell it through the entire match which is always a nice thing to see. This was worked with both guys getting in a bunch of offense in. While it managed to keep my attention, it never kicked into high gear. Ishikawa got the win with a Splash Mountain in just under 14 minutes. He will face the winner of Jake Lee vs. KAI in the semi-finals on 9/22. ***1/4

7TH ŌDŌ TOURNAMENT QUARTER FINALS
KENTO MIYAHARA DEF. JIRO “IKEMEN” KUROSHIO

I’m puzzled that this match was given away at a venue like Shin-Kiba 1st RING given that it drew 370 there which has got to be at or close to a sell-out. That being said this was a fun match. What helped was that it was not your typical Miyahara match. This was wrestled at a very fast pace. Kuroshio used a ton and I mean a ton of cradles and other types of flash pin attempts on Miyahara. The crowd heat of this was also incredible which again is another case for this being done in a bigger venue. The finish was tremendous where Miyahara caught Kuroshio attempting a move and briefly teased a Deadlift German Suplex while managing to lock on the Shutdown German Suplex with Kuroshio already lifted. This felt much shorter than its time of 16:55. My only issue with this match was that it lacked the storytelling of many other Miyahara matches trading it for the frenetic pace. Miyahara will face the winner of Zeus vs. Naoya Nomura that happens on 9/22. ***3/4

FINAL THOUGHTS

Again, a solid though not a spectacular show from the tournament. That is really the story of the tournament as a whole thus far, but there is potential for it to reach bigger heights in the remaining matches in this round and the semi-finals. However, this entire show was an easy watch and if you are going to watch one match from it you might as well watch the whole thing as it clocks in at barely over two hours. There was some really fun stuff on the undercard with the Juniors and we got some teases of Zeus vs. Naoya Nomura which is the match of this tournament that I am most excited to see.