AJPW
REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2019 NIGHT 7
NOVEMBER 21, 2019
KORAKUEN HALL
TOKYO, JAPAN

Watch: AJPW.TV

NON-TOURNAMENT RESULTS

  • Hokuto Omori & Yusuke Okada def. Atsushi Maruyama & Dan Tamura (5:33)
  • Kyohei Wada 45th Anniversary Match
    Great Kojika, Masanobu Fuchi & Takao Omori def. Mitsuo Momota, Mitsuya Nagai & Osamu Nishimura (8:30)
  • Jake Lee, Naoya Nomura, Joel Redman & Yoshitatsu def. Violent Giants (Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama), Gianni Valletta & Zeus (9:07)

AJPW WORLD JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND
HIKARU SATO DEF. BLACK MENSO~RE (10:21)

Tragically, this tournament is a result of the death of Atsushi Aoki in a motorcycle accident on June 3. The Jr. title was left vacant for 6 months from the time of Aoki winning it on May 20, which is the amount of time a champion can go without defending it, in honor of Aoki. The other first-round matches in this tournament happen on December 17 in Korakuen Hall with Yusuke Okada vs. KAGETORA and Atsushi Maruyama vs. Susumu Yokosuka.

Lots of kicks from Sato in the opening minutes and he just takes absolute control of the match. Sato also worked over Black Menso~re’s left arm.

Black Menso~re eventually got in some offense and then the match picked up into a back-and-forth match. Black Menso~re went for a German Suplex but on the landing, Sato transitioned into an Armbar. And despite a lot of resistance, Sato managed to lock in a Chicken Wing Arm Lock for the submission. This wasn’t much until the last couple of minutes. **3/4

AJPW WORLD JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND
KOJI IWAMOTO DEF. FUMINORI ABE (10:49)

This was the match I was looking forward to the most on this show. And it didn’t disappoint.

These guys got into it right away. No time for the feeling out phase that you get with guys who work shoot style inspired. Things did settle down a bit as Abe went to work over Iwamoto’s left arm, but this was the compelling kind of limb work.

Things eventually picked up where they were throwing tons of strikes and a bunch of other moves at each other and a rapid pace. Iwamoto got the win with two Koko no Geijutsus.

My main flaw with this match was that Abe should have gotten some near falls near the end to ramp up the drama. But it was still tons of fun. AJPW needs to use Abe a lot more than the occasional appearance. ***3/4

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2019 MATCH
JUN AKIYAMA & JOE DOERING [4] DEF. THE END (PARROW & ODINSON) [6] (7:31)

This match began with brawling into the crowd. Bless Jun Akiyama, because he took the brunt of the punishment in the first half of this match.

Doering eventually got tagged in after the five-minute mark and took over. The finish was clever as The End went for their move where they each pick up one of their opponents in a Powerbomb position and run into each other. But Doering reversed it and picked up Odinson and ran into Parrow who was carrying Akiyama. Doering then dispatched Parrow and hit the Revolution Bomb on Odinson for the win. This was fun and one of those matches that the star rating system doesn’t quite capture. ***1/4


REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2019 MATCH
DAISUKE SEKIMOTO & THE BODYGUARD [2] DEF. NEXTREAM (KENTO MIYAHARA & YUMA AOYAGI) [2] (23:29)

What a match. Sekimoto and Miyahara started off with some awesome chain wrestling. Not surprisingly, Aoyagi became the whipping boy at the hands of The Bodyguard, but Sekimoto was working over Miyahara at ringside a lot.

This didn’t take long to become something great. Aoyagi played his usual role very well, and the Miyahara vs. Sekimoto sequences ruled. We even got some teases of Aoyagi pinning Sekimoto which drew massive heat. A star-making performance from Aoyagi who hasn’t gotten the opportunity to have them as much as he should as of late.

Miyahara was also the master of minimalism here. Aoyagi was the legal man for the majority of this match. While Miyhara had some great exchanges with Sekimoto, he also managed to draw a lot of heat here by working the crowd and doing relatively simple spots like reversing a suplex attempt.

Sekimoto powered through the Aoyagi offense flurry and then and hit a Deadlift German Suplex for the win. The last five minutes of this were incredible. The BJW Tag Team Champions finally get on the board in dramatic fashion. My new match of the tournament so far.

I had predicted that Sekimoto might pin Miyahara here to set up a Triple Crown match on January 3. While that didn’t happen, Sekimoto’s obsession with going after Miyahara in this match suggests to me that we may be still getting that match. ****1/2

FINAL THOUGHTS

A good show, but the crowd was only 965. That was the second-lowest Korakuen Hall attendance for AJPW this year. The July 17 show was the lowest at 917, but this recent show had a much better card. In the later half of 2019, AJPW has been going to the Korakuen Hall well a lot. Their last show there was only 10 days before this show and they have another one there on December 9.

My main gripe with anything one this show is the new World Junior Heavyweight Championship belt. It looks like a toy belt. There was a new belt introduced a couple of years ago that was based on the design of the original belt. The second version of the belt is being given to Atsushi Aoki’s family. That is a classy move. But why the newest version of the belt could not have been more closely based on the previous two is puzzling.

However, despite my critiques and the disappointing attendance on this show, the Real World Tag League has been great so far, and the Junior title tournament is off to a good start.