ALL JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
PRIME NIGHT
DECEMBER 17, 2019
KORAKUEN HALL
TOKYO JAPAN

Watch: AJPW.TV

MASAYUKI MITOMI, TSUGATAKA SATO & UTAMARO DEF. YUMA AOYAGI, BLACK MENSO~RE & DAN TAMURA (8:58)

Sato was a Wrestle-1 trainee that went freelance. Expect to see more of him in All Japan.

This was a fun sprint. Everybody got a chance to shine. Tamura was a particular standout, hitting a bunch of power moves. Tamura eventually ate the pin after a Moonsault from UTAMARO. A good opener that got the crowd into it. ***1/4

JUN AKIYAMA, ZEUS, ULTIMO DRAGON & CARBELL ITO DEF. TAKAO OMORI, OSAMU NISHIMURA, HIKARU SATO & ATSUKI AOYAGI (8:12)

A simple story to this one. All of the veterans attacked each other for a bit, then Aoyagi became the whipping boy getting worked over a bunch and eventually falling to a La Magistral from Dragon. Let’s give this a Gentlemen’s Three, in part because of a cool dive from Carbell Ito. ***

AJPW WORLD JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND
KAGETORA DEF. YUSUKE OKADA (11:16)

Kagetora wasted little time before going after Okada’s left leg. Okada’s selling was tremendous. He was doing little things like looking shaky with his balance after striking Kagetora.

After lots of selling, Okada eventually mounted a brave comeback and there were a bunch of great near falls from each wrestler. Okada even managed to kick out of the Ikkitousen, but eventually fell to the Gurumakagari. You can argue that Okada should have won this match. However, there is no argument this was an awesome match. ****1/4

VIOLENT GIANTS (SUWAMA & SHUJI ISHIKAWA) & MASANOBU FUCHI DEF. GREAT KOJIKA, BRAHMAN KEI & BRAHMAN SHU (11:53)

This might be a bit too much for the comedy match offering on this show. You have a 77-year-old and a tag team that generates polarizing opinions on one side against one of the best comedy match wrestlers in the world and the best tag team in the world. But this might be insurmountable for Fuchi and the Violent Giants to be able to get a good match out of.

Fuchi and Kojika started this match and thanks to Fuchi’s selling of Kojika’s limited offense, it was passable. The Brahmans, being good tag partners end up hitting the Violent Giants AND Kojika with the bucket of water.

This was actually decent. The Violent Giants actually tried here and to their credit, did some good selling. Fuchi pinned Brahman Kei with a small package. Not the car crash I thought this would be. **3/4

AJPW WORLD JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND
SUSUMU YOKOSUKA DEF. ATSUSHI MARUYAMA (8:41)

No feeling out period, as Maruyama rocked Yokosuka with a Roundhouse Kick very early on. But after some fast action early on, the match moved into a slower pace, and while it got going again in the final stretch, it was mostly just kind of there. Maruyuma kicked out of a Yokosuka Cutter before falling to the Jumbo No Kachi!. In a post-match angle, UTAMARO came out and carried Maruyama away. Now, All Japan is claiming Maruyama has “disappeared” prior to his match on 12/21 where he teams with UTAMARO against Zeus and TORU. So expect one of Maruyama’s alter-egos to make an appearance on that show. ***

TRIBE VANGUARD (YAMATO, KAI & YOSUKE SANTA MARIA) & KOTA MINOURA DEF. JAKE LEE, NAOYA NOMURA, KOJI IWAMOTO & HOKUTO OMORI (14:41)

Breaking Dragon Gate protocol, Minoura, a member of Mochizuki Dojo teams with Tribe Vanguard.

This was great. It had a great mix of stuff with Omori playing the plucky young boy, Santa Maria bringing the comedy, and YAMATO bringing the intensity. The crowd was also hot for this. YAMATO and Lee also had some great sequences. Certainly two random wrestlers that you don’t think about facing each other. But now you do.

Match built to a crescendo where everyone was coming in and hitting their stuff. Omori even got in some big moves on YAMATO. But YAMATO eventually put Omori away with a Frankensteiner. Great stuff, and hopefully we get to see more Dragon Gate vs. All Japan matches like this in the future. ***3/4

KENTO MIYAHARA & JIRO “IKEMAN” KUROSHIO DEF. YOSHITATSU & TAJIRI (17:55)

Miyahara and Kuroshio both got their own entrances that took what seemed like 45 minutes. There was lots of stalling early on, with Miyahara and Kuroshio again being the two responsible for the delays. The crowd was certainly more into this stuff than I was. They loved all of the TAJIRI and Kuroshio comedy spots, that centered around TAJIRI pulling Kuroshio’s hair, more than I did. Thankfully, things picked up when Yoshitatsu and Miyahara were in there. Those two managed to put together something that was pretty good by the end. Though the finish was what you would have expected from some of the participants in this match. TAJIRI accidentally hits the mist on Yoshitatsu and Miyahara pins him with the Shutdown German Suplex. ***1/4

FINAL THOUGHTS

This show drew 1193, which is a decent number given what All Japan has been drawing lately in Korakuen Hall as of late. The show overall was pretty good, despite some shenanigans in the main event that detracted from it.

While Dragon Gate talent has been appearing in All Japan for a while now, this show had the most Dragon Gate participation on any one show. Hopefully, this trend continues, as it brought us some awesome stuff on this show. The semi-finals of the World Junior Heavyweight Championship happen on January 2 with Kagetora vs. Hikaru Sato and Susumu Yokosuka vs. Koji Iwamoto. The finals are on January 3.