ALL JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2020 NIGHT 8
DECEMBER 7, 2020
KORAKUEN HALL
TOKYO, JAPAN

Watch: AJPW.TV

NON-TOURNAMENT MATCHES
TAKAO OMORI, BLACK MENSO~RE & ATSUKI AOYAGI DEF. YOSHITATSU KINGDOM (YUSUKE OKADA, TAKAYUKI UEKI & CHIKARA) (8:23)

A perfectly good opener. Everyone got in their spots and we got a little comedy from Ueki. CHIKARA accidentally chopped Okada allowing Omori to hit the Axe Bomber on on Okada for the win. I thought this was a fun way to open the show. ***

ENFANTS TERRIBLES (KOJI DOI, YUSUKE KODAMA & HOKUTO OMORI DEF. MASANOBU FUCHI, MITSUYA NAGAI & RYUKI HONDA) (7:52)

Omori is really coming into his own as a heel as he looked confident as he was roughing up Honda and pulling his hair. Honda was also the star here as he spent most of the match playing whipping boy. Fuchi got to hit his usual spots and Nagai’s involvement was thankfully kept to a minimum. Doi got the win for Enfants Terribles with a Lariat on Honda. Another good little match. ***

EVOLUTION (HIKARU SATO & DAN TAMURA) & OSAMU NISHIMURA DEF. RYUJI HIJIKATA, FRANCESCO AKIRA & RISING HAYATO (8:54)

This match followed the formula of the previous two. Everyone got in their spots and it was fast paced. I’m going to go a little higher on this one as it had a stronger finishing stretch between Hayato and Sato. Sato hit a Waterwheel Drop and went for the Cross Armbreaker but Hayato resisted for a bit before Sato locked it in and also grabbed the leg for some extra pain to make Hayato tap. ***1/4

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2020
TEAM ECW (MASATO TANAKA & TAJIRI) [8] DEF. PURPLE HAZE SHIGEHIRO IRIE & IZANAGI [2] (9:41)

This match was worked smartly to deal with TAJIRI’s limitations. Purple Haze worked over TAJIRI’s taped up neck and shoulders. Then we got a few fun Irie versus Tanaka sequences. The shenanigans started when Irie accidentally shoved TAJIRI into the referee. The table and kendo stick came out. Tanaka hit a top-rope splash onto Irie on a table. Izanagi got hit with a piece of the broken table and back in the ring Tanaka hit a Frog Splash and then the Sliding D on Izanagi for the win. This could have been a lot worse really, at least the weapons were kept until the end of the match. ***

After the match Hokuto Omori and Koji Doi attacked Purple Haze and Omori ripped off Izanagi’s mask again and even pulled his pants down.

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2020
YOSHITATSU & RYOUJI SAI [6] DEF. ENFANTS TERRIBLES (SHOTARO ASHINO & KUMA ARASHI) [6] (11:02)

This match started slow with Yoshitatsu and Sai working over Ashino for a while, and it wasn’t very interesting. Things did pick up when Arashi came in off of the hot tag, his sequences with Yoshitatsu got pretty good. Yoshitatsu locked in the Yoshitatsu Fantasy on Arashi put Arashi wouldn’t pass out so Yoshitatsu released the hold then hit the Yoshitatsu Rhapsody on Arashi for the win. Certainly not the team I would have booked to win here. At least Enfants Terribles got wins over Violent Giants and Nextream in the tournament. ***1/4

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2020
VIOLENT GIANTS (SUWAMA & SHUJI ISHIKAWA) [8] DEF. DAISUKE SEKIMOTO & ABDULLAH KOBAYASHI [8] (14:27)

Kobayashi is sporting some fuchsia colored hair now. This started well enough with Ishikawa and Sekimoto going at it, but it soon became an outside the ring brawl. Kobayashi bladed again here too. Ishikawa and Kobayashi got into a headbutt battle that looked kind of gnarly. Kobayashi spent way too much time in the ring in this match. Things would get better when Sekimoto finally got back in the ring against Ishikawa and SUWAMA. SUWAMA hit a Backdrop on Kobayashi then got the referee stoppage with the Sleeper Hold and eliminated the Big Japan team from forcing a playoff finals. I actually thought Violent Giants looked pretty good here by their recent standards but Kobayashi just brought this thing down. **3/4

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2020
NEXTREAM (KENTO MIYAHARA & YUMA AOYAGI) [10] DEF. JIN (JAKE LEE & KOJI IWAMOTO) [8] (28:34)

Aoyagi was a great prick here, constantly taunting Lee. This managed to bring out some actual fire from Lee which was nice to see. Lee rammed Aoyagi’s left arm into the ring post then the JIN team went to work on it. Iwamoto managed to get a fair amount of offense of his own on Miyahara at points in this but then Miyahara hit a Piledriver on Iwamoto on the ring apron. Back in the ring, Miyahara hit a knee on Iwamoto in the corner, but Iwamoto no-sold it and then gave Miyahara a bunch of stiff looking forearms which knocked him down. Match came down to Aoyagi and Lee. Aoyagi got a huge near fall with the Rockstar Buster but Lee kicked out. Lee hit a Backdrop but Aoyagi kicked out. Lee went for another Backdrop but Aoyagi countered into the End Game and Lee tapped out.  Nextream wins the Real World Tag League 2020. Aoyagi also scores what was probably the biggest win of his career so far. What a match. It did feel like it went nearly 30 minutes. Fast paced, stiff strikes, and it was worked unlike any other in the tournament ditching the more traditional having one wrestler getting worked over for an extended period. Iwamoto also got a lot of rub, going toe-to-toe with Miyahara at points. One of the best tag matches I’ve seen this year. ****1/4

FINAL THOUGHTS

This was a good but not great tournament. Certainly better than the Champion Carnival. The biggest problem with the tournament was that TAJIRI and Kobayashi really brought their team’s matches down if they were in the ring for a lot of it. If you’re short on time, just watch the main event from this show, it was the only true standout match of the tournament.

From here, hopefully Aoyagi and Miyahara defeat the Violent Giants for the World Tag Team Championship, as the tag division in All Japan really needs a shake-up.