ALL JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
EXCITE SERIES 2021
FEBRUARY 20, 2021
NAGOYA INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS CENTER
NAGOYA, JAPAN

Watch: AJPW.TV

YUMA AOYAGI DEF. FRANCESCO AKIRA (5:50)

Fun little opener. Akira used speed and high flying moves to try to get an advantage but Aoyagi would cut him off. Akira managed to even get a couple near falls. Aoyagi got the win by countering a Huricanrana into a cradle. Akira looked really good here. ***

ENFANTS TERRIBLES (SHOTARO ASHINO, KUMA ARASHI & HOKUTO OMORI) DEF. SHUJI ISHIKAWA, TAKAO OMORI & BLACK MENSO~RE (7:26)

Menso~re got worked over for a while then made a hot tag to Ishikawa. Arashi and Ishikawa did some fun power spots with each other. Hokuto Omori played the big heel here, distracting referee Lee Nikkan and even kicking the older Omori in the balls. But Takao Omori fought back and pinned the younger Omori after an Axe Bomber. Ending came out of nowhere but there was some good stuff earlier in the match. Ashino did not look very impressed with Hokuto Omori during and after the match, so that might be a story to look out for. **3/4

YOSHITATSU, RYOUJI SAI & DAIMONJI SO DEF. JAKE LEE, TAJIRI, & RYUKI HONDA (4:24)

This was wrestled as a sprint which helped because there were some lackluster workers in this one. Everyone got a couple spots in. Honda showed a lot of fire and went after Yoshitatsu but Yoshitatsu got one over on the young boy and pinned Honda with the Yoshitatsu Rhapsody. This was short but passable. **1/2

EVOLUTION (SUWAMA, HIKARU SATO & DAN TAMURA) DEF. NEXTREAM (KENTO MIYAHARA, ATSUKI AOYAGI & RISING HAYATO) (17:23)

This match started with an extended period of Aoyagi and SUWAMA grappling. SUWAMA kept taking him down, but Aoyagi would keep getting back up trying to fight. Then Miyahara and Tamura did a similar Jr. versus heavyweight sequence with Tamura showing a lot of fire. Aoyagi and Sato had a really hot closing stretch with some near falls and submission teases. Sato hit a Death Valley Driver then applied a Cross Armbreaker to make Aoyagi tap out. This was great. The Jr. versus heavyweight stuff was a lot of fun and after the match they teased more Miyahara versus Tamura stuff in the future. ***1/2

ALL ASIA TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
PURPLE HAZE (ZEUS & IZANAGI) © DEF. PURPLE HAZE (SHIGEHIRO IRIE & UTAMARO) (12:31)

Purple Haze explodes! Irie and UTAMARO made a friendly challenge to their stablemates on the last tour and Zeus and Izanagi accepted. There was no feeling out here, they went straight to the action. This was wrestled in a back-and-forth style with both teams getting in a lot of offense. There was a great sequence where Irie and Zeus had a dueling Lariat battle. UTAMARO went for a Moonsault on Zeus but Izanagi grabbed his leg and this allowed Zeus to set up a Doomsday Device with a Missile Dropkick from Izanagi. Zeus followed that up with a Lariat and Jackhammer for the win. I loved this. Everyone worked really hard, but especially Irie. This is definitely one of the better tag team matches I have seen this year. After the match, everyone in Purple Haze reconciled. This was Zeus & Izanagi’s V3 defense. ***3/4

PWF JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
CIMA DEF. KOJI IWAMOTO © (21:24)

There was lots of grappling and feeling out to start. Things picked up after a CIMA plancha to the outside. Iwamoto then worked over CIMA’s head and neck. Iwamoto controlled a lot of the first half of the match. CIMA eventually started working over Iwamoto’s head and neck too. It took a bit for things to really hit high gear but it got there. Both men got lots of near falls, and there were some moments when I thought CIMA had this but Iwamoto kicked out. CIMA threw Iwamoto head first into the ropes and kicked him in the head. CIMA then hit the Schwein for a 2.9 count. CIMA then hit the Spartan Cut to the back of the head for the big win. I liked how the head and neck work figured into the ending. This had some slower parts in the first half but the work at least told a story and played into the end of the match. Iwamoto also looked very credible against a legend like CIMA, getting in lots of offense. ****

FINAL THOUGHTS

A good show overall, with the top half of the card delivering. CIMA winning was not surprising as he doesn’t do a lot of jobs and All Japan has often put the Jr. title on a big name outsider. No sign of T-Hawk or El Lindaman in All Japan yet, but hopefully they show up soon. This show, which gave a lot of spotlight to wrestlers not generally in the main event, definitely showed that despite some recent disappointments, there is still some juice in All Japan. The question going forward is can they capitalize on it?