All Japan Pro Wrestling
Champion Carnival 2021 Night 5
April 18, 2021
2AW Square
Chiba, Japan

Watch: AJPW.tv

Non-Tournament Matches

  • Izanagi defeats Ryuki Honda (6:26)
  • Black Menso~re, Koji Iwamoto & Takuro Niki defeat NEXTREAM (Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO) & Akira Francesco (8:48)
  • TOTAL ECLIPSE (Hokuto Omori, Kuma Arashi & TAJIRI) defeat Evolution (Dan Tamura, Hikaru Sato & Suwama) (9:36)
  • Different Martial Arts Fight Yoshitatsu defeats Takatoshi Matsumoto (1:43) [Round 3]

Champion Carnival 2021
Kento Miyahara [4] def. Koji Doi [2]

A fun quick match to start the tournament portion of the show. They started the match off hot with both men immediately rushing at each other and laying some stiff strikes in. Miyahara was willing to give Doi a lot in this match and took some good bumps for him to put over Doi’s power offense. Doi overall has been solid so far in the tournament and has delivered up to expectations. Kento meanwhile has been great and is 3/3 on good matches. This Champion Carnival really feels like a return to form for him after a middling tournament last year, aside from the great final, and his tag work where he got somewhat outshone by Yuma Aoyagi.

Champion Carnival 2021
Shinjiro Otani [4] def. Shuji Ishikawa [4]

I loved this match. These two went to war with each other and it was just two old men beating the shit out of each other. It helped that Shuji seemed better and more motivated than I’ve seen him in a long time. This was actually the first-ever match between these two and it’s a shame that it came so late in either man’s career as they have instant chemistry and could have had some great matches over the years. Shuji just dominated the smaller Otani, who took all of the big man’s offense and then proved that he is smarter than his opponent to get the submission victory. It’s a story as old as time and it always works. Great stuff and the best match of the night.

Champion Carnival 2021
Kohei Sato [6] def. Zeus [6]

This match took quite a while to get going but it became pretty good by the end. Early on it very much seemed like they were preserving energy for the closing stretch, which has been a pattern in Sato’s matches so far. The closing stretch was fire though and both men gave their all for this. Still, the match ended up being just ok.

Champion Carnival 2021
Yuma Aoyagi [6] def. Jake Lee [6]

Yuma Aoyagi beat Jake Lee in more ways than one here. He not only beat him in a pro wrestling match, but he also beat him when it comes to star aura and being a more complete package. He just completely outshone Jake in this match and that’s a problem. At least it is if as most people assume Jake will win the tournament and then beat Suwama for the Triple Crown. Yuma has been on fire since his Real World Tag League run with Kento last year and this match was all about him and not Jake. I fully expect him to get elevated to main event status soon and that is a good thing for All Japan. Jake meanwhile still has time to recover but it has been a fairly middling Champion Carnival for him so far. It’s just a continuation of the pattern of Jake Lee not being able to live up to expectations in big spots. The match itself was good but that was mostly due to Yuma trying hard. Jake seemed pretty unmotivated and kept that kept the match from being great.

Final Thoughts

Another solid outing from All Japan. I fully expect the match quality to pick up in the home stretch of the Champion Carnival once we get to Korakuen Hall. Still all matches here were at least solid and Otani vs Ishikawa was great. So I would recommend you at least watch that if you are pressed for time.