All Japan Pro-Wrestling
Real World Tag League 2021 Night 7
November 28, 2021
Odawara Arena
Odawara, Kanagawa, Japan

Watch: AJPW.tv

Non-Tournament matches

  • Koji Iwamoto & Ryuki Honda def. Rei Saito & Rising HAYATO
  • Black Menso-re, Kabuto Mitomi, Super Crazy & Takao Omori def. Evolution (Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato), Seigo Tachibana & Yoshitatsu
    TOTAL ECLIPSE (Koji Doi & Kuma Arashi) def. Jun Saito & Zeus

MLW Middleweight Championship
Tajiri (c) def. Atsuki Aoyagi

Tajiri won this belt on a brief trip to the US in October, where he beat Myron Reed for it in a four-way that also included Aramis and Arez. This match vastly exceeded my expectations and was the best singles match Tajiri has had since his surprisingly great match with CHIKARA in 2018. It is only a matter of time before Atsuky Aoyagi becomes the All Japan Junior champion and he will be a cornerstone of that division for years to come.

Aoyagi was just flying around the ring and Tajiri was barely able to keep up with his opponent. He tried his best though and even pulled out some moves he very rarely does. He didn’t even mist his opponent, which is also a thing that happens rarely. Tajiri gave his opponent a lot here as Aoyagi was on offense for most of the match. That is for the best as he is significantly more dynamic than Tajiri at this point. It was too short to be truly great but it was a ton of fun and showed off Aoyagi’s continued growth.

Real World Tag League 2021 Block B Match
NEXTREAM (Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi) [5] def. Purple Haze (Izanagi & Devil Murasaki) [0]

With this win Kento and Aoyagi win their block in dominant fashion. Despite having 0 points this is actually the only loss the Purple Haze team took this tournament as they went to a double countout against STRONGHEARTS and Team ECW. They actually went for a count out here again but this time tried to win that way as they tied Kento and Yuma’s legs together in the bleachers like they’re Tory Yano.

But the NEXTREAM team managed to make it back to the ring in time and got the win soon after. Before that it was an overall fun match whenever Izanagi was in there as he’s one of the better workers in the promotion. He had some fun sequences with Kento and Yuma but the quality dropped whenever Devil Murasaki tagged in as he can’t keep up with his opponents. Still an entertaining match overall.

Real World Tag League 2021 Block C Match
Kengo Mashimo & Kazma Sakamoto [6] def. Twin Towers (Shuji Ishikawa & Kohei Sato) [4]

Both teams had gone undefeated in their other two tournament matches and therefore, this was to decide the winner of the block. With those stakes everyone worked hard to make this feel like an important match. Kengo and Kazma winning might seem like an upset to some but I actually picked them to win the block after it was announced. Kengo Mashimo always gets pushed whenever he is in All Japan especially in the Real World Tag League. Meanwhile, Twin Towers are on the downside of their careers and while still a big team it makes sense that they don’t win blocks of major tournaments anymore.

As mentioned before everyone worked hard and really laid in their shots. Even Kohei Sato, who I am normally very critical of, put in a lot more effort than normal. Kengo and Kazma meanwhile have instantly regained their chemistry from their tag run in K-Dojo in 2013 despite not having teamed regularly since then. Just a great hard-hitting team that knows what it needs to do to destroy their opponents. Not quite ready to call this match great but it was the best one on the show.

Real World Tag League 2021 Block A Match
Runaway Suplex (Shotaro Ashino & Suwama) [6] def. TOTAL ECLIPSE (Jake Lee & Hokuto Omori) [2]

The reigning World Tag champions win their block in dominant fashion not really breaking a sweat against any of their opponents. Meanwhile, I am not sure what to make of Jake’s performance in this tournament. Obviously, the focus during the RWTL is not on the Triple Crown but Jake was basically sleepwalking through his matches and put in very little effort.

Runaway Suplex tried to make something out of this match but Jake just dragged it down and Hokuto is not yet at that level where he can carry a match. A very mediocre match and not a great way to finish off the blocks.

With this result, we have the winners of all blocks as follows

  • Block A: Runaway Suplex (Suwama & Shotaro Ashino)
  • Block B: NEXTREAM (Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi)
  • Block C: Kengo Mashimo & Kazma Sakamoto
  • Block D: TOTAL ECLIPSE (Koji Doi & Kuma Arashi)

These teams will now face off on All Japan’s next show and the winners will then face off in the final on the same night.

Final Thoughts

Overall this was an entertaining show with a disappointing main event. The MLW Middleweight Title match and Twin Towers vs. Kazma & Kengo were the highlights of the show and are well worth watching.