ALL JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE/JR. BATTLE OF GLORY 2022 DAY 1
NOVEMBER 13, 2022
KORAKUEN HALL
TOKYO, JAPAN

Watch: AJPW.TV

IZANAGI, BLACK MENSO~RE & OJI SHIIBA DEF. YOSHITATSU, TAJIRI & TAKAO OMORI (3:31)

This is the kind of match you’ve seen a million times as an opener in this company featuring these guys. It was perfectly acceptable wrestling. Izanagi got the surprise small package pinfall win on Yoshitatsu to heat up Izanagi and Menso~re’s upcoming challenge of Yoshitatsu and TAJIRI’s All Asia Tag Team Titles. **½

They introduced the RWTL teams here. Kento Miyahara and Suwama brawled, and later on Takuya Nomura refused to hug his tag team partner, Miyahara.

JR. BATTLE OF GLORY 2022
DAN TAMURA [2] DEF. RYO INOUE [0] (5:32)

Inoue is becoming a shoot style guy. He now has kick pads and is throwing kicks. This match was very much about showing that off. This was pretty decent, though there were a couple sloppy spots. Tamura got the submission victory with the Dan Lock. ***

JR. BATTLE OF GLORY 2022
RISING HAYATO [2] DEF. HOKUTO OMORI [0] (6:08)

This had a fast paced opening then Omori worked over HAYATO with some holds. Omori kept trying to neutralize HAYATO’s high flying offense. Omori almost had him, but HAYATO managed to gain back the initiative and pinned Omori with a Lionsault off of the top rope that looked quite impressive.

This was the kind of match that the current Jr. division in this company is capable of. More of this please. ***½

JR. BATTLE OF GLORY
HIKARU SATO [2] DEF. ATSUKI AOYAGI [0] (9:54)

This was great. Sato had some great counters into submissions for Aoyagi’s high flying moves. Sato controlled a lot of the match, but Aoyagi had a burst of offense towards the end. Aoyagi went for a Firebird Splash but Sato got his knees up and locked on a Kimura. Aoyagi tried to fight out of it as the ten minute time limit was coming up. But Sato then transitioned into a Fujiwara Armbar and got a submission victory with six seconds to spare. A very cool finish that subverted the usual expectations of when a time limit is about to expire in a tournament match. ***¾

Some announcements were made concerning All Japan’s Korakuen Hall show on Christmas Day. First, Team 200 KG, Chihiro Hashimoto and Yuu were announced as Shuji Ishikawa’s partners against Suwama, Mayumi Ozaki and Maya Yukihi. I am very excited for that. Then Kaz Hayashi and Naoya Nomura were announced. Then we got a ton of NJPW talent announcements: Yuji Nagata, Toru Yano, Ryohei Oiwa, Yuto Nakashima, Kosei Fujita, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, SANADA and BUSHI. A lot of former All Japan talent is returning.

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2022
KUMA ARASHI & KOJI DOI [2] DEF. VOODOO MURDERS (JUN & REI SAITO) [0] DQ (8:59)

The Saito Brothers attacked before the bell. They worked over KumaDoi for a while. Things picked up when KumaDoi started throwing the Saitos around which resulted in a bunch of cool power spots. Then TARU threw some powder when Arashi was going for a top rope Senton and the match ended in a DQ. I thought this started slow, but then was actually starting to turn into something decent before the DQ. This Voodoo Murders stuff will be the death of me. **¼

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2022
YUJI NAGATA & YUMA ANZAI [2] DEF. GUNGNIR OF ANARCHY (SHOTARO ASHINO & RYUKI HONDA) [0] (12:47)

Anzai and Ashino had some great exchanges to start off. In a bit of a twist, it was Nagata who ended up getting worked over for a while. GOA seemed enthusiastic about elder abuse here, they were really laying it in on Nagata, basically working heel. Anzai finally got the hot tag and started throwing suplexes. Somehow, Honda got his hand busted open and was bleeding from it. There was a decent amount of blood from the cut.

Honda and Nagata had some fun exchanges towards the end. Honda being a young upstart vs. the veteran Nagata made for a great dynamic. Nagata got the referee stoppage with a modified Nagata Lock II on Honda, turning it into a sort of crossface sleeper. A huge win for the Nagata and Anzai team, defeating former World Tag Team Champions. That is quite the accomplishment for a rookie like Anzai. ***½

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2022
SHUJI ISHIKAWA & CYRUS [2] DEF. YUMA AOYAGI & JAKE LEE [0] (10:53)

Lee was rocking a red fingerless glove on one hand, Roman Reigns style which made me laugh. Acknowledge him. All laughing aside, this was fun. Ishikawa and Cyrus used their size to establish dominance early on, but Aoyagi and Lee would make a comeback and used their technical skills to counter the raw power of two very large men. I thought Aoyagi and Lee worked well together, showing more chemistry as a team than they had in their previous matches teaming together.

Ishikawa and Cyrus used a Chokeslam/Powerbomb Combo to pin Aoyagi. It was the right call, as you want to establish the monsters early on in the tournament. It wasn’t always the prettiest match, but I thought they told a good story here and everyone worked hard. ***½

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2022
VOODOO MURDERS (SUWAMA & KONO) [2] DEF. KENTO MIYAHARA & TAKUYA NOMURA [0] (16:43)

The odd couple of Miyahara and Nomura are now slapping each other before they begin their matches.

This started off kind of boring, with Miyahara getting worked over. But then all of a sudden things picked up between Miyahara and KONO and it actually became decent. Strange to be saying KONO looks good in 2022, but here we are.

Miyahara and Nomura tried to deliver double running knees to Suwama, but the Voodoo Murder leader moved out of the way and Miyahara and Nomura collided, knee to knee. Miyahara and Suwama then did a bunch of stuff. You’ve seen it a million times before, but it’s usually good to great. Miyahara and Nomura eventually did land their double knees to Suwama.

KONO hit a top rope Knee Drop and Suwama followed that up with a Backdrop to get a 2.9 on Miyahara. Another Backdrop then a Lariat got 2.9. A third Backdrop on the Triple Crown Champion finally got the win for Suwama.

I have to say this match exceeded my expectations. There wasn’t any cheating even though TARU was at ringside. Funny how that can actually make a match deliver… ***½

FINAL THOUGHTS

This show drew 794 fans which is five more than NOAH did for a show a few days before at Korakuen Hall that had all of the titles defended. It was also up from the 520 fans at Korakuen Hall for the first show of last year’s RWTL.

Apart from the DQ, I actually quite enjoyed this show. There was nothing super high level, but almost every match was solid to very good.

Whether or not this RWTL is going to be good in the end will come down to how much Voodoo Murders bullshit they end up doing.

The Jr. Battle of Glory however, is well on its way to delivering and hopefully marks a new era for the Jr. division emphasizing young talent.

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