ALL JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE/JR. BATTLE OF GLORY 2022
NOVEMBER 23, 2022
NAGOYA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE HALL
NAGOYA, AICHI, JAPAN

Watch: AJPW.TV

JR. BATTLE OF GLORY 2022
HIKARU SATO [4] DEF. RYO INOUE [2] (1:12)

They lock up and grappled. Each tried to force each other to the ground but Sato won out and then locked on a Cross Armbreaker to get the quick submission.

The story of this match seemed to be that Inoue has a ways to go in terms of mastering shoot style. It’s hard to rate something like this, but I will give it a passing grade because I think it was trying to tell a story. **½

JR. BATTLE OF GLORY 2022
DAN TAMURA [8] DEF. HOKUTO OMORI [0] (6:46)

DAN THE MAN. Tamura has exceeded expectations in this tournament so far in terms of points and match quality.

This match was another nice little notch in Tamura’s belt. It was simple enough. Tamura generally overwhelmed Omori, though the North Wolf got a few hope spots in. Tamura targeted the neck and won with a Death Valley Bomb.

After the match, Tamura walked to the back with a swagger and confidence he didn’t have even a month ago.

Of Tamura’s Dojo class which includes Omori and Atsuki Aoyagi, he was the early standout in my opinion, but Aoyagi and Omori soon surpassed him in character development and work. But now Tamura is emerging as a force to be reckoned with and it has been a pleasure to watch. ***

JR. BATTLE OF GLORY 2022
ATSUKI AOYAGI [4] DEF. RISING HAYATO [4] (9:51)

Once again these guys killed it. This was like an abbreviated version of their tremendous Jr. title match from October 2. Almost immediately to the fast-paced, high flying action with no down time.

Aoyagi won with the Firebird Splash with only seconds to spare before the time limit ran out.

These guys are going to put All Japan’s Jr. division back on the map. Plus we now have the story of HAYATO trying to finally score a win over his former tag team partner turned rival. ***¾

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2022
VOODOO MURDERS (SUWAMA & KONO) [4] DEF. VOODOO MURDERS (JUN SAITO & REI SAITO) [2] (10:15)

The Saito Brothers attacked their stablemates before the bell. They got in the ring briefly but then brawled around the ring a bunch, but with a good amount of intensity.

This was not a mat classic or anything, but I enjoyed it. They kept up the pace the entire match with little downtime. The Saito Brothers work best when they’re in the ring with other large wrestler who they can just trade bombs with.

KONO won with a Knee Drop from the top rope on Rei.

After the match both teams brawled, signaling possible trouble in the Voodoo Murders. Hopefully that’s the case but I also thought the group would’ve disbanded by now. ***

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2022
GUNGNIR OF ANARCHY (SHOTARO ASHINO & RYUKI HONDA) [5] DRAW JAKE LEE & YUMA AOYAGI [3] (30:00)

This started off hot, though there was definitely a stretch in the middle where they had to kill time, but it didn’t descend into anything really boring. I will say, it didn’t feel like this was going to a draw until 20 minutes in, whereas in some cases it’s clear after only a few minutes.

We also got double Paradise Locks from Aoyagi and Lee again. I have to imagine this is building to SANADA’s participating on the Christmas Day Korakuen Hall show.

I thought the sequences between Aoyagi and Hinda were the best part of this match. That is the kind of rivalry you want to develop long term to be something at thr top of the company.

The weakest part of this match was the last couple of minutes. It wasn’t technically bad, but it just didn’t really build up too much drama. As the time limit expired they were all on the ground trying to grab each other.

Still the time on this mostly flew by and they absolutely have a better match in them.

Unfortunately about a day after the show, it was announced that Ashino had suffered a separated shoulder. I’m pretty sure that happened in this match when Lee botched a Doctor Bomb and Ashino landed on his shoulder awkwardly. Another big accomplishment from Jake, ending the momentum of one of the best tag teams in wrestling this year.

As a result GOA will forfeit their remaining matches of the tournament. Aoyagi and Lee will almost certainly win the tournament now and probably the tag titles. At least once Ashino recovers, there is a built in story of the injury and this match ending in a draw when these teams face off again.

It also is fair to say that this injury has probably fucked up All Japan’s booking, and hopefully they don’t do something stupid to compensate. ***¾

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2022
YUJI NAGATA & YUMA ANZAI [4] DEF. KENTO MIYAHARA & TAKUYA NOMURA [2] (20:17)

Yuji Nagata and Takuya Nomura have great chemistry in the ring together. It is a blessing to finally see them square off against each other this year, in All Japan of all places.

Unsurprisingly, Anzai got worked over for a while, building to a hot tag to Nagata.

Anzai and Miyahara had some great sequences too. Miyahara being the Tanahashi to Anzai’s Okada is a very real scenario in the future.

The last few minutes had some great action between Nagata and Nomura. Nomura had some kickouts at 2.99 that got the clap crowd making noise. They even made more noise when Nagata pinned Nomura with a Backdrop Hold.

This was a ton of fun, with some great action from Nagata and Nomura and Anzai continuing to prove he’s deserving of the push that he’s getting right out of the gate. ***¾

FINAL THOUGHTS

This was my favorite show of the tournaments so far. Great matches, though the Ashino injuries put a damper on things going forward.

Despite that, this show also demonstrates All Japan’s potential if they could just get out of their own way and let the young talent shine.

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