ALL JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE/JR. BATTLE OF GLORY 2022
DECEMBER 7, 2022
KORAKUEN HALL
TOKYO, JAPAN

Watch: AJPW.TV

JR. BATTLE OF GLORY SPECIAL TAG MATCH
HIKARU SATO & RYO INOUE DEF. HOKUTO OMORI & RISING HAYATO (7:11)

This was a nice little opener. Everyone got a decent amount of time in the ring and looked good. Sato pinned HAYATO with a Death Valley Bomb.

Surprisingly Omori did not take the fall here, nor did he announce he was leaving All Japan at the end of the year. I was beginning to think that was a possibility given how many matches he was losing and the fact the others ended up leaving. Perhaps this is a the beginning of a new long term storyline for Omori where he has to build himself back up after a poor performance in this tournament. ***¼

SHUJI ISHIKAWA & CYRUS DEF. RYUKI HONDA & IZANAGI (5:28)

A quick squash. Cyrus and Honda had good chemistry together. You’d think Izanagi would take the fall here, but it was in fact Honda who Cyrus pinned after a Vader Bomb. That was probably done to build up Cyrus as much as possible going into what would end up being the main event of this show. **¾

ALL ASIA TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP FOUR WAY MATCH
TAKAO OMORI & MASAO INOUE DEF. GUNGNIR OF ANARCHY (YUSUKE KODAMA & MASAO HANABATA) ©, YOSHITATSU & TAJIRI, BLACK MENSO~RE & ATM (7:07)

Inoue and Omori came out to the NTV Sports theme which was a nice touch.

I’m not sure what the point of this was other than to get everyone on the show. It wasn’t very good. Inoue pinned Hanabata after Omori hit the Champion with the Axe Bomber. This was probably some sort of 50th-anniversary celebration thing as both were former Champions though with different partners. I have a feeling this title reign won’t be a long one.

But things got weirder after the match when NOSAWA Rongai’s music hit and he came out and challenged for the belts and said his partner would be Kendo Kashin. That match will happen on January 3.

Is this part of NOSAWA’s retirement tour as he spent many years in All Japan, or is it a sign that All Japan and NOAH will be working together more in 2023? Only time will tell.

It should also be noted that Izanagi and TAJIRI have announced they’re leaving All Japan. Izanagi will be joining Osaka Pro full-time while TAJIRI is moving to Malaysia to train wrestlers there. Whatever my thoughts about TAJIRI as a booker, the Malaysian wrestling scene will take a huge step forward by having someone with TAJIRI’s experience training wrestlers. **¼

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2022
JAKE LEE & YUMA AOYAGI [7] DEF. KOJI DOI & KUMA ARASHI [6] (14:16)

Doi hit a Brainbuster on Aoaygi very early on and Aoyagi sold it like his neck had been badly damaged. The rest of the match was Aoyagi having to overcome this.

The rest of the match meandered for a while with no real direction. The last couple minutes between Aoyagi and Arashi were decent. Aoyagi pinned Arashi after rolling through to a cover a Arashi running crossbody. While it was lackluster in some ways, Aoyagi looked good in pulling out a victory here and sold like he had everything taken out of him after the match.

The next day it was announced that Jake Lee would be leaving All Japan. I’m not going to go over all of the stuff leading up to this point other than to say I’m not surprised. But given the impending departures of Lee, Izanagi and TAJIRI, I will say that I don’t this thus isn’t really a blow to All Japan at all. Lee had run his course in the company and probably wasn’t ever going to become a difference making star for it. I am skeptical however about his chances if the rumors are true and he is New Japan bound. ***

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2022
YUJI NAGATA & YUMA ANZAI [6] DEF. VOODOO MURDERS (SUWAMA & KONO) [6] (12:49)

Voodoo Murders attacked before the bell because of course they did.

Nagata played the face in peril for a bit against both Tag Team Champions. He even made KONO look decent.

The Anzai and Suwama sequence in the final portion of the match was pretty good.

They just traded big moves back-and-forth. Suwama brought a chair into the ring and KONO held Anzai, but the super rookie moved leading to Suwama hitting his partner with the chair. Anzai then dropkicked the chair holding Suwama and then hit a German Suplex on him to get the win. This shocking result caused the clap crowd to make a great deal of noise. This knocked Voodoo Murders out of the tournament and was a huge sign of All Japan’s plans for Anzai. ***¼

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2022
KENTO MIYAHARA & TAKUYA NOMURA [8] DEF. JUN SAITO & REI SAITO [6] (11:59)

There were some Saito Brothers signs in the crowd, which I’ve never seen before.

Nomura was great here selling for the Saitos. He really made them look like powerful threats.

Miyahara and Rei also had some heated exchanges and I’d like to see a singles match between them.

I thought the Saitos’ overall timing in the ring looked pretty good here. There were far fewer moments where it looked like they didn’t know what to do next.

Jun went for a Cobra Clutch Slam on Nomura but Nomura reversed it into a Guillotine attempt then transitioned into a Sleeper to get the referee stoppage. While this was going on, Miyahara prevented TARU from throwing powder and instead threw it at TARU.

Another fun match from the Saitos. No question, they’re improving. ***½

JR. BATTLE OF GLORY 2022 FINALS
ATSUKI AOYAGI DEF. DAN TAMURA (17:01)

Aoyagi took the advantage early with his mat skills and speed. Tamura made a comeback later with his brute strength, which set the match’s dynamic.

There was some stuff in this that ive never seen Tamura do before. Tamura gave Aoyagi a gut-wrench suplex into the corner that looked nasty.

Tamura had Aoyagi up for a Death Valley Bomb but Aoyagi escaped and hit a Poison Rana followed by this Powerbomb variation he started using recently for a near fall. Aoaygi then finished Tamura off with a Firebird Splash.

We got a pretty darn good performance from Tamura here. While it wasn’t perfect and was a little shaky at times, it was the best of his career thus far and showed his recent progress.

The decision to have Aoyagi win this as Jr. Champion is interesting but also a sign that he is the clear Jr. ace and that the company has big plans for him.

After the match, Hikaru Sato, the only wrestler to defeat Aoyagi in the tournament came out to make the next challenge. That match will happen on January 2. ***¾

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2022 FINALS
KENTO MIYAHARA & TAKUYA NOMURA DEF. SHUJI ISHIKAWA & CYRUS (20:37)

This was great. Cyrus just blitzed Miyahara to start pummeling him and countering everything. It was the best I’ve ever seen Cyrus look. Miyahara is also rhe perfect foil for Cyrus through his selling and reactions.

After a hot start, Ishikawa worked over Miyahara for a while. When the hot tag was made to Nomura, he and Ishikawa had some great sequences. Nomura might be the best wrestlers in the world when it comes to working with wrestlers much larger than him. Their sequences also had the vibe of the glory years of the BJW Strong division from the mid-2010s.

The second half of this match went from good to great. It was all action and the crowd was making a good amount of noise at points including for a Vader Bomb from Cyrus to Miyahara and a missed Moonsault from Cyrus.

The closing stretch between Ishikawa and Miyahara saw the usual great spots between the two. It took two double knee and kick strikes from Miyahara and Nomura to put Ishikawa down long enough for Miyahara to be able to slap on the Shutdown German Suplex on the Big Dog to get the win.

Cyrus and Ishikawa were put over as brutal monsters even if they didn’t ultimately win. Ideally I think they should have won this tournament but Cyrus isn’t on the January tour and of course this tournament result is almost certainly the result of Ashino’s injury.

Cyrus, for my money is beginning to show improvement in the ring. A few more tours with All Japan and I think he has the potential of being a very good big man, though his strength may ultimately lie in tags. His conditioning isn’t the strongest, though it didn’t look too bad here, but he’s 35 so it seems unlikely to dramatically improve.

After this match it was announced that Nomura challenged Miyahara for Triple Crown shot on January 3 which was granted. The crowd cheered for this. They will both challenge Suwama & KONO for the World Tag Team Championship they day before on January 2. While it seems clunky booking, it was obviously a last minute thing. I assumed they would’ve run a Miyahara and Nomura breakup angle on this show originally. Miyahara has also said that Nomura wants to work more All Japan in 2023, so there’s that to look forward to. ****⅕

FINAL THOUGHTS

A strong close to both tournaments. This was definitely the best RWTL of the pandemic era in terms of overall match quality from show-to-show and some matches that managed to exceed expectations.

As for the departures, I will have a column out soon about Jake Lee. But let me say this, it’s far from a disaster and may end up forcing All Japan to make some necessary shake-ups. There is still a bunch of great young talent in this company and maybe, just maybe, a prodigal son will be returning full-time in the New Year.

Powered by RedCircle