NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING / HIROMU TAKAHASHI PRODUCE
ALL-STAR JUNIOR FESTIVAL 2023
MARCH 1, 2023
KORAKUEN HALL – TOKYO, JAPAN

Watch: NJPW World

PRE-SHOW MATCH
KAZUMA SUMI, SOMA WATANABE, & YOH DEF. AKIRA JUMONJI, FUMINORI ABE, & RYO HOSINO 

Japan’s junior heavyweight scene may be lacking in star power, but a ton of raw talent still has yet to hit their ceiling. This six-man encounter on the pre-show highlighted this fact. While strong hands like Big Japan’s Fuminori Abe and New Japan’s YOH put forth strong efforts, the real star of this match was GLEAT’s Soma Watanabe. I don’t think I will ever forgive GLEAT for signing off on Watanabe fighting in the ill-fated GLEAT MMA show. Formerly a masked man in Wrestle-1, Watanabe stepped into the spotlight during GLEAT’s earliest shows and looked like a wrestler that the company could build around in the future. 

Then he got his lights punched out in this very building. 

His MMA experience has tainted him in my eyes in a way that I have yet to overcome, but Watanabe’s tope suicida before standing atop a chair and posing to the Korakuen faithful made him look like a superstar. 

YOH scored the pinfall for his team over Jumonji with the Direct Drive. This kicked off the show on the right note. ***1/4 

AMAKUSA, FUJITA HAYATO, & HIROMU TAKAHASHI DEF. HAYATA, KAZUKI HASHIMOTO, & YAMATO 

Ever since this show was announced, YAMATO has been railing against this show on Twitter, which is not only uncharacteristic of a Japanese wrestler, but it is extremely uncharacteristic of a Dragongate wrestler since they often exist in their own world. There have been truths within YAMATO’s tweets towards New Japan and Takahashi, even if they are done in a working fashion. When Takahashi first floated the idea of this show out there, YAMATO, the most decorated wrestler in Dragongate history, spoke out against it. He said it was typical of a giant corporation like New Japan to only pay attention to smaller promotions when it benefited them. It all went away because Takahashi’s All-Star Junior Festival was merely a hypothetical. 

Then, it wasn’t. New Japan had March 1 booked in Korakuen and they had nothing for it, and the LEC Corporation, who had propped up the entire puroresu industry during the pandemic decided that they wanted to pay for it. Thus, this show was born and YAMATO was thrown into the fire. 

The five-time Dream Gate Champion was brilliant, and he came across as an equal to Takahashi in the true opener on this show. YAMATO, unfortunately, has spent the last half-decade being uninteresting. He’s been the face of a successful company who continues to find success with him as a likable top guy, and that’s a damn shame, because YAMATO is so much more interesting as a shit-stirring, shit-talking heel, which is exactly what he got to do here. The interactions between YAMATO and Takahashi were electric. There has never been an environment in which Dragongate wrestlers don’t come across like stars when they leave their homebase. All three times they were featured on this show, they made their home promotion pop. 

I also feel the need to celebrate Fujita Hayato, who has been put through hell these last few years. Hayato was incredible, and although he hasn’t spent time in New Japan since 2011, it was made abundantly clear in this match that he could hang with anyone in the New Japan juniors division. The way he paired off with Big Japan’s Kazuki Hashimoto, which paved the way for them to throw bombs at one another, was simply delightful. 

Hayato kicked Hashimoto’s head into oblivion with a Roundhouse Kick before clamping down on the K.I.D.,Hayato’s signature guillotine choke, for the win. ***3/4 

ISAMI KODOKA & MAO DEF. ONRYO & SHO 

What a waste of MAO. 

Look, not everyone would get treated with the respect they deserve on a show with this many names involved, but MAO deserved better than wrestling a broken down Onryo and an uninterested SHO. It would’ve been nice to see one of DDT’s most talented wrestlers in the ring with high-level juniors who he hasn’t had the chance to wrestle yet, but instead this was used as a vehicle to get SHO heat and for Onryo to put spells on people. 

We couldn’t even get a clean finish, as after SHO suplexed Onryo onto MAO, Onryo fired back with some friendly fire of his own. Once SHO bailed to the floor, he launched the referee into the crowd, thus signaling a disqualification. None of this was good, outside of MAO’s sheer athleticism. It’s a bummer that valuable card positions were wasted on this. **

KEEP IT UP! SHINJIRO OTANI TEN MAN TAG TEAM MATCH
JUN KASAI, MINOURA TANAKA, TAKA MICHINOKU, TATSUHITO TAKAIWA, & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU DEF. CHICHARITO SOKI, KOTA SEKIFUDA, LEONA, MUSASHI, & SHOKI KITAMURA 

Grizzled vets and indie scrubs joined forces for a match dedicated to Shinjiro Otani, who suffered a cervical spinal injury and paralysis last April after an errant German Suplex at a Zero-One show. 

This was largely nothing, although unlike the last match, I respect what this represented. My biggest takeaway was that LEONA, Tatsumi Fujinami’s son, oddly looks so much like a rounder version of Shinjiro Otani. It is truly off-putting. 

Otani’s longtime tag team partner, Takaiwa, scored the fall over 2AW’s Shoki to win the match for his team. **1/4 

HIKARU SATO, RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, & YUMEHITO IMANARI DEF. BATTEN BLABLA, THE GREAT SASUKE, & TIGERS MASK 

Seven minutes of my life that I’ll never get back. I have no interest in perverted pro wrestling. This was bad, unfunny comedy that felt so out of place on a show that was supposed to be presenting the best of the best. Do not watch. DUD 

EL DESPERADO & VOLADOR JR DEF. EL LINDAMAN & YUKI UENO, DOUKI & HANAOKA

After a disappointing half hour of wrestling, the show was kicked up a notch with this three-way tag team match. This was notable for me as it was the Dragongate-turned-GLEAT star El Lindaman getting a chance to wrestle Hanaoka of Secret Base, a popular landing spot for failed Dragon System wrestlers. For most people, however, they were into the dynamic of high-flyers from across the globe getting a chance to do big moves against one another. 

I think the three teams were able to successfully put over the idea that DOUKI & HANAOKA were a much more polished team than the other two hodgepodge collectives, given that the Los Japoneses del Mal duo has actually spent time teaming in Mexico with one another. They wrestled like a true tag team, whereas everyone else was merely throwing their biggest moves against the wall. 

El Lindaman was the star of this match. I have been a fan of his quite literally since his first match, but his work in 2022 and early 2023 has been far better than anything I ever expected from him. Despite having a microscopic build, the former G-REX Champion is wrestling like a hardened pro who is capable of projecting to audiences big and small. He’s more muscular than ever, but that hasn’t gotten in the way of his athleticism. 

For as great as the GLEAT standout was, it was not enough to get past New Japan’s dynamic duo of Desperado and Volador Jr. HANAOKA was no match for a finishing stretch of big moves from the two. ***1/4 

ALEJANDRO, BILLY KEN KID, GURUKUN MASK, & MISTICO DEF. ATLANTIS JR, BLACK MENSO-RE, BUSHI, & DRAGON KID 

I’m extremely disappointed this was not the main event and given more time, because to me this was the true embodiment of this show. This once-in-a-lifetime masked men match between seven of the world’s best flyers (and Black Menso-re) was a spectacle worth checking out. In particular, seeing Dragon Kid and Mistico, two of the most important high-flyers of the 21st century, share a ring with one another, was incredibly satisfying as a fan. 

In prior multi-man matches, I’ve praised everyone for looking great and adding to the match, but this eight-man was The Mistico Show. Whenever he was in the ring, it was electric. As we head towards putting the finishing touches on the first quarter of the year, he might be my leading Flair/Thesz candidate and he’s in the running for my Most Outstanding Wrestler. Nothing that Mistico has done this year has been less than stellar. He was at his best here against his CMLL counterpart Atlantis Jr, but everything that Mistico touched ended up turning to gold. 

In the midst of a dive train (which notably featured Atlantis Jr’s stunning no-touch dive), Menso-re looked to get in on the fun, but was cut off by Mistico, who quickly applied his signature armbar and forced the All Japan wrestler to tap out. While this only approached “good” territory instead of “great”, I had a blast watching all of these guys go at it. This truly felt like a lucha all-star game, and I am all for that. ***1/2 

CIMA DEF. KAZUKI HIRATA 

I am a sick man who is in a very toxic relationship with CIMA. 

It’s been easy to clown on the Osaka native in recent years, but CIMA is a drug that I just cannot quit. I largely think his bruised reputation and continued piling on is unwarranted, and by no means does it alter the way that I think about his overall legacy (we don’t judge Patrick Ewing’s career based on his time spent with the Magic), but it’s been hard to proudly rep your CIMA fandom as of late. 

In an impromptu match with DDT’s Kazuki Hirata, known for parodying stars from Toryumon (namely Magnum TOKYO), CIMA came out and got the biggest reaction on the show for a man not named Hiromu Takahashi or YAMATO. 

In a match that felt like a bad acid trip, CIMA came out to the ring, shook hands with his fellow GLEAT companion Masato Yoshino and New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Milano Collection AT (to my knowledge, this is the first time CIMA and Milano have been seen with one another since Milano’s exit from Dragongate in 2005), and then proceeded to do the Tokyo Go dance with Hirata in the middle of the ring. None of this made any sense and I loved every second of it. Some may argue that it looked like a man trying to fit into his varsity jacket and relive his glory days, but I label more as harmless fun and CIMA understanding how to read a room. He played the hits. He had the crowd in the palm of his hands. When he quit dancing and started fighting, he transitioned from lovable legend to crusty old-timer seamlessly. He is still as crafty as ever. 

A Meteora put Hirata away in 7:16. If this show was meant to be a juniors all-star game, this felt like the celebrity game played to kick off the weekend. It hit every beat that it should have. ***

TAIJI ISHIMORI DEF. NINJA MACK, SOBERANO JR, SHUN SKYWALKER, & YO-HEY 

Remember when YAMATO said that New Japan only relies on other promotions when they need them, and even then they don’t get treated fairly? I present to the jury this match. 

I understand that it’s a show taking place in New Japan’s yard and that much like Pro Wrestling NOAH did at Keiji Mutoh’s retirement show, you’re going to have to take a beating from the big dog every once in a while. I truly hated the finish to this match, though. After a match that was veering on notebook status, Shun Skywalker planted YO-HEY with the nastiest SSW I’ve ever seen. Before he could score the fall, he was dumped from the ring by Taiji Ishimori, who then picked up YO-HEY and nailed the Bloody Cross to score the win. On one hand, it’s hilarious that a CyberAgent wrestler was destroyed to this degree by the hands of a New Japan wrestler, but on the other, there’s no reason that Shun Skywalker, a two-time Open the Dream Gate Champion and current leader of Dragongate, could not score the fall in this mach. 

Something about the finish just felt gross. It was macho posturing done in a match that didn’t need to have any. Taiji Ishimori is going to be FINE with or without this win, but as the industry continues to bleed after three years of pandemic restrictions, it would’ve been nice to see a win tossed towards Dragongate’s direction. 

To continue using my All-Star Weekend analogy, this was very much the dunk contest of the weekend. I think I could do 5,000 words on how Ninja Mack is wrestling’s Mac McClung, but I will save that for another time. This was big dive after big dive after big dive, done from guys who are experts in that medium. The best part of this match is that Ninja Mack and YO-HEY largely stayed out of the way outside of their big spots. This was all about Soberno and Skywalker, two of the most exciting wrestlers on the planet, and Ishimori and Skywalker, representing the Dragon System of Old vs. the Dragon System of New. 

Had the finish come after Skywalker’s devastating SSW, I would’ve slapped four stars on this. With the addition of the Bloody Cross and the subsequent Ishimori victory, I have to knock it down a peg. Still, worth your time. ***3/4 

MASTER WATO DEF. ATSUKI AOYAGI 

This was a really weird match. “Weird”, while broad, is the only way that I can describe it. Master Wato got his ass handed to him by Aoyagi for nearly the entire match. At no point did Wato look better, tougher, or smarter than All Japan’s prized junior, he just merely survived long enough to come out ahead in the end. It’s not that this match was bad, I just have no clue what they were trying to get accomplished. It’s as if the All-Star Junior Festival ended with the five-way, then this match took place within the New Japan universe. It felt like it was a different thing entirely in a way that wasn’t off-putting, but was by no means satisfying. 

Much like with the prior match, I get New Japan looking out for their own and trying to make a “moment” out of Wato getting the win on a big stage, but I don’t think they accomplished their goal with this. If anything, I came away wanting to watch more Aoyagi than Wato. I think the eight-man masked match was befitting of the main event, and this needed to go on where that match did. It didn’t have the spectacle, nor the “oomph” needed to main event a show like this. 

The final 90 seconds of the match felt very hot, and Wato’s eventual win with the Recientemente II was well received, but the route they chose to get there was truly baffling. ***1/2 

Final Thoughts

Your enjoyment of this show will entirely be determined by your expectations of the show. If you go into this show thinking it’s the next incarnation of the 1994 Super J Cup, you will be sorely disappointed. If you come into this show thinking of it as an All-Star Game, you might be able to have as much fun as I had watching this show. 

The junior heavyweight scene in Japan might be the weakest it’s ever been. New Japan lacks depth, NOAH lacks structure, and All Japan lacks talent. Promotions like DDT and GLEAT have strong hands but lack focus and it hurts the presentation of their product. Outside of Fuminori Abe and Gurukun Mask, there’s no indie sleaze wrestlers worth paying attention to. Dragongate, from a talent standpoint, is as strong as ever, and while everyone suffered during the pandemic, they suffered far less than others, but Dragongate ultimately exists in its own universe. Had this show been scheduled five years ago, the overall outcome might have been better, but even with a depleted scene, the brainchild of Hiromu Takahashi was still a lot of fun.

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