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Champions Night is now in the rear-view mirror, and we are heading straight for Royal Road Tournament. But before we get there, we have summer actions series first.
A few notes on the Summer Action Series tour so far –
Suwama made his return on day one after testing positive for covid days before Champions Night.
Having lost the Junior Heavyweight Championship Koji Iwamoto has now declared himself an open weight.
Shuji Ishikawa and Black Menso-Re have tested positive for covid and will miss the July tour.
Jun Saito, Rei Saito & Ryoma Tsukamoto vs Osamu Nishimura, Ryuji Hijikata & Takao Omori
This is Tsukamoto’s debut match. Unlike Jun and Rei when they debut, he starts right from the bottom. A shaved head and plain trunks. He was given the red trunks taking over from Dan Tamura who was the last person to wear the red trunks. This was very much your classic veteran vs rookie match. Everyone knows how it will end but it was a fun journey to get there. Looking super fired up as soon as he stepped in the ring Tsukamoto started this off. With a limited move set he did what he could. He hit clubbing forearms to Nishimura and Hijikata and six dropkicks in a row to down Omori. The Saito twins had their time in the ring looking a bit more confidant and seeming to be more ring aware. Once Omori got Tsukamoto in the single leg Boston crab it was over and a submission victory for the veterans. But in front over a crowd off 700 + at Kourekan Hall Tsukamoto impressed.
Dan Tamura & Ryuki Honda vs NEXTREAM (Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO)
A team of power junior heavyweights vs a team of flashy highflyer junior heavyweights. In just over six minutes these four young wrestlers showed why any of them could be next in line for a title shot. HAYATO was the focus of attack for a while before tagging in Atsuki who cleared house. The junior Nextream duo got a chance to show off their double team moves. Not to be outdone Tamura and Honda worked well together and had some of their own double team moves. Tamura hit HAYATO with a powerslam and now holding up the dazed Atsuki and HAYATO Honda hit a double spear. Honda picking up Atsuki delivers a German suplex and gets the three count. With this win plus four new rookies (one yet to debut) it might soon be time for Honda to retire the black trunks and move up a step.
AJPW TV Six Man Tag Team Title Match
Total Eclipse (Hokuto Omori, TAJIRI & Yusuke Kodama) (c) vs Carbell Ito, Seigo Tachibana & Yoshi Tatsu
A very strange team face the champions for their first defense. From the get-go this was the Tachibana show. He was in the ring the most out of his team, beat down by Total Eclipse and when he did get to tag out, he was tagged back in very quickly. Total Eclipse did take the referee out at one stage. Omori taking advantage of that by hitting a low blow on Tachibana. He then brought in a chair to inflict more pain, but Yoshi Tatsu came to the rescue and kicked the chair back into Omori’s face with the seat flying off outside the ring. With the referee slowly getting back to his feet and Total Eclipse being held back by his tag team partners, Tachibana hit the Ebisu Drop and picks up the win for his team. We have new six-man champions as Total Eclipse fail in their first defense. Not only does Tachibana gets the win for his team but he does it in his first match of 2021.
All Asia Tag Team Title Match
Purple Haze (Zeus & Izanagi) (c) vs Strong Hearts (El Lindaman & Issei Onitsuka)
T-Hawk was the scheduled partner for El Lindaman but due to a rib injury he suffered Issei will be taking his place. Issei had a golden opportunity, and he did not waste it. Staring down Zeus from the get-go he tried his best, but Zeus is too strong and he couldn’t knock him off his feet. Izanagi was the target for Strong Hearts most of the match with Zeus coming in the ring from time to time clearing house or saving his tag team partner. After a top rope drop kick Izanagi was clutching his leg/knee and had trouble standing on it. The match didn’t last for much longer after that as Izanagi rolled up Issei for a three count. No news on how serious his injury is or if he just tweaked. Purple Haze retains the All Asia tag titles in their sixth defense.
Kento Miyahara vs Koji Iwamoto
On day one of summer action series Koji started his open weight career. Facing Zeus and Suwama in singles competition have both resulted in losses. Now his third challenge is the ace of All Japan.
Koji gave no time for Kento to showboat to the crowd. As soon as the bell rang, he fired out of the gates attacking Kento which soon turned into a forearm battle. Action outside and inside the ring with minimal Kento/ referee banter. Just the better part of 11 minutes of action. Kento and Koji were fairly even with each getting a fare amount of offence in with neither man staying down for very long. They both tried multiple times to hit their finisher with Koji finally able to get Kento with a Koko No Geijutsu near the end of the match. After trying for another one Kento was able to stop Koji in his tracks and pin his arms back and hit a shutdown suplex for the win. Kojis open weight journey continues in the first round of Royal Road tournament against Koji Doi.
Atsushi Aoki Memorial Match
EVOLUTION (Suwama & Hikaru Sato) & King Tany vs SUSHI, Takuya Wada & Yuma Aoyagi
A no stakes, fun match in memory of someone gone to soon. Special guest appearance from NOAH wrestler King Tany as part of Evolutions team. King Tany at times seemed to perplex his team mates, especially Suwama, with his outfit and “dance“ moves. We had SUSHI showing off his strength by taking Suwama off his feet and reversing a power bomb attempt. Yuma confusing King Tany by stealing his pose. And something of an actual serious wrestling with Sato and Wada. A fun spot with King Tany who kept trying to body slam SUSHI onto Yuma who kept on rolling out of the way. In the end SUSHI’s luck ran out with Suwama who got the three count with a backdrop. All in good fun as all six competitors and referee Kohei Wada, who was dressed in all blue, posed together in the ring with Suwama holding a picture of Atsushi Aoki.
AA forever.
AJPW Junior Heavyweight Championship Title Match
Francesco Akira (c) vs SUGI
Flips, reverse frankensteiner and more flips. For a match that featured these two wrestlers it started off slow. Akira did try to quicken the pace, but SUGI stopped him with a barrage of heavy shots. Ever the underdog, Akira really had to fight and dig deep for every opportunity to attack. But when he did SUGI was there to hit back just as hard. SUGI was the perfect opponent for Akira to show just how much he has improved. Someone who could match him flip for flip and at the same time bring out the fighting underdog spirt that Akira has in spades.
A beautiful shooting star press secured SUGI the win and the junior heavyweight championship. It is a shame Akira lost the belt in his first defense but someone like SUGI could really help the junior division. The division is quite young and with Koji Iwamoto moving to open weight and Hikaru Sato more often tagging with Suwama they needed someone with experience and SUGI fits that roll.
Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Title Match
Jake Lee (c) vs Shotaro Ashino
A very different match from the last one. Jake was slow and calculated targeting the injured arm of Ashino that was tapped up. The champ was in control for much of this match with Ashino only getting in offence here and there. Jake seemed to take Ashino as a joke at one stage laughing and smiling at Ashino’s forearm shots. Ashino had to rely on his non injured arm for any strikes and any time he did use the injured arm you could tell he was in pain. The last five or so minutes were where it really picked up. Ashino got to finally lock in his ankle lock. It has seen success against Jake as he did tap out while Ashino had it locked in on day one of the tour. Jake tried his hardest to get out of the submission, but Ashino kept holding on. At one point Jake kicked Ashino and on the way down he was able to grab his ankle again and lock it in. After breaking free from the lock Jake delivered a backdrop followed by a D4C and that was it. Jake retains in his first defense. A good first defense with great limb work and even better selling.
Now the first hurdle is over for Jake he has to wait and see who wins Royal Road tournament to become his second challenger. Jake Lee is part of Royal Road tournament so he could win and choose who to face.
Royal Road Tournament starts on the 15th of August.
All Japan can be watched at AJPW.TV for 900 Yen a month.
Puroresu Gate 