Written by Jessie https://twitter.com/SisterJessiee
Ryo Inoue vs Oji Shiiba
A nice opener to get the show off on the right foot. Former Dragongate wrestler Shiiba and Inoue made the most of their time spending just under five minutes in the ring. Full on action from start to finish and for his first time in All Japan Shiiba looked good. Inoue taps out to every rookie’s rival, the Boston crab.
GAORA TV TITLE MATCH
Izanagi (c) vs Black Menso-Re vs Toshizo vs Yusuke Kodama
Unlike a normal ladder match the belt wasn’t hanging above the ring. All four wrestler brought a ladder with them except for Izanagi. Instead, he brought a step ladder.
Even though all four men decided to put their ladders down at the start of the match it wasn’t long until they came back into play. For a match that was kind of a mess with new wrestlers added randomly this turned into a really fun ladder match.
Kodama was the MVP using the ladders the best and at one point he hit a frog splash from the top of one.
But in the end it was Voodoo Murders Toshizo pinning Black Menso-Re after a brain buster to win the title.
Izanagi’s reigns ends the same month he won the belt with zero successful defences.
Masanobu Fuchi, ATM & Takao Omori vs Yoshi Tatsu, SUSHI & Masao Inoue
An ok match. It did its job which was add some comedy and give everyone a spot on the card. Not much to talk about. The wrestling was good and there were some highlights. Fuchi’s not so secret closed fists punches and backdrop and ATM bribing the referee to fast count his pins while slow counting his opponents were high points.
In the conclusion of this match Omori hit an Axe bomber on SUSHI and picked up the win for his team.
Atsuki Aoyagi vs Rising HAYATO
We go from slow and old to fast and young. This was a late including to the show.
What started as a way to test each other after a frustrating loss came a wonderful match. A slow start with some chops it soon turned into the match we all expected. Fast paced and full of flips. These two gave it their all and left everything in the ring. In just over 10 minutes they cemented their future as future pillars of the junior division. And also, with one rivalry ending (more on that below) it feels like a new rivalry started after this match ended. Atsuki wins after a firebird splash.
He looks at the defeated HAYATO for a while before walking away to the back.
Naoya Nomura vs Hokuto Omori
A very quick match here. Gone is the sweet Nomura who you could take home to your parents and in his place is one filled with hate and anger.
Omori got jump on his opponent before he made it to the ring but once they got in and the bell rang it was all Nomura. He dominated the match while Omori had some offence it wasn’t enough to stop Nomura and this one was over before it even hit five minutes.
Nomura isn’t done with All Japan yet. He wants to move on to Yuma, Jake and Kento.
JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH
Hikaru Sato (c) vs Tiger Mask
This match was the Atsushi Aoki memorial match. Hikaru Sato came down to the ring with his junior title and also the old junior title that All Japan retired and gave to Aoki’s family.
A bit of a mixed bag here. It started off slow with submissions and kicks throwed in here and there. Very slowly it picked up but never quite reached the level of intensity that Sato’s other defences have been.
With a kick to the head followed by a tiger suplex Tiger Mask won the junior heavyweight championship.
After Dan Tamura and Izanagi came to the ring to challenge Tiger Mask. He will face Dan Tamura and the winner of that match will go on to face Izanagi.
It’s a real shame and disappointing that Sato’s reign had to end like this. He was having amazing matches and really shining as champion. There was a lot left in his reign and should have walked into Budokan as champion.
Yuma Aoyagi vs Shuji Kondo
This was your classic underdog Yuma fights back match. Kondo really made Yuma work for it. It was a fine match a bit slow to begin but things picked up quickly with big moves and some nice exchanges.
Towards the end of the match Toshizo walked out with a gas bottle and does nothing but stand there. This was pointless as it added nothing to the match and Kondo picked up with win without Toshizo even getting to the ring. He did run In after the match to beat down Yuma but Atsuki came out to scare them away and save his brother.
He got on the mic and said he was leaving Nextream and following his brother as Yuma is nothing without him.
WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH
Twin Towers (Shuji Ishikawa & Kohei Sato) (c) vs Shotaro Ashino & Ryuki Honda
All three members of the Sunglass Squad here as Tachibana walks down to the ring with Honda and Ashino who for some reason also is wearing grills.
Honda got absolutely destroyed in the first half with nonstop nasty sounding forearms and elbows. Twin Towers were not playing around and were their usual brutal selves.
Honda eventually made the tag to Ashino and that’s when things really got going. The exchange between Ashino and Sato was everything we wanted from these two and more.
Ashino and Shuji wrestled the rest of this match, and they didn’t disappoint either.
Very close near falls and a beautiful frankensteiner turned into an ankle lock closed the match. Shuji tried to fight it but taps out in the end. Ashino wins the world tag team belts. The same belts he lost to Twin Towers just over one month ago. Tachibana, who has been at ringside, gets in the ring to pose (with sunglasses of course) with the new champions.
Voodoo Murders (Suwama & TARU) vs Dan Tamura & Yuji Nagata
Poor poor Dan. What he did to anger Suwama so bad. We will never know.
As with 99% of Voodoo Murders matches this one breaks down very quickly. Outside brawling, interference by people not in the match, weapons, and that damn dog collar they put on Dan.
Even with all that this is probably one of the better Voodoo Murders matches since they have returned. There was some nice wrestling between Suwama, Dan and Nagata and Dan getting a near fall was fun. Suwama was good and his lariats look even more painful if that’s even possible.
Suwama wins with a backdrop and after the match he grabs the Onigiri Dan brought to the ring to give to Suwama. He stuffs it in Dan’s mouth and hits him with a lariat and walks away.
TRIPLE CROWN HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH
Kento Miyahara (c) vs Jake Lee
This is it. The final Triple Crown match between Kento and Jake. A must win for Jake as he has never defeated Kento in one vs one Triple Crown match ups. The video package before this match was phenomenal that went through Kento and Jakes career and rivalry. Under the watchful eye of Kenta Kobashi this match began.
It was your classic Jake v Kento battle with a few extras thrown in. Jake brought back his old bow taunt that hasn’t been seen in a while Kento thew in some lariats which he busted out in their last match. One thing to note is while Rising HAYATO was in Kento’s corner no one was in Jakes. Hokuto Omori usually stands in Jakes corner, but he wasn’t there.
There was a lot of outside brawling before they returned to the ring and when they did things really picked up. While it was mostly even Kento did have to dig deep and fight from the bottom a couple of times. But as the ace he is always able to bounce back. The last five minutes were seriously action packed. These two went all out and even brought another call back from their rivalry with Jake biting the ropes to keep Kento from hitting a Shutdown Suplex.
After breaking free from the Shutdown Suplex Jake this the D4C and win the Triple Crown for the second time in his career. He ends the feud standing tall holding the belt. Kenta Kobashi gets into the ring says some words to Jake and puts the belt around Jakes waist.
Jake gets on the mic and says thank you to Kento. That he is what he is now thanks to him.
Suwama comes out next and will be Jakes first challenger. That match will take place in July.
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