All Japan Pro Wrestling
AJPW started the ‘Super Power Series’ on May 29th with a show at Korakuen Hall in front of 1,355 fans, which is a great number for the promotion, who continue to have great attendance at Korakuen. On the show, four championships were defended as in the undercard, Maya Yukihi, Mayumi Ozaki & Suwama defeated Chi Chi, Hideki Suzuki & ZONES to retain the AJPW TV Six Man Tag Team Title in a fun match. Also, EC3 retained his NWA Worlds Championship against Ryuki Honda in a bad match that helped no one.
The Saito Brothers defended their AJPW World Tag Team Titles for the first time since regaining them from Suwama & Hideki Suzuki against Parrow & Odinson. The End had a tour in 2019 in All Japan and had a great title match against Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama. Now, five years later, they once again tried to win the prestigious titles. It was a fun big man brawl match with all four looking good. The Saito Brothers, as expected, retained, but The End looked impressive here after teaming together for the first time in two years. Post-match, the Saito Brothers explained that they want to win every title in All Japan, and for that, they need a junior. Naruki Doi’s theme music hit, and he joined the Saito Brothers as he revealed that his mother’s maiden name is “Saito,” so he is also a Saito Brother. He’s now ‘Mr Saito’ Naruki Doi. A hilarious & good segment.
In the main event of the show, the winner of the Champion Carnival Kento Miyahara challenged the newly crowned Champion Yuma Anzai for the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship. The crowd was red hot from the very beginning as both wrestlers made their entrance, and they only got louder from there. In the beginning, Anzai looked nervous, but over the match, fans could feel it shifting as he realized that he could do it and defeat Kento Miyahara, and he did exactly that. He was able to escape the Shut Down Suplex several times until he hit his own version of it and then his ‘Gimlet’ finisher to retain his Championship.
An incredible match with so much intensity & struggle that it not only ranks high on All Japan’s match of the year list but in wrestling in general. Kento Miyahara continues to have great matches whenever he is in a big spot, while Anzai stepped up to his level and was at times even overshadowing the Ace of All Japan with his tremendous selling. Outstanding for someone with just under 2 years of experience.
Did Yuma Anzai need to beat Kento Miyahara in just his second try? No, absolutely not, but it was an important & great decision as it instantly established the ‘Prince of Ring’ as THE guy in All Japan. It has been clear for a while, but now it’s official that Yuma Anzai is going to be the next Ace of AJPW, and it’s going to be sooner than expected. He’s the handpicked guy for the thrown and is reigning over the promotion as the youngest Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion of all time.
New Japan Pro Wrestling
The annual Best of the Super Junior tournament began this month and is featuring all of NJPW’s biggest junior stars and a few new outsiders, with Dragon Dia from Dragon Gate, Blake Chrisitan from ROH, and both HAYATA and Ninja Mack from NOAH all involved. The tournament started on May 11th, with the final happening at Dominion on June 9th. This week, the tournament ended the block stage, and the semi-finals occurred with the final now being official.
On the final two block nights, the semi-finals were set. El Desperado & TJP advanced from the A Block after Desperado defeated HAYATA and TJP defeated Titan to make a comeback after starting 0-4. In Block B, Taiji Ishimori & DOUKI advanced to the final four with Ishimori defeating Hiromu Takahashi and DOUKI getting the big win over Robbie Eagles. With that, Hiromu Takahashi was eliminated from the tournament, which was a huge surprise, considering that he was one of the favorites to advance to the final of the BOSJ. DOUKI advancing is shocking, but a great and interesting move that continues his establishment in the Junior Division.
In the first semi-final, Taiji Ishimori defeated TJP after 19 minutes in the best match of the tournament so far. It started with good technical wrestling and built up to a dramatic finishing stretch in front of a red-hot Korakuen Hall crowd that rooted for the captain of the United Empire. Not for one second was it obvious who was winning the match, which made the near falls believable. Ishimori is a great winner to go to the final because he’s always at his best in the major spots as he showed here against TJP, who had a great performance and proves why New Japan is giving him a push as a singles wrestler.
DOUKI & El Desperado faced off in the second semi-final. The two former members of Suzuki-gun had great chemistry. Desperado worked well over the knees of DOUKI and played the role of being a ruthless bully well. DOUKI’s comeback sequences worked even better because of that, which fired the crowd up. The finishing stretch was great, and it ended fantastically with the reverse Tiger Driver into the Pinche Loco for the three count and the win for El Desperado. DOUKI did great here in the biggest match of his career.
With that, El Desperado & Taiji Ishimori will face off in the finals of the Best of the Super Juniors in the main event of Dominion. This will be their first singles match in over two years and feels like the swansong of the top 3 of this Junior Generation on top of NJPW. In the Puro Guide last week, I mentioned that the build of the tournament seemed to be leading towards another Hiromu Takahashi vs. El Desperado final, which I was wrong about, but a storyline still could emerge from this. Over the past few years, Hiromu pushed for the juniors to get a major main event spot, but when the juniors finally got a major main event match, Hiromu, who has been the Ace of the Junior division for a while now, isn’t in the match, whilst his two biggest rivals – Ishimori & Desperado – have beat him to it. This could create something interesting.
Official Best of the Super Junior Standings:
A BLOCK –
12 – El Desperado (6-3-0)
10 – TJP (5-4-0)
10 – Blake Christian (5-4-0)
10 – Titan (5-4-0)
10 – HAYATA (5-4-0)
8 – Clark Connors (4-5-0)
8 – Kevin Knight (4-5-0)
8 – Yoshinobu Kanemaru (4-5-0)
8 – BUSHI (4-5-0)
6 – Kosei Fujita (3-6-0)
B BLOCK –
14 – Taiji Ishimori (7-2-0)
12 – DOUKI (6-3-0)
12 – Hiromu Takahashi (6-3-0)
10 – Robbie Eagles (5-4-0)
10 – Drilla Moloney (5-4-0)
10 – SHO (5-4-0)
8 – KUSHIDA (4-5-0)
6 – Ninja Mack (4-5-0)
4 – Francesco Akira (2-7-0)
2 – Dragon Dia (2-8-0)
