#new explosion

AJPW NEW EXPLOSION at Ryogoku Kokugikan (11.27.2016) Review

Naoya Nomura vs. Takuya Nomura [***1/2+]

SUSHI, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Masao Inoue vs. Kaji Tomato, Kazuhiro Tamura & Naoshi Sano [**1/4]

Super Tiger, Ryuji Hijikata, Rey Paloma & Diablo vs. Mitsuya Nagai, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Takeshi Minamino & Black Tiger VII [**1/2]

Dory Funk Jr., Chavo Guerrero Sr., Ultimo Dragon & TAJIRI vs. The Great Kabuki, Osamu Nishimura , Yutaka Yoshie & Isami Kodaka [N/A]

Jake Lee, Yuma Aoyagi & Koji Iwamoto vs. Ryoji Sai , Kengo Mashimo & Konosuke Takeshita [***1/4]

Jun Akiyama & Kendo Kashin vs. Takao Omori & Manabu Soya [**3/4]

GAORA TV Championship Match: Yohei Nakajima (c) vs. Jiro “Ikemen” Kuroshio [***3/4]

World Junior Heavyweight Championship Match: Soma Takao (c) vs. Keisuke Ishii [***1/4]

All Asia Tag Championship Match: Atsushi Aoki & Hikaru Sato (c) vs. Masanobu Fuchi & Atsushi Onita [**3/4]

World Tag Championship Match: Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi (c) vs. Zeus & The Bodyguard [****1/2]

Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match: Kento Miyahara (c) vs. Suwama [****1/4]

Well this was quite the show; it was a truly epic (5 and a half hours!) super show that was entertaining top to bottom. All Japan have been very consistent this year, so it was good to see them pull a big crowd (for them, anyway) of 6,500 to Kokugikan for the show. It featured two excellent bouts, a whole load of very good, and a couple that defy description. This was about as varied a wrestling show as you’ll ever see and had guys wrestling on it that I never thought I’d see between the ropes again. The exchanges between 75 year old Dory Funk Jr and 68 year old Great Kabuki in their fun but unfathomable legends multi man, were like nothing I’ve ever seen. The match is almost impossible to rate as, from a technical wrestling standpoint, it was beyond bad, but it was so much fun watching these legends get in there, even if it is aura destroying to some. Then there was the duo of Masa Fuchi and everyones favourite death match godfather, Atsushi Onita’s All Asia Tag Title win, in another total freakshow match that was also highly entertaining. The sight of these dudes, who debuted together in 1973 after being the first All Japan dojo graduates, beating the hell out of their much younger opponents was quite the spectacle. Fuchi, who carried the action for his team whilst Onita just nailed guys with weapon shots, got the win for the veterans after nailing seven (!) backdrop suplexes on Sato. Jun Akiyama and, of all people, Masao Inoue set themselves up as the next challengers after the match. I cant begin to imagine what that bout will look like.

However, when the action was good, it was incredibly good. Young boys the Nomura’s had a hot, hard hitting opener in which both showed great promise. This was the perfect way to kick the show off, with Big Japan’s Takuya getting the win when he pinned All Japan’s Naoya with a stiff high kick. Sai, Mashimo and DDT’s Konosuke Takeshita’s win over Jake Lee, Aoyagi and Iwamoto an all-action six man in which all involved looked good. The presence of Kendo Kashin brought his and AJPW booker Akiyama’s tag bout with the GET WILD duo of Omori and Soya down a peg or two in terms of quality. The finish saw Jun pin Omori with his Wrist Clutch Exploder, whilst Kashin clowned about in his usual antics. Things got really weird in the post match (which says a lot considering all the weird happenings on this show) when someone dressed like a dinosaur off Power Rangers attacked a man dressed like what I’m assuming to be a mole, as Kashin looked on. I’ve no idea what this was. Joe Doering returned, having overcome a brain tumour, to announce he’ll be back in the ring in 2017, which went down incredibly well with the fanbase. He was also rocking the young Stan Hansen look. The high-flying GAORA TV and Junior Heavyweight Championship Matches were both very good indeed. Flamboyant, floral blazer-wearing Wrestle-1 star Kuroshio won the TV belt in the better of the two contests after nailing Nakajima with two Moonsaults and a Delphin Clutch, and the colourful Soma lost the Junior strap to another DDT talent, Keisuke Ishii, when he was pinned with a Shooting Star Press in a match that was hampered to a degree by a relatively subdued crowd. Yuma Aoyagi came out and issued a challenge to Ishii in the post match.

The final two matches of the night were exceptional. The Tag Title contest was probably the match of the night. An absolute war featuring four man-mountains beating the hell out of each other in glorious fashion. These two teams have had a series of excellent encounters this year, and this may have been the best. These guys killed each other with impressive power moves, super-hard chop battles, lariats, and devastating head drops (Sekimoto in particular took a bad one on a Doomsday Device, to the point I was sure he was dead). One unbelievable spot was Sekimoto hitting a huge delayed vertical suplex on Zeus off the apron, to the floor, which looked like it nearly killed him. Somehow Zeus recovered and regained the belts for he and Bodyguard, when he pinned Sekimoto with a Jackhammer at the 20:40 mark. And in the main event, AJPW’s breakout star, Kento Miyahama, retained the Triple Crown against Suwama in a 26 minute slow-burner, that built to an excellent climax. This told a great story and featured the usual tremendous selling from Miyahara. In the end, Miyahara devastated the challenger with a flurry of his beautiful Black Out knee strikes and scored the clean-as-a-sheet win over the former “Ace” with the Shutdown package German suplex to take the mantel of Ace for himself, to a big pop. The outcome was great to see as many, myself included, thought Suwama was going to walk out of Kokugikan as champion. This match wasn't quite anywhere near as good as his outstanding defence against Akiyama, or his excellent ones against Mashimo and Sekimoto respectively, but it was still great stuff. Miyahara has just been phenomenal this year, bringing a certain amount of prestige back to the Crown with his epic title matches, and at 28 years old, he's the future of the business along with fellow under 30 champions, Kazuchika Okada and Katsuhiko Nakajima.

All in all, this was a highly entertaining card of action that is well worth watching, even if the first half did drag a little. I’d say everything in the second half is well worth tuning in for and the final two matches in particular don't disappoint. I hope All Japan keep up this good form for years to come, as the future was looking incredibly bleak for one of the greatest wrestling promotions of all time.

Photos.