All Japan Pro Wrestling New Year Wars 2021 1/2/2021

 All Japan Pro Wrestling New Year Wars 2021 1/2/2021

 I only skipped the battle royal and the multi-man match here.

 Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO vs. Purple Haze (Izanagi & Shigehiro Irie)

Little bit of flying early with Rising getting the edge on Iza. Aoyagi tags himself in and pushes out Rising. He teases diving out but stops and Irie hits him in the back for it. Irie does his unique rocking on the top rope splash. Rising goes for a dive, but Aoyagi interrupts it and then does a tornillo. Back in and Rising goes for a crossbody from the top but Iza dropkicks him.

Irie and Aoyagi get in and Irie moves out of a moonsault. Irie cannoball's Aoyagi in the corner for 2. Aoyagi hits a tornado kick on him but Irie hits a pop-up samoan drop for 2. Irie then wins it with a clothesline to the back of the neck. This wasn't anything special but the Aoyagi/Rising tensions were interesting.

Evolution (Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato) vs. Enfants Terribles (Koji Doi & Kuma Arashi)

Dan tries to shoulder Arashi and has trouble making any progress on it. Then Arashi rops him just with one. Dan hits some clubs to the chest. Kuma stands on Dan and then Doi jumps on his back as well to make it worse. Then they double legdrop and senton him at the same time then he tags out.

Kuma crossbodies Sato and tags out. Dan takes down Doi with a shoulderblock. He ducks a sandwich clothesline and knocks both opponents down and hits Karelin's lift on both of them. Doi gets back up and slam him for 2 and hits a big lariat for the win on Dan.

This was too short and Sato was barely even in there. This looked like it might have turned out to be something good too if they had let it continue.

Akira Francesco, Jake Lee & TAJIRI vs. Enfants Terribles (Hokuto Omori, Shotaro Ashino & Yusuke Kodama)

Omori pulls on Akira's hair early and gets dropkicked and dived on for it. Omori and Tajiri exchange shots. Kodama gets in and sentons Tajiri over the top rope.

Lee gets in and backtracks Kodama with a kick. Ashino hits a nasty release Karelin's lift on Lee and then hits a nice euro uppercut. Then they trade shots with Ashino winning and then he german's Lee.

Akira makes a comeback for his team, hitting Omori with a handspring cutter. Kodama foot pushes Akira into an Ashino german and then he hits two more german's. Ashino hits a great release german and puts an ankle lock on for the submission win.

This was short but fine though I would have liked this to have gone longer.

Ikuto Hidaka & Koji Iwamoto vs. Astronauts (Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura)

Abe does a nice escape into a wristlock early. Koji and Nomura blast each other with forearms. Koji gets set-up into double kicks and Abe and Koji start trading forearms. Abe saved himself by going out using Hidaka's bottom rope save, which Hidaka didn't like. Koji suplexed Abe onto the ropes then neckbreakered him down.

Nomura lit up Koji with kicks in the corner and single underhook suplexed him for 2. Nomura and Ikuto blow a spot and then they start slapping each other. Nomura gets german'd then pops up and capture suplexes Hidaka. Abe does a great backslide counter into an octopus stretch then hurricanrana's Hidaka out. Abe hits a wind-up punch on Koji, then tries again, but Koji lariats him first. Abe then hits a surprise roll-up out of nowhere to grab the win for the underdogs.

This wasn't that great unfortunately. They just didn't seem to be on the same page.

Masato Tanaka vs Zeus

Zeus grabs a headscissors early. They trade shoulders and Zeus wins and celebrates. Tanaka puts Zeus in something like a camel clutch and they trade some forearms. They wrestle a little on the mat and Zeus hits the ropes. Zeus then stomps on Zeus' face and they trade more shots. Zeus hits his usual lariat off the ropes.

Zeus overhead throws Tanaka and scorpion deathlocks him. Tanaka tornado ddt's Zeus and then suplexes him. Zeus superplexes Tanaka but he doesn't sell it and they trade lariats. They trade forearms at a fast speed and Zeus ends that section with a chokeslam. Less than a minute later, Tanaka rolls up Zeus and hits a sliding D for the win in a very disappointing match.

Not sure what happened, but they just didn't really click. I think this match would have been better if Zeus took control early and Tanaka worked as a babyface underdog, but that didn't happen here. Very disappointing. 

AJPW World Tag Team Title Match - Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama (c) vs. Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi

Suwama and Yuma start but they don't do too much of note. Kento hits some pump kicks on Shuji. Kento puts a chinlock on Shuji on the ropes, then Suwama grabs Yuma when he bounces off the ropes and chinlocks him. Then both Kento and Yuma go into the rails. Back in and Suwama hits some weak kicks to Yuma. Yuma tries some strikes but Suwama takes him out with a double chop.

Shuji fires on Yuma with forearms, then Kento tries to stop it. Kento gets pulled down and Shuji alternates between forearming the two in the corner. Yuma takes a double shoulder from the two and Suwama puts him in a crab. Shuji runs into the corner and nails Yuma three times with lariats.

Suwama hits a nice lariat in the corner then a belly to belly. Yuma finally gets a dropkick in and makes the hot tag to Kento. Kento gets some stuff in but Shuji takes back control with a big lariat in the corner.  Shuji and Kento trade more forearms and both tag out.

Yuma gets the edge on Suwama after a hot tag and gets a crossbody for 2. Shuji gets in to help and they sandwich clothesline Yuma. They go for double powerbombs but can't get them. Suwama hits a big release capture suplex on Yuma. Suwama and Shuji take turns with lariats on Yuma on the ropes. Suwama gets german'd into a german by Kento and Yuma then they double shotgun knee him.

Yuma hits a nasty german on Suwama. He then hits a hard spin kick to the head but Suwama still kicks out. Suwama fits with Yuma up top and Shuji gets under him and they belly to belly Yuma. Shuji hits a nasty fire thunder on Kento on the apron. Yuma and Suwama traded more forearms and Suwama hit a nasty belly to belly on Yuma. He then did a lariat > german > lariat for 2 and scrambled Yuma's brains with another german. Suwama took two head kicks and then hit a huge lariat.  Yuma put him in a grounded guillotine with Suwama selling it so good and Yuma wins it!

Strong match, definitely a MOTYC already for this year. It went pretty much as it should with the big guys beating the crap out of Yuma for most of the match, Kento making the score even and then a finishing stretch with them doing bigger moves than usual and not overdoing it much. Easily Yuma's best match and it would have been even better if the crowd were able to cheer.

Overall thoughts: The main was really good, but the juniors tag and Zeus/Tanaka were both disappointing. The other guys on the show got nailed by time cuts which were out of their control. I would seek out the main here but the rest of the show left you wanting more.