AJPW Excite Series Day 1 2/18/2021

AJPW Excite Series Day 1 2/18/2021

I skipped the first two matches.

Izanagi vs Dan Tamura

Dan shoulder blocks him early and they trade forearms. Dan puts him in a boston crab and Iza hits the ropes. Iza puts him in a bad figure four and Dan reverses it, but Iza reverses it back. Iza then sets his legs up again for the figure four but rolls forward and pins him. this was very short and wasn't any good.

Enfants Terribles (Hokuto Omori, Kuma Arashi & Shotaro Ashino) vs. JIN (Jake Lee & Koji Iwamoto) & TAJIRI

This starts off very very slow with absolutely nothing happening for the first 3 minutes. Tajiri and Omori trade some shots. Omori and koji trade forearms thn Lee comes in and drops Koji's gut over his knee.

Omori hits some forearms on Lee then Ashino comes in and gutwrench suplexes Lee. Then he euro uppercuts him. Kuma goes to dive on Lee, but Lee gets up and stares at him, then throws him off the top. Ashino ankle locks Lee and he gets face kicked out. Omori then tries to go toe to toe with Lee and gets forearmed and backdropped for a quick loss in another lazy waste of time match.

Abdullah Kobayashi vs. Kento Miyahara

Abdullah enters from the crowd in surprise and starts choking Kento with a towel. Then he chokes him with a jacket. Kento step kicks him. Kento dropkicks Abby in the knee and Abby rolls out. Kento hits him with headbutts out there then running face kicks him and crossfaces him around the post. They go back in and Abby hits a nice clotheslines on him, then he shinging wizards him. He misses his elbow when Kento moves.

Kento does some weak stomps on Abby and pumping knees him on the apron. Kento forearms Abby and he falls right into the ref, knocking him down. Abby then grabs a wrench and hits him in the throat with it. Abby comes off the top with an elbow but Kento moves. Kento hits a pumping knee but Abby rope breaks. Kento goes to face kick Abby, but Abby moves and he nails the ref. Abby gets a box during this and throws it at Kento's head then chokes him with something. Various people at ringside break it up and this is declared a no contest in another lazy match, this time with a bad finish. 

 

Twin Towers (Kohei Sato & Shuji Ishikawa) vs. Evolution (Hikaru Sato & Suwama)

Shuji and Kohei leg lock each other at the same time on the mat early. Hikaru hits some leg kicks on Shuji then takes him down. They trade chest chops and Shuji downs Hikaru with some. Shuji hits a hard knee flurry to the body of Hikaru. Shuji cranks Hikaru's neck at 10 minutes then chinlocks him on the mat.

Hikaru hits some chest kicks to Shuji but Shuji comes back with a double stomp off the 2nd rope. Shuji runs the ropes and runs into an enzugiri by Hikaru then tags to Suwama. Suwama hits some hard lariats on Shuji and takes him down. Shuji ducks a lariat and backbreakers Shuji with an STO then Sato comes in and chest kicks Suwama at about 15 minutes.

Suwama and Kohei trade foreams and Suwama germans him. Kohei does the same and neither sells it then Suwama lariats Kohei down. Hikaru enzugiri's Kohei. Shuji comes in and him and Kohei knee Hikaru at the same time then hit dual forearms. Suwama comes in and chops up Kohei but gets dropped with a forearm. Suwama is knocked out then Sato piledrivers Hikaru and wins it. Well, this was a bizarre finish. Suwama may have legit been knocked out, or just really sold it well. You can't really tell. The fact that the ref didn't end the match tells me that maybe it was a work but the fact that the finish happened right after tells me maybe it wasn't. This was the best match that I've seen on this show but that was really not saying much. They worked a logical match with the big guys picking on Hikaru and Suwama coming in to even things up.

Overall thoughts: Excite Series? Bore Series is more like it.  The first two matches were some of the lowest effort matches I've seen in some time and Abby/Kento wasn't much better. Add in a crowd that can't or won't cheer due to the virus and you've got a real stinker of a show. Then the main was going along well then Suwama got knocked out...legit or not, who knows?