All Japan Pro Wrestling 2/23/2022 - AJPW Excite Series 2022 Day 5

All Japan Pro Wrestling 2/23/2022 - AJPW Excite Series 2022 Day 5

Takuho Kato & Kazumasa Yoshida vs. Dan Tamura & Ryuji Hijikata

Dan and Kato trade forearms and Dan gets slammed. Yoshida hits a spinning slam and tags out. Dan hits some nice chest clubs and a nice samoan drop. on Kato. Ryuji hits some kicks on Kato then high kicks him in the face. Kato fallaway slams him . Yoshida hits a bad face kick on Ryuji then is dropkicked hard back.

Dan hits a nice flying shoulder then is irish whipped into a Yoshida spinebuster for 2. Ryuji slaps Yoshida hard then suplexes him. Dan then puts him in an very unusual double leg lock which was almost sharpshooter esque for the win.

This was really short and there wasn't much to it. Everything Ryuji Hijikata hit was good though.

Shuji Ishikawa, Takao Omori & Black Mensore vs. NEXTREAM (Yuma Aoyagi, Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO)

The Aoyagi Bros are in action here, though they aren't related. Atsuki and Shoji start. Atsuki runs into him and gets knocked off. Atsuki tries a 2nd rope crossbody but is caught and put in the corner. Mensore hits some awful corner punches then Atsuki 2nd rope armdrags him.

Mensore gets double back elbowed, hiptossed then dropkicked. Yuma then hits some corner punches and bites the dish on Mensore's head. Yuma puts Mensore in a high boston crab and Mensore hits the ropes. Menso tags out to Omori and he facekick's Yuma, then spinning heel kicks him. Omori misses a lariat then Yumi flying forearms him to the back and takes like a reverse lariat. Rising comes in and springboard dropkicks Omori.

Rising and Omori trade chest chops and Omori full nelson bombs him. Shuji hits some corner lariats then takes a train of corner moves. Atsuki moonsaults Shuji, Yuma top rope elbows him then Rising top rope sentons him for 2. Shuji hits a fire thunder on Yuma then lariats Rising. Shuji then hits a big running knee for 2. Shuji then hits a fire thunder on Rising for the win.

This had a good amount of time, made sense and was a decent match. The smalleer guys couldn't really do much to Shuji and he overpowered them leading to the win.

KAZMA SAKAMOTO, Takayuki Ueki & Seigo Tachibana vs. Yoshitatsu, Izanagi and Devil Murasaki

Kazma reads something from his phone then his crew attacks. Ueki slams Izanagi. Seigo stomps on Iza in the corner and works his arm. Devil tries to stop it and is thrown out.

Iza does a jumping back kick on Ueki then Yoshi throat kicks Ueki. Yoshi then dragon screws him. Kazma comes in and splashes Yoshi hard then gives him a shining wizard to the back of the head. hard. They trade forearms and Kazma takes triple corner moves from his opponents. Yoshi perfectplex's Kazma for 2.

Ueki does a corner move on Yoshi and goes over the top and nails  the camera guy. Yoshi then gets triple powerbombed. Yoshi hits a nice STO into a koji clutch on Kazma then te ref gets pulled out and replaced by that indian guy Akki. Kazma then rolls up Yoshi and gets a quick count in a horrible ending.

Kazma and crew then pose in the bleachers.

This was not good. Kazma has not been a favorite of mine, Ueki and Devil suck and Yoshi isn't as good as he used to be either.

Kenzo Suzuki comes out but I have no idea what he said.

TARU then did a promo on video and is seemingly coming in for the 3/21/2022 show along with Jun Akiyama and Tatsumi Fujinami. Jake Lee is also returning that day.

GAORA TV Championship Match: Shigihero Irie (c) vs. Isami Kodaka

Isami nails Irie and almost pinned him at the start. Irie took a dragon screw and then Isami did a great sell for a forearm on the floor. Isami did a near coast to coast dropkick on him.

Irie hits some hard forearms on him then Irie hits a slam. Isami works his arm then charges him in the corner but Irie pops up and sits on him. Irie then goes a cannonball in the corner but is caught with a hammerlock. Irie lifted him up then powerbombed him in the corner before cannonballing him for 2.

Isami reverses a suplex. Then Irie sits on the top rope, moves over to the other rope and samoan drops Isami. Isami superkicks him then does a nice roll-up with the arm. Isami goes for some buzzsaw kicks and Irie blocks them with his arms then takes one. Isami takes a big lariat and some weird flying headbutt for the Irie win.

I appreciated Isami trying to tell a story here with the arm and Irie working with it but I didn't think these two matched up too well.

World Junior Heavyweight Championship Match: SUGI (c) vs. Hikaru Sato

Slow start here. Sugi tries a handspring back elbow but gets caught. He knocks Sato off the apron soon after and tries for a tope but Sato hits the rope and blocks it. Sato hits some body kicks.

Sugi does his over the top rope 619 then moonsaults on Sato. Sato tries for a waterwheel drop but Sugi gets out then kicks him hard in the cheek. Sugi then springboard dropkicks him and standing SSP'd him. Sugi like randomly moonsaulted the mat for no reason and was caught in a hammerlock.

Sato lifts him and slams him while he has the hammerlock on then armbars him. Sugi hits the ropes and Sato walks into a standing spanish fly. Sugi then flip topes him. Sugi runs the ropes and dropkicks him. Sugi then runs the top rope and dropkicks him for 2. Sugi tries for a springboard 450 but gets caught and submitted in an arm and leg hold.

The match made sense with Sugi flying and Sato working the arm. It was alright but the match was a little off and the crowd not being able to cheer did hurt it some.

World Tag Team Championship Match: Runaway SUPLEX (Shotaro Ashino & Suwama) (c) vs. TOTAL ECLIPISE (Kuma Arashi & Koji Doi)

Suwama and Kuma trade shoulders and Kuma wins the battle. Kuma works over Ashino for a bit and sentons his back. Kuma running lariats him in the corner then misses a 2nd tope senton. Ashino hits a running euro uppercut and tags out.

Suwama flying shoulder tackles Kuma and fights off Doi and Kuma with chops. Kuma deadlifts Suwama into a samoan drop then sentons him for 2. Kuma racks him but Suwama gets out and they lariat battle. Suwama hits a stiff one then gets crossbodied at about 10 minutes.

Ashino and Doi trade forearms for euro uppercuts. Ashino gets put on the 2nd rope and Doi drives him down to the mat with his boot. He then hits a ddt for 2. Doi tries for a suplex but Ashino gets out and ankle locks him then Suwama ankle locks Arashi, but both hit the ropes.

Doi takes shots from both opponents and a spinning euro from Ashino. Doi racks Ashino then Kuma racks Suwama, then both slam them. Kuma and Doi double shoulder Ashino then drop an elbow and a legdrop. Doi goes up top and takes a belly to belly off it then Ashino germans Kuma into the buckles. Doi hits a great delayed brainbuster on Ashino.

Doi tries for a lariat on Ashino then gets ankle locked. Doi really throws off Ashino high then Kuma  goes up top. Suwama throws him off hard and Ashino hits double germans on Doi. He lifts Doi up for the third then Suwama lariats Doi over. Ashino hits a hard german on Doi for 2 then does his exploder into a slam for the win.

This was a good one. Just a hard hitting heavyweight match with the stuff you would want. It could have gone on longer and maybe been an epic, but I'll this. 

Ryuki Honda comes in after and chairs the champs then they fight back. Honda walks off.

Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match: Kento Miyahara (c) vs. Abdullah Kobayashi

They ducked each others moves early and abby spun around to rip him. He then pointed at the sky and throat chopped him. Kento hit a face kick ouside then rammed his head into the rail. Kento tried a headbutt but it didn't work, then abby hit him back with one. Kento tried another headbutt and hurt his head again.

Abby hit a punch flurry in the corner to Kento's gut then lariated him down. Abby hit a bad shining wizard and missed an elbow drop. Abby headbutted him on the apron and Kento fell off, then Abby elbow dropped him from the apron. Kento hulked up a little after Abby had control and traded shots with him. Abby did a nice sell for a Kento facekick.

Abby german suplexed him then went up top and got caught. Kento then superplexed him off the top. Abby hit a ddt on Kento then a top rope elbow for a very close 2. Abby gto on all fours and headbutted him then he took some pumping knees. Abby powered through them then took another. Kento then slow german suplexed him for 2. Kento then hit another for the win.

The live chat for this was hysterical with everyone hoping for and talking about how Abby would win this. If you looked at it from that perspective, this was a fun little match. It was a little slow because Abby's older and it really wasn't a great wrestling match, but the drama of Abby maybe pulling off the most unlikely win in the history of wrestling was fun.

Overall thoughts: The top matches were good and it saved a lower card that wasn't so great.