All Japan Pro Wrestling 3/12/2022 - AJPW Dream Power Series 2022: Day 2

All Japan Pro Wrestling 3/12/2022 - AJPW Dream Power Series 2022: Day 2

I skipped 2 matches here.

Seigo Tachibana vs Rising Hayato

They trade wristlocks to start then Rising armdrags him and dropkicks him. Rising hits a bulldog then Seigo facekicks him. Seigo then suplexes him for 2 and they trade forearms and chops. Rising hits a flying dropkick then a superkick. Seigo then gets a roll-up out of nowhere in a match that was nothing at all.

Yoshitatsu vs. KAZMA SAKAMOTO

Yoshi hits some armdrags and then dropkicks him out early. Yoshi then plancha's him. Kazma whips Yoshi into the rails and one of Kazma's buddies hits shots on Yoshi right in front of the ref with him not caring. They wanted Seigo Tachibana to get a cheapshot in but he refused.

Kazma does a nice double stomp on Yoshi for 2. Kazma kicks around Yoshi and Yoshi dragon screws him. Yoshi face kicks him in the corner then perfect plexes him for 2. Kazma stops Yoshi just to enzugiri him then superkicks him for 2. They trade forearms and Yoshi hits a blue thunder for 2.

Yoshi goes up top but Kazma's crew get on the apron. Yoshi hits a codebreaker then high kicks him. Kazma is getting a 10 count and tries to get up but falls and the ref stops it for the Yoshi win.

The ending was bizarre here and it capped off an unusual match. Yoshi was good and came to work but Kazma had to do his heel schtick. All of it was secondary though to the in-fighting with Kazma's group which seems like it will be sparking a Seigo Tachibana face turn.

Runaway SUPLEX (Shotaro Ashino & Suwama) & Hikaru Sato vs. TOTAL ECLIPSE (Koji Doi, Kuma Arashi & Ryuki Honda)

Suwama is pulling double duty on this card for some reason and working twice.

Suwama's team is attacked at the bell. Honda and Ashino hit each other hard with forearm and continue that fight to the outside. Kuma and Suwama trade shoulders then Suwama runs him over with one. Suwama and Sato then hit a kick/shoulder combo.

Kuma stands on Sato then Doi jumps on his back to make it worse. Kuma and Doi then double shoulder and double senton him. Kuma hits a nice slam on Sato. Honda and Sato trade shots then Honda does Jim Duggan yells and running lariats him in the corner. Sato evades a lariat, hits some kicks and tags to Ashino.

Ashino running euro's Honda then hits him with karelin's lift. He stomps on his head and slaps him the nthey trade hard forearms. Honda hits a nice spinebuster then Ashino is double backdropped then held up for a Honda spear for 2. Honda takes a nice german from Ashino for 2 then Ashino's team hits triple ankle locks.

Ashino hits another nice german then Honda grabs the ref and low blows Ashino for the cheap win.

Aside from the finish, I liked this one. Ashino and Honda were real stiff with the forearms here. This was a fast paced, hard hitting Japanese style match and exactly the type of match you hoped you would see here. Good stuff.

Honda laughs at Ashino on the mic after and is quite pleased with himself. It sounded like Ashino asked for a singles match after.

Twin Towers (Kohei Sato & Shuji Ishikawa) & Ren Ayabe vs. NEXTREAM (Atsuki Aoyagi, Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi)

Shuji and Kento stare down during intros. Shuji's team is easily one of the tallest Japanese teams ever assembled.

Ayabe shoulders over Atsuki early and catches him in mid air. He sits him on the top rope and Ayabe tries for an armdrag from there but botches it. He then takes a high backdrop. Atsuki takes slams from Ayabe and Sato then Atsuki and Kento get put on each other and take double knees from Sato and Shuji. Shuji double stomps Atsuki and lariats him for 2.

Atsuki finally gets out and Kento hits some fast offense on Shuji but Shuji comes back with a lariat. They trade forearms and Kento hits a big suplex which is no sold, then he gets knee'd in the chest. Both tag out and Yuma hits a nice dropkick on Sato. Yuma then ducks some forearms and gets him with one.

Sato falcon arrows Yuma then Ayabe gets in and hits a nice delayed brainbuster on Yuma. Yuma takes a oduble knee and is held up for a top rope Ayabe dropkick. Yuma top rope crossbodies Ayabe for 2 and I think Rising hits a top rope moonsault to the floor on someone.

Kento and Shuji trade forearms then Kento codebreakers him into a triangle. He knocks Shuji out with it and just pushes him out of the ring instead of trying to win for some reason. Ren and Yuma trade forearms then Ren hits a nice dropkick.  Yuma then sits down on him and wins with a guillotine + hammerlock combo. Shuji and Kento fight to the back after and the young boys get thrown around hard.

The finish was random but I liked the match otherwise with the big guys bullying the smaller guys around and Kento showing some fire with Shuji. Ren's tall, but he's not super flexible and has a long way to go yet. If he even improves a little though, he's going places.

All Asia Tag Titles - Hokuto Omori and Yusuke Kodama (c) vs Dan Tamura and Suwama

Omori throws his shirt at Suwama and he rushes his opponents with Kodama. Dan and Kodama trade forearms then Dan stares down with Suwama. Kodama hits a nice dropkick then trips Dan into an Omori dropkick on the ropes. Omori then throws Dan into the post outside.

Kodama slingshot sentons him after a slam for 2 and Omori backdrops him. Dan finally tags out and Suwama fights off his opponents 1v2. Suwama belly to belly's Omori then double lariats both opponents. Dan gets in and hits a nice flying shoulder on Omori then trades forearms with him. Omori hits a spinning elbow then takes a hard lariat from Dan. Omori then spikes Dan hard with a german.

Dan and Kodama trade forearms and Dan drops him with one. Suwama and Dan argue then hit a neat double forearm together. Dan top rope shoulders Kodama for 2. Omori surprisingly back body drops Suwama over the top then Dan superplexes Omori. Dan goes for a last ride on Kodama, but Kodama gets a facebuster out of it then Dan takes an ugly looking german from Omori. Suwama gets double superkicked by his opponents then Kodama brainbusters Dan for 2. Kodama then frogsplashes Dan for the win.

This was a short and sweet main event. They didn't do any crazy moves and it was probably more like a house show main event. However, the work was good with Dan doing nice strong style stuff and Omori as usual being a good jerk that hits nice forearms. Kodama isn't the most exciting wrestler but the stuff he hits looks good and that's what he did here. I thought Suwama didn't make his opponents look strong enough though since they are much smaller juniors.

Overall thoughts: The top 3 matches were compact and decent and that's good enough for me. It was a Korauken show, but this was basically treated as a house show and was not super special.