All Japan Pro Wrestling 12/4/2020 - Real World Tag League 2020 Day 6

All Japan Pro Wrestling 12/4/2020 - Real World Tag League 2020 Day 6

Ryuki Honda & Evolution (Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato) vs. Atsuki Aoyagi, Francesco Akira, & Rising HAYATO

Atsuki Aoyagi

Rising HAYATO

Francesco Akira

 

Ryuki Honda

Hikaru Sato

Dan Tamura

 

 

I wasn't going to do this but I hadn't seen any of these guys before. Hayato really wrestles like a dork but he had a nice hiptoss counter armdrag into a springboard dropkick combo. Tamura's team were the heels here. Aoyagi did a moonsault, but landed on his feet when Tamura moved and then he took a big lariat. Sato wears kickpads without any shoes which is unusual . Tamura and Honda did a cool double shoulderblock and Sato hit a waterwheel drop on Akira for 2. Akira's your typical indy dude who is actually White that is wrestling in Japan for some reason. Sato got the win over him with a backdrop. Nothing to see here really with a lot of people trying to get anything in there in a sub-10 minute match.

Wild Menso (Black Menso~re & Takao Omori) & Konaka = Pale One vs. Yusuke Okada, Takashi Ishikiri, & Daimonji

 

Yusuke Okada

Takashi Ishikiri

Daimonji

Black Menso-re

Menso-re, Konaka Pale One and Takao Omori 

 

WILD MENSO. A Konaka match? Heck yeah. The Konaka, Menso and Omori team is a team straight out of WAR. Menso's name comes from a ramen noodle company and he wears ramen on his head. Although it's silly and makes no sense if you read my other reviews, I like the idea of an evil ramen noodle guy. Konaka does a go behind on Daimon and as Daimon spins, he hangs on for the ride like a helicopter. Konaka dropped down when Daimon was coming off the ropes in a prayer pose then did a slow roll-up on him. Menso does this weird spaghetti arms kung fu pose. Omori did a real slow spin kin and took a good spear from Daimon. Omori got double irish whipped into a missile dropkick and Menso did a horrible plancha. Konaka did the headstand on the ropes and turned it into a headscissors. Okada took most of the abuse here and was axe bomber'd by Omori for the win. Another match with not enough time and too many people trying to get something in.

Hokuto Omori & Yusuke Kodama vs. Alejandro & UTAMARO

UTAMARO

Hokuto Omori and Yusuke Kodama

Kodama does a zombie gimmick but wears Eddie Guerrero outfits. Alejandro is small even by AEW standards but I miss Wrestle-1 and we're watching this because of him. Ale hits a springboard armdrag and springboard head scissors, and fakes out Kodama on the plancha outside, before paying for it. Omori moved on an Ale springboard dropkick and he flopped hard off the mat. Kodama hit a nice dropkick and brainbuster on Ale and Ale did a flip tope on him. Didn't help too much though as less than 2 minutes later, Kodama hit an Eddie frogsplash on him for the win. Another quick one here, which is okay in some aspects as the match doesn't drag or get boring.

Yoshitatsu Kingdom (Yoshitatsu & Ryoji Sai) vs. Purple Haze (Izanagi & Shigehiro Irie)

Shigehiro Irie

Izanagi

Sai is wearing some horror mask...because he's Sai and Tatsu has a cool stuffed tiger on his jacket. If Sai actually went with this mask and had a gimmick to match, I think he'd do well. They make Sai take his mask off and he has another mask under it. Why does Sai have to task his mask off while Menso gets to wear a bowl of ramen mask on his head? I'm going to have to consult with PWF Commissioner Stan Hansen about this one. Sai gorilla presses Izanagi and launches him. Izanagi was put in the corner and Sai put his halloween mask on him. Iza and Yoshi traded some forearms and finally got Irie in. Irie did a big butt drop onto Sai and the traded shots but it wasn't anything special. Irie cannonball'd him in the corner. Yoshi took a samoan drop/superkick combo for 2 and Iza took a magic killer suplex/neckbreaker. Yoshi tried a codebreaker which Iza rolled into a pin attempt and then Yoshi hit a codebreaker and a middle rope codebreaker for the win. Not great or memorable or anything, but fine for what it was.

Team ECW (Masato Tanaka & TAJIRI) vs. Enfants Terribles (Shotaro Ashino & Kuma Arashi) 

Shotaro Ashino

Kuma Arashi

Enfants are refugees from Wrestle-1. We've had a lot of people rep ECW from over the years and Tanaka and Tajiri might be some of the oddest representatives of it. Granted they were both in it, but they aren't exactly The Sandman and Tommy Dreamer. I appreciate the effort though and will allow it. Tananka's had a receeding hairline since the 90's and the hair has really started going. Kuma wears a bear skin flap on his hip and Tajiri went through the effort of lifting it just to kick him in the butt. Ashino had Tajiri tied up and Kuma had the ref tied up so Tanaka gave Tajiri a kendo stick and he used it. Tanaka then came in and cleared house with lariats and a DDT/stunner combo on both opponents. Ashino hit a big release german on Tanaka and Kuma samoan dropped and then swanton'd him. Kuma racked Tanaka but Tajiri used the stick on him to break it up. Ashino lifted up Kuma and dropped him on Tanaka then Tajiri hit him with the stick. Ashino hit a lame kendo stick shot on Tajiri and the heels really celebrated it which was funny. Kuma got taken off the top, Tanaka frogsplashed him then Tajiri held him in place with the stick with Tanaka hit the Sliding D elbow for the win. Another quick one here. It wasn't bad but I thought they could have done a better job with the kendo stick stuff.

JIN (Jake Lee & Koji Iwamoto) vs. Team BJW (Daisuke Sekimoto & Abdullah Kobayashi)

Jake Lee

Koji Iwamoto

Daisuke Sekimoto and Abdullah Kobayashi

Abby has hair now. Blonde hair. And he came out in a killer baby's mask. Abby being Sekimoto's partner is kind of weird, but hey, it's different and Abby in AJ is something new. I just feel like we were robbed out of Sekimoto and Okabayashi which sucks. They screw around with clean breaks and Abby does Lee's bowing pose, then they have a bow off. Abby clobbers Lee with a big lariat. and finds a rope with a cowbell and ties them to the rail. The ref starts counting but they make it in within time. Abby and Sek do a double muscle pose. Sek tried to hit a cool lariat but Koji kind of sold too fast for it. Sek and Abby did a tower of doom suplex on Koji then Sek went for a german and Abby german'd both which I don't like since you are just suplexing your own partner. Sek flipped Abby onto Koji from the top and Abby missed an elbow from the top. Koji tried an enzgugiri which Abby no sold and looked at him for and then Lee kicked Abby and Koji rolled up the pin out of nowhere to win. Credit to Koji for taking all the abuse here and Abby for putting out the extra effort. Minus the german spot I enjoyed this.

Violent Giants (Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa) vs. Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi

Yuma Aoyagi

Kento Miyahara

Shuji Ishikawa

Suwama

Kento ducks a Suwama chop and then hits a big boot. The Giants tried a sandwich lariat but Kento ducked and they nailed each other. Yuma then tope'd Suwama and Kento celebrated in the camera. Suuji dropped Kento's throat over the guardrail. Yuma and Suwama went at it in what looked like a borderline shoot and Shuji flurried Kento with forearms in the corner. Suwama hit a nice belly to belly on Yuma. Yuma hit a superkick to Suwama's ear and Suwama lariated him hard for it. Kento took a lariat sandwich by the Giants, traded some shots with Shuji and hit a nice brogue kick on him. Kento took a bunch of lariats and then got belly to belly'd by Suwama.

Kento took another big corner lariat by Shuji and then superplexed him. Yuma and Suwama exchanged strikes and Suwama german'd him hard. Yuma no sold it and then dropped Suwama even though I know that had to legit hurt. Yuma then guillotined Suwama out of nowhere but the ref made them break it up for some reason with Yuma rolling out Suwama. Kento and Shuji traded some shots and Kento got dropped with something like a michinoku driver. Soon after Shuji hit a big splash mountain on Kento only for 2. Suwama got mad and started ripping up the mats outside and the railing and even tried to throw the railing in. Yuma spin kicked both guys in the head and Kento hit a shining wizard only for 2 on Shuji. Kento then grabbed the win with a straightjacket suplex on Shuji.

Good at points but it was kind of all over the place. Yuma is really not good and Kento isn't a big fan of selling.

Overall thoughts: This was an alright show. Nothing too great but nothing too bad either.

AEW Dynamite 12/2/2020

AEW Dynamite 12/2/2020

Last week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2020/11/aew-dynamite-11252020.html

Next week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2020/12/aew-dynamite-1292020.html 

Dynamite Diamond Battle Royale

We will have no winner here as the final two face off in a match for the diamond next week. Multiple people refuse to get into the ring, and why rush really? MJF does an inset saying his diamond ring for winning is not only his run, but Sammy G's and Wardlow's ring. Matt Hardy is now back to wearing his old Hardy Boyz fear. Page eliminates Serpentico and the Dork Order celebrates with him. Sydal takes a DVD on the runway to get eliminated. Spears gets eliminated and Tully looks on with the announcers saying he didn't meet expectations. Tully gives Spears a steel slug and he hits Sky with it, who takes a hall fall on the elimination. Silver accidentally eliminates Reynolds and Silver takes a hard fall on the outside too. Marquen has the worst look you have ever seen.

Page gets close to being eliminated but the Dork Order catches him on his fall and throws him in. Then he hits his buckshot lariat in a cool spot and gets promptly thrown out. Miro cleans house with 4 elims as the Inner Circle chills in the corner. The IC triple attacks Miro and we get a Wardlow/Miro staredown and punch trade. The problem is both Miro and Wardlow look the exact same size as MJF and Sammy. We get the 3 IC members vs Jungle Boy. Jungle does gymnastics on the apron with Sammy and they get on the top rope. MJF then throws both off and him and Wardlow survive. Orange Cassidy is apparently still in this and in typical AEW fashion, it stays true to the tag line of "Where the Big Boys Lay" as he eliminated Wardlow. This promotion has a fetish for making its hosses look like goofs like I've never seen.

Thoughts: The battle royale wasn't bad but the finish of Wardlow taking the loss was dumb.

Frankie Kazarian vs Chris Jericho

Kazarian's hair looks so fake. The IC interfered during most of this match. They had an ad for the Go-Big show, which was more interesting than the match. Jericho took an ugly single spanish fly from the top which Jericho would not have been doing. Who doesn't do a top rope spanish fly in the 2nd match on the show? Kazarian had Jericho in a boston crab. One of EXLAX tried to interfere but Hager stopped him. MJF tried to throw the towel in but Sammy stopped him. They have more people at ringside than in stands here and Jericho won with a surprise Judas Effect back eblow. MJF jumps to go hug Jericho after and Sammy and the rest push MJF/Wardlow. Jericho got on the mic and told everyone to shut up and stop it and they either all decide to work together or they all break up. I mean, what's the argument against breaking up, really?

The Bucks did an interview and said they superkicked the announcer in the face. They are supposed to fight The Hybrid 2 next week. The Bucks said if H@ wins they will give them the show. The Acclaimed interrupted and made fun of the Bucks' new book. Max of that team then started rapping...and TH2 jumped the Bucks. I popped for Max yelling "World Star". SCU broke it up. It's kind of hard to feel bad for them after they said they superkicked an announcer.

Britt Baker vs Leyla Hirsch

Baker's jacket is really really gold. Hirsch is really small and legit looks like a midget. She pushed as a Russian but then they talk about how she spent all of her life in the US...They push that they have a women's group for wrestling fans and of course it begs the question of whether those "women" have penises or not. They did some decent technical wrestling and Baker hit the weakest superkick ever. Reba interfered here and this was the 3rd match in a row with outside of the ring shenanigans. The match pretty much fell apart after the break and Baker won with a Ring of Saturn with a hand in Hirsch's mouth. Rosa then jumped in and started pounding on Baker. Reba just watched...why? The refs broke it up and even though these girls are maybe 150lbs tops, they couldn't hold them back. Come on.

Darby Allin and Cody Rhodes vs Ricky Starks and Powerhouse Hobbs with Taz

Darby came to the ring on a skateboard. Hobbs got a nice lariat on Darby on the outside. Starks and Hobbs also both picked up Darby and threw up and let him fall down. Hobbs did a cool overhead suplex where he grabbed Darby by his ears. We had our 4th match in a row with a distraction/interference with Taz and Arn both getting on the apron. Cody did a nice Cody Cutter and Darby won over Starks with the Coffin Drop. Maybe went a little longer than it should but was fine. Hobbs hit Darby after the match and then tried to pound on Hobbs. He then took a 2v1 and Dustin Rhodes got involved. Cage then got involved with cool gear tonight hitting an F-5. A 3v1 happened and then STING came out. Snow fell during his entrance with some cool music and he stared down everyone in the ring. The problem is Sting is retired and I just don't see what can be done with him unless he's going to wrestle again at age 61. And I just don't see him managing someone.

Shida did an interview. She said Abadon is doing zombie cosplay. A metal pipe fell in the background and she left, saying she wasn't afraid.

Moxley did a promo in front of a storage area. He said him and Omega were two warriors on top of a mountain with swords. Then he did a Pat Patterson call out saying they would "make them go absolutely banana", which Pat had said before.

Jon Moxley vs Kenny Omega

Moxley is 21-0 this year. This is the main and it's just starting at 9:25. Please don't go past 10. It became clear from the start that this was going long. They went slow and tried to mimic a good match but I'm not really a fan of either guy in ring. Then they brought in chairs and sat down on them while they hit each other. The lack of a real crowd did not help this. At 30 minutes, Moxley suplexed Omega into some heaters at ringside and they called the staff to look at Kenny. Kenny's uncle Don Callis came down and asked for the match to be stopped but Mox hit him. Omega then hit him with a mic which made him bleed. Kenny of course being Kenny then was no longer hurt. Whether that was a fakeout or just bad selling is hard to tell with Kenny's poor work. Kenny then beat Moxley to win the title in a long match with a pretty weird finish. Callis and Kenny ran straight out of the arena in an apparent heel turn. Callis said to tune into TNA Impact on Tuesday to find out what happened. Okay, well that got even weirder.

And if it wasn't enough, during all of this, Eddie Kingston got into the commentary booth and called out Lance Archer, though it was real easy to miss. Apparently they had a brawl which they chose not to air on TV.

Overall thoughts - One of the least offensive AEW shows I have seen, though that ending was bad. No idea why AEW would want to work with a TNA that is practically dead and leagues below them. Props to TNA for getting the exposure though.