AJPW CHAMPION CARNIVAL

Day 1: Saturday, September 12th in Nagoya

Attendance: 482

B BLOCK 

SHUJI ISHIKAWA vs. YUMA AOYAGI (8:01): This tournament, which is basically the same as New Japan's G1 tournament (granted, about half as good), was scheduled to take place in April but was postponed because of the pandemic. The G1 was also postponed, but that was because of the Olympics (which didn't happen anyway). And we've also got Noah's N1 tournament about to start. So...if you love Japanese wrestling tournaments you'll fucking love this month. I'm obviously not All Japan's biggest fan, though I've watched more of them in the last two years than some of the other promotions like Noah, Dragon Gate, or DDT. The reason is because the Wrestling Observer made a big deal out of the Champion Carnival a few years back (probably because AJPW started a streaming service) and I thought I'd check it out to see what I'm missing (not a lot). The other reason AJPW has gotten a little bit of buzz in the last few years is because of Kenta Miyahara, who's a total fucking star and one of the best wrestlers in the world (even if his match put me to sleep tonight). I subscribed to the AJPW streaming service for a month in 2019 to check out the Champion Carnival. It's worth it, as a month is 900 yen (about $8.50) and you get to see the whole tournament. Beyond Miyahara, there's not much to the promotion. As you can see above, the attendance at this show was 482, but even pre-pandemic they never booked big houses or had big crowds. I guess they make money somehow otherwise they wouldn't exist. It should be noted that All Japan was the biggest and best promotion in Japan in the early 90's...so now they're just kind of running on fumes and faded glory. The Champion Carnival is a bit different as they have both A and B block matches on the same shows. Like NJPW, the undercard is a mix of random tag matches and ones with the CC wrestlers doing mixed tag stuff. Tajiri, who was quite memorable back in ECW in the old days, was in the opener and he's so old now I watched it and didn't even realize it was him until later when I looked at the results online. It's a little crazy that people from the ECW days are still wrestling (and still alive), although the DDT champ was Mike Awesome's old feuding partner, Masato Tanaka, until he lost the title back in the Spring in what was one of the year's best matches (Tanaka is still awesome and still wrestling while Mike Awesome hung himself years ago...crazy how life turns out sometimes). I don't regularly watch All Japan, so I have no idea who these two guys are. I do know that Ishikawa holds the tag team belts with Suwama. I also know that this match was boring and not much happened. Ishikawa won with a quick, out-of-nowhere, cheap pin and then Aoyagi (who's 20 years younger than Ishikawa) complained to the ref. 1/2*

A BLOCK 

JAKE LEE vs. JIRO KUROSHIO (8:36): Jake Lee was in the last Champion Carnival final, way back in April of 2019. He lost to Miyahara and then lost to him again in a title match in September 2019. Lee seemed to be on the precipice of a title victory but they never pulled the trigger on him and maybe never will. I blame the hair. Dude has a mop of curly hair like he's a singer living in Laurel Canyon in the late 60's. It just looks kind of stupid and makes him look a little silly and unserious. He's one of All Japan's more entertaining wrestlers, although in this match Jiro was the star. Jiro is basically a Yano copy. He's the court jester. When he entered the arena for his match he suddenly wanted to jump the guardrail and enter the crowd but the ringside workers wouldn't let him (probably it's a no-no because of the pandemic). So then he rolled into the ring but kept rolling to the other side where he tried to escape but was thwarted so he rolled to the other side and then the middle all the while the ringside crew were frantically running around trying to stop him. I don't know why...but I thought this was very entertaining and funny stuff. The match wasn't as entertaining, though. I say that Jiro is a copy of Yano...but maybe every Japanese promotion has a clown wrestler that does comedy and I just didn't realize that. **

A BLOCK

SUWAMA vs. KUMA ARASHI (3:54): Suwama is the old, thick, tough brute of All Japan. He beat Miyahara in the Spring for the title and still has it. Suwama is old school and does a lot of power slams but he's also slow and so his matches can be boring. This was short, though, as he easily beat Arashi, who's kind of a fat Sumo type of a dude. Suwama pinned Arashi by just sitting on his chest. 1/2*

B BLOCK 

YOSHITATSU vs. KENTO MIYAHARA (21:52): There's always big upsets on the first weekend in the G1 so I guess they do that, too, here. Yoshitatsu won with a submission which was kind of a shock considering Miyahara is the big crowd favorite and their ace. Yoshitatsu will probably forever be known (at least to us in the states) as the guy that broke his neck taking a Styles Clash from AJ Styles in New Japan about five years ago. You're not really supposed to move or do anything when you're taking the Styles Clash but he moved his head and ended up slammed on it. He looks fine now which is good, although he's never been any sort of great wrestler to begin with. The biggest reason Miyahara is such a star is his charisma. He holds the audience in the palm of his hand. He's cocky but it's not exactly heelish, it's just that he seems to be a natural born wrestling star. This company would probably be bankrupt if he wasn't around, as I can't see anyone bothering to even watch this promotion if he wasn't in it. With that said, this match was boring and too slow. Miyahara is great and super fast but he only wrestled that way in random spots here and there. Yoshitatsu didn't do much of anything exciting. This just never really amounted to much. *1/2

Standings:

A BLOCK:

Arashi 0-1, Kuroshio 0-1, Lee 1-0, Suwama 1-0

B BLOCK:

Aoyagi 0-1, Ishikawa 1-0, Miyahara 0-1, Yoshitatsu 1-0

Day 2: Sunday, September 13th in Kawasaki

Attendance: 462

B BLOCK

SHUJI ISHIKAWA vs. YOSHITATSU: This match didn't happen because Yoshitatsu was injured and couldn't compete. Kind of sad since beating Miyahara on the first show in the main event may have been the pinnacle of his wrestling career...and now he might not make the rest of the tournament. They gave Ishikawa the win since Yoshitatsu could not compete.

A BLOCK

ZEUS vs. KUMA ARASHI (8:34): Zeus makes his Carnival debut. He's definitely the big muscle guy of All Japan. Most of the guys on this roster are either fat or just don't have a steroid physique like we're use to seeing in wrestling in the states. Arashi is like a Sumo type, although he's young so he's more agile than someone like the old Sumo types that used to litter the WWE back in the day (remember Earthquake and Yokozuna?). Since All Japan is kind of the low rung on the Japanese totem pole...I often look out at the people in the crowd and wonder: why are these people here? And there's always women in the crowds at wrestling shows in Japan. Maybe male strip clubs don't exist in Japan and this is their only option. This match was average stuff. *1/2

B BLOCK

YUMA AOYAGI vs. SHOTARO ASHINO (10:21): These two are young so this was at least fast paced. After the match, Aoyagi and his heel group beat up Ashino until eventually Miyahara came out to fight them off and then had a stare down with Ashino. I'm assuming those two are wrestling on next. **

A BLOCK

JIRO KUROSHIO vs. SUWAMA (14:00): Jiro is basically NJPW's Yano. He's all comedy and hijinks. I have no idea what he was saying during this match but he kept talking to the ref and the crowd laughed a lot. The big surprise was that he beat the champ, Suwama. This was after he got beat down for like ten straight minutes. Jiro did do a few moonsaults and the last few minutes were decent. Jiro also attempted to run into the crowd again like he did last night but was thwarted repeatedly by the ref. I'm guessing the payoff is he will eventually get into the crowd? And find what, exactly? **

Standings:

A BLOCK:

Arashi 0-2, Kuroshio 1-1, Lee 1-0, Suwama 1-1, Zeus 1-0

B BLOCK:

Aoyagi 1-1, Ashino 0-1, Ishikawa 2-0, Miyahara 0-1, Yoshitatsu 1-1

Day 3: Tuesday, September 15th in Tokyo (Korakuen Hall)

Attendance: 428

A BLOCK

ZEUS vs. JIRO KUROSHIO (7:13): Because this is a smaller tournament (this one has 10 wrestlers whereas the G1 has 20), losing twice pretty much eliminates you and so Jiro, the court jester of the promotion, is basically eliminated even though he pinned the champ, Suwama, on day 2. I didn't know this, but Jiro was previously the champion in the Wrestle-1 promotion. I've heard of that promotion but have never seen it...but now that I've learned a frigging comedy wrestler was the champion I kind of have to go see it now. What the hell is going on over there? And there's a promotion that gets less fans than All Japan? Getting only 400 fans for a show in Korakuen Hall is pretty sad, even with a pandemic, and even with this show being on a random weekday night in September. This show had two really big matches and they only got 400 fans? I guess technically they couldn't do much more considering every other seat was blocked off because of the virus and everything. Still seems kind of sad. I'm curious now what type of attendance New Japan is going to get in Korakuen during the G1. As for this match? Pretty forgettable, like this tournament so far. Jiro is usually amusing but even he didn't do much here. Zeus won with a chop. Yep. *

B BLOCK

YUMA AOYAGI vs. YOSHITATSU (5:11): Yoshitatsu was injured and couldn't compete on day 2 and he looked tonight like he probably shouldn't have competed again. He didn't do much in this and loss pretty quickly and so is basically eliminated with two losses. -No Stars-

B BLOCK

KENTO MIYAHARA vs. SHOTARO ASHINO (18:28): This was by far the best match of the tournament...and, honestly, it was good but not great or anything. At the end they did a face paced, back-and-forth that was exciting. Miyahara seems to be doing a lot of stalling in his matches in this tournament. That probably wouldn't hurt if he was in forty minute matches or something. He pinned Ashino with his slow German suplex move which is awesome and something I never see anyone else doing. As great as Miyahara is...I kind of think he'd be better if he was in a better promotion battling legends like Ibushi or Okada. Okay. When I say better promotion I mean New Japan. **1/2

A BLOCK

JAKE LEE vs. SUWAMA (17:38): Suwama beat the shit out of Jake Lee for much of this match but then kept selling his arm as if it was legit injured. Suwama also sold his arm in his last match so he probably really hurt it. Lee won, which means Suwama is basically eliminated, but since he's the champ and the champ gets a title shot I kind of don't think him losing matters that much. This was just okay, although Suwama's chops were the highlight since they were fucking brutal. He wrestled like he really doesn't like Jake Lee. *1/2

Standings:

A BLOCK:

Arashi 0-2, Kuroshio 1-2, Lee 2-0, Suwama 1-2, Zeus 2-0

B BLOCK:

Aoyagi 2-1, Ashino 0-2, Ishikawa 2-0, Miyahara 1-1, Yoshitatsu 1-2

Day 4: Monday. September 21st from Tokyo (Korakuen Hall)

A BLOCK

JAKE LEE vs. KUMA ARASHI (7:32): This show had a strange time slot...it was a Monday afternoon show at Korakuen. Who are these people in the audience? Do they not have jobs? Or is Monday kind of like Friday is here in the States and people take off early or something? What gives? I'm thinking it's just because All Japan is a small, probably poor company and renting Korakuen on a weekday afternoon is super cheap as opposed to a Saturday night. And this show was pretty big. They had a Jr. championship match plus a Miyahara main event plus Suwama, the champ, versus Zeus. I'm still baffled as to how a small country like Japan can have like ten wrestling promotions. As for this match...it was basic stuff. Kuma Arashi is the Sumo looking dude. Jake Lee is the dude with the funny hair. Lee won, as did Zeus later on, which means they're both tied in the A Block and just so happen to be facing one another on Day 5. **

B BLOCK:

SHOTARO ASHINO vs. SHUJI ISHIKAWA (8:46): Ishikawa and Miyahara are now all tied in the B Block going into the last night before the final. Aoyagi has 2 wins, too, but he has 2 losses and isn't wrestling again. There was a lot of action in this...at least compared to most of these duller-than-dull Carnival matches. Mostly slams and suplexes, but that's Japan for you. **

A BLOCK

ZEUS vs. SUWAMA (5:16): Suwama either legit hurt his arm and he's just phoning in this tournament or he's the greatest seller of all time. I'd say he really hurt it, as this ended quickly at five minutes. Suwama is the champ...but why? Dude's too old to be the face of anyone's company. Maybe when he's 100% healthy he could be in a good match. Maybe. Since this was only five minutes long there obviously wasn't much of anything to this. -No Stars-

B BLOCK

KENTO MIYAHARA vs. YUMA AOYAGI (22:14): Miyahara is akin to guys like Ric Flair and 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin and The Rock and all of those legendary stars because they all had so much charisma that you couldn't keep your eyes off them. Unfortunately, Miyahara has yet to be in a great match in this tournament. He does way too much stalling and milling about around the ring. For some reason Miyahara and the ref have this act where they bicker and joke with each other. At one point, when Miyahara was squeezing Aoyagi's head against the ring post, the ref pulled Miyahara's hair to get him to break the hold. This match was probably the best of the night but it wasn't spectacular or anything. The final few minutes were entertaining and somewhat dramatic. **1/2

A BLOCK:

Arashi 0-3, Kuroshio 1-2, Lee 3-0, Suwama 1-3, Zeus 3-0

B BLOCK:

Aoyagi 2-2, Ashino 1-2, Ishikawa 2-1, Miyahara 2-1, Yoshitatsu 1-2

Day 5: Saturday, September 26th, from Kanagawa

Attendance: 372

SHOTARO ASHINO vs. YOSHITATSU (10:13): Ashino unwrapped the bandages around Yoshitatsu's ribs and worked them over then put him a crab submission hold until he tapped. Yoshitatsu got the big, first night win in the main event against Miyahara...so I suppose All Japan cares about him. I can't really say he sucks, as he's been injured since that first night...but he didn't impress me even in that first match. This was short, anyway. *

KUMA ARASHI vs. JIRO KUROSHIO (4:37): The only guy in this tournament (besides Miyahara...who is already a star) that impressed me was Jiro. He's kind of like Yano from NJPW because he does all of the comedy spots. But he also does some high flying like over-the-top-rope dives, which he did in this match. *1/2

ZEUS vs. JAKE LEE (10:21): Now we get to the matches that matter. Who ever won this match would win the A Block. Both guys were undefeated so far. Zeus won, which means Jake Lee won't be in the final for the second year in a row. Zeus looked like he injured his arm, but maybe he's was just playing that up to create drama if he would be able to apply his submission finisher move. Eventually he got Lee to tap out. This match was a little bit exciting by the end, but it was nothing special. **

KENTO MIYAHARA vs. SHUJI ISHIKAWA (20:56): This was the best match of the tournament so far, but that's not really saying a lot since even this match wasn't all that great. Who ever won this match would win the B Block. Nobody thought Ishikawa would win, so they definitely played that up by giving him a ton of near-falls by the end. Ishikawa gave Miyahara a piledriver on the apron and then another one in the ring. His piledriver is a bit different, though, because his opponent kind of lands sideways instead of straight down. Ishikawa's a big, tough dude with scars on his back (I'm assuming from deathmatches in BJW or somewhere). They went pretty long and by the end this was dramatic and entertaining. Early on it was a bit slow with Miyahara playing to the crowd and getting into it with the ref. Zeus vs. Miyahara in the finals should be good, though this tournament really needs a great match to otherwise not be forgotten. **1/2

A BLOCK:

Arashi 1-3, Kuroshio 1-3, Lee 3-1, Suwama 1-3, Zeus 4-0

B BLOCK:

Aoyagi 2-2, Ashino 2-2, Ishikawa 2-2, Miyahara 3-1, Yoshitatsu 1-3

Day 6 (Final): Monday, October 5th, from Tokyo (Korakuen Hall)

Attendance: 619

ZEUS vs. KENTO MIYAHARA (31:05):  Zeus won the Champion Carnival. This was the best match of the whole tournament, though it wasn't spectacular or a masterpiece or anything. The last five minutes or so were great. Zeus did a package slam type of maneuver on Miyahara on the ring apron. Then he did a suplex where he lifted Miyahara out of the ring and into the ring from the second rope. I think Miyahara is great of course, but the one problem I have is that after Zeus delivered those two devastating maneuvers and Miyahara was dead he just popped right up and did a whole sequence like he was Superman. This is kind of the old Hulk Hogan thing, so it's not something new, but it's Miyahara's one flaw because it's kind of ridiculous. Miyahara delivered a bunch of knees. Zeus kicked out of Miyahara's slow German suplex into a pin that's usually his finisher. About halfway through this match I thought that Zeus would probably win, then win the title from Suwama, because that would set up a bigger Zeus vs. Miyahara re-match down the line. I was right. Suwama and Zeus will probably face for the title on October 17th. I'm guessing they might wait for Zeus and Miyahara at their big New Year's show that's usually on the afternoon of NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom show. And that's probably the next time I'll watch All Japan. This tournament was truly awful. The only redeeming aspect were the Miyahara matches which were all just 2.5 star matches anyway. I really hope Miyahara leaves this company. Either that or I hope they get some new and better wrestlers for him to face. It's kind of sad to see such a big star without any great opponents to face. ***