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Puro Fury: AJPW Dynamite Series

August 23, 2016 | Posted by Arnold Furious
AJPW All Japan Pro Wrestling
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Puro Fury: AJPW Dynamite Series  

AJPW Dynamite Series

 

June 15 2016

 

As I write this I am in the midst of the New Japan G1 Climax, showing how far behind I get with other puro when NJPW bang out a tonne of shows in quick succession. The big match on this series is Miyahara vs. Akiyama but they’re kicking the series off with Miyahara defending against another challenger from outside of AJPW (after Sekimoto last time out) and K-Dojo’s Kengo.

 

This is the first show I’ve watched from the Real Hero Purodrive, which is the greatest invention since WWE’s Network. The classic AJPW section is so good that Dave Meltzer thought it was All Japan’s official streaming service.

 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B5rK95X3mRiiSDNvTnQ0aUhWODg

 

Atsushi Maruyama, Ultimo Dragon, Soma Takao & Kaji Tomato vs. Osamu Nishimura, Masanobu Fuchi, Ryuji Hijikata & SUSHI

This is one of those goofy Akiyama eight-man tags. It’s a mixture of old guys, cruiserweights and juniors with silly gimmicks (SUSHI, Kaji). SUSHI comes out with five dancing girls and does a little prepared routine. Nishimura grabs the microphone to shoot it down and tell SUSHI to take that bullshit back to Roppongi. Only for Tomato to borrow the girls for his entrance too. I anticipate a blood feud between Tomato and SUSHI over this. Fuchi has developed a deathly presence, for a man who only does scoop slams and gets blown up doing that, and everyone is scared of him. The match picks up when Ultimo is up against SUSHI and Ultimo rolls back the years. The match creeps to a quite lengthy ten minutes and could have easily been clipped down for TV. Ultimo pins SUSHI with La Majistral.

Final Rating: **1/2

 

Shuji Ishikawa & Masashi Takeda vs. Ryoji Sai & Jake Lee

Big Japan’s big Shuji is a heavy hitter for the second match and he duels it out with Sai but the real excitement comes from Takeda and Lee grapplefucking like wrestling is going to be banned tomorrow and they need to get it out of their system before it’s illegal. Although Takeda can always make a living falling on broken glass if wrestling disappears. Lee is improving so quickly that he looks better every time I see him, which is about monthly but even so that’s rapid improvement. It’s a credit to the other three guys that the match is better when Shuji isn’t in there, which is insane. Shuji decides to fuck Takeda up by powerbombing him over the top rope and it’s left to Jake to take it to Shuji. Naturally this ends badly for him and Ishikawa murders him for the pin in less than ten minutes. I enjoyed this immensely.

Final Rating: ***

 

Isami Kodaka, Yuko Miyamoto & Takao Omori vs. Evolution (Atsushi Aoki, Hikaru Sato & Naoya Nomura)

Sato comes out with a combover, which is ridiculous even by his standards and the fringe on his right side is almost to his chin. Structurally they go after Nomura as the least experienced man in the match. That makes sense but nobody seems keen on stealing the show. The set up is weird too because Evolution act like dicks but Nomura takes all the heat. Miyamoto suddenly decides to give the match a boost and hits a fucking ridiculous tope where he lands kidneys first on the rail. From there the match picks up significantly. The sleepy little contest becomes a barnburner. You’ve got dives all over the place, you’ve got Nomura going after Omori and Aoki almost landing on his head. Eventually Omori finds himself on his own with Nomura and batters him with an Axe Bomber. Nomura was an obvious choice to eat the pin but the way this whole thing picked up was awesome. Especially as Sato takes umbrage with Kodaka celebrating and beats the fuck out of him. I wasn’t into this until that tope and everything after that was great.

Final Rating: ***

 

GAORA TV Championship

Kazuhiro Tamura (c) vs. Yohei Nakajima

Tamura is the ace of Heat-Up. He’s all muscle and is filled with dynamite. Like a tiny package (he’s 5’3”) of explosives. Nakajima is the guy who used to be Menso-re Oyaji, with his stupid pink mask and I’m still struggling to get over my hatred of that guy. Yohei gets so covered in streamers that he gets tied up in them. Tamura doesn’t think to run over and suplex his cocoon, sadly. This is one of those rare moments where Yohei looks like the big guy. Nakajima is 5’8”, 180lbs. Tamura is just so tiny. Despite his stature Tamura dominates and destroys Yohei’s arm. That’s the story of the match and all of Nakajima’s spots are hope spots. Even down the stretch where he’s basically in charge, it’s just a run of hope spots. One after another. Yohei ends up switching to his kicks because he can’t use his arm and a roundhouse wings Tamura for the pin.

Final Rating: ***1/4

 

Jun Akiyama & Yuma Aoyagi vs. Happy Motel (Konosuke Takeshita & Tetsuya Endo)

Interesting to see Akiyama paired up with Yuma, the guy who was sent over to New Japan for the Super J Cup. Meanwhile they’re up against another duo from outside of AJPW in Takeshita and Endo. Takeshita is a goddamn star, and walks in as the KO-D Openweight Champion at the tender age of 21 years young. This is patently ridiculous. 21 year old company top guys should not be allowed. Endo is one of the best up and coming fliers in the business. I love Akiyama and in this match he just kicks back and watches Aoyagi take a beating. He knows his boy is outmatched but he wants to see some of the Strongstyle Fire from him. I also love that Takeshita goes after Jun on the apron and Akiyama just stands there taking strikes, not giving a single fuck. It’s as if he’s distracted by something from earlier, like he’s trying to remember if he left the iron on. When he zones back in there’s someone punching him and he’s wondering if he deserves it. Jun Akiyama is one of the surliest bastards in Japan and I fucking love him for it. Surly old guys is what makes Japan great. In between glorious character work from Akiyama we get Yuma trying to get fluke pins on DDT’s champion. It’s great stuff. Naturally Takeshita puts Aoyagi down for the three. This was a tidy showing for the DDT guys, hopefully to set up matches down the line. Oddly enough Akiyama invited Takeshita back to be his tag team partner on the next tour. Looking like he saw something in him here.

Final Rating: ***1/4

 

AJPW World Tag Team Championship

Big Guns (Bodyguard & Zeus) (c) vs. Strong BJ (Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi)

Big Guns have held the belts since winning them in a tournament back in December. That being to replace Kento/Go as champions after Shiozaki went back to NOAH. This is four enormous muscular dudes doing tests of strengths and barging into each other. It’s almost a game of one-upmanship with everyone looking to be more powerful. Big Guns normally win that against anyone in AJPW but here they discover they’re not on the same powerful level as Strong BJ. They have to resort to double teaming although Zeus does grand work in slipping out of holds rather than going toe to toe. Zeus is getting surprisingly good and has been for a while. The match operates at its peak with Sekimoto and Zeus barrelling into each other. It’s good when Okabayashi vs. Zeus is the focus too. Bodyguard is certainly the low man on the talent pole and he’s a little cumbersome but against Okabayashi and Sekimoto his flaws don’t show up so much because it’s wall to wall big lads action. My favourite spot is the Stacker German Suplex where Sekimoto dumps Okabayashi on his head in order to murder Zeus. It’s a gambit that pays off because it eliminates the Big Guns best gun. Bodyguard is left alone with Sekimoto and Daisuke beats him into submission with the Deadweight German Suplex. Big Lads Wrestling! This fell just under **** because of Bodyguard flubbing a few bumps, even if it made the situation look more realistic. Strong BJ are the 72nd AJPW tag champs. They are belts that have been knocking around since 1988. The first champions were Tsuruta & Yatsu. They’re the same belts that the Miracle Violence Connection held. The same belts that Misawa & Kobashi feuded with Kawada & Taue over for years. The same belts that KroniK held in 2002. Ok, so All Japan has had ups and downs but it’s on an up at the moment.

Final Rating: ***3/4

 

Triple Crown Championship

Kento Miyahara (c) vs. Kengo Mashimo

Kento has grown into this spot since winning the title and is now firmly established as AJPW’s guy. He got there on default, he’s stayed there through hard work and talent. Kento treats this like an opportunity to stave off a rival company, as Kengo represents K-Dojo. Miyahara wants to show that Mashimo just isn’t on his level. It becomes intensely political when the seconds go at it and Kengo instigates a lot of crowd brawling because he can’t beat Kento in the ring. Miyahara, in the ring, is amazing. He continually catches Mashimo by surprise. At one point getting a triangle choke out of nowhere while he’s flat out on his back. Kengo tries to apply common sense by working over the arm but Kento channels the history of All Japan and refuses to sell for some punk outsider. Kengo rather blows one of the biggest spots in the match where he’s supposed to counter a running knee into an armbar but he botches it. Kento’s response is to continue to use his injured arm as a major offensive weapon. Kengo continues to go after the arm. No, you ‘will’ sell the arm. Despite Kengo’s insistence Kento continues to refuse to cooperate. Even paying lip service to the arm would be nice. He almost does towards the end as he switches to knee strikes but knees are his main offensive weapon so that’s not really selling. Especially as he finishes with a German suplex, which he couldn’t hold if he was actually selling the arm. This would have worked much better if Miyahara had just sold the arm a little, instead of not at all. The last few minutes was hot as hell though.

Final Rating: ***3/4

7.5
The final score: review Good
The 411
Nothing outstanding on this show but another consistently good show from All Japan. I cannot believe the turnaround from this company. For two years I’ve barely been able to hold an interest in it and now every show is good to great and it’s almost at the point where it’s unmissable. I’m pushing it to the front of my watchlists over NOAH, Big Japan and Dragon Gate for crying out loud. Thumbs up for this show and you should probably get in on AJPW before one of their guys explodes big (probably Kento) and you can say you saw him before he got big.
legend

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AJPW, Puro Fury, Arnold Furious