March 2023

Yuji Nagata defends the AJPW Triple Crown Title I was worried about this one when it was announced seeing Nagata doesn't have someone like Miyahara there to work the faster-paced bits as well as having to work as the champ instead of the challenger, so there's increased standards as opposed to being a one and done match. Ishikawa wasn't going to win this in a million years given he's equally looking rough, so this was already a match with a big hill to climb. The start of this was all about Nagata trying to find gaps in his opponent to exploit: he tries for arm work, and fails. He tries cranking Ishikawa's head with submissions, but fails. He tries rattling him with …

This got some fairly harsh reviews for being very long and very slow. The first complaint I'll definitely agree with: Ogawa tends to get ambitious on C-tier shows (the near 30-minute NOSAWA match, the 40+ minute Kaito match, etc) and this was no different in length, clocking in at 23 minutes. The second? Not so much. This was not as good as their 2020 title bout but solid enough for a C-tier touring show. HAYATA is obviously wanting pieces out of Ogawa as well, and does so by trying to crank the same bandaged leg that Ridgeway had his hands on just a few days ago because, you know, long term ring psychology is sometimes a thing. Ogawa's counter is eye work if you can beli…

Loads of fun: I love watching Ogawa singles matches because he mostly gets to show off his talent that you usually don't get to see much in the usual trashy tags he shows up in and it's still a ton of said talent despite the guy being 56. With the build from the Muto show I expected this to be a short brawl but thankfully we get a smartly worked match where the two got over their hate for the other while actually wrestling and not doing sloppy brawls on the outside and/or blading, because, you know, you can get over those things without the need to just do that all the time. Ridgeway isn't much look-wise however his wrestling is really sinister and calculated, focused aro…