Hiroshi Yamato vs. Touki Hatano
Hiroshi Yamato continues to get all the bookings. Hatano was on the last CAPTURE show and I've learned he's a green-ish guy from HEAT-UP. He's really not very interesting and instead of doing shootstyle they just have a rather standard indy match that has the benefit of being a bit faster paced than usual. Not much stood out but there was a nice German suplex spot at one point. Inoffensive and forgettable.
Takahiro Tababa vs. Daisuke Kanehira
This was more like it. Tababa comes in and just brutalizes Kanehira with his violent kicks. Kanehira isn't super interesting but he can take and dish it out. Nice and short at 5 minutes and they build in some cool struggle and moments. loved Tababas big hip throw. Good match!
Super Tiger II vs. Ryo Inoue
Y'know, I would think STII was pretty busted in 2022, but he did a pretty solid job carrying generic AJPW rookie Ryo Inoue to a decent match. He kept things moving, had some nice big kicks and a cool submission finish. That's a lot more than I expected going into this. Worth checking out.
Mitsuki Watase vs. Keisuke Goto
I have goodwill for both of these guys, but going about 15 minutes is too much for them at this stage. There was a will, both guys were stiff and Goto kind of did a job working over Watases mid section, but the match felt like it was done in slow motion and there was so little interesting going on. Even at 2x speed it still felt slow. I can see Goto becoming a decent Hiro Saito for the modern generation but he needs to stick to shorter matches for now.
Naoya Nomura & Super Crafter U vs. Yuma Aoyagi & Atsuki Aoyagi
The Nomura/Yuma sections were just awesome here. Both guys came in with MMA gloves and just threw down and had some fantastic heated sections were they tried to jump and beat the shit out of each other. Fantastic stuff, reminded me of the best of CAPTURE or early 2000s NJPW. The match settled down a bit after their initial exchange, Atsuki Aoyagi is a pretty boy flier and really sticks out like a sore thumb with his predictable shit in a match that started as a violent fight between two badasses. Crafter working the mat felt like Negro Navarro or Fujiwara carrying a scrub which is a very good thing. Still, the more pro-style sections had enough going for the kill and sudden shoot punches that the match stayed worthwhile. I wanted more of Nomura running wild and being crazy but they went the cheap route and had Crafter eat the fall. I really really want to see more Nomura/Aoyagi after this, which was the point of the match I guess. Yuma looked pretty good too as a big bully who will punch you in the back of the head. I assume his regular glove-less work is much less interesting. Still, he was on here, and you really need to see this match for him and Nomura killing each other.
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