by Strong BJ Val https://twitter.com/MadGeniusVal & Death BJ Luke https://twitter.com/PuroReviews

Opening match:

Ryota Hama, Yasufumi Nakanoue & Kazuki Hashimoto vs Akira Hyodo, Takuho Kato & Yuki Ishikawa



[Strong BJ Val] To start things off we had the usual short and sweet opener featuring the younger talents. The trio of Hyodo, Kato and Ishikawa looked quite good in this one, managing to push the veterans a little bit and getting some offence in. A few things to note, Akira Hyodo came out wearing a new singlet with flames on it, and both him and Kato came to the ring with their Yokohama Shopping Street 6-man Tag Team titles, which they won alongside Daisuke Sekimoto on October 3rd.







Second match:

Mu No Taiyo (The Great Sasuke & The Brahman Brothers), Kankuro Hoshino & The Great Kojika vs Kobayashi-gundam (Abdullah Kobayashi, Orca Uto, Hideki Suzuki, Drew Parker & Shinobu)



[Strong BJ Val] This was the fun part of the show and it delivered in that sense, if you ask the Ryogoku crowd. Kikutaro accompanied Kobayashi-Gundam for some reason too. We got to see a Rugby melee and some other goofy spots I’ll make sure you keep the pleasure of discovering. The match took end as most of Koshika’s team was taken out by Shinobu and Parker, which dove to the outside. Suzuki lands the Double Arm Suplex on Hoshino, Kobayashi follows with his elbow drop for the pin, winning the match for his team.

Third match – Big Japan Pro Wrestling vs All Japan Pro Wrestling:

Ryuichi Kawakami & Kazumi Kikuta vs Jake Lee & Naoya Nomura



[Strong BJ Val] This Big Japan vs All Japan tag match brought some good intensity to the table, in a match where three of the four people involved crossed paths before, fighting over the All Asia tag team championships. Kawakami and Kikuta looked good against the two All Japan stars, but it is the team of Lee and Nomura which leave Sumo Hall with the win in hostile environment. Jake Lee had no problem playing to the crowd in order to receive a few boos (and some cheers), and he had a seemingly heated post-match altercation with Kawakami.

Fourth match – Strong BJ vs STRONGHEARTS:

Hideyoshi Kamitani & The Astronauts (Takuya Nomura & Fuminori Abe) vs STRONGHEARTS (Shigehiro Irie, T-Hawk & El Lindaman)

[Strong BJ Val] In the preview of this match, I was talking about how here, magic could be made with only a dozen of minutes. I would dare say my assumption was close to reality ! Fast pace, action packed, both sides worked well together and pretty much everyone got to shine in the little time they were given (approximately 10 minutes). While the Strong BJ trio gave a difficult time to their opponents, once again, the most experienced team prevailed, as Irie got the win for his team, delivering a devastating lariat on Abe. This is most likely the best match from the undercard, leaving us wanting to keep seeing the STRONGHEARTS crew in BJW. Nomura vs Irie or T-Hawk sounds like a good pairing, don’t you think ?

Fifth match:

Rickey Shane Page & Masaya Takahashi vs Crazy Lovers (Masashi Takeda & Takumi Tsukamoto)

[Death BJ Luke] The weakest of the Death BJ matches on the show. This match was generally fine and watchable but nothing really of note occurring. If anything it predominately served as a precursor to the Death Block decider on the 26.11 Korakuen Hall show between the Crazy Lovers and RSP & Ito. Masaya Takahashi arguably had a better tag team partner tonight than his previous outing with Gumba-chan at Death Vegas, with regular tag team partner Ueki on the injury list and Sakuda booked for later in the show. Takahashi was pinned by Tsukamoto to earn victory for the Crazy Lovers.

Sixth match – BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship:

Yuya Aoki (c) vs TAJIRI vs Tatsuhiko Yoshino vs Kota Sekifuda

[Strong BJ Val] Here we are, the first championship match of the night, a four-way elimination match for the Junior Heavyweight championship ! Early on, TAJIRI tries to take advantage by, first letting Aoki and Sekifuda fight together, and then making temporary alliances with either Yoshino and Sekifuda. He even manages to keep his three opponents outside the ring for a 18 count, until Sekifuda sneaks back in at the last moment. However, the shenanigans would quickly cost TAJIRI the match, as after managing to get the referee down and using the green mist on Sekifuda, Yoshino rolls him up for the three count, eliminating TAJIRI from this contest. Aoki slides back in to fight with Yoshino, while TAJIRI stays on the entrance ramp. Yoshino slams Aoki and goes for the pin, but Sekifuda breaks it up with a top rope splash. He lands another dive from the top on both his opponents, this time on the outside. Sekifuda gets Aoki back in and gets the advantage during the following exchange, but Yoshino gets back in and hits a missile dropkick. Yoshino however cannot capitalize, as Sekifuda escapes from a lariat and tries to go for his finisher, but TAJIRI mists him a second time, allowing Yoshino to pin Sekifuda, and eliminate him as well. The referee finally throws TAJIRI out, as Aoki again gets back on the apron. He lands a springboard kick, but sees his moonsault attempt countered. Both men then exchange german suplexes, Aoki hits a step-up enzuguiri, but Yoshino answers with a knee strike. As both men are exhausted, TAJIRI again comes back. Yoshino takes the advantage of the following striking exchange, but as he goes to the top rope, Aoki joins him, and after struggling to keep his balance, ultimately lands a frankensteiner. He goes for the Tiger Suplex Hold, TAJIRI again uses his mist, blinding Aoki this time. Yoshino tries to go for three in a row but Aoki kicks out, as Kazuki Hashimoto lays TAJIRI out on the outside, and proceeds to quickly wash the mist off Aoki’s face. The champion goes back to the assault, set ups the moonsault and lands it, but only gets the nearfall. Aoki only gets the win after finally landing the Tiger Suplex Hold, and thus retaining his championship in what was a good match, yet kind of tarnished by TAJIRI’s antics by the end of it. After the match, Hashimoto gets in the ring and congratulates Aoki as both share a quick hug.





Seventh match – Daisuke Sekimoto’s 20th year anniversary special tag match: Daisuke Sekimoto & WALTER vs Yuji Okabayashi & Yuji Hino

[Strong BJ Val] This was all you could have expected and quite possibly even more. From the athletic feats of WALTER and Hino, the devastating chops being delivered, Sekimoto and Hino pretending to be trucks, straight up colliding into one another. This match was easily one of most enjoyable matches I have watched in a while. Watching WALTER delivering a running dropkick, Sekimoto german suplexing WALTER in order to help his partner land a german of his own on Hino, and I am leaving out some things you’ll like to see for yourself. The four men had the crowd on their feet from bell to bell, as it was ultimately Sekimoto pinning his Strong BJ partner Okabayashi to claim the victory. Quite possibly the most satisfying match of the card (depends on how you feel about Deathmatches), this will make more than one person wish WALTER didn’t end up in NXT UK.







8th match – Ryuji Ito’s 20th year anniversary BLOOD & DEATH HISTORY Death Match:

Ryuji Ito & Takashi Sasaki vs Jun Kasai & Toshiyuki Sakuda

[Death BJ Luke] A 20th Anniversary celebration of the Deathmatch Dragon, Ryuji Ito sees him tagging with Takashi Sasaki, who came out heavily repping FREEDOMS as expected. For the last few years, FREEDOMS involvement has been minimal to non-existent in BJW, but this has opened up once again following Jun Kasai’s return last year to BJW. Sakuda pairs up with Kasai, outside of his challenging Kodaka at Death Vegas, you’d consider this one of the biggest matches of his young career given the credentials of the people he his sharing the ring with. Nasty miss aside when he went to Swanton Bomb from the balcony to a prone Sasaki on the table below, and overshooting his trajectory, the Psychopath Boy did well. In fact, I often worry how the Death BJ guys will counteract the lack of glass being able to be used in Ryogoku. Kasai smashing up ceramic plant pots, kenzans galore, saw boards, circular saw board, oh and Sakuda’s needle through the cheeks spot being inflicted on himself and Kasai, and a measure of revenge when Sasaki and Ito got the insides of their cheeks pierced with syringes (think Thumbtack Jack, Jun Kasai etc). It was a greatest hits of ultraviolence minus the glass. I would of liked to see Sakuda cause a shock and go over, but instead he suffered the Dragon Splash for the loss, which really can’t be argued against to be honest.

Semi-main event – BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship:

Kohei Sato (c) vs Daichi Hashimoto



[Strong BJ Val] Sumo Hall now holds a battle for the World Strong Heavyweight championship, where it is hard not to think about the late Shinya Hashimoto. The challenger being none other than his son Daichi, and the champion the man who was trained by Shinya himself, Kohei Sato. The match was clearly made of two phases. The first part of the match saw both men going to the mat a lot, which Sato took advantage of, working Daichi’s left leg. Sato had the match in end and was about to finish it all with the Piledriver, when Daichi countered, propelling us to the second part of this match : The challenger’s comeback through sheer will. Hashimoto managed to sustain Sato’s most fierce shots, kicking out of the Piledriver, escaping a chokehold, while delivering some of his own. A few big kicks, a game changing german suplex, two shining wizards to make the difference, and after one last nearfall, Hashimoto plants Sato with an elevated DDT to win the World Strong Heavyweight championship for the second time of his career. While the match itself isn’t the easiest to feel engaged into, seeing Sato taking Daichi in his arms, shaking and raising his hand as the new champion crumbles under the emotion makes for a very pleasing, heartwarming moment.





Main Event – BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship – Four Board Giga Ladder Deathmatch:

Isami Kodaka (c) vs Yuko Miyamoto



[Death BJ Luke] Four boards and a ladder, what could be so bad about that? One of those boards was a Bed of Nails, no matter how gimmicked it is, bumping on that can’t be pleasant to say the least. There was also a smattering of kenzan like objects, gusset plates and Kodaka’s trusty massive ladder, which was highlighting by a backcrushing superplex. Aside from being regular tag team partners as Yankee Two Kenju, three time BJW Tag Team Champions together, as well as other tag titles in other promotions, they have met twice before for the BJW Death Match Heavyweight Championship, when Miyamoto was champion and retained at Death Match and Romance 2010 and Endless Survivor 2014 when Kodaka was champion and also retained. Perhaps this was their title trilogy, only time will tell if they ever meet again at such a level, two long time friends and occasionally rivals. While I think I preferred the Sakuda defence, you can’t ignore the weight of the history of Kodaka & Miyamoto while watching this match, something that BJW highlighted with a video package beforehand. Kodaka pinned his pal Miyamoto for his fourth successful defence in his second reign. Up next, Abdullah Kobayashi.