[2018-06-12-AJPW-Dynamite Series] Kento Miyahara vs Dylan James

[Richeyedwards]

This was an AJPW triple crown title match.

 

This match had a difficult hill to climb, While Kento is really over as ace Dylan James is not he is tag champ but has only been in the company for 4 months and did not have a great CC meaning that he was quite a weak challenger. They only drew just over 1000 people to Korakuen compared to the 4 1600-1750 Korakuen shows in a row for the company.

 

The nobody believed that James had a chance at winning especially with the big osaka show coming up next month and Jake lee making noises about facing Kento. Faced with this challenge of not having anyone believing that Kento would lose the guys did a very admirable job of giving the chance that James could possibly win. They did this by having a very one sided match more so than the match at this show last year when Shuji ishikawa beat Kento for the title. James controlled the majority of the match by working over Kento's chest. This is a simpler and easier body part to work over as it does not really limit the moves that the wrestler worked over can do like leg selling would but still shows the dominance of James in the match.

 

James largely worked over Kento with chops, back elbows, elbow drops, lariats and stomps. It was a brutish display by James with Kento putting over every chop like his chest was being crushed. The comebacks of Kento were quite regular but he never got an extended period of control until the very end where he hit several knee strikes and the shutdown German for the win.

 

What hurt James in the match was that he would control the match with his simple brutish offense but when he went for something more complicated or bigger it was countered and it showed the story of Kento being much better than James in holds and reversals but outgunned in terms of striking. This was how James lost the match, he went for a powerbomb to the floor and a powerbomb later in the match which were reversed he went for something to big and he paid for it.

 

Overall it was a match on the lower end of the great scale with very good performances from both men and did not have any moment when I thought that they ignored selling like I thought Kento did in the second Marufuji match. This match was something of a missed opportunity, not in the work done but in the buildup. With a better built James going in the crowd would have been better and bigger and it would have had more of a possibility that James could win something that myself and the crowd did not seem to think could happen until towards the end. This match could have been really great with a better build up but as it was i will settle at just great. ****1/4 Another great Triple crown title match probably the second best of the year after the Zeus vs Joe match and on a level of the maru and Joe vs Kento Matches.

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