[2018-07-29-AJPW-Summer Action Series Finale] Kento Miyahara vs Zeus

[Richeyedwards]

This was the end of a 3 year long chase for Zeus when he finally wins the triple crown title in his home town in front of his family in a major arena. The moment when he won the belt and the post match was beautiful celebrating in the ring with his tag partner after finally winning the belt and defeating the ace. As incredible as that moment was the match before it was a little disappointing.

There was a lot to like, the two men have good chemistry and Kento playing more and more heel as the match went on changing the crowd from 60-40 to Zeus over to 90-10 in favor of Zeus. The repeated attempts for the shutdown German from Kento was great he went for it around 6 times but never got to hit it was great drama as every time he went for it he got closer to hitting it getting more and more desperate in his attempts as Zeus became more and more desperate in his escapes. There was some selling by Zeus on the outside where i was not sure if he was injured or not he looked completely out of it. Kento working over Zeus's neck and head the whole match in order to get the shutdown German was good.

But as good as all of the baseline of the work was there were aspects that i felt hurt it. It had a brawl around the outside and up the ramp towards the start that went a bit to long and the finish had way too many knee strikes from Kento it was getting a little silly. There was also one moment where Kento was over the top in his mannerisms whne trying to be a heel that was more comedy than heelish.

I did still really like the match but it was a disappointment compared to what i was expecting between these two. The post match though might have been the best moment in wrestling this year so it did not leave a bad taste in my mouth. ***1/2-***3/4

[nivvad]

A 3 year journey finally culminated with this match. This match was just incredible by the end. The brawling at the beginning was pretty fun which led to some good leg work on Miyahara who sold it pretty well throughout the match. Back in the ring though is where both men really laid it into each other with lots of strikes and big moves. The drama kept building with the crowd going nuts for Zeus to finally win the big one. Miyahara literally gave all he could yet still couldn't lock in his finishing Jacket German. That final sequence of Zeus just breaking out and delivering one more whooping to Miyahara before finally finishing him with a second Jackhammer is perfect. Zeus wins his first ever Triple Crown in front of his hometown, and the post match promo/interactions are super endearing. It kind of went overkill at the end, but still made for a very satisfying match, ****3/4.

[Jetlag]

Overly long, bloated, melodramatic stereotypical japanese big match in the Year of 2018. People have talked about AJPW having a resurrgence, and that it's an alternative to NJPW. Well, I don't know the business side of it, but judging from the match quality here there is nothing too interesting going on. The first half was your typical time killing competition, lots of strolling here and there, waiting for the other guy to get in position, then hit a spot for a pop, etc. Some of the ideas they had were good, but they didn't know how to elaborate them. There was some good legwork happening with Zeus ramming Miyaharas knee into the guardrail, but moments later they simply forgot about it. Miyahara hit a stiff headbutt, and then he went and hit some more for the crowd. Isn't this the year where that guy Shibata almost died doing something like that? Classic Pro Wrestlers are Idiots. I've nothing against stiff headbutts, as long as they mean something. I liked how parts of the match saw Kento acting cocky and cutting off Zeus. However he also did these really zany "I'm crazy" facial expressions for the camera. The 2nd half is trash. Zeus does a job putting the previous apron stuff over, but then just no sells back to offense immediately. It's almost a comedy. Both guys take turns doing this while hitting a zillion knees and lariats. There is nothing wrong with either guys offense, Miyahara in particular has good looking knees and big boots. I also liked his beatdown of Zeus with the stomps to the back of the head, one of the few moments of genuine aggression in the match. I've no idea what people see in Zeus as he's pretty much your standard roided japanese guy. They try to bring some leg attack stuff into it again, but because Miyahara didn't sell it at all there was no sense of threat or drama from it. After about 20 2,99999s Zeus gets the win.