[2016-12-09-AJPW-Real World Tag League Night 4] Jun Akiyama & Kendo Kashin vs Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi

[Ma Stump Puller]

While the NEXTREAM lads will eventually go on to big things, at the moment they are the clear underdogs here and still have no points in the RWTL as the B-squad; and they know it, immediately attacking the two vets before the match to try to get the advantage and trying for early roll-ups. This is essentially a sprint as Kashin and Akiyama go as humanly fast as possible here: one second Kashin is choking someone out, the next Akiyama is firing a knee shot from the apron on Aoyagi's poor back, very blink and you'll miss it stuff. Aoyagi gets worked over by the pair as they just beat him down with shots and make sure he can't tag out by dragging him back and isolating the ring. Akiyama in particular is great at the rookie disrespect shit as you'd expect and gets in some stiff knee strikes to get the big heat. Eventually Nomura gets in and has a decent hot tag, ending in a big high-rise Northern Lights and top rope dropkick as per AJPW rookie tradition. The second half has Kashin get around the two double teaming with some cool spots but Akiyama not having such good luck. Nomura throws out as much as possible against Akiyama including a running elbow and spear, nothing gets the win properly though. 

Akiyama catches him with a great knee to the stomach and head, ending in a Exploder for a big near fall. We get Nomura throwing out some fiery elbows before Akiyama knees him to death and back and lands his nasty head-bump variation of the Exploder for the win. Really good sub-10 minute match that showcases the youngsters in a good light while also realistically having no chance to actually win. Akiyama is a great bully for them and lays it in hard here to convince everyone of that. Kashin is the goofy sidekick who doesn't really do much of anything outside of the norm, more being in the sidelines and doing comedy, but he's still super based and works hard when it matters to get the two younger guys over. Aoyagi was decent but Nomura was the obviously big bright spot here with his underdog fire and (mostly) well executed moves. It's just a shame this happened when absolutely no one was watching AJPW, because this was great and would probably be gushed over had it happened in the 90's and Meltzer covered it lol. Sadly it only exists as a entertaining match for a particularly slow RWTL.