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[2016-07-23-AJPW] Kento Miyahara vs Jun Akiyama


superkix

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This was easily Miyahara's best title defense, and probably his best match of the year so far. It's still a Kento Miyahara match though. Still the same "ace" tropes, the convenient selling, the no-sold superplex rush, but the dynamic between he and Akiyama made this feel special. The grizzled ace that never was, love tapping Miyahara on the face like "let's do this, kid." And the new cocky ace returning the favor like, "here we go, old man." The danger of the front necklock was built well into the match as Akiyama does a number on Kento's neck in preperation. I love his elbow strikes to the neck. Miyahara's selling was okay at best, but he sold in other ways that helped flesh this thing out. The aftermath of the apron spot and Miyahara just barely making it back into the ring only to be met with a running knee and deep front necklock. Great stuff. Akiyama brings the best out of Miyahara's performance, and he was near perfect in this. The risky headbutt during the elbow exchange, his disbelief in Miyahara surviving the EXPLODER '98! and his sad final stand (not literal), crawling through the knee strikes until Kento finally puts him down like a lame horse with one last shot. Miyahara's hardest fought defense and a damn fine performance from Akiyama.

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  • 1 month later...

Akiyama was great in this match. The front necklock looked vicious. It looked like he was going to pop his head off his shoulders. The selling throughout the match from Akiyama was fantastic, and as mentioned the crawling through the knee strikes was a really good way to build emotion to the finish. I really enjoyed this match.

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  • 5 months later...

My first introduction to Kento Miyahara was his match vs. The Bodyguard & I thought that while the match wasn't good, Miyahara wasn't bad in it. Then I watched his big title match vs. Suwama, and while I thought that the match was bad, Miyahara was really good in it, it's just that Suwama absolutely killed the match for me. And then I went with this one - Kento going against a man that I know is really damn great, Jun Akiyama. And the match sure did not disappoint - I am actually sad that I didn't decide to watch this in 2016, because it would've got a nice spot on my MOTY list. Akiyama's performance was just outstanding; his facial expressions told the whole story, and then you get his fantastic selling & tremendous offense. So, so, SO good. Miyahara was damn good as the never-say-die babyface working from underneath, his offense looked really good as well. Fantastic match. ****1/2

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  • GSR changed the title to [2016-07-23-AJPW] Kento Miyahara vs Jun Akiyama

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