This review was commissioned by Ben Audsley over on my Ko-fi account.
About halfway through this bout, Jun Akiyama suplexes Suwama off the apron to the floor. It’s the start to his comeback after a period of Suwama controlling the bout by attacking Akiyama’s back. It’s also the point where this match finally starts to pick up after a fairly standard, and occasionally plodding opening act. Jun tries his best to add some flavor to those opening moments by doing a very admirable back selling job, but even that can’t help but sour by match end when it ceases to be a problem despite the big bumps from both men only increasing as this moves along.
Still, when this is focused more on just being a big bombfest, it’s fun stuff. Suwama doesn’t show me much in the open, but he clearly saved all the good shit for the end. There’s a few really wicked lariats in there to cut Jun down, he throws a nasty shoot headbutt towards the end as the match slips through his fingers, and generally just feels much more at home throwing suplexes and lariats than he is working the space between all those big moves.
Jun, somewhat disappointingly, foregoes the back selling and also indulges in some lesser instincts here. The back and forth suplex trading all in a row feels like a real betrayal of what they built up in the start. But when they actually let some of the bombs breathe and land, then it’s a good time more or less.
Jun Akiyama wins his first Triple Crown Championship a decade too late and in front of a mostly empty Sumo Hall. It is, admittedly, still a pleasant moment. But peak King’s Road this was not.
Rating: ***