While I wait for the final show of Stardom’s Grand Prix to be fully uploaded, AJPW’s Oudou Tournament just finished wrapping up and I decided to cover the rest of the matches on here.

We had a very successful first round and it appears that the rest of the tournament is going to be a hit here and hoping to see if I get my pick right for this one. Who will win the tournament?

Let’s find out and…dive right in.

Royal Road 2018 Second Round Match
Yuji Hino vs. Ryoji Sai

Review: My pick, Yuji Hino has made it to the second round despite having a bit of a lackluster match against The Bodyguard. His next opponent though is someone that has defeated him in the Champions Carnival in an upset, Ryouji Sai. This could be a chance for Yuji to redeem his previous loss and can get one step closer to the semi-final. Can Yuji chalk up another win or will Ryouji get the upset once again?

This was a much better match for Yuji Hino this time around since it wasn’t Bodyguard as he would do what he does best, flipping people off and destroying people with his chops. Yuji had Ryouji on the outside and started chopping him until he missed on one and hits the turnbuckle post to give Ryouji an opening he needs to try and take control of the match, even if it doesn’t really last that long. Not sure if I liked this match better than their CC encounter but it was still solid enough to get over at the very least. Ryouji would go to the top rope and his head reached the ceiling, so he decided to hold onto it for a moment and went for a Double Stomp which he missed. Hino would keep attempting to hit his Lariat but Ryouji would keep on ducking them for a moment until Yuji would eventually hit the Lariat, but he’s not done here as he picks him up to hit the FUCKING BOMB and he’s down with him as he advances to the semi-final.

Rating: Eric Bischoff

Royal Road 2018 Second Round Match
Zeus vs. Suwama

Review: After having a solid performance against Naoya Nomura, our Triple Crown Champion Zeus moves on to the next round and his opponent is against the former ace, Suwama. The last time they fought one on one was at the Champions Carnival and Zeus would be the victor of the match. If Suwama does somehow beat the champion here, then he’ll most likely be in line for a future title match whether he wins the tournament or not. Can Zeus keep moving forward or will the champion stop here?

Just looking at the beginning of the match, it was more of a test of power and you can see that up until near the ending of it really. They would start off with grapples, trying to shoulder tackle each other down but none of them were falling until Zeus hits a Dropkick, even when they were doing chops and power moves to each other, you would feel the impact of each thing they did together and it makes sense due to them both being powerful guys and just want to overpower each other to get that needed win. Suwama would almost have the match early on when he applied the Sleeper Hold onto Zeus and would even have him falling down to nearly passing out that even the referee had to slap Zeus a couple of times to see if he was awake, but he was able to kick out at two when Suwama would try to go for the cover.

The second half of the match would be when things start getting more interesting when Suwama would get Zeus back into the Sleeper Hold after jumping over him when he attempted a Gorilla Press and it looked like he was going to get it until Zeus flipped him over, but Suwama meets him with a Lariat, a Backdrop Driver, and hits a German Suplex only for Zeus to keep kicking out of everything. Suwama picked him up to go for the Last Ride and Zeus gets off of him to hit a high kick which looked like he didn’t fully connect it, but he made up for it by hitting a Lariat, a Chokeslam, and ends it with a Jackhammer to score the victory and moves on to the semi’s.

Rating: Eric Bischoff and a half

Royal Road 2018 Second Round Match
Joe Doering vs. Kengo Mashimo

Review: What an impressive victory Kengo Mashimo showed in the first round when he defeated Shuji Ishikawa by putting him to sleep and now his next opponent is another giant, Joe Doering. Joe had a very solid bout against Dylan James and I’m hoping he can keep that same type of pacing in his matches to give us better quality. Will Kengo pick up another surprise win here or will Joe overpower Kengo on the spot?

Since Kengo is much smaller compared to Joe, he had to rely on his quickness to try and maneuver around him and he would do that most of the time when he slides under him during a Big Boot and landed outside of the ring as the crowd popped for it. Despite the cool little dodge, the match felt a little slow at times with how Joe would try to have some control over Kengo while he would just mostly dodge or get some quick kicks in him to try and slow him down. Joe hits a Lariat so hard that he made Kengo do a backflip and kicks out at two. Kengo would have Joe in an Armbar until Joe picked him up for a Sidewalk Slam and Kengo would kick out once more. Joe would throw Kengo into the ropes to try and hit another Lariat but Kengo ducked him as Joe would try to go for it again and instead of going for the Lariat for a third time, he attempts his Diving Body Press to catch him by surprise but Kengo ducked leading him to hit the ropes and Kengo rolled him up for the pin!

Rating: Tony Schiavone and three quarters

Royal Road 2018 Second Match
Jake Lee vs. Kento Miyahara

Review: A couple of months ago, Jake Lee requested a match against Kento Miyahara and they did have that match but Kento would come out the victor of that match. Now Jake appears to have a second chance in this tournament as the two would cross paths with each other once again in the second round of the tournament. Can Jake Lee find a way to defeat Kento or will Kento make him Blackout?

If we’re gonna talk about the progress of Jake Lee between the last time he fought Kento in early July from how he did now, you can say he definitely made a lot of progress in his performance in those past two and a half months. The match was much better than their previous one, it flowed much better, had a much faster pace, and the aggression in the story definitely gave it a much better impact. Jake is slowly getting back to where he was and the more he performs like this, the better he’ll be in the future and is definitely a future Triple Crown Champion, and I feel like it very well could happen in 2019.

Despite all of this progression Jake Lee has shown in this match and showing he can be a big player, Kento is still a much better talent than Jake and still on his A-game as he just destroyed Jake with his kicks and Blackouts. Even though Jake was taking quite a beating, he would kick out of everything at two and would even get some offense in with his running knee strikes. Kento would eventually hit the Shutdown German Suplex Hold and gets the three count and advances to the next round.

Rating: Bruce Prichard and a half

Royal Road 2018 Semi-Final Match
Kento Miyahara vs. Yuji Hino

Review: Is this some kind of cruel joke? Why would you do this to me and make them fight each other now instead of having this done in the final round? It’s not fair, not fair I tell you! Anyway, Kento Miyahara and Yuji Hino are now set to fight each other and I’m really torn since I was hoping for Yuji to make it to the final round and now it looks like it’s going to be a little bit difficult due to him fighting Kento. They fought on the final A Block day of the Champions Carnival and Kento defeated him there to even advance to the finals of that tournament and has a chance of doing it again. Can Kento go to the finals or Yuji gonna give him the FUCKING BOMB?

Kento did seem to get the early advantage when he would Dropkick Yuji to the outside or so we think since once Kento followed him outside the ring, he would get destroyed and destroyed good with each chop Yuji would deliver to him around the outside of the ring and even sent him flying over the barricade on one of them. Yuji is just a beast with those chops and some of the stiffest I’ve seen this year with how he can just destroy his opponents with just that alone is something else. The chemistry between Kento and Yuji is something else since they just click together with their swagger in the ring and their styles just meshing up to give us something enjoyable.

Once Kento would punch Yuji during their trade-off of blows, Yuji would put his hands behind his back to tell Kento to hit him as hard as he can and each punch Kento did to him was not enough to phase him, so Yuji returns it by chopping him back and Kento this time wipes it off his chest and tells him to hit him back, this is starting to get really good. After their little exchange, Kento would kick Yuji in the face and Yuji returns the favor with a stiff Lariat for a two count. Yuji went to go for the FUCKING BOMB but Kento fights out of it to get behind him to go for the German Suplex hold which leads them to hit the ropes and Kento doing the European Clutch to get the win over Yuji! Well, there goes my pick for the tournament now since Yuji is eliminated and we won’t get that match with him and Zeus anytime soon, still a great match regardless and good luck to Kento in the finals.

Rating: Bruce Prichard

Royal Road 2018 Semi-Final Match
Zeus vs. Kengo Mashimo

Review: Now that we have Kento Miyahara going on to the final round, later on, we have Kengo Mashimo taking on our Triple Crown Champion, Zeus. Kengo was able to get back to back surprise victories in this tournament and he could keep up with that trend if he can defeat Zeus here in this match and go on to fight Kento in the final round. Will Kengo be three for three or will our champion make it all the way to the finals?

It would start off with a basic wrestling match without and tricks from both of them or testing any strengths as this one was mostly based on skills this time around and Zeus had the opening when he hits a Diving Clothesline to Kengo to put him down for a bit. Kengo would eventually find an opening by targeting Zeus’ arm in the match and you can see him starting to sell it for a little, so now we know where his opening is going to be here. Most of the time you’ll see Zeus fighting through the pain since he’s more focused on winning the match and if he distracts himself by showing more vulnerability with his arm, then he knows Kengo would win the match.

Once Zeus started chopping Kengo, you can see him selling the injury more and that was what Kengo needed to try and make the champion tap out as he went for a Fujiwara Armbar and would turn it around into a Triangle Choke as he looks to have it here, but Zeus would fight through the pain here and pick him up to slam Kengo down to break the hold. Zeus moves his arm around to get circulation in there as he hits a Lariat and a Chokeslam for a two count and once Zeus went for the Jackhammer, Kengo fought out of it and he would apply the Mudo hold on him to make Zeus tap out and move onto the final.

Rating: Eric Bischoff and a half

Royal Road 2018 Final Match
Kento Miyahara vs. Kengo Mashimo

Review: We’re now down to our final match as it comes down to Kento Miyahara and Kengo Mashimo. Both of these men have had impressive victories during their tournament matches but now only one of them can win the whole thing and earn the right to challenge Zeus for the Triple Crown Championship. Will Kento win to get his rematch to reclaim his prize or will Kengo pick up four big wins in a row and fight Zeus once again?

This is where we see Kengo’s technical side of his wrestling starting to flourish here when he started to target Kento’s arm when they were outside when Kengo would slam his arm against the guardrail and Dropkick it for good measure, and now he has the strategy he needs to destroy Kento’s arm just like he did to Zeus earlier. I liked that this was more of a wrestling match since these two are extremely talented wrestlers as they fed off of each other and telling the right story of the match since the crowd was super into it and were fully supportive of Kento and you can hear it in the audience.

The more we got into the match, the more interesting it was starting to become when they were going at each other with Kento using his knees and Kengo working on his arm to try and make him tap out. Kengo would land a Crucifix and applies the  Mudo hold like he did to Zeus to make him tap out and the crowd starts cheering for Kento not to tap out and somehow makes it to the ropes. Kento starts to fire back with a few Blackouts to knock him down a peg and the match is getting rather explosive that it can go either way here. Kento would hit another Blackout for a two count and he quickly picks him up for the Shutdown German Suplex Hold and Kento wins the Oudou Tournament!

There’s one little problem I have with Kento winning the tournament and it’s that I feel like he’ll most likely win back the title from Zeus and as much as I love Kento and he’s my favorite wrestler right now, I don’t want to see him win the title back. The reason why I’m saying this is because Zeus has worked very to get his first title run and it would be a shame if they ended it in a three-month reign with only one successful title defense. Another thing they could do is to have Zeus retain the title against Kento and don’t let him get the belt back until at least after next years Champions Carnival if he does win it and challenge Zeus around May, that way Zeus would get a nice long run and a few solid defenses in his reign instead of kinda doing hot potato. Let’s just see how it goes and I have no doubt it’ll be a good match.

Rating: Bruce Prichard and a half

Overall: None of the matches from the second round and up were bad at all as they all had solid to great bouts to make each of them all enjoyable. Kento Miyahara was the highlight of the entire tournament since all of his matches were great to see while Yuji Hino and Kengo Mashimo also did a great job in the tournament and I hope to see them come back soon.

Favorite Match: Kento Miyahara vs. Kengo Mashimo

Least Favorite Match: Joe Doering vs. Kengo Mashimo

Score: 8.5/10