Our buddies in The End (Parrow/Odinson) are still towards the top of the standings. Can they pull it off? Mathew brings us all the AJPW Real World Tag League information.

Welcome back to our coverage of the Real World Tag League and we had a solid show at the last set of shows and we now got three more shows to cover on this one before our final article after this one.

At the end of this coverage, I’ll go over to the bottom of the standings to see who has a chance to make it and who doesn’t, along with how the ones that do can win. Who will become one step closer to winning it all?

Let’s find out as we…dive right in.

12/5/2018
Real World Tag League 2018 Match
KAI & Kengo Mashimo vs. Gianni Valletta & TAJIRI

Review: Our first match of the show and the set of coverage is TAJIRI and Gianni Valletta up to their old tricks again as they now go up against KAI and Kengo Mashimo. KAI and Kengo had a big win over the Violent Giants and they’re still in the race if they could win another one right here or they could fail and get eliminated by TAJIRI and Gianni for them to play the spoiler. Will TAJIRI and Gianni be able to do that or will KAI and Kengo push forward?

Quite a short match but it was entertaining, to say the least. TAJIRI and Gianni attacked KAI and Kengo soon as the bell rang and they would go fight to the outside where Gianni attacked KAI with his chain before bringing him back inside. It was just usually TAJIRI and Gianni doing their typical heel work that you’ve seen in all the other matches that they’ve been involved in while KAI and Kengo would just do their best to fight them off. The only memorable part was when Gianni attempts to use his chain in the match as KAI pulled onto it and all four start to play tug of war with it as it hits the referee. TAJIRI tried to hit Kengo with the kendo stick as Kengo caught it and hits TAJIRI with it and hold him up as KAI accidentally kicked Kengo. TAJIRI would hold KAI in place now as Gianni tries to hit him with a chain and hits TAJIRI by accident now, then it happens with Kengo accidentally hitting KAI and once it went to Gianni holding Kengo, TAJIRI would accidentally spit green mist into Gianni’s eyes and Kengo rolled Gianni up to get another win!

Rating: Tony Schiavone and three quarters

Real World Tag League 2018 Match
Manabu Soya & Takao Omori vs. Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama

Review: Our next match is Get Wild taking on the current World Tag Team Champions, The Violent Giants. Get Wild has suffered two big losses in a row and right now they’re in a not so great spot that if they do lose this match, they will be eliminated from the tournament mathematically. Violent Giants are still in a great position but would be in a tough spot if they do lose here or they win and tie for first place. Can the Violent Giants tie up or will Get Wild steal a win?

Manabu and Suwama started the match off with mostly testing their strengths with a lock-up and trying to tackle each other down as they showed that they’re evenly matched here in this one before they switch it up with the tags. Takao and Shuji had a nice little encounter as well with the strikes but it does seem like Shuji had the advantage before he attempted a Piledriver onto the ring apron and Takao would flip him over so it doesn’t happen. Get Wild started to double team Shuji during the majority of the arm and even worked on his injured shoulder to weaken his offense more.

Suwama gets the hot tag as he enters the ring to hit Manabu with a Lariat and he tries to hit the Last Ride as Takao would hit him before he could even get a chance to as he now fights the both of them off with a series of chops. I did say Suwama can go when he really wants to and he shows it off right here with his performance when he fights Manabu mostly in this match. Violent Giants attempt to hit a Powerbomb onto their opponents as Takao hits the Package Driver onto Suwama while Manabu hits the Death Valley Driver onto Shuji to prevent the powerbomb to happen. Get Wild starts to get fired up with a Double Lariat to Suwama to get him dazed and Manabu picks him up to hit the Death Valley Driver for a two count when Shuji knees him in the face. Violent Giants get some payback with Suwama hitting Manabu with a German Suplex and Shuji hitting a Dragon Suplex which leads to a Dropkick for another two count. Suwama would go for a Backdrop for a two count and quick hits the Backdrop Driver to get the pinfall for Violent Giants to tie for first place while Get Wild is eliminated.

Rating: Eric Bischoff and three quarters

Real World Tag League 2018 Match
Zeus & The Bodyguard vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & Jun Akiyama

Review: Our main event for this show takes place as Daisuke Sekimoto and Jun Akiyama make their return to take on The Big Guns. Daisuke and Uncle Gun are still three wins and losses each with four matches left, so they can play catch-up if they win the next three matches in a row to tie up. The Big Guns are in a tight spot and if they lose this match, they could be eliminated from the tournament, so a win here is needed if they wanna survive. Can The Big Guns get the win or will it belong to the other team?

Another match-up I would love to see would be between Zeus and Daisuke as they started the match off with a test of strength as they shared a good couple of minutes in the ring together to be evenly matched as they tagged in their respective partners. The Bodyguard was doing well holding out on his own against Uncle Jun until Daisuke was able to make a tag back in after a brawl to the outside as the Big Guns would now start to take control of the match. One thing I really enjoyed about this match was basically the wrestling of it as it had an old school Japanese wrestling type of feeling to it while also making it modern enough for the fans to get invested into this type of match, and just having both of these teams tell a story with their wrestling for this match.

When Jun did get the hot tag for the match, it did feel short-lived since he wouldn’t be in the ring for too long as he tagged Daisuke back in for him and Zeus to battle it out once again, and they do with them chopping each other on the turnbuckle. The two would have a staredown before chopping each other a bit more until Zeus got the better of Daisuke as he won the chop battle and attempts to go for the Jackhammer until Daisuke reversed it to hit Zeus with a Suplex. The two would try to take each other down with a Lariat as both men wouldn’t fall down upon impact since they both got enough strength to keep going but it was Zeus who won the battle when he hits a Lariat while jumping before he tagged in Bodyguard. The Big Guns throw Jun out of the ring and would attempt a Double Chokeslam onto Daisuke who fights out of it enough for both Jun and Daisuke to apply their submissions onto their opponents but none of them would tap out.

Jun and Daisuke would try to go for their Wrist-Clutch Exploder and German Suplex combo until Zeus grabbed a hold of Daisuke for Big Guns to hits them with a Brainbuster each to get them down and out for the count. Zeus Chokeslams Daisuke and Bodyguard hits an Elbow Drop for a two count and would then hit a Roundhouse Kick and a Lariat for Daisuke to still kick out of it. The match would come to a close when Daisuke hits Bodyguard with the German Suplex Hold as they stay in the race while The Big Guns are eliminated. Since Daisuke pinned Bodyguard, does he get a future All Asia Heavyweight Championship match? I hope so.

Rating: Bruce Prichard and a quarter

12/6/2018
Real World Tag League 2018 Match
Naoya Nomura & Yumi Aoyagi vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & Jun Akiyama

Review: Our first match on this show is NEXTREAM finally making their return to the tournament and they’re opponents are Daisuke Sekimoto and Jun Akiyama. We all know NEXTREAM are mathematically eliminated from the tournament but they could still stack up on a couple of wins to play spoiler right now. Jun and Daisuke are still in the race for the time being but they would have to win this match to keep the ball rolling for the most part. Can Jun and Daisuke do it or will NEXTREAM get their second win finally?

Jun does have a little score to settle with NEXTREAM too since it was them who defeated him and Yuji Nagata for the All Asia Tag Titles a few months ago, so he would definitely wanna get some type of payback on them, even if it’s with a new partner. One little complaint that I have here is Uncle Jun not really going hard on either of these guys as he did with Yoshitatsu or Jake Lee and you can tell when he was stiffing those guys while in here, just doing it normal and just threw me off a little bit. Despite the little nitpick, still a solid match between the two teams as NEXTREAM got sent to their limits once again with the veteran team to go head to head with them, even giving them a run for their money.

Jun delivering his knee strikes and even a Ko-Oh for a two count and before he would hit Nomura with another knee, Nomura would dodge it and hit a Spear onto Jun. NEXTREAM would do their tag team combo with Nomura hitting a Splash off the top rope and then Yuma hitting an Elbow Drop as Jun kicked out at two. Daisuke is in the ring to help Jun out to hold Yuma still while Jun hits him with a knee for another two count and applies the Guillotine Choke while Daisuke hits the Torture Rack onto Nomura for the double submission but none of them would tap out. Jun would go for the Wrist-Clutch Suplex onto Yuma as Daisuke would hit the German to give Jun that extra boost but both men are knocked out as Daisuke would get Jun’s arm over Yuma to get the pinfall and they’re still in the race!

Rating: Eric Bischoff and a quarter

Real World Tag League 2018 Match
Zeus & The Bodyguard vs. KAI & Kengo Mashimo

Review: Our main event for this show is KAI and Kengo Mashimo taking on The Big Guns. The Big Guns got eliminated from the last show, but they could at least ruin it for other people in this tournament. KAI and Kengo are still in the running and would be tied for first place if they win this match, but they will be eliminated from the tournament if they do lose this match. Will KAI and Kengo get a win or will they suffer The Big Guns?

Kengo and Zeus do have a bit of a score to settle since Kengo was the one who made Zeus tap out in the Oudou Tournament when Zeus was the champion at the time, so Zeus would want a little bit of payback to redeem that loss by taking Kengo out of this tournament. The Big Guns though are just absolutely dominating this match though since they would just get control straight from the beginning after the usual miscommunication between KAI and Kengo, it was mostly Zeus who was doing the work after Bodyguard started the match off. Kengo would once in a while fight Zeus off but Zeus kept overpowering him and showing why he’s one of All Japan’s best here.

Kengo attempt to go for the tag to KAI but Bodyguard runs into the ring to take KAI out and keep Kengo in the ring for Big Guns to do more damage. Kengo would accidentally hit KAI after he tried to come in and help as The Big Guns would hit Kengo with a Double Chokeslam and as Bodyslam made the cover, KAI would break the count before three. We now have Kengo and Bodyguard alone in the ring while Zeus and KAI fight outside as the two would kick each other back and forth as Bodyguard won the kick off…haha get it? He would hit Kengo with a Lariat for a two count and he attempts to go pick him up, but Kengo rolls him up with a Small Package as KAI and Kengo get another win to stay in the race!

Rating: Eric Bischoff and three quarters

12/8/2018
Real World Tag League 2018 Match
Naoya Nomura & Yumi Aoyagi vs. Dylan James & Joe Doering

Review: Our opening match for the final show of this article is NEXTREAM going at it once again as they take on The Bomber. The Bomber are actually in a great spot that they have two more matches left after this one and still ten points under their name, so they could win the whole thing if they win their last three matches and if they did somehow lose one more match, they would still be in the game if they don’t lose another one after. NEXTREAM though could have another win up their sleeve to give them something for the time being. Will NEXTREAM get it or does The Bomber take another victory?

Dylan would attack NEXTREAM after the streamers were thrown into the ring as he started to dominate Nomura in the match. I see that Joe’s shoulder is all healed up too and a little time off was a good idea. The match was short and average as it was just Dylan mostly playing with his food aka beating up Nomura for a couple of minutes. The Bomber would try to go for the Double Piledriver but Yuma would Dropkick Joe before they could even do this and they tried to Double Clothesline Dylan but he hits them both with a Lariat and dominates them once again. Yuma goes for a Crossbody but Dylan catches him as Nomura Dropkicked him down and rolls him up once Yuma moved out of the way as NEXTREAM gets the win after four minutes! As I said before, The Bomber can still win despite the loss but they can’t lose their next match or they’re out.

Rating: Tony Schiavone and a half

Real World Tag League 2018 Match
Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & Jun Akiyama

Review: Our next match is Violent Giants taking on Daisuke Sekimoto and Jun Akiyama. I was wondering when this match was going to happen and I’m glad it’s happening now since we might get some stiff action in this bout. Jun and Daisuke would need to win the match in order to stay alive in the tournament and they’ve been on quite the winning streak lately too, so this would be good for them. If Violent Giants do lose, they would still be in the race since they’re still in first place with one more match left after this. Can Violent Giants win or will we have another team tie for first place?

This match is pretty much how I expected it to go with the old school type of wrestling along with just high impact type of wrestling with four of the top guys in the business. Daisuke being in All Japan pretty much made me want to see certain singles matches, like him against either Shuji or Suwama as he did very well with the both of them in the match with his power to match the both of theirs. Daisuke and Suwama going back and forth outside of the ring was a lot of fun seeing them get aggressive to each other but Suwama would win that battle and the Violent Giants start to take control of the match over Daisuke.

Uncle Jun would finally get a tag into the match as he applies the Guillotine onto Suwama to try and make him tap but the hold would be broken. Suwama would hit the Belly-to-Belly Suplex before tagging Shuji in now as he charges into Jun at the turnbuckle and hits him with a Double Stomp off the second rope for a two count. Daisuke gets back into the ring now to apply the Torture Rack onto Shuji and then throws him into Suwama before he now applies the Sharpshooter until there was a rope break. Shuji and Daisuke go back and forth with a Lariat battle until Violent Giants start to hit a double one onto him and just manhandle Daisuke. Violent Giants go for their Double Powerbomb as they get flipped over and Jun goes for the Exploder Suplex onto Suwama as Daisuke does the German combo to get him out of the ring. Daisuke and Shuji are in the ring going at it as Daisuke would hit one big Lariat and gets the win over Violent Giants!

Rating: Bruce Prichard

Real World Tag League 2018 Match
Kento Miyahara & Yoshitatsu vs. Zeus & The Bodyguard

Review: Our final match for this show and article is The Big Guns taking on Yoshiken. Both of these teams are technically eliminated but they still gotta do the match and I have no doubt they’ll deliver us a fun match. Plus, I get to see Kento and Zeus sharing a ring together again as a little treat for myself. Will Yoshiken get the win at least or will The Big Guns stop their little losing streak for a second time?

We had Kento and Zeus starting the match off here and I’m already hooked into the match as Kento and Zeus sharing the ring is always a treat to see together. There will be a couple of times that Yoshi and Bodyguard will get involved in the match but a good first part of it was mostly Zeus and Kento and I have no problem with that. I really enjoyed this tag match here as all four of them delivered big time here and we got great action from everyone playing their part. Yoshi though really held out his own against Zeus in the match as well and probably one of his better performances in this match-up and hopefully, we can see more of this Yoshi in 2019.

Zeus would attempt to go for the Chokeslam on Yoshi as he powered out of it and Kento would help him out to throw him into the turnbuckle and then Yoshi hits the Tornado DDT for a two count. Zeus is on the turnbuckle as Kento holds his leg still for Yoshi to come up to hits the Superplex as Zeus comes up right away but gets caught in a Spinning Heel Kick. Bodyguard gets in the ring as Yoshiken throw him into the ropes but Bodyguard hits a Clothesline on both of them as he hulks up now and they hit a Double Chokeslam onto Yoshi for a two count. Bodyguard gets Yoshi up on his shoulders to go for a Doomsday Device but Yoshi would duck the Clothesline for Zeus to miss and Kento hits Bodyguard with a Big Boot to get him out of the ring. Kento sees Zeus getting up as he eyes his target for a Blackout to the back of Zeus’ head then hits a German Suplex along with another Blackout with Yoshi topping it off with a Penalty Kick for a one count as Zeus quickly gets back up only to get caught in a Koji Clutch which he tries to break free with Yoshi trying to pin him for a two count. Yoshi gets up quickly to try and hit the Codebreaker of Jericho but Zeus caught him before he could connect and gets him off to hit a Lariat and then hits his Jackhammer as The Big Guns get a win!

Rating: Bruce Prichard

【全日本プロレスTV】
最強タッグも残すところ２大会！
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12月8日大阪大会を見逃し配信中！
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Overall: Only two matches were average while the rest of the matches had solid to great matches. We now have a clear idea of how things can go for the last two shows and six matches remaining, so let’s get those done soon.

Favorite Match: Zeus & The Bodyguard vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & Jun Akiyama

Least Favorite Match: Naoya Nomura & Yumi Aoyagi vs. Dylan James & Joe Doering

Score: 7.5/10

Current Standings
KAI/Kengo: (6-3) (12 Points)
Jun/Daisuke: (6-3) (12 Points)
The End: (6-3) (12 Points)
Violent Giants: (6-3) (12 Points)
The Bomber: (5-3) (10 Points)
Get Wild: (4-5) (8 Points)
Yoshiken: (4-5) (8 Points)
The Big Guns: (4-5) (8 Points)
Sweeper: (3-6) (6 Points)
Gianni/TAJIRI: (3-6) (6 Points)
NEXTREAM: (2-7) (4 Points)

So we see that four people are tied for first place while The Bomber has two matches left to give them enough time to maybe climb up to catch up with the others.

• The End: They can win if The Bomber lose their next match and they beat Violent Giants at the final show, while The End beats Yoshiken.
• Violent Giants: They need to defeat The Bomber while both Jun/Daisuke and KAI/Kengo lose their matches.
• KAI and Kengo: They defeat Sweeper while The End, Jun/Daisuke, and The Bomber lose their matches
• The Bomber: They win their last two matches.
• Jun and Daisuke: They win their last match while The Bomber loses to Violent Giants.

Who do you have winning it all? Let us know on social media @theCHAIRSHOTcom and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!