[5.0] "The first half of this show may just be one of the worst I've seen in a long, long time. BJW rookies vs AJPW rookies was fine, but with limited exchanges. **1/4. The veterans 6-man tag felt 30 minutes long. Same nonsense with Fuchi's massively annoying spots. Nothing of value here. *1/2. Somehow the Hellboy promotional match was even worse. God good this was bad, but at least it was funnybad. Hellboy couldn't wrestle at all, and no one else was allowed to look remotely good as a result. Just trash. *. Tajiri vs Francesco was fine but really dull. Exchanges happened, and the pace was fine, but why would I care about, of all people, Francesco, and why would I care about this random EWA title either? Decent finishing stretch at least. **1/4. James & Kotaro vs Redman & Yoshitatsu was another fine but dull match. Kotaro and Redman looked good at the start, but everything else was just there. **1/4. Suwama & Ishikawa vs Zeus & Sai was pretty good. It was mostly the big, beefy battle you'd expect. Zeus and Ishikawa were the main stars, having some great stiff exchanges reminiscent of their awesome CC match earlier in the year. Suwama and Sai sadly didn't do nearly as much. This was ultimately kind of repetitive with the constant strikes and big bombs, but exciting all the same. ***1/4 - ***1/2. Miyahara vs Nomura was very good, but sadly also the Miyahara special, meaning he just worked the same monotonous formula he always does. Nomura actually brought the intensity and variety I was looking for, and I was strongly supporting him to finally be the one to save me from Miyahara's incredibly overrated reign. Sadly that wouldn't be the case, as Miyahara spammed knees and german suplexes (since he apparently can't do anything else) and eventually even kicked out of the Maximum to quickly hit his Shutdown German for the win. AJPW deserves to fade back into obscurity if they don't push Nomura very soon (or at least de-push Miyahara). ***3/4"

[6.0] "On the twelfth day of Summer Explosion Series my true love gave to me; 12 wrasslers wrasslin, 11 pipers piping, 10 lords a-leaping, Nine ladies dancing, Eight maids a-milking, Seven swans a-swimming, Six geese a-laying, Five golden rings, Four calling birds, Three crappy undercard tag matches, Two decent title matches, and a fucking awesome Miyahara main event."