All-Japan kicks off the Excite Series 2025 Tour today with an event in Tokyo. Continuing a recent theme of rivalries between and among brothers, the main event features an All-Japan World Tag Team Championship match as Jun & Rei Saito defend against Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi. Before that, the card also features an All-Japan World Junior Heavyweight Championship match as MUSASHI defends the title against Hikaru Sato, and Shotaro Ashino & Kumaarashi celebrate their 10th Anniversary by facing each other. The promotion also will announce the entire field for this year’s Champions Carnival Tournament.
Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on AJPW.TV in Japanese. It will also be taped for broadcast on Samurai! TV in Japan at a later date. There are only 6 matches scheduled with an intermission at the halfway point so I expect the event’s running time to be about 2 1/2 hours taking TV taping into account.
Today’s lineup:
Taishin Nagao & Seiki Yoshioka vs. Naruki Doi & Senor Saito
Kento Miyahara, Dan Tamura & Ryo Inoue vs. Hokuto Omori, Aizawa No. 1 & Jack Kennedy
All-Japan World Junior Heavyweight Champion MUSASHI vs. Hikaru Sato for the title
Intermission
Champions Carnival Participants Announcement
Rising Hayato, Yuma Anzai, Ryuki Honda & ReN Ayabe vs. Suwama, Hideki Suzuki, Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura
Shotaro Ashino vs. Kumaarashi
All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Jun & Rei Saito vs. Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi for the titles
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET.
6:30 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Commentary will begin shortly.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. I jumped in a couple minutes late during the opening video so I haven’t seen a crowd shot yet. (Does sound like a good crowd with decent same-day ticket sales today. Possibly over 1000, I’ll guess 1100 to start) (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1276)
The matches will begin shortly.
The matches begin at 6:35 PM PT/9:35 PM ET. Your host is Shoichi (?) Nakamoto.
Match 1: Taishin Nagao & Seiki Yoshioka vs. Naruki Doi & Senor Saito. 20 minute time limit
Result: Naruki Doi & Senor Saito beat Taishin Nagao & Seiki Yoshioka. Doi beat Nagao with a camel clutch.
Doi joins commentary for the next match.
Match 2: Kento Miyahara, Dan Tamura & Ryo Inoue vs. Hokuto Omori, Aizawa No. 1 & Jack Kennedy. 30 minute time limit
Result: Kento Miyahara, Dan Tamura & Ryo Inoue beat Hokuto Omori, Aizawa No. 1 & Jack Kennedy. Miyahara pinned Omori with a shutdown suplex hold.
Inoue joins commentary for the next match, replacing Doi.
Match 3: All-Japan World Junior Heavyweight Champion MUSASHI vs. Hikaru Sato for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: All-Japan World Junior Heavyweight Champion MUSASHI beat Hikaru Sato to retain the title. V1 for MUSASHI. Next up: Seigo Tachibana via recorded video promo.
Intermission.
The event resumes at 7:40 PM PT/10:40 PM ET.
The 2025 Champions Carnival participants are announced to a remix of the main theme song of the classic video game “Space Harrier”:
Block A: Kento Miyahara (defending winner), Jun Saito, Hideki Suzuki, Shotaro Ashino (2023 winner), Kumaarashi, Kengo Mashimo, Zion , Cyrus, Davey Boy Smith Jr.
Block B: Yuma Aoyagi (2022 winner), Rei Saito, Hokuto Omori, Ryuki Honda, Yuma Anzai, Ren Ayabe, Mike D. Vecchio, Aigle Blanc, Madoka Kikuta (Dragon Gate)
The tournament begins on 3/9 and ends on 5/18.
Dan Tamura joins commentary for the next match.
Match 4: Rising Hayato, Yuma Anzai, Ryuki Honda & Ren Ayabe vs. Suwama, Hideki Suzuki, Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura. 30 minute time limit
Result: Suwama, Hideki Suzuki, Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura beat Rising Hayato, Yuma Anzai, Ryuki Honda & Ren Ayabe. Abe beat Hayato.
Match 5: Shotaro Ashino vs. Kumaarashi. 30 minute time limit
Result; Shotaro Ashino beat Kumaarashi by submission
Main Event: All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Jun & Rei Saito vs. Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Result: All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Jun & Rei Saito beat Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi to retain the titles. Jun Saito pinned Yuma Aoyagi after a chokeslam. V8 for the Saitos/champs. Next up: They didn’t even start the post-match promo/comments before Kento Miyahara came out. He mentioned Davey Boy Smith Jr. as a partner. Hinted at the next Korakuen for happening, which would be 3/9. But instead Yuma Aoyagi was sent back to the ring without even getting to the back. More comedy than anything. The Saitos then finished up with more comedy as they have branched out more outside wrestling (even into music now!) before a toast, a snack and of course DOOM!!
The next event is Tuesday at Fujisan Messe in Shizuoka. There will be no live broadcast.
