All-Japan kicks off the 2025 World’s Strongest Tag League aka Real World Tag League today in Tokyo, the promotion’s annual year-end openweight tag team tournament. It’s going to look a lot different this year as the Saitos are not taking part as Jun Saito opted to voluntarily withdraw and not participate because brother & partner Rei Saito remains out long-term due to injury. That also means it’s more wide open. Most of the field for the round-robin format tournament will be in tournament action today including current All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Xyon & Odyssey, who will eventually defend the titles against the tournament winners if they do not win. Also a notable main event will see the Aoyagi brothers on opposite sides as Yuma Aoyagi teams with Yuma Anzai against Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato.
Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on AJPW.TV in Japanese. The event will also be taped for broadcast on GAORA SPORTS in Japan in about a week. All the matches including a non-tournament match have a 30 minute time limit and there’s an intermission at the halfway point so it probably will wind up having an “average” Korakuen running time of about 2 1/2 hours (although the GAORD broadcast is scheduled for 3+ hours, that would also assume every match goes the distance and the longest possible time of about 3 1/2 hours).
Today’s lineup:
Tag League:
Block B: Xyon & Odyssey vs. Takashi & Kuroshio TOKYO Japan
Block A: Shotaro Ashino & Go Shiozaki vs. Hokuto Omori & Kumaarashi
Jun Saito, MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka vs. Dan Tamura, Ryo Inoue & Shota Kofuji
Intermission
Tag League:
Block A: Hideki Suzuki & Kengo Mashimo vs. Ren Ayabe & Talos
Block B: Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Ryuki Honda & Naoya Nomura
Block B: Yuma Aoyagi & Yuma Anzai vs. Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET. The live stream is scheduled to begin 10 minutes before the event.
6:20 PM PT UPDATE: The live stream has begun. We should be going to the venue in just under 10 minutes.
6:25 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Commentary will begin in a few minutes.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. It’s just under the “new normal” full capacity setup as commentary is in the bleacher seats opposite hard camera. While not an advance sellout from what I know the crowd already looks good, I’ll predict a potential near-sellout of around 1200. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1327)
The matches should begin in 10-15 minutes. During opening announcements they bring out Rei Saito after announcing he will be a guest on commentary today for AJPW.TV.
The event begins with the tag league opening ceremony, where all the participating teams are introduced in the ring.
As it was ending, Kuroshio TOKYO Japan took out Xyon & Odyssey outside the ring, leading to…
Match 1: Block B: Xyon & Odyssey vs. Takashi & Kuroshio TOKYO Japan. 30 minute time limit
Result: Xyon & Odyssey beat Takashi & Kuroshio TOKYO Japan. Xyon pinned Japan after a diving headbutt.
Match 2: Block A: Shotaro Ashino & Go Shiozaki vs. Hokuto Omori & Kumaarashi (with a full head of hair instead of his usual short mohawk). 30 minute time limit
Result: Shotaro Ashino & Go Shiozaki beat Hokuto Omori & Kumaarashi. Shiozaki pinned Omori after Go Lariat.
Match 3: Jun Saito, MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka vs. Dan Tamura, Ryo Inoue & Shota Kofuji. 30 minute time limit
Result: Jun Saito, MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka beat Dan Tamura, Ryo Inoue & Shota Kofuji. Saito pinned Inoue after a chokeslam.
Intermission.
The matches resume at 7:36 PM PT/10:36 PM ET (about a 15 minute break).
Match 4: Block A: Hideki Suzuki & Kengo Mashimo vs. Ren Ayabe & Talos. 30 minute time limit
Result: Ren Ayabe & Talos beat Hideki Suzuki & Kengo Mashimo. Ayabe pinned Suzuki after Des Roulette.
Match 5: Block B: Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Ryuki Honda & Naoya Nomura. 30 minute time limit
Result: Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr. beat Ryuki Honda & Naoya Nomura. Miyahara pinned Honda with a shutdown suplex hold.
Main Event: Block B: Yuma Aoyagi & Yuma Anzai vs. Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato. 30 minute time limit
Result: Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato beat Yuma Aoyagi & Yuma Anzai. Atsuki Aoyagi pinned Yuma Aoyagi after a 450 splash. Almost went the distance (25+ minutes).
The next event is tomorrow at Kira Messe Numazu in Shizuoka. There will be no live broadcast. On demand Sunday at 5 PM PT/8 PM ET. This will also be a Samurai! TV broadcast in Japan on 11/29.