All-Japan kicked off their 2023 today with their first New Year’s series event, featuring a slightly different look as a few stars departed at the end of last year, most notably former 2-time Triple Crown Champion Jake Lee (who apparently showed up in Pro Wrestling NOAH yesterday).
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on AJPW.TV.
The announced paid attendance was 1055. That sounds close to a sellout depending on the layout.
Match 1: Ryuki Honda, Yusuke Kodama & Masao Hanabata beat Dan Tamura, Ryo Inoue & Yuma Anzai. Honda pinned Inoue after Final Vent.
Match 2: Takao Omori, Rising Hayato & Kaz Hayashi (GLEAT) beat Yoshitatsu, Black Menso-re & Mitsuya Nagai (Dradition). Hayashi pinned Menso-re after Final Cut.
Match 3: Minoru Suzuki & Naruki Doi beat Shuji Ishikawa & Hokuto Omori. Suzuki pinned Omori after a Gotch-style piledriver.
Match 4: Yuma Aoyagi & Naoya Nomura beat Jun & Rei Saito. Aoyagi pinned Jun with Staff Roll. As a result, Aoyagi & Nomura get the next All-Japan World Tag Team Championship match after today.
Match 5: All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Atsuki Aoyagi beat Hikaru Sato to retain the title. V3 for Aoyagi.
Match 6: Kento Miyahara & Takuya Nomura beat All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Suwama & KONO to win the titles. Miyahara & Nomura become the 93rd All-Japan World Tag Team Champions. Nomura beat KONO with a sleeper hold. Next up: Because of their win earlier, Yuma Aoyagi & Naoya Nomura.
Main Event: Takuya Nomura won a 17-man New Year Battle Royal, last eliminating Ryo Inoue.
The next event is Tuesday with an All-Asia Tag Team Championship match and Takuya Nomura vs. Miyahara for the Triple Crown. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin at 9:30 PM ET/6:30 PM PT. Live results are scheduled here but that is dependent on the widespread cable/internet outage in my area being resolved in time (I’m not optimistic).
In other news, the promotion announced that Shotaro Ashino, who suffered an injury during the World’s Strongest Tag League, will return on 1/22.
