All-Japan continues the AJPW maniaX tour today with another big event headlined by 2 title matches and a heavy New Japan Pro Wrestling presence. In addition to other participation the main event sees Yuji Nagata, the strongest 54 years old who will do his best every day, attempting to become another career grand slammer when he challenges Kento Miyahara for the Triple Crown. Before that, Atsuki Aoyagi defends the All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Championship against Naruki Doi, who is becoming a belt collector among freelancers. Every other match except one will have a New Japan presence.
Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on AJPW.TV in Japanese. This likely will be a Samurai! TV simulcast and because of how music rights are with AJPW streams expect a lot of muted entrances/post-matches. If, like me, you plan to split-screen because this event is the same time as New Japan’s US event, you’ll be doing it the whole time as I expect this event’s runtime will be 2 1/2-3 hours.
Today’s lineup:
Hikaru Sato, Dan Tamura & Oji Shiiba vs. Kotaro Suzuki, Rising Hayato & Ryo Inoue
Shotaro Ashino, Ryuki Honda & Masao Hanabata vs. Yoshitatsu, Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato
Shuji Ishikawa, Ren Ayabe & Oskar Leube vs. Takao Omori, Toru Yano & Black Menso-re
Suwama, Jun & Rei Saito vs. Yuto Nakashima, Ryohei Oiwa & Kosei Fujita
Yuma Anzai vs. Shingo Takagi
Yuma Aoyagi & Naoya Nomura vs. Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori
All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Naruki Doi for the title
All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Kento Miyahara vs. Yuji Nagata for the Triple Crown
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 9:30 PM ET/6:30 PM PT.
9:30 PM ET UPDATE: Waiting for the live stream to begin, which should be momentarily.
And a moment after this update…
We are LIVE form Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. As usual we start with audio muted.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. It’s not a sellout from the opening shots but looks like a very good crowd and full capacity. Likely in the 1200-1300 range.
We have one of New Japan’s ring announcers on the job today.
Match 1: Hikaru Sato, Dan Tamura & Oji Shiiba vs. Kotaro Suzuki, Rising Hayato & Ryo Inoue. 15 minute time limit
Result: Kotaro Suzuki, Rising Hayato & Ryo Inoue beat Hikaru Sato, Dan Tamura & Oji Shiiba. Hayato pinned Shiiba. After the match, Sato foolishly attempted to attack the winners and got a quick beatdown for it.
Match 2: Shotaro Ashino, Ryuki Honda & Masao Hanabata vs. Yoshitatsu, Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato. 15 minute time limit. New Japan/Yoshitatsu entrance muted
Result: Yoshitatsu, Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato beat Shotaro Ashino, Ryuki Honda & Masao Hanabata. Wato pinned Hanabata with a German suplex hold.
Match 3: Shuji Ishikawa, Ren Ayabe & Oskar Leube vs. Takao Omori, Toru Yano & Black Menso-re. 20 minute time limit
Result: Shuji Ishikawa, Ren Ayabe & Oskar Leube beat Takao Omori, Toru Yano & Black Menso-re. Ishikawa pinned Omori.
Match 4: Suwama, Jun & Rei Saito vs. Yuto Nakashima, Ryohei Oiwa & Kosei Fujita. 30 minute time limit
Result: Suwama, Jun & Rei Saito beat Yuto Nakashima, Ryohei Oiwa & Kosei Fujita. Suwama pinned Nakashima after a backdrop.
A special All-Japan vs. GLEAT event is announced for 3/18 at Korakuen Hall. Matches include a 10-person tag match (mixed because Michiko Miyagi is part of it), Hokuto Omori vs. Jun Tonsho, Shotaro Ashino & Ryuki Honda vs. Takanori Ito & Issei Onitsuka, HIkaru Sato/Dan Tamura/Naoya Nomura vs. Minoru Tanaka/Soma Watanabe/Seiichi Ikemoto, Suwama/Saito Bros vs. Hayato Tamura/KAZMA SAKAMOTO/Check Shimatani, Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Kaito Ishida, an 8-man tag of AJPW vs. #STRONGHEARTS,
The participants for the 2023 Champions Carnival (4/8-5/7) are announced:
A Block-Yuma Aoyagi, Jun Saito, Yoshitatsu, Ryuki Honda, Cyrus, T-Hawk (GLEAT), Kento Miyahara, X (TBA)
B Block-Yuma Anzai, Suwama, Rei Saito, Shuji Ishikawa, Shotaro Ashino, Hokuto Omori, Naoya Nomura, X (TBA)
Match 5: Yuma Anzai vs. Shingo Takagi. 30 minute time limit
Result: Shingo Takagi beat Yuma Anzai by submission. (Note: I missed a couple minutes of this match midway through due to technical issues as the stream froze and locked up my tablet I was streaming on. Had to restart my tablet)
Match 6: Yuma Aoyagi & Naoya Nomura vs. Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori. 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuma Aoyagi & Naoya Nomura beat Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori. Aoyagi beat Omori with a modified guillotine choke. Afterwards Nomura called Suzuki back out and got a beatdown for it, and one of the ringside ushers got a chair shot from Suzuki too.
Match 7: All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Naruki Doi for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Naruki Doi beat All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Atsuki Aoyagi to win the title. Doi becomes the 64th All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion. Next up: Possibly Rising Hayato, who came out to issue the challenge.
Main Event: All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Kento Miyahara vs. Yuji Nagata for the Triple Crown. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Yuji Nagata beat All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Kento Miyahara to win the Triple Crown. Nagata becomes the 69th All-Japan Triple Crown Champion. Career Grand Slam! Nagata now has held the top title in all of the Big 3 (New Japan, All-Japan, Pro Wrestling NOAH) in his career. Next up: Possibly Shuji Ishikawa, who came out to make the customary challenge before Nagata finished his post-victory promo with an Antonio Inoki shout/salute to end the show.
The next event is 2/26 at Green Dome Maebashi Sub-Event Area in Gunma. There will be no live broadcast. Video will be available on demand on AJPW.TV later that day.
UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1405.
