All-Japan’s second event of their Hokkaido weeklong tour-ending doubleheader featured a Triple Crown main event with the debut of former Pro Wrestling NOAH star Katsuhiko Nakajima in the promotion.
Today’s event was held at Hotel Emisia Sapporo in Hokkaido and can be watched on demand on AJPW.TV.
The announced paid attendance was 797.
Match 1: Match 1: Takao Omori & Yoshitatsu beat Hikaru Sato & Shota Sidney Stevens (?). Omori pinned Stevens after Ax Bomber.
Match 2: Koji Yoshida & Kumagoro Hokkai beat Black Menso-re & Takyua Dou (?). Yoshida pinned Menso-re after Certified Inazuma Leg Roll.
Match 3: Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori beat Suwama & Ryo Inoue. Suzuki pinned Inoue after a Gotch-style piledriver.
Match 4: Shuji Ishikawa & Ren Ayabe beat Jun & Rei Saito. Ayabe pinned Jun Saito after Last Shooting. This had me thinking future rematch for the All-Japan World Tag Team Championship, but their annual year-end tag team tournament is next, so not happening. Yet. They are both in the tournament though, so it could still happen.
Match 5: Dan Tamura, Rising Hayato & Jonathan Gresham beat Atsuki Aoyagi, El Lindaman & Fuminori Abe. Hayato pinned Abe after Sid Vicious.
Match 6: Kento Miyahara & T-Hawk beat Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai. Miyahara pinned Honda with a shutdown suplex hold.
Main Event: Katsuhiko Nakajima beat All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Yuma Aoyagi to win the Triple Crown. Nakajima becomes the 71st All-Japan Triple Crown Champion. Not with one of his usual NOAH finishers though…Northern Lights bomb. Immediate impact though, went from crashing a press conference and demanding a title shot as an “invasion” to backing it up. Sounds like All-Japan will be his new home, at least for now.
Next up is the Real World Tag League, the promotion’s annual year-end tag team tournament, starting on 11/12 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. This year’s tournament has 10 teams competing in a traditional round-robin format, with the finals being held on 12/12 at Korakuen. After the 12/12 matches, the team with the most points wins. If there is a tie atop the standings, a tiebreaker match will be held to determine the winners.
The entered teams: Jun & Rei Saito (current All-Japan World Tag Team Champions), Yuma Aoyagi & Kento Miyahara, Shuji Ishikawa & Ren Ayabe, Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai, Suwama & Hideki Suzuki, Yukio Sakaguchi & Hideki Okatani (DDT), Hayato Tamura & Galeno Del Mar (GLEAT), Kuroshio Tokyo Japan (Jiro Kuroshio/Ikemen Jiro) & Seigo Tachibana, Cyrus & Ryan Danielson (this is not a typo and not Bryan Danielson), TBA & TBA.
For the 11/12 event, live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin Saturday at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET and live results will be posted here.
UPDATE: Next up for the Triple Crown…OH. SNAP. Miyahara. That match will happen on 12/31. Explosive closing out to 2023!
