All-Japan wrapped up the Champions Carnival 2023 Tournament today with an incredibly unlikely Final, which would likely determine who gets the next shot at Yuji Nagata for the Triple Crown.
Today’s event was held at Ota City General Gym in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on AJPW.TV.
The announced paid attendance was 2437. They didn’t specifically say this but that probably was at least a full house/near sellout.
Match 1: Yuto Nakashima, Ryohei Oiwa & Kosei Fujita (New Japan Pro Wrestling) beat Ryuki Honda, Ryo Inoue & Oji Shiiba. Fujita beat Inoue with a chicken wing.
Match 2: Atsuki Aoyagi, Rising Hayato & El Lindaman (GLEAT) beat Kaito Ishida (GLEAT), Kotaro Suzuki & Yutani (GLEAT). Aoyagi pinned Suzuki after Firebird Splash.
Match 3: Sayaka Unagi, SAKI & Yoshitatsu beat Hikaru Sato, Kaori Yoneyama & Yuu. SAKI pinned Yoneyama after a diving knee drop.
Match 4: Shuji Ishikawa, Cyrus, Ren Ayabe & Oskar Leube (New Japan) beat Yuji Nagata (New Japan), Satoshi Kojima, Mitsuya Nagai (Dradition) & Black Menso-re. Ishikawa pinned Menso-re after Fire Thunder.
Match 5: Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori beat Yuma Aoyagi & Takao Omori. Suzuki pinned Omori after a Gotch-style piledriver.
Match 6: All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Naruki Doi beat Dan Tamura to retain the title. V2 for Doi.
Match 7: KONO beat Manabu Soya (Pro Wrestling NOAH) by submission.
Match 8: Suwama, Jun & Rei Saito beat Kenoh, Hajime Ohara & Hi69 (Pro Wrestling NOAH). Suwama pinned Ohara after Last Ride.
Match 9: Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI (New Japan) beat Kento Miyahara & Yuma Anzai. Naito pinned Anzai after Destino.
Main Event: Champions Carnival Finals: Shotaro Ashino beat T-Hawk by submission to win the tournament. As a result, Ashino will face Triple Crown Champion Yuji Nagata for the Triple Crown. That match will happen on 5/29 at Korakuen Hall.
The next event is 5/13 at Volfert Toyama in Toyama, which likely will be headlined by a Jumbo Tsuruta Memorial Match in which all 6 participants are current or former Triple Crown Champions. Broadcast plans TBA.
