The second-oldest active promotion in Japan, just about 6 months behind New Japan Pro Wrestling, All-Japan Pro Wrestling held their 50th Anniversary Commemoration Event today. It’s been a tumultuous 2000s for the promotion as it’s struggled mightily the last 20+ years between the death of founder Giant Baba (a legendary Hall of Fame wrestler), the mass defection at the end of the 1990s led by top wrestler Mitsuharu Misawa to form Pro Wrestling NOAH, ownership turmoil and disagreements/mismanagement between owner Motoko Baba (Giant Baba’s widow) and subsequent presidents/executives including Keiji Muto & Jun Akiyama and more, but with support from longtime TV partner GAORA TV and others the promotion has managed to survive. This has been an event several months in the making and it brought the past, present and future of the promotion together.
Today’s event was held at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo and will be available on demand on AJPWTV in Japanese worldwide beginning Thursday at 3 AM PT/6 AM ET. The live broadcast was exclusively on TV Asahi in Japan.
The announced paid attendance was 4780. With capacity limits presumably still in place and at 50% in all likelihood, this is probably at least a super full house, meaning over 90% full. But based on the layout of the venue, there’s a chance this was a legit sellout based on same-day ticket sales. Keiji Muto was a special guest on commentary.
Match 1: Rising Hayato & Ryo Inoue beat Yusuke Kodama & Oji Shiiba. Hayato pinned Shiiba after Shimatani Driver.
Match 2: TAJIRI, Yoshitatsu, Mitsuya Nagai & ATM beat Black Menso-re, Andy Wu, Izanagi & Sushi. Nagai beat Sushi with a Stretch Plum.
Match 3: Saito Brothers Triumphal Match: Jun & Rei Saito & Cyrus beat Shuji Ishikawa, Kohei Sato & Yukio Naya (DDT). Rei Saito pinned Ishikawa after a diving body press.
Match 4: Hikaru Sato & Dan Tamura beat All-Asia Tag Team Champions Minoru & Todhizo to win the titles. Sato & Tamura become the 114th All-Asia Tag Team Champions. Tamura pinned Toshizo after Death Valley Bomb.
Match 5: Minoru Suzuki beat Hokuto Omori.
Match 6: Yuma Anzai Debut Match: Yuji Nagata (New Japan Pro Wrestling) beat Yuma Anzai.
Match 7: Yuma Aoyagi beat Christopher Daniels (All Elite Wrestling).
Match 8: All-Japan 50th Anniversary Match: Masanobu Fuchi, Atsushi Onita & Shiro Koshinaka beat The Great Kojika, Yoshiaki Yatsu & Masao Inoue. Fuchi pinned Inoue after a backdrop.
Match 9: All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Shotaro Ashino & Ryuki Honda beat Takao Omori & Manabu Soya (Pro Wrestling NOAH) to retain the titles. Ashino pinned Omori after Final Vent. V2 for the champs.
Match 10: Atsuki Aoyagi beat All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Tiger Mask (New Japan Pro Wrestling) to win the title. Aoyagi becomes the 63rd All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion.
Match 11: Naoya Nomura beat Jake Lee. As a result, Nomura will face the main event winner tomorrow for the All-Japan Triple Crown.
Main Event: Kento Miyahara beat Triple Crown Champion Suwama to win the Triple Crown. Miyahara becomes the 68th Triple Crown Champion.
The next event is tomorrow at Korakuen Hall. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin TONIGHT at 10:30 PM ET/7:30 PM PT.
