All-Japan continues their year-opening New Year Excite Series 2024 tour today with a Masanobu Fuchi 50th Anniversary & 70th Birthday event. The septuagenarian and once Jr. Heavyweight legend still makes an occasional appearance here & there but mostly works behind-the-scenes now. He gets the main event treatment today, facing the winner of an 8-man battle royal immediately before that. Also today, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Hokuto Omori get their prize for winning the Real World Tag League at the end of 2023, which is a shot at All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Jun & Rei Saito. A GAORA TV Championship match is also on tap as new champion Black Menso-re defends against Seigo Tachibana.
Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on AJPW.TV in Japanese. There was a last-minute addition of an Actress Girls Provided Match that may be a pre-show match to start the event. Most of the matches are 1 Hour or No Time Limit so it’s hard to predict exactly how long the event will run, but I’m going to guess just under 3 hours.
Today’s lineup:
Pre-Show: Actress Girls Provided Match: Mio (?) & Sakura Mizushima vs. MARU & Anka Iwai (?)
Dan Tamura, Atsuki Aoyagi, Rising Hayato & Ryo Inoue vs. Koji Iwamoto, Kotaro Suzuki, Hikaru Sato & Fuminori Abe
Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Osamu Nishimura vs. Ren Ayabe & Naruki Doi
GAORA TV Champion Black Menso-re vs. Seigo Tachibana for the title
All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Jun & Rei Saito vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Hokuto Omori for the titles
Fuchi Rumble Battle Royal. Staggered entry. Over the top rope eliminations only. Participants: Kento Miyahara, Yuma Aoyagi, Suwama, Shotaro Ashino, Ryuki Honda, Yuma Anzai, Minoru Suzuki, Hideki Suzuki. Order of entry TBA today
Masanobu Fuchi 50th Anniversary & 70th Birthday Match: Masanobu Fuchi vs. the Fuchi Rumble winner
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET.
6:28 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Muted for opening announcements.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. Haven’t gotten a good look at the crowd yet. There we go…Crowd still filing in but looks like a full house/near sellout so probably in the 1300 range.
Actress Girls performance and match opens the event.
Pre-Show: Actress Girls Provided Match: Mii & Sakura Mizushima vs. MARU & Kyoka Iwai
Result: Mii & Sakura Mizushima beat MARU & Kyoka Iwai. Mii pinned MARU with a rollup.
Before the event officially begins, Masanobu Fuchi comes out. A video package of congratulatory messages for Fuchi, including from Kenta Kobashi, is played. Then Atsushi Onita comes out with a couple of fellow dignitaries for the customary flower presentations to Fuchi. Onita is almost certainly headed to Kanagawa right after this for the DDT event he is part of.
The matches begin at 7:02 PM PT.
Match 1: Dan Tamura, Atsuki Aoyagi, Rising Hayato & Ryo Inoue vs. Koji Iwamoto, Kotaro Suzuki, Hikaru Sato & Fuminori Abe. 30 minute time limit
Result: Koji Iwamoto, Kotaro Suzuki, Hikaru Sato & Fuminori Abe beat Dan Tamura, Atsuki Aoyagi, Rising Hayato & Ryo Inoue. Iwamoto pinned Tamura.
Match 2: Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Osamu Nishimura vs. Ren Ayabe & Naruki Doi (independent/Freelancer). 30 minute time limit
Result: Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Osamu Nishimura beat Ren Ayabe & Naruki Doi. Kuroshio pinned Ayabe. As usual Kuroshio’s entrance probably went longer than the whole match.
Match 3: GAORA TV Champion Black Menso-re vs. Seigo Tachibana for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Seigo Tachibana beat GAORA TV Champion Black Menso-re to win the title. Tachibana becomes the 25th GAORA TV Champion. That was the 3rd-shortest title reign to date at just 12 days. And just one day shorter than the 4th shortest.
Match 4: All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Jun & Rei Saito vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Hokuto Omori for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Result: All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Jun & Rei Saito beat Katsuhiko Nakajima & Hokuto Omori to retain the titles. Rei Saito pinned Nakajima after an open palm lariat. V3 for the champs. The fact that Nakajima was the one beaten here is HUGE. I can see Rei making a challenge to Nakajima if he retains the Trriple Crown against Shotaro Ashino later this month.
Rising Hayato joins commentary.
Match 5: Fuchi Rumble Battle Royal. Staggered entry. Over the top rope eliminations only. Participants: Kento Miyahara, Yuma Aoyagi, Suwama, Shotaro Ashino, Ryuki Honda, Yuma Anzai, Minoru Suzuki, Hideki Suzuki. No time limit
Order of entry: Yuma Anzai, Ryuki Honda, Hideki Suzuki, Yuma Aoyagi, Shotaro Ashino, Kento Miyahara, Minoru Suzuki, Suwama.
Order of elimination: Honda by Miyahara, Suwama by Hideki Suzuki, Hideki Suzuki by Aoyagi, Aoyagi by Ashino, Ashino by Miyahara, Minoru Suzuki by Anzai, Miyahara by Anzai
Result: Yuma Anzai wins. As a result, Anzai will face Masanobu Fuchi in the main event. Which led to…
Main Event: Masanobu Fuchi 50th Anniversary & 70th Birthday Match: Masanobu Fuchi vs. Yuma Anzai. No time limit
Result: Yuma Anzai beat Masanobu Fuchi
The next event is 1/27 at Esforta Arena Hachioji in Tokyo with Nakajima vs. Ashino for the Triple Crown and Tamura vs. Iwamoto for the All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Championship. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin on 1/26 at 11 PM PT/2 AM ET.
