All-Japan kicks off 2024 today with the start of the New Year’s Series 2024. This is the first half of a doubleheader. It should be noted that, at this time, this and all other events this week I am aware of are set to go on as planned despite the major 7.5 earthquake that struck western Japan today (centered in Ishikawa prefecture, northwest of Yokyo). Today’s event features 2 title matches-first up is a GAORA TV Championship match as Minoru Tanaka defends against Black Menso-re, then NEW All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Dan Tamura defends against former partner Hikaru Sato. The main event will be a battle royal with participants TBA later today, so we may not know everyone in it until match time.
The promotion also has announced Shuji Ishikawa is off today’s and tomorrow’s events. Illness. This comes amidst reports from Tokyo Sports that he will leave the promotion at the end of the month amidst apparent disputes with the President of All-Japan.
Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on AJPW.TV, probably in Japanese. Depending on how long some of the matches go, and there is also an “Actress Girls Wrestling” segment planned, it’s hard to predict a potential running time for this event but I’ll guess it’ll be close to 3 hours.
Today’s lineup:
Rising Hayato, Fuminori Abe & Ryo Inoue vs. Naruki Doi, Koji Iwamoto & Takahiro Katori
GAORA TV Champion Minoru Tanaka vs. Black Menso-re for the title
Kento Miyahara, Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Shotaro Ashino, Kuroshio Tokyo Japan & Seigo Tachibana
ActWres Girls Provided Segment
Suwama, Ryuki Honda, Ren Ayabe, Osamu Nishimura & Mitsuya Nagai vs. Minoru Suzuki, Hokuto Omori, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Jun & Rei Saito
Katsuhiko Nakajima & Hideki Suzuki vs. Yuma Anzai & Charlie Dempsey
All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Dan Tamura vs. HIkaru Sato for the title
New Year’s Battle Royal
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET.
6:22 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now…
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Didn’t hear who is on commentary as it started a couple minutes before I jumped on but it sounds like Kagehiro Osano is one of the hosts today. This may be another Samuraii! TV simulcast in Japan. As I Join in the roster comes out for New Year’s greetings from the President of the promotion.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. It’s a Tuesday morning event but I think ti’s a holiday and it looks like a decent crowd so far although most of the bleacher seats aren’t full. I’m going to guess it’ll be in the 800-850 range. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1008, but the promotion has announced that, in the wake of the earthquake, refunds will be offered for fans affected by the disaster who were unable to attend the event and who also cannot make tomorrow’s event)
The matches should begin in a few minutes.
The matches begin at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET.
Match 1: Rising Hayato, Fuminori Abe & Ryo Inoue vs. Naruki Doi (Independent/Freelancer), Koji Iwamoto & Takahiro Katori. 30 minute time limit
Result: Naruki Doi, Koji Iwamoto & Takahiro Katori beat Rising Hayato, Fuminori Abe & Ryo Inoue. Iwamoto pinned Inoue.
After this, Hayato returned to the ring. With micorphone. He said a few words then walked off.
Match 2: GAORA TV Champion Minoru Tanaka vs. Black Menso-re for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Black Menso-re beat GAORA TV Champion Minoru Tanaka to win the title. Menso-re becomes the 24th GAORA TV Champion. That ends what had been the 3rd-longest title reign to date as Tanaka came just 3 weeks short of reigning for a year.
Match 3: Kento Miyahara, Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Shotaro Ashino, Kuroshio Tokyo Japan & Seigo Tachibana. 30 minute time limit
Reslut: Shotaro Ashino, Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana beat Kento Miyahara, Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi. Ashino pinned Atsuki Aoyagi.
An ActWres Girls segment is happening now (starts at 7:23 PM PT/10:23 PM ET). I believe they are a promotion featuring former idols/actresses turned wrestlers. A song/dance number leads to a face-painted girl (Great Asako) coming out slowly, then it leads to a tag match involving some of the girls. There is no commentary for this segment. Asako was pinned and slowly crawled to the back weirdly afterwards. Weird…
Commentary returns for the next match.
Match 4: Suwama, Ryuki Honda, Ren Ayabe, Osamu Nishimura & Mitsuya Nagai (Dradition) vs. Minoru Suzuki, Hokuto Omori, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Jun & Rei Saito. 30 minute time limit
Result: No Contest. Out of control outside the ring and became a brawl all over the place.
Match 5: Katsuhiko Nakajima (Independent/Freelancer) & Hideki Suzuki (Pro Wrestling NOAH) vs. Yuma Anzai & Charlie Dempsey (WWE). 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuma Anzai & Charlie Dempsey beat Katsuhiko Nakajima & Hideki Suzuki. Dempsey pinned Nakajima.
Match 6: All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Dan Tamura vs. HIkaru Sato for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Dan Tamura beat Hikaru Sato by submission to retain the title. V1 for Tamura.
Main Event: New Year’s Battle Royal. Everyone participating including Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato despite just finishing their match, with a few exceptions (Nakajima, Dempsey, Nishimura, Nagai, Smith, Minoru Suzuki, Tanaka, Menso-re) Everyone in the ring to start. Eliminations by pinfall, submission or over the top rope unless otherwise noted. No time limit
Order of elimination: Kento Miyahara, Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi, Shotaro Ashino, Kuroshio TOKYO Japan, Black Menso-re, Seigo Tachibana, Hideki Suzuki, Fuminori Abe, Suwama, Dan Tamura, Koji Iwamoto, Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai DQ’d, Takahiro Katori, Rei Saito, Jun Saito, Naruki Doi, Tuma Anzai, Rising Hayato.
Result: Ryo Inoue wins. He gets a nice little bonus to start 2024.
The next event is tomorrow with Nakajima-Dempsey for the Triple Crown. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET and live results will be posted.
