All-Japan wraps up 2024 today with their year-end New Year’s Eve major event in Tokyo. It’s more of a celebratory/variety event to wrap up their 50th Anniversary year but there also are 2 title matches plus the return of Atsuki Aoyagi from a long absence due to injury. In the first title match, All-Asia Tag Team Champions Rising Hayato & Yuma Anzai defend the titles against Kento Miyahara & Ryo Inoue, while in the main event Davey Boy Smith Jr. makes his first defense of the Triple Crown against Jun Saito, who looks to cap quite a year for the Saitos, as despite Rei Saito missing time due to injury which forced them to vacate the tag team titles they held at the time it’s clear Jun & Rei Saito are the team to beat in All-Japan, and maybe all of Japan, as long as they stay healthy. Forget they didn’t debut until their mid-30s in 2023, the former sumo wrestlers clearly have become THE TEAM.
There was one late change made to the card after the final announcements: The planned 10-man battle royal is now an 11-man battle royal with the “emergency addition” of Ultimo Dragon to the match.
Today’s event will be held at Yoyogi National Stadium Gym 2 in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on AJPW.TV in Japanese. This will also be a live Samurai! TV broadcast in Japan. There will be an intermission just past the halfway point so the event will run a little longer than anticipated-I’m hoping not too long because I’m staying up later than usual to do this as I have to physically go to work early tomorrow so I’m hoping it doesn’t run as long as I predict it will go, which is about 3 hours (also may be affected by this being an early afternoon weekday event in Japan).
Today’s lineup:
MUSASHI, Seiki Yoshioka & Taishin Nagao vs. Yuko Miyamoto, Seigo Tachibana & Fuminori Abe
11 Man Battle Royal. Staggered entry (every minute after the first 2), eliminations by pinfall, submission, KO and over the top rope. Participants: Suwama, Hideki Suzuki, Hikaru Sato, Shotaro Ashino, Kumaarashi, Aizawa No. 1, Hartley Jackson, Kunagoro Hokkai, Kuroshio TOKYO Japan, Minoru Suzuki, Ultimo Dragon
Dan Tamura vs. Daisuke Sekimoto
Rei Saito, Naruki Doi & Senor Saito vs. Hokuto Omori, Cyrus & Jack Kennedy
Intermission
Atsuki Aoyagi Return Match: Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Ryuki Honda & Ren Ayabe
All-Asia Tag Team Champions Rising Hayato & Yuma Anzai vs. Kento Miyahara & Ryo Inoue for the titles
All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Jun Saito for the Triple Crown
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 9 PM PT/midnight ET. The live stream is scheduled to begin 10 minutes prior to the event and go to the venue 1 minute before the event.
8:50 PM PT UPDATE: The live stream has started. We should be going to the venue in 10 minutes.
9 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Yoyogi National Stadium Gym 2 in Tokyo, Japan. Audio is muted when we begin.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. Advance ticket sales were good and most if not all the lower level seats are sold out, upper level is a mixed bag. I think the full capacity for wrestling is around 3500, my initial prediction will be around 2500. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 2503. Nailed it!)
The matches should begin in a few minutes after the opening video. Commentary will also join at that point.
The matches begin at 9:06 PM PT/12:06 AM ET. Your hosts are an unannounced commentator (didn’t hear his name) and Kagehiro Osano.
Match 1: MUSASHI, Seiki Yoshioka & Taishin Nagao vs. Yuko Miyamoto (666), Seigo Tachibana & Fuminori Abe. 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuko Miyamoto, Seigo Tachibana & Fuminori Abe beat MUSASHI, Seiki Yoshioka & Taishin Nagao. Abe beat Nagao.
MUSASHI is now a guest on commentary.
Match 2: 11 Man Battle Royal. Staggered entry (every minute after the first 2), eliminations by pinfall, submission, KO and over the top rope. Participants: Suwama, Hideki Suzuki, Hikaru Sato, Shotaro Ashino, Kumaarashi, Aizawa No. 1, Hartley Jackson, Kunagoro Hokkai, Kuroshio TOKYO Japan, Minoru Suzuki, Ultimo Dragon. No time limit
Order of entry: Suwama, Hideki Suzuki, Hikaru Sato, Shotaro Ashino, Aizawa No. 1, Kumaarashi, Hartley Jackson, Kumagoro Hokkai, Kuroshio TOKYO Japan (the match may be over before he ever gets done with his entrance!), Minoru Suzuki, Ultimo Dragon.
Order of elimination: Aizawa by Dragon (pinfall), Dragon by everyone (pinfall), Jackson by everyone (over the top rope), Hokkai by everyone (pinfall), Ashino & Kumaarashi by everyone (pinfall), Kuroshio by everyone (submission), Sato by Minoru Suzuki (submission), Hideki Suzuki by Minoru Suzuki (pinfall), Minoru Suzuki by Suwama (over the top rope).
Result: Suwama won. Suzuki grabbed a nearby guardrail and took his frustration out on Taishin Nagao afterwards.
Match 3: Dan Tamura vs. Daisuke Sekimoto (Big Japan). 30 minute time limit
Result: Daisuke Sekimoto beat Dan Tamura
After the entrances for the next match, Kumaarashi joins commentary.
Match 4: Rei Saito, Naruki Doi & Senor Saito vs. Hokuto Omori, Cyrus & Jack Kennedy. 30 minute time limit
Reslut: Hokuto Omori, Cyrus & Jack Kennedy beat Rei Saito, Naruki Doi & Senor Saito. Omori pinned Senor Saito after a frog splash. However, based on apparent fan support which apparently made this like an Open The Owarai Gate Championship match in Dragon Gate, where fan support determines the real winners, the Saitos & Doi were declared the winners.
Intermission. A moment after it begins we go to backstage comments from the Saitos & Doi after the last match. This is then followed by Omori Army backstage comments.
The matches resume at 10:45 PM PT/1:45 AM ET.
Match 5: Atsuki Aoyagi Return Match: Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Ryuki Honda & Ren Ayabe. 30 minute time limit
Result: Ryuki Honda & Ren Ayabe beat Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi. Honda pinned Atsuki Aoyagi after Final Vent.
Match 6: All-Asia Tag Team Champions Rising Hayato & Yuma Anzai vs. Kento Miyahara & Ryo Inoue for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Result: All-Asia Tag Team Champions Rising Hayato & Yuma Anzai beat Kento Miyahara & Ryo Inoue to retain the titles. Anzai pinned Inoue after Gimlet. V2 for the champs.
Main Event: All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Jun Saito for the Triple Crown. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Jun Saito beat All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Davey Boy Smith Jr. to win the Triple Crown. Jun Saito becomes the 75th All-Japan Triple Crown Champion. UPSET ALERT!!! What an end to 2024. The Saitos are now in almost total control of All-Japan, although maybe not for long as they do have an All-Japan World Tag Team Championship defense later this week. But until then…DOOM!!!
The next event, the first of 2025, is Thursday at Korakuen Hall. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin Wednesday at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET.
UPDATE: There was an Actress Girls segment and match held before AJPW.TV went live…
Pre-show match: Marino Saihara & Natsuki beat Akuto & Riko Fukunaga. Natsuki pinned Fukunaga after Midnight Sun.
Also, at Thursday’s event new trainees/wrestlers will be introduced to the crowd.
Friday’s event at Korakuen (Thursday at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET, also live on AJPW.TV) will also be a Samurai! TV broadcast in Japan.
