All-Japan wraps up the World’s Strongest Tag League today with the Semifinals and Finals. The Semifinals will lead off the event as Block A & B winners face the opposite block runners-up. First up will be Block B winners Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Block A runners-up Rising Hayato & Yuma Anzai. The second Semifinal will be Block A winners and sole unbeatens so far Jun & Rei Saito vs. Block B runners-up Ryuki Honda & Ren Ayabe. The winners will meet in the Finals in the main event and the eventual champions will get a potential rematch with the Saitos for the All-Japan World Tag Team Championship. Unless, of course, the Saitos win as they are the current champions. There will also be a GAORA TV Championship match before the main event.
Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on AJPW.TV in Japanese. Atsuki Aoyagi, who is currently out due to injury, will be a special guest on commentary. It will also be available at a later date (12/19) on GAORA SPORTS in Japan. The event is a legit advance sellout including standing room. There will be an intermission after the 4th match. The GAORA SPORTS broadcast is scheduled for a total of 3 1/2 hours so whether or not that includes intermission and other happenings is hard to day, but with 3 matches being no time limit I think it’s safe to predict the running time will be close to 3 hours, so if you plan to watch today’s New Japan event live you may need to split-screen at the beginning of that.
Today’s lineup:
World’s Strongest Tag League Semifinals:
Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Rising Hayato & Yuma Anzai
Jun & Rei Saito vs. Ryuki Honda & Ren Ayabe
Ryo Inoue, Daisuke Sekimoto & Kengo Mashimo vs. Shotaro Ashino, Dan Tamura & Taishin Nagao
Makoto Oishi, Mike D. Vecchio & Senor Saito vs. MUSASHI, Seiki Yoshioka & Kuroshio TOKYO Japan
Intermission
Hokuro Omori, Kumaarashi, Cyrus, Hartley Jackson & Jack Kennedy vs. Suwama, Yuma Aoyagi, Hideki Suzuki, Fuminori Abe & Hikaru Sato
GAORA TV Champion Seigo Tachibana vs. Yuko Miyamoto for the title
World’s Strongest Tag League Finals
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET.
6:25 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Commentary will begin when the matches do with our host whose name I will hopefully catch, along with Kagehiro Osano and special guest Atsuki Aoyagi.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. It’s a legit advance sellout including standing room so the actual number will depend on the setup but 1500+ is virtually guaranteed. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance, a legit advance sellout, was 1517)
The matches should begin in 10-15 minutes.
The matches begin at 6:33 PM PT/9:33 PM ET.
Match 1: World’s Strongest Tag League Semifinals: Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Rising Hayato & Yuma Anzai. No time limit
Result: Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr. beat Rising Hayato & Yuma Anzai. Miyahara pinned Anzai with a shurdown suplex hold. As a result, Miyahara & Smith advance to the Finals, where they will face the winners of the next match in the main event.
Match 2: World’s Strongest Tag League Semifinals: Jun & Rei Saito (now clean-shaven, no more goatee) vs. Ryuki Honda & Ren Ayabe. No time limit
Result: Jun & Rei Saito beat Ryuki Honda & Ren Ayabe. .Rei Saito pinned Ayabe after BBQ Bomb. As a result, the Saitos advance to the Finals and will face Miyahara & Smith in the main event.
Match 3: Ryo Inoue, Daisuke Sekimoto & Kengo Mashimo vs. Shotaro Ashino, Dan Tamura & Taishin Nagao. 30 minute time limit
Result: Ryo Inoue, Daisuke Sekimoto & Kengo Mashimo beat Shotaro Ashino, Dan Tamura & Taishin Nagao. Sekimoto beat Nagao with a Boston crab.
Match 4: Makoto Oishi, Mike D. Vecchio & Senor Saito vs. MUSASHI, Seiki Yoshioka & Kuroshio TOKYO Japan. 30 minute time limit
Result: :Makoto Oishi, Mike D. Vecchio & Senor Saito beat MUSASHI, Seiki Yoshioka & Kuroshio TOKYO Japan. Vecchio pinned MUSASHI after a moonsault press. This may be Vecchio’s last appearance for now with the tour over and he got a great ovation from the crowd to wrap up his All-Japan debut.
After a brief video, Atsuki Aoyagi leaves commentary to hit the ring for the announcement-he will return to action on 12/31. And did some flips & cartwheels to show he apparently is 100% healthy again. He then returned to commentary.
Intermission. Updates will resume after the break.
The matches resume at 7:50 PM PT/10:50 PM ET.
Announced for 12/31 is Dan Tamura vs. Daisuke Sekimoto (corrected, not Taishin Nagao) then announced for 1/2 is Nagao vs. Suwama and a battle royal. On 1/3 is Yuma Anzai vs. Shotaro Ashino.
Match 5: Hokuro Omori, Kumaarashi, Cyrus, Hartley Jackson & Jack Kennedy vs. Suwama, Yuma Aoyagi, Hideki Suzuki, Fuminori Abe & Hikaru Sato. 30 minute time limit. And apparently Daisuke Sekimoto is one of the “ring boys” for this match…
Result: Suwama, Yuma Aoyagi, Hideki Suzuki, Fuminori Abe & Hikaru Sato beat Hokuro Omori, Kumaarashi, Cyrus, Hartley Jackson & Jack Kennedy. Aoyagi beat Kumaarashi with a modified guillotine choke. Afterwards, Aoyagi with microphone. Challenge issued for the All-Japan 6-Man Tag Team Championship with Abe & Sato as his partners. Accepted by Omori as Suzuki & Suwama left doing their usual odd couple bickering. Then more comedy as the challengers-to-be stole the belts before taking off.
Match 6: GAORA TV Champion Seigo Tachibana vs. Yuko Miyamoto for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Yuko Miyamoto beat GAORA TV Champion Seigo Tachibana to win the title. Miyamoto becomes the 28th GAORA TV Champion.
Main Event: World’s Strongest Tag League Finals: Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Jun & Rei Saito. No time limit
Result: Jun & Rei Saito beat Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr. to win the tournament. Jun Saito pinned Miyahara after a chokeslam. A perfect run for the Saitos as they didn’t lose a single match. Since this means no All-Japan World Tag Team Championship shot for the winners as the Saitos hold the belt, Jun Saito instead called Smith back out to issue a Triple Crown challenge. Accepted for 1/31. Afterwards, the Saitos finished their in-ring celebration to end the show. (Correction: 12/31 if it happens as mentioned, not 1/31)
The next event is 12/15 at AQUASTUDIO in Chiba. There will be no live broadcast.
