All-Japan wraps up 2023 with their annual New Year’s Eve blowout event, and it’s definitely blowout in terms of magnitude. That’s largely because of the main event, which will see Katsuhiko Nakajima, who showed up in All-Japan a couple months ago after leaving Pro Wrestling NOAH, defend the triple crown against his eternal rival, Kento Miyahara, in what should be nothing short of an instant classic. Other highlight matches include All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion El Lindaman defending against Dan Tamura, who earned his chance by winning the recent Jr. Battle Of Glory, the return of Davey Boy Smith Jr. to the promotion and the All-Japan debut of Charlie Dempsey, the son of the legendary William Regal, before he gets a Triple Crown opportunity against today’s main event winner. Early on will also see Takao Omori’s last match before he departs the promotion for a second time, but likely isn’t retiring, and a top rookie final that’s a family affair because it will be Jun & Rei Saito facing each other.
Before the event begins, there will be a memorial ceremony in the ring for former Japanese wrestler Killer Khan. Word broke from New Japan and All-Japan that Khan died yesterday (US time) at age 77. This is scheduled for 15 minutes before the event is to start.
Today’s event will be held at Yoyogi National Stadium Gym 2 in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on AJPW.TV, presumably in Japanese. AND, for the first time ever, I think, it will be LIVE on Triller TV, fka FITE, for TrillerTV+ subscribers, also in Japanese and available worldwide except in Japan. That service is $7.99/month of $79.99/year. It’s not yet known if the Khan memorial ceremony will be broadcast. As a blowout event and with a main event that would not shock me if it goes the full 1 hour, prepare for a potential all-nighter as I anticipate the event’s total running time will be close to 4 hours.
Today’s lineup (in order):
Black Menso-re, Takuya Nomura & Fuminori Abe vs. Minoru Tanaka, Naruki Doi & Koji Iwamoto
Takao Omori Final All-Japan Match: Takao Omori, Ryuki Honda & Ryo Inoue vs. Mitsuya Nagai, Koji Doi & Kuma Arashi
Yuma Aoyagi & Yoshitatsu vs. Shuji Ishikawa & Ren Ayabe
Jun Saito vs. Rei Saito
Shotaro Ashino Return Match: Shotaro Ashino & T-Hawk vs. Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana
Charlie Dempsey & Yuma Anzai vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & LEONA (Dradition)
Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato vs. Yuki Ueno & Toi Kojima (DDT)
All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion El Lindaman vs. Dan Tamura for the title
Suwama, Hideki Suzuki & Hikaru Sato vs. Minoru Suzuki, Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Hokuto Omori
All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Kento Miyahara for the Triple Crown
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 8:45 PM PT/11:45 PM ET. If the Killer Khan memorial is not broadcast, then updates will begin 15 minutes later or once the live stream begins. The Triller+ broadcast is to begin at 9 PM PT/midnight ET so that part likely will not be seen there. I will be watching on AJPW.TV.
8:44 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Yoyogi National Stadium Gym 2 in Tokyo, Japan. Audio muted to start.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. All the lower level seating is sold out so we’ll see how the upper level seating sold. IT sounds like the final number should be between 2500-3000. A legit full capacity sellout would be approx. 3202. (Based on how upper level seating looked once the event got going I think it’s going to be around 2500) (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 2687. About 85% of full capacity, a good number although despite being sold out there were notable lower level seats empty. The opposite hard-camera upper level area was notably empty, maybe because that’s where the in-arena monitor screen was)
The in-ring memorial ceremony for Killer Khan, who died yesterday, will begin shortly. The roster and wrestlers all stood around the ring for a ceremonial 10 bell salute and customary final announcement which is usually done to signify a wrestler’s retirement.
Ceremony concludes at 8:52 PM PT/11:52 PM PT. Audio muted again afterwards and will probably stay that way until the event officially starts in about 10 minutes. Updates will resume then.
Japanese TV & commentary join in at 9 PM PT/midnight ET. This is a Samurai! TV broadcast in Japan. Not sure who the host is but Kagehiro Osano is also on commentary.
The matches begin at 9:07 PM PT/12:07 AM ET.
Match 1: Black Menso-re, Takuya Nomura & Fuminori Abe vs. Minoru Tanaka (GLEAT), Naruki Doi (Independent/Freelancer) & Koji Iwamoto. 20 minute time limit
Result: Minoru Tanaka, Naruki Doi & Koji Iwamoto beat Black Menso-re, Takuya Nomura & Fuminori Abe. Tanaka pinned Menso-re with a rollup.
Match 2: Takao Omori Final All-Japan Match: Takao Omori, Ryuki Honda & Ryo Inoue vs. Mitsuya Nagai (Dradition), Koji Doi (Independent/Freelancer) & Kuma Arashi (Independent/Freelancer). 20 minute time limit
Result: Takao Omori, Ryuki Honda & Ryo Inoue beat Mitsuya Nagai, Koji Doi & Kuma Arashi. Omori pinned Arashi after Ax Bomber. (Considering departing/retiring wrestlers are typically losers in their final match, this was a very classy move by All-Japan to put Omori over)
Match 3: Yuma Aoyagi & Yoshitatsu vs. Shuji Ishikawa & Ren Ayabe. 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuma Aoyagi & Yoshitatsu beat Shuji Ishikawa & Ren Ayabe. Aoyagi pinned Ayabe with a bridge rollup. The winners get some kind of prize from sponsor LEC Cleaning Products. Afterwards, Yoshitatsu with microphone. Brief comments thanking the crowd, then his music hit too early because then Aoyagi with microphone. He added a few words.
Match 4: New Rookie King Final Match: Jun Saito vs. Rei Saito. No time limit
Result: Jun Saito beat Rei Saito
Match 5: Shotaro Ashino Return Match: Shotaro Ashino & T-Hawk vs. Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana. 30 minute time limit. During his entrance through the crowd, Kuroshio botched leaping over guardralis between the seats and ring areas, but after a few seconds leapt up like it was nothing. Very funny spot nonetheless. And yes, Kuroshio/Tachibana’s entrance will probably wing up going longer than the actual match. Kuroshio gets all he can out of that “former WWE superstar” rub.
Result: Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana beat Shotaro Ashino & T-Hawk. Kuroshio pinned Ashino.
Match 6: Charlie Dempsey (WWE) & Yuma Anzai vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & LEONA (Dradition). 30 minute time limit
Result: Charlie Dempsey & Yuma Anzai beat Tatsumi Fujinami & LEONA. Dempsey beat LEONA with a modified rear naked choke.
Match 7: Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato vs. Yuki Ueno & Toi Kojima (DDT). 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuki Ueno & Toi Kojima beat Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato. Ueno pinned Hayato after WR.
Jun Saito joins commentary for the next match.
Match 8: All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion El Lindaman vs. Dan Tamura for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Dan Tamura beat All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion El Lindaman to win the title. Tamura becomes the 67th All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion.
Match 9: Suwama, Hideki Suzuki & Hikaru Sato vs. Minoru Suzuki, Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Hokuto Omori. 30 minute time limit
Result: Minoru Suzuki, Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Hokuto Omori beat Suwama, Hideki Suzuki & HIkaru Sato. Smith pinned Sato after a powerbomb.
Main Event: All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Kento Miyahara for the Triple Crown. 1 Hour time limit
Result: All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima beat Kento Miyahara by submission to retain the Triple Crown. V1 for Nakajima. I thought it might go the distance, but went “only” about 26 minutes. Next up: As previously announced, whether the champ likes it or not, Charlie Dempsey on Wednesday at Korakuen Hall. Of note-instead of his usual music Nakajima came out to “Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye”, the late Antonio Inoki’s entrance theme. He closed with Inoki’s signature “3, 2, 1, DA” shout to end the event. He was also accompanied by who might have been Inoki’s relatives as they were wearing suits with the New Japan logo.
The next event, the promotion’s 2024 opener, is Tuesday at Korakuen Hall. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin Monday at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET. Live results are tentatively scheduled pending resolution of payment issues with my subscription (credit card expired and new one is the same but changed that pesky CVV which is causing payment issues).
UPDATE: Quite a bit of post-event news to pass along:
Yoshitatsu is now finished with the promotion. Contract expired and will not be renewed. Sounds like he will be a freelancer for now.
Shuji Ishikawa is now off the coming week’s events (Tuesday & Wednesday). Illness.
Next up for Dan Tamura: Hikaru Sato. That match will happen Tuesday.
UPDATE 2: Tokyo Sports is now reporting Ishikawa will also leave the promotion at the end of January. Rumors from the newspaper are he has issues with the President of the promotion, and that other wrestlers may soon follow suit. Tokyo Sports is a bit more “gossipy/dirt sheet” than the more reliable sources like Weekly Pro, Nikkan Sports and others so take this as 50-50 until official word comes from All-Japan.