All-Japan wraps up the Royal Road Tournament today with the Semifinals and Finals. The Semifinals will lead off the event, first will be Kento Miyahara vs. Ryuki Honda followed by Rei Saito vs. Ren Ayabe. The winners will meet in the Finals, which will be the main event. Tag matches fill out the rest of the card which will also see Suwama return from injury. Originally scheduled for the tournament, he could not participate due to ear vertigo. The tournament winner will probably get the next shot at Triple Crown Champion Yuma Aoyagi, who lost in Round 1. Today will also see the participants in the upcoming World’s Strongest Tag League announced.
Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on AJPW.TV in Japanese. This will also be a live Samurai! TV broadcast in Japan. The event may be a legit sellout. It also has been announced there will be an Actress Girls segment and match 20 minutes before the event. There also will be an intermission after the 4th match. There is no time limit for the tournament matches and it probably will make for a longer than normal 6-match card along with the break, plus there’s the marathon Kuroshio TOKYO Japan entrance, so I anticipate the event running close to 3 hours.
Today’s lineup:
Pre-show: Actress Girls Match: Nene Arahata & Ayano Irie vs. Natsu Aoi & Sakura Matsushima
Main show:
Royal Road Semifinals:
Kento Miyahara vs. Ryuki Honda
Rei Saito vs. Ren Ayabe
Shotaro Ashino, Dan Tamura, Ryo Inoue, Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana vs. MUSASHI, Seiki Yoshioka, Fuminori Abe, Joel Redman & Hikaru Sato
Jun Saito, Naruki Doi & Senor Saito vs. Hokuto Omori, Kumaarashi & Cyrus
Intermission
World’s Strongest Tag League Participant Announcement
Yuma Aoyagi, Masakatsu Funaki & Yuma Anzai vs. Suwama, Hideki Suzuki & Davey Boy Smith Jr.
Royal Road Finals
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET.
7:10 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Commentary will start later. (It started when the pre-show match began but didn’t hear names)
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. It’s very close to a legit sellout based on advance ticket sales so standing room only tickets may be sold. Based on the setup that would suggest close to 1500. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1473, a legit sellout)
Pre-show: Actress Girls Match: Nene Arahata & Ayano Irie vs. Natsu Aoi & Sakura Matsushima
Result: Natsu Aoi & Sakura Matsushima beat Nene Arahata & Ayano Irie
Someone who I guess will be a guest on commentary makes his way through ringside to join commentary (Kagehiro Osano and someone else).
Opening announcements. Audio will be muted shortly for a minute or two.
The matches begin at 7:36 PM PT/10:36 PM ET. Yuma Aoyagi is a special guest on commentary for the first couple matches.
Match 1: Royal Road Semifinals: Kento Miyahara vs. Ryuki Honda. No time limit
Result: Ryuki Honda beat Kento Miyahara. As a result, Honda advances to the Finals.
Match 2: Royal Road Semifinals: Ren Ayabe vs. Rei Saito. No time limit
Result: Ren Ayabe beat Rei Saito by submission. As a result, Ayabe advances to the Finals.
This means the main event is Honda vs. Ayabe.
Match 3: Shotaro Ashino, Dan Tamura, Ryo Inoue, Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana vs. MUSASHI, Seiki Yoshioka, Fuminori Abe, Joel Redman & Hikaru Sato. 30 minute time limit
Result: Shotaro Ashino, Dan Tamura, Ryo Inoue, Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana beat MUSASHI, Seiki Yoshioka, Fuminori Abe, Joel Redman & Hikaru Sato. Tachibana pinned Abe.
Match 4: Jun Saito, Naruki Doi & Senor Saito vs. Hokuto Omori, Kumaarashi & Cyrus. 30 minute time limit
Result: Hokuto Omori, Kumaarashi & Cyrus beat Jun Saito, Naruki Doi & Senor Saito. Omori pinned Jun Saito after a frog splash. Afterwards, Omori with microphone. All-Japan World Tag Team Championship challenge issued with Kumaarashi as his partner.
2 new wrestlers are brought to the ring. Their names are Sakuto Terada & Taishin Nagao. They will debut at an upcoming Korakuen event.
Intermission.
The event resumes at 9 PM PT/midnight ET.
The Tag Team Championship match is now official. That match will happen on 10/12 in Saitama. So will All-Japan World Junior Heavyweight Champion Naruki Doi vs. Dan Tamura for the title. On 10/13 there will be All-Asia Tag Team Champions MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka vs. Yuma Anzai & Rising Hayato for the titles. At the next Korakuen on 10/22 the new wrestlers will debut against Tamura & Ryo Inoue. 10/22 will also have a Suwama 20th Anniversary Match: Hideki Suzuki & Shuji Kondo vs. Suwama & TBA.
The World’s Strongest Tag League field is announced, 2 blocks of 7 this year. The top 2 in each block advance to the Semifinals.
Block A: Jun & Rei Saito, MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka, Rising Hayato & Yuma Anzai, Shotaro Ashino & Dan Tamura, Hokuto Omori & Kumaarashi, Daisuke Sekimoto & Kengo Mashimo, TBA & TBA.
Block B: Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr., Ryuki Honda & Ren Ayabe, Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana, Cyrus & Hartley Jackson, Suwama & Hideki Suzuki, Yuma Aoyagi & Fuminori Abe, Hikaru Sato & Yuko Miyamoto.
Well we know the champs are going to be in Block A.
Match 5: Yuma Aoyagi, Masakatsu Funaki & Yuma Anzai vs. Suwama, Hideki Suzuki & Davey Boy Smith Jr.. 30 minute time limit
Result: Suwama, Hideki Suzuki & Davey Boy Smith Jr. beat Yuma Aoyagi, Masakatsu Funaki & Yuma Anzai. Smith pinned Funaki after a sitout powerbomb. As usual when they team up, Suwama & Suzuki did their usual not-getting-along thing post-match.
Main Event: Royal Road Finals: Ryuki Honda vs. Ren Ayabe. No time limit
Result: Ren Ayabe beat Ryuki Honda to win the tournament. Afterwards, Ayabe with microphone. As expected, he called out Triple Crown Champion Yuma Aoyagi, who returned to commentary for the match. The tournament win almost certainly means he’s next. Potentially could happen on 10/22.
The next event is a free mini-event Monday at Branch Yokohama Minami Market Seaside Plaze in Yokohama with 3 matches scheduled, which is weather permitting due to being outdoors. If it rains the matches will be cancelled. The next official event is the 52nd Anniversary Commemoration Series 2024 opener on 10/12 at Gyoda Green Arena in Saitama. Broadcast plans TBA (specifically if it will be streamed live or not, I expect it will be). (9/26 UPDATE: There will be no live broadcast. On demand should be available that evening)