Tag: pro wrestling

BREAKING from All-Japan: After a vehicle accident which occurred Sunday in Numazu CIty, Shizuoka Prefecture, and an initial investigation, All-Japan announced Yuma Aoyagi has been SUSPENDED 3 MONTHS and given a 50% salary reduction for 3 months. Aoyagi was not injured but the driver of the other vehicle may have suffered leg injuries and it was also revealed Aoyagi was driving with an expired driver’s license.

According to All-Japan’s report, Aoyagi was driving home from that day’s event and apparently ran a red light at an intersection, striking the vehicle that had the green light on the right side, which in Japan is the driver’s side. Aoyagi stayed at the scene and immediately called police, who came out to investigate and interview him.

In addition to apologizing, All-Japan announced they will implement safe driving initiative throughout the organization. This is the second such incident the promotion has dealt with this year, the first earlier this year sadly resulted in the tragic death of rookie Taishin Nagao.

As for upcoming events, this means Yuma Aoyagi and Yuma Anzai are now out of the World’s Strongest/Real World Tag League and will forfeit all remaining matches. Replacements have been announced for those 5 events. Aoyagi will be able to return on 2/28/26.

More as it becomes available.

UPDATE: Social media reactions…
On Twitter (or whatever you call it now), Yuma Aoyagi has reposted All-Japan’s original post several times with apologies to the promotion, the victim and the fans for what happened He also apologized to Yuma Anzai, who he invited to be his partner in the Tag League. The only other wrestler I’ve seen comment so far is Hideki Suzuki, who reposted one of Aoyagi’s posts with the loosely translated message “reflect on yourself”. Kento Miyahara, who is also President of the promotion’s wrestlers group, apologized to the fans for Aoyagi & Anzai being out of the tournament now. Anzai reposted a separate All-Japan post with a brief apology to fans & supporters for being out of the tournament, although not his fault, and is still processing his thoughts.
Rising Hayato also commented on his social media apologizing for what happened and vowing to devote himself to making the promotion a place where Aoyagi can return to, despite it being considered wrong to make place for “a criminal” based on translation.
Aoyagi may face further punishment after the police investigation concludes, which may include administrative or criminal charges due to driving with an expired license for almost a year. Based on translation of a Tokyo Sports report, All-Japan reportedly has been trying to get more wrestlers to use their buses for transport and improve their safety & reliability despite one of their buses being involved in the accident that killed Nagao earlier this year (the incident happened in May, Nagao died in September). They also reportedly apologized to Nagao’s father today as well.

UPDATE 2: The fallout continues…
At about 7:30 PM PT/10:30 PM ET (12:30 PM Saturday Japan time) Atsuki Aoyagi, Yuma Aoyagi’s real-life brother, commented and apologized for the incident. Fellow wrestler/combat sports veteran Hideki Sekine also made several Teitter posts and also linked to the Shizuoka Prefecture Police website, suggesting there could be circumstances affecting potential punishment/next steps, which appeared to be more an attempt to educate commenters on the situation and what could happen next.

The promotion also just announced that a scheduled photobook to feature both Aoyagi brothers and others, which was to be released on Monday, has been postponed indefinitely.

All-Japan continued the World’s Strongest/Real World Tag League today in Shizuoka.

Today’s event was held at Kira Messe Numazu in Shizuoka and can be watched on demand on AJPW.TV. There was no live broadcast but on demand is now available. This will also be a taped Samurai! TV broadcast in Japan at a later date.

The announced paid attendance was 519.

There was a last-minute change to the second match due to Seigo Tachibana & Seiki Yoshioka being removed from the card. Late arrivals due to heavy traffic in the area. It was to have been an 8-man tag with both participating. It became a 6-man tag instead.

Match 1: Yuma Anzai beat Shota Kofuji.

Match 2: Jun Saito, Ryuki Honda & MUSASHI beat Yuma Aoyagi, Hideki Suzuki & Ryo Inoue. Saito pinned Inoue after a jackhammer.

Tag League:
Match 3: Block A: Ren Ayabe & Talos beat Hokuto Omori & Kumaarashi. Ayabe pinned Omori after a double chokeslam.
Match 4: Block A: Shotaro Ashino & Go Shiozaki beat Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato. Shiozaki pinned Sato after Go Lariat.
Match 5: Block B: Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr. beat Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Takashi. Smith pinned Takashi after a diving headbutt.
Main Event: Xyon & Odyssey beat Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato. Xyon pinned Hayato after a diving headbutt.

The next event is Friday at Food Pal Kumamoto in Kumamoto. There will be no live broadcast. On demand later that day. (There actually will be 2 US events that day as there is an event in Fukuoka that night US time, which will be live on AJPW.TV)

All-Japan kicks off the 2025 World’s Strongest Tag League aka Real World Tag League today in Tokyo, the promotion’s annual year-end openweight tag team tournament. It’s going to look a lot different this year as the Saitos are not taking part as Jun Saito opted to voluntarily withdraw and not participate because brother & partner Rei Saito remains out long-term due to injury. That also means it’s more wide open. Most of the field for the round-robin format tournament will be in tournament action today including current All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Xyon & Odyssey, who will eventually defend the titles against the tournament winners if they do not win. Also a notable main event will see the Aoyagi brothers on opposite sides as Yuma Aoyagi teams with Yuma Anzai against Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato.

Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on AJPW.TV in Japanese. The event will also be taped for broadcast on GAORA SPORTS in Japan in about a week. All the matches including a non-tournament match have a 30 minute time limit and there’s an intermission at the halfway point so it probably will wind up having an “average” Korakuen running time of about 2 1/2 hours (although the GAORD broadcast is scheduled for 3+ hours, that would also assume every match goes the distance and the longest possible time of about 3 1/2 hours).

Today’s lineup:
Tag League:
Block B: Xyon & Odyssey vs. Takashi & Kuroshio TOKYO Japan
Block A: Shotaro Ashino & Go Shiozaki vs. Hokuto Omori & Kumaarashi
Jun Saito, MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka vs. Dan Tamura, Ryo Inoue & Shota Kofuji
Intermission
Tag League:
Block A: Hideki Suzuki & Kengo Mashimo vs. Ren Ayabe & Talos
Block B: Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Ryuki Honda & Naoya Nomura
Block B: Yuma Aoyagi & Yuma Anzai vs. Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato

Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.

Updates below will begin at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET. The live stream is scheduled to begin 10 minutes before the event.

6:20 PM PT UPDATE: The live stream has begun. We should be going to the venue in just under 10 minutes.

6:25 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.

We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Commentary will begin in a few minutes.

The paid attendance will be announced after the event. It’s just under the “new normal” full capacity setup as commentary is in the bleacher seats opposite hard camera. While not an advance sellout from what I know the crowd already looks good, I’ll predict a potential near-sellout of around 1200. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1327)

The matches should begin in 10-15 minutes. During opening announcements they bring out Rei Saito after announcing he will be a guest on commentary today for AJPW.TV.

The event begins with the tag league opening ceremony, where all the participating teams are introduced in the ring.

As it was ending, Kuroshio TOKYO Japan took out Xyon & Odyssey outside the ring, leading to…
Match 1: Block B: Xyon & Odyssey vs. Takashi & Kuroshio TOKYO Japan. 30 minute time limit
Result: Xyon & Odyssey beat Takashi & Kuroshio TOKYO Japan. Xyon pinned Japan after a diving headbutt.

Match 2: Block A: Shotaro Ashino & Go Shiozaki vs. Hokuto Omori & Kumaarashi (with a full head of hair instead of his usual short mohawk). 30 minute time limit
Result: Shotaro Ashino & Go Shiozaki beat Hokuto Omori & Kumaarashi. Shiozaki pinned Omori after Go Lariat.

Match 3: Jun Saito, MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka vs. Dan Tamura, Ryo Inoue & Shota Kofuji. 30 minute time limit
Result: Jun Saito, MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka beat Dan Tamura, Ryo Inoue & Shota Kofuji. Saito pinned Inoue after a chokeslam.

Intermission.

The matches resume at 7:36 PM PT/10:36 PM ET (about a 15 minute break).

Match 4: Block A: Hideki Suzuki & Kengo Mashimo vs. Ren Ayabe & Talos. 30 minute time limit
Result: Ren Ayabe & Talos beat Hideki Suzuki & Kengo Mashimo. Ayabe pinned Suzuki after Des Roulette.

Match 5: Block B: Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Ryuki Honda & Naoya Nomura. 30 minute time limit
Result: Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr. beat Ryuki Honda & Naoya Nomura. Miyahara pinned Honda with a shutdown suplex hold.

Main Event: Block B: Yuma Aoyagi & Yuma Anzai vs. Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato. 30 minute time limit
Result: Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato beat Yuma Aoyagi & Yuma Anzai. Atsuki Aoyagi pinned Yuma Aoyagi after a 450 splash. Almost went the distance (25+ minutes).

The next event is tomorrow at Kira Messe Numazu in Shizuoka. There will be no live broadcast. On demand Sunday at 5 PM PT/8 PM ET. This will also be a Samurai! TV broadcast in Japan on 11/29.