All Japan Pro Wrestling Discussion Thread

[FatBagzJones]

AJPW outdrew NOAH's big show and drew the biggest Korakuen Hall attendance since early 2020.

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[FatBagzJones]

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[FatBagzJones]

AJPW Results: Excite Series 2022 Day 5 – Tokyo, Japan (2/23)

Singles Match
Ryuki Honda defeated Ryo Inoue.

Tag Team Match
Dan Tamura & Ryuji Hijikata defeated Takuho Kato & Kazumasa Yoshida.

6 Man Tag Team Match
Black Menso-re, Takao Omori & Shuji Ishikawa defeated NEXTREAM (Rising HAYATO, Atsuki Aoyagi & Yuma Aoyagi).

6 Man Tag Team Match
KAZMA SAKAMOTO, Seigo Tachibana & Takayuki Ueki defeated Devil Murasaki, Izanagi & Yoshitatsu.

GAORA Television Championship Match
Shigehiro Irie (c) defeated Isami Kodaka.

AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Championship Match
Hikaru Sato defeated SUGI to become the new Champion.

AJPW World Tag Team Championships Match
Runaway Suplex (Shotaro Ashino & Suwama) (c) defeated Total Eclipse (Koji Doi & Kuma Arashi).

AJPW Unified Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match
Kento Miyahara (c) defeated Abdullah Kobayashi.

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[FatBagzJones]

In the main event of Champions Night 3, Kento Miyahara will defend his Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship against Shuji Ishikawa. Shuji Ishikawa is someone who many believed was owed a championship shot when Jake Lee was champion. However, due to COVID-19, he would never gain his shot. Ishikawa was better known in the previous year as the former GAORA TV Champion. A championship that he won from Jun Kasai in mid-2021 and lost in late 2021.

Since losing the championship, Ishikawa expresses a completely brand-new attitude, while Miyahara recently won the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship. Miyahara and Ishikawa have been rivals for years. With most of their most significant work coming out of 2017 & 2018’s All Japan Pro Wrestling. One of the last times that Ishikawa was in that main event level in that capacity with multiple matches.

Kento Miyahara will be making his 2nd championship title defense here. Facing off against someone he in general possesses a mixed record with. Champions Night 3 is scheduled to be a major event as it’s the culminating event before Champion Carnival. So the winner of this match could potentially be going into this tournament as the Triple Crown Champion.

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[FatBagzJones]

Full card announced for NJPW-AJPW joint show at Korakuen Hall

The 60th anniversary of Korakuen Hall’s opening is being celebrated this coming April with two pro wrestling events scheduled for April 15th and 16th.
The 16th will feature a joint show between New Japan and All Japan Pro Wrestling. Tokyo Sports listed the match card for the 4/16 show and there are currently six matches on the bill.

Ryo Inoue vs. Kosei Fujita

Toru Yano & TAJIRI vs. Black Menso-re & Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Takao Omori, Ryohei Oiwa & Yuto Nakashima vs. Yoshitatsu, Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato

Yuma Aoyagi, Atsuki Aoyagi, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi)

Suwama, Shotaro Ashino & Dan Tamura vs. Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & YOH

Kento Miyahara & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jake Lee & SANADA


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[Necro]

AJPW SUPER POWER SERIES 2022 (MAY 14 & 15) PREVIEW​

AJPW Super Power Series 2022 (May 14 & 15) Preview

AJPW presents Super Power Series 2022 on May 14 and May 15, highlighted by the Triple Crown Championship match between Kento Miyahara and Yuma Aoyagi.

www.voicesofwrestling.com

Here's a preview of this weekend's events.

 

[Necro]

AJPW Results: 50th Anniversary Tour Sapporo 2 Days Day 1 – Sapporo, Japan (5/14)

The following results are from a recent All Japan Pro Wrestling event. The event took place on May 14th, 2022 at the Hotel Emisia in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.

Singles Match
Yoshitatsu defeated Ryo Inoue.

Triple Threat Match
Black Menso-re defeated Brute Issei and Izanagi.

Tag Team Match
Ryuki Honda & TAJIRI defeated Evolution (Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato).

Singles Match
Jake Lee defeated Takao Omori.

All Asia Tag Team Championships Match
Enfants Terribles (Yusuke Kodama & Hokuto Omori) (c) defeated Noriyuki Yoshida & TOMOYA.

Tag Team Match
NEXTREAM (Atsuki Aoyagi & Yuma Aoyagi) vs. NEXTREAM (Rising HAYATO & Kento Miyahara) went to a 30 minute time limit draw.

AJPW World Tag Team Championships Match
Kohei Sato & Shuji Ishikawa defeated Runaway Suplex (Shotaro Ashino & Suwama) to become the new Champions.

AJPW Results: 50th Anniversary Tour Sapporo 2 Days Day 2 – Sapporo, Japan (5/15)

The following results are from a recent All Japan Pro Wrestling event. The event took place on May 15th, 2022 at the Hotel Emisia in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.

Tag Team Match
NEXTREAM (Rising HAYATO & Atsuki Aoyagi) defeated Hokuto Omori & Ryuki Honda.

Tag Team Match
Brute Issei & TAJIRI defeated Shigeyuki Kawahara & Ryo Inoue.

Tag Team Match
Noriyuki Yoshida & TOMOYA defeated Black Menso-re & Izanagi.

Singles Match
Jake Lee defeated Yoshitatsu.

6 Man Tag Team Match
Takao Omori, Shuji Ishikawa & Kohei Sato defeated Shotaro Ashino, Dan Tamura & Suwama.

AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Championship Match
Hikaru Sato (c) defeated Yusuke Kodama.

AJPW Unified Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match
Kento Miyahara (c) defeated Yuma Aoyagi.

 

[Necro]

AJPW Results: Super Power Series 2022 Day 1 – Tokyo, Japan (5/25)

The following results are from a recent All Japan Pro Wrestling event. The event took place on May 25th, 2022 at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.

6 Man Tag Team Match
Shotaro Ashino, Black Menso-re & Izanagi defeated Takao Omori, Ryo Inoue & Ryuji Hijikata.

Tag Team Match
Total Eclipse (Hokuto Omori & TAJIRI) defeated Evolution (Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato).

Singles Match
Yuma Aoyagi defeated Ryuki Honda.

Tag Team Match
Total Eclipse (Koji Doi & Kuma Arashi) defeated Ren Ayabe & Shuji Ishikawa.

Singles Match
Jake Lee defeated Suwama via disqualification.

6 Man Tag Team Match
#STRONGHEARTS (Shigehiro Irie, Issei Onizuka & T-Hawk) defeated NEXTREAM (Atsuki Aoyagi, Rising HAYATO & Kento Miyahara).

 

[Necro]

AJPW SUPER POWER SERIES 2022 (MAY 29) PREVIEW & PREDICTIONS​

ALL JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
SUPER POWER SERIES 2022
MAY 29, 2022
KORAKUEN HALL
TOKYO, JAPAN​

All Japan has been on a roll lately. After a warmly received Champion Carnival, they continued to impress with strong back-to-back shows in Sapporo on May 14 and 15. The main events have been strong, delivering what many are calling match-of-the-year candidates. Young talent is getting to shine and move up the card. After a poor 2020, the company started to improve in the later half of 2021. That slow climb back to relevance is now paying off and I’ve seen more interest in the company on social media among international fans than I have since 2019 at the peak of Kento Miyahara’s epic Triple Crown reign.

As a treat on this show, we will have the return of Stan Hansen to Japan for the first time since the pandemic began as he is being billed as a special witness to the main event.

DARK MATCH
SEIGO TACHIBANA VS. RYO INOUE​

This match will begin at 11:10 a.m. JST, 20 minutes before the show officially gets underway. I am looking forward to this. I’ve been raving about Inoue since his debut this past January, and Tachibana is a very good worker who is underrated because of his comedy gimmick. With Tachibana being low on the pecking order in the company, I expect Inoue to get a lot of offense in here and even some near falls, but the rookie is still too early into his career to be getting wins. Prediction: Seigo Tachibana

TAKAO OMORI & SUSHI VS. YOSHITATSU & CARBELL ITO​

This will probably serve as the comedy match of the show. It should be relatively inoffensive, however, and most likely short. There’s not much to say about this match other than it’s always nice to see Ito, who is 50 years old, do ridiculous dives to the outside. The hardest working money mark in wrestling. You don’t see Tony Khan doing things like that. I would assume Ito, who is All Japan’s biggest sponsor, will be on the victorious team. Prediction: Yoshitatsu & Carbell Ito

VOODOO MURDERS (MINORU & TOSHIZO) VS. BLACK MENSO~RE & IZANAGI​

So given the events on the May 25 show with Suwama turning on Evolution, the card for this show was shifted around a bit to reflect that. Minoru is of course, Minoru Tanaka while Toshizo is Ryuji Hijikata. Technically all of the wrestlers in this match are quite talented, but this will be about getting over the return of Voodoo Murders to All Japan so expect chairs and perhaps other types of weapons. So don’t count on this being pretty. Voodoo Murders are likely to win to establish how evil they are. Prediction: Voodoo Murders

TOTAL ECLIPSE (RYUKI HONDA, HOKUTO OMORI & YUSUKE KODAMA) VS. NEXTREAM (YUMA AOYAGI, ATSUKI AOYAGI & RISING HAYATO)​

This is my second most eagerly awaited match on this show. On May 15, in the opening match they had Honda and Omori vs. Atsuki and HAYATO and let them go for nearly 20 minutes. That match delivered and it was a great sign for the young talent and their future in the company. Hopefully, they get plenty of time here too, like 15 minutes. This builds up to Atsuki and HAYATO challenging Omori and Kodama for the All Asia Tag Titles on June 12 in Korakuen Hall.

Since Atsuki and HAYATO won the tag match that got them the title shot, I could see Total Eclipse winning here, but if they retain the titles, Nextream could pick up another win here to build to the title match. While the title match could go either way, I’m leaning towards Nextream winning here, because I don’t think the Omori and Kodama run with the All Asia Tag Titles has fully run its course. Regardless of the result, this could be a show-stealer if given enough time. Prediction: Nextream

JAKE LEE VS. TAJIRI​

Lee has been having several singles matches since losing the Champion Carnival finals. While these two are stablemates, TAJIRI welcomed this match believing it will help Lee get back into top form. I’m not exactly sure what to expect from this. It could be very underwhelming, but if Lee just gets in there and squashes TAJIRI, it could be fun. I expect Lee to challenge Miyahara at the Ota Ward Gym show on June 19, so this will be another match to heat him up. Prediction: Jake Lee

VOODOO MURDERS (SUWAMA, TARU & KONO) VS. SHOTARO ASHINO, HIKARU SATO & DAN TAMURA​

Suwama was originally supposed to be on the other side of this match originally with Ashino being in a singles match with Hijikata. Suwama’s heel turn on May 25 changed all of that. Suwama even hit a big Lariat on Tamura who was extremely upset and on the verge of tears on the last show in the big angle. Ashino came out to help the former Evolution members, and though he’s had his differences with Sato in the past, they agreed to go after Suwama together.

Technically there is enough talent in here for this to be passable even with TARU (still not in jail) involved. But Suwama was all about using a chair in his match against Jake Lee on May 25 and that led to a disqualification finish. A non-finish is very possible here, but I can see Suwama pinning Tamura here to keep this feud going, because I think, and really hope, this all leads to Ashino finally defeating Suwama in a singles match. That will make having to endure TARU almost worth it. Prediction: Voodoo Murders

WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
TWIN TOWERS (SHUJI ISHIKAWA & KOHEI SATO) © VS. TOTAL ECLIPSE (KUMA ARASHI & KOJI DOI)​

For all of my praise of All Japan this year, one of their major weaknesses is a lack of credible teams to challenge for the World Tag Team Titles. These are tag titles that are also often put in a position to main event shows, unlike many other companies in Japan these days. The lack of credible challengers was one of the reasons that I believe was behind the lack of a title defense back on the Excite Series tour in February.

KumaDoi is a solid and fun team. But I could see this not being that great, because they work best against opponents guaranteed to have a good match. While Ishikawa has been working a lot harder lately, Sato is showing his age and has been underwhelming. I would be quite happy with being a ***½ affair. I don’t think that is impossible if Ishikawa does most of the heavy lifting for his team, and Arashi works hard like he has been recently. While KumaDoi has their fans who want to see them as tag champions, I’m quite confident the Twin Towers will retain here, especially since Arashi pinned Ishikawa in a tag match on May 25 building up to this. Prediction: Twin Towers

TRIPLE CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP
KENTO MIYAHARA © VS. T-HAWK​

There’s not much to this match other than Miyahara called out T-Hawk in his post-match promo after retaining the title against Yuma Aoyagi on May 15. That’s good enough for me, because this should be an absolute banger of a match. The six-man tag these two were involved in on May 25 featured some great sequences between them.

Miyahara is putting together a resume this year for most outstanding wrestler, something he has not been in the running for since 2019. T-Hawk, who is obviously great, feels a bit aimless these days as his partner El Lindaman is getting all the glory as G-Rex champion and being in the Best of the Super Juniors. Even though there’s little chance he’s winning here, this could be a match that can generate some much-needed attention for T-Hawk. This ending up as a match-of-the-year contender is not out of the question. And Stan Hansen posing with Miyahara will be a very cool moment. Prediction: Kento Miyahara

 

[Alexa]

Spoiler: Never forget

 

[Necro]

AJPW Results: Super Power Series 2022 Day 2 – Tokyo, Japan (5/29)

The following results are from a recent All Japan Pro Wrestling event. The event took place on May 29th, 2022 at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.

Pre-Show Match
Seigo Tachibana defeated Ryo Inoue.

Tag Team Match
Carbell Ito & Yoshitatsu defeated Takao Omori & SUSHI.

Tag Team Match
Minoru & Toshizu defeated Black Menso-re & Izanagi.

6 Man Tag Team Match
NEXTREAM (Rising HAYATO, Atsuki Aoyagi & Yuma Aoyagi) defeated Ryuki Honda, Yusuke Kodama & Hokuto Omori.

Singles Match
Jake Lee defeated TAJIRI.

6 Man Tag Team Match
TARU, Suwama & KONO defeated Dan Tamura, Hikaru Sato & Shotaro Ashino.

AJPW World Tag Team Championships Match
Shuji Ishikawa & Kohei Sato (c) defeated Total Eclipse (Kuma Arashi & Koji Doi).

AJPW Unified Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Match
Kento Miyahara (c) defeated T-Hawk.

 

[Necro]

Event for the 12th.

 

[Necro]

AJPW CHAMPIONS NIGHT 4 (JUNE 19) PREVIEW​

AJPW Champions Night 4 (June 19) Preview

AJPW Champions Night is definitely one of the strongest top-to-bottom cards that All Japan has put on in a while.

www.voicesofwrestling.com

This site is incredible, great preview.

 

[Alexa]

Jake Lee finally fucking did it!

 

[Leon TrotSky]

Spoiler

Uh, about that, Suwama is champ again.