All Japan Pro Wrestling Roster Snapshot

If you haven’t noticed I’ve been trying to review some of current AJPW’s wrestling output and I’ve realized that I’ve been bogged down trying to explain what and why is happening in the company. Who is this guy? Why are they wrestling like this? What do they want? And so at the request of my adoring fans I have written this snapshot of what All Japan is right now.

And for the assuredly numerous fans of my writing that don’t really know what AJPW is, let me tell you what’s happening.

I don’t want to get bogged down in the weeds and recount information I hastily ripped from wikipedia and quote dates and figures that are almost assuredly wrong, but here’s a big picture situation. All Japan is a very old puroresu promotion that has gone through a lot of changes, from Giant Baba, to the Four Pillars, to when everybody stopped talking about it for 20 years, and to right now when they’ve finally gotten some buzz again. I don’t want to dismiss the history of the promotion, it is rich and deep and interesting and much smarter and more knowledgeable people than myself have written about it, I am hoping to write this from the perspective of somebody who has followed this promotion for a few years and is hoping to inform other people about this promotion and do a bit of proselytizing.

Let’s dive in.

The Style:

So when you hear All Japan, I’m sure those with some knowledge of puro will jump to the Four Pillars (Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Toshiaki Kawada, and Akira Taue) or maybe Jumbo Tsuruta, Giant Baba, Stan Hansen, Steve Williams, or Jun Akiyama. Brutal head drops and ornately protected finishers like the Burning Hammer, Tiger Driver, and Ganso Bomb are part of the mythology of puro to many western fans. And yet again, I don’t want to discount that history, but current All Japan is a lot different. The contemporary All Japan style is best described as deliberate. Now, that has been understood to mean slow, and while the pace of the main-event matches is hardly blistering, calling it slow I think misses out on what makes the style so fascinating. When All Japan wrestlers are working at their peak, there is very clear, accessible, and notable storytelling that starts at the beginning of a match, follows through the heat and shine, and pays off for the finish. In particular, All Japan makes vital usage of lockups, headlocks, clean breaks, shoulderblocks, and other ‘beginning of the match’ stuff to set the tone. What wrestler is stronger, what wrestler is noble, what wrestler is arrogant, what wrestler is resilient, what wrestler is foolish…all of those traits are set from the beginning of the bell and carried through the entire match. Additionally, All Japan is a promotion that values size, some have nicknamed it Tall Japan because there is nothing AJPW loves more than a big, beefy guy, that doesn’t necessarily work the fastest or the most precisely but still has presence and comes across as a big deal.

The Titles:

Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship: The big fish, still one of the best credible and respected titles in pro wrestling, the belt is gorgeous and given the emphasis on heavyweights in All Japan, this is what the real top dogs in the promotion vie for. It’s so cool, other promotions have been alleged to rip it off.

World Tag Team Championship: The second most important belt in the company, plenty of former and future world champs have held these titles and compete over them.

World Junior Heavyweight Championship: So, junior wrestling is not super important to All Japan, but they do have a robust but small juniors division and oftentimes bring in freelancers for title shots. All Japan’s current juniors are a bit more prominent cause one of their top juniors, Atsuki Aoyagi, is the younger brother of top wrestler Yuma Aoyagi, and they’ve run a ton of brothers vs. other brothers tag-teams or have him wrestle against heavyweights to take pins for Yuma in tag matches.

All Asia Tag Team Championship: I’m not going to say these title aren’t credible, they’ve certainly had their fair share of notable names that have held them, but out of 123 title reigns that date back to 1955, the belts have been vacated over 30 times and were deactivated for 3 years as well in the middle of that. So uh…a bit of a dodgy history. Especially in the last 5 years they’ve bounced around frequently, with few defenses and short reigns and long stretches in other promotions. They are very clearly a midcard tag title and treated as such.

Gaora TV Championship: So, there were at least stretches of time in which Gaora TV champions had long reigns and semi-frequent defenses. But Minoru Tanaka was champ when I first started following and he apparently was champion for 453 days and had three defenses and that’s been par for the course. Hopefully the belt will mean something again but as of right now it’s well and truly pointless.

AJPW TV Six-Man Tag Team Championship: Named after their streaming service, they’re six-man titles, though the current champions are one dude and two women…given that the man has also been World Tag Champ in the recent past and doesn’t carry the belt with him, I’m pretty sure the title is not a major concern to the promotion.

Heavyweight Roster:

Suwama: The Tanahashi of All Japan in a lot of ways. Hailing from the prestigious Chuo University (the same place Jumbo Tsuruta went) and a late starter as a wrestler (debuted in his late 20s) but was the first wrestler who debuted in the 2000s to win the Triple Crown, something he has done a record-breaking 8 times. Also an 8-time World Tag Team Champion and has the most successful defenses of the belt of any wrestler ever. A big bruising wrestler, he’s the grumpy vet of the roster, powerbombs, chokes, suplexes, he plays heel and face with aplomb. While past his peak, he’s still a talented guy with a lot of presence who is very important in the company and has taken a new role as an upper card gatekeeper for the next generation.

Kento Miyahara: The Best of the Best and the current and reigning ace of All Japan. Kento is a big fan of Shawn Michaels and Hulk Hogan and it comes through in his wrestling, a consummate seller whose pain breaks the hearts of every fan in the stadium, he can flip that on a dime and be an arrogant, showboating dickhead heel. He’s loud, he’s egotistical, he’s a ham, he hotdogs, he grandstands. He’s a guy who has a really small moveset and does many of the same spots in all of his matches, but he gets a lot out of that regardless.

Yuma Aoyagi: Kento’s long-time apprentice, friend, rival, partner, and everything else, having recently broken into the tippy-top of the company and finally winning the Triple Crown he’s both a young guy (late 20s) and a vet (10+ years of experience) and seems stuck between AJPW’s youth movement and their established acts. As far as his relationship with Kento is concerned, in a lot of ways he is the Savage to Kento’s Hogan, while Miyahara has a relatively small moveset and overwhelming charisma, Yuma has a deep bag of wrestling maneuvers and one of his nicknames is Insidious Fighter. He’s versatile in the ring, being capable of throwing down power moves, taking it to the mat, throwing big strikes, using cunning roll-ups, and even going up for some aerial stuff (he’s probably the closest thing the heavyweight division has to a high-flier). However, personality wise he’s nowhere near the obsessed lunatic Savage was, instead he plays the cool guy to Kento’s hammy hothead.

Yuma Anzai: Yes there are two Yuma’s, yes they’ve both recently won the Triple Crown for the first time, yes they’re both babyfaces. Anzai is a super-rookie, being the earliest and youngest wrestler to win the Triple Crown. Like his mentor Suwama and the historical icon Jumbo, Anzai went to Chuo University and was an amateur wrestling standout, allegedly he was highly courted by New Japan and Pro Wrestling NOAH but All Japan was the one that got him and has presented him as their future ace. Anzai is tall, classically handsome, and has a great head of hair. He’s as much a symbol of booking as a character at this point, and his signature offense (Jumbo’s knee, Billy Robinson’s double-arm suplex) pay tribute to the past. He’s got loads of potential, and also loads of pressure on him as well to live up to his expectations.

Shotaro Ashino: Short and stocky, Shotaro doesn’t quite have the typical build of an All Japan star. He debuted in Wrestle-1 (which was a promotion Keiji Mutoh founded after leaving All Japan) and has always had a bit of an outsider vibe to him. Another amateur wrestling standout, Shotaro is a suplex machine who finishes with an ankle lock. He is a lot more high-impact than most of the roster, and his hard-hitting style, from his throws to his uppercuts has more in common with what you would see from Big Japan or NOAH than most of All Japan’s output. Regardless, he is a popular face who has climbed up the card, the winner of last year’s Champion Carnival before being sidelined for half a year with an arm injury.

Ryuki Honda: Pudgy, with dyed wild hair of various wild styles, sunglasses, and an arrogant smirk, Honda plays the role of the antisocial youth with aplomb with a mishmash of punk and metalhead fashion. A brawler who throws lariats, spears, some suplexes, and an one-armed chokesam/powerbomb finish that gets countered 90% of the time, his most over move is him choking his opponent on the rope as he rapidly counts along with the referee, one, two, three, four and then he breaks and chokes them again. This act of heel defiance and his straightforward, hopeless bravery in the face of bigger, stronger, and more skilled opponents has gotten him over as a babyface and he is the wild, hardscrabble tag-team partner of cleancut super-face Yuma Anzai.

Masayuki Kono: One of the few signed heavyweights that doesn’t have much credibility and is at this point fodder in tag matches, Masayuki was until recently just known as KONO, and he was one of the enforcers for heel super stable Voodoo Murders but as the stable has officially disbanded, he is somewhat adrift. Tall, with a decent build and dyed blonde hair, he’s mostly had a career as a look first guy though he did turn that into a few World Tag Team Championship runs. Now post-Voodoo Murders we’ll see what he can offer, but I assume he’ll take the Takao Omori role as fodder to the actual stars.

Naoya Nomura: Now this is a wrestler I really know almost nothing about or even if he’s still signed to All Japan, as when I first got into the company he was just hurt, and 13 months later he’s still apparently hurt, as injury compiled on injury and surgical complications played into that as well. He has been tag-team partners with Jake Lee and Yuma Aoyagi at various points and was considered to be on their level as a performer. I’ve only seen him a few times and can’t tell you much about him, but I hope he gets healthy and stays healthy.

Jun Saito: One half of the Saito Brothers, these ex-sumo guys debuted late (seriously, they’re in their late 30s right now) but they’ve taken to wrestling pretty quickly. Jun is the taller and slimmer of the two brothers with his long hair in a ponytail and his beard trimmed and well-kempt. The cooler headed brother, he uses more traditional power offense, chokeslams, big boots, and uses a Cobra Clutch Slam called the Psycho Break as his primary finish. Despite being part of the brawling, cheating, choking, eye-poking, hair-pulling, hitting with gas can Voodoo Murders stable for most of their careers, they’ve gotten over as babyfaces as out of the ring both brothers are part of a wildly entertaining food show where a local taxi driver takes them to a local restaurant where they’ll devour a hilariously large amount of food.

Rei Saito: The wildman of the two brothers, Rei is heftier, and his hair is untamed and his beard is fuller and wilder, while Jun uses more traditional power offense, Rei uses more strikes and has a signature sequence where he’ll corner an opponent and lick his hand before doing several fakeout chops before tagging them with it. Rei does an absolutely incredible diving big fat splash but his current finish is him prepping up a running throat-thrust/palm strike that he charges up in a comically video game-esque fashion.

Hideki Suzuki: Amateur standout and the Last Disciple of Billy Robinson, Suzuki is a controversial personality. Definitely credible and respected, he’s also a living embodiment of Inokism and all the good, bad, and indifferent nature of the philosophy. Currently part of an angle with Suwama where they’re wacky tag-team partners who hate each other and keep getting into goofy miscommunication spots.

Cyrus the Destroyer: Big, fat, bald, possessing many ugly and clashing tattoos, American, has a gimmick where he has heterochromia. Cyrus is a pretty simple wrestler to get and despite his lack of success in the United States is a perfect fit in Japan as a regular gaijin monster. Not possessing surpassing technique, nonetheless he still knows how to play the fat bully heel very well and the crowd goes nuts when he squashes some poor tiny Japanese dude.

Hokuto Omori: Another guy a bit non-traditional for All Japan’s heavyweight division, he’s both somewhat short and slight, and his background is in MMA as opposed to amateur wrestling. The Wolf Moon of Rebellion, Hokuto is untrustworthy, ambitious, and tricky. His offense relies on a lot of counter moves and he uses a RKO (called as such by Japanese commentary) on the regular. They also got his forearm over as a knockout blow in an angle I’m not sure was built around him legitimately concussing somebody and taking advantage of it or one of the greatest bits of selling wrestling we’ve seen in the last decade, but hey, it’s All Japan and nobody is going to check up on it.

Kuroshio TOKYO Japan: He was Ikemen Jiro in NXT and Jiro Kuroshio before then, he has taken his current name on return to Japan. Portraying an ikemen (hence the former name) from what I understand it’s a subculture about being cool and attractive, and be as it is, Kuroshio seems to embody that by wearing ridiculous blazers that match his trunks and being an excitable guy who delights the audience with long entrances that have him dancing through the crowd and bringing children into the ring to pose with him. He has certain Orange Cassidy-esque qualities as he’s a guy who irks his opponent into making mistakes, but instead of being lazy or laidback he’s so excited and happy it irks his more stoic and serious opponents. Beyond that he honestly could be a junior in build and style, but he’s so charismatic and over that All Japan can’t keep him there.

Ren Ayabe: Very tall if relatively lean, Ren recently signed full-time with All Japan after spending some time there and with his home promotion of JTO. Definitely a prospect, his physical gifts are present, he’s tall and quite athletic, but like many giants, there’s a daintiness to his offense that can be hard to ignore. Hopefully time can tighten up his work but as of right now he seems like a project based around his look and quasi-freakshow qualities.

Seigo Tachibana: Short but muscular, another Wrestle-1 guy who went to All Japan. He isn’t super credible and seems to have something resembling a yakuza gimmick as the crowd chants ‘aniki’ to support him and he wears a ridiculous red suit to the ring. He’s mostly a comedy guy and Kuroshio’s long-suffering tag-partner who usually falls victim to the goofy behavior of Mr. TOKYO Japan.

Junior Heavyweight Roster:

Atsuki Aoyagi: Yuma Aoyagi’s younger brother, he is very springy and uses a number of handsprings and flips to great aplomb. The closest thing to an ace in the division he has gotten showcase matches in other promotions and plays the traditional clean-cut pretty boy babyface junior. Finishes with a 450 splash.

Dan Tamura: A heavyweight in a juniors body, Dan is pale and pudgy and couldn’t jump over a phonebook, instead he takes juniors apart with brutal lariats, suplexes, and powerbombs. A member of Suwama’s Evolution stable, he represents that stable’s violent and upfront style.

Hikaru Sato: Possessing a very credible MMA career and an undercut, pale, dark-haired Hikaru cuts a particular figure in wrestling. I’ve seen Sato play the role of comedy pervert heel goof and martial arts veteran, definitely a glue guy in the division as an established and versatile vet.

Rising HAYATO: The current World Junior Heavyweight Champion in his first reign, HAYATO has spent a lot time as the whipping boy of the babyfaces and was the secondary guy in his tag-team with Atsuki but has broken out. Possessing the best physique in the division and possibly the company, he was a somewhat generic pretty boy until he decided to toughen up his look by going goth, one of the few All Japan wrestlers with tattoos, he has gauges, eyeliner, purple flannel outfits and a choker. Really good seller whose offense is mostly fundamentals but has a beautiful springboard moonsault for a finish and has recently added in some slick submissions to his kit. If you couldn’t tell he’s my pick for most talented junior in the company.

Ryo Inoue: Probably the biggest punching bag on the roster for the babyfaces, Ryo gets slaughtered by basically everybody but he’s definitely a top prospect. Small but with a good build and lighting fast kicks, for a long time I thought of him as a Kawada tribute with his black and yellow design, but his gear being shorts and his floppy hair makes me think that perhaps there’s some KENTA tribute with him as well. Talented kid, mostly a jobber.

Naruki Doi: Dragon Gate legend who is now a heel journeyman, he’s nowhere near what he was but he has enough talent to keep things going. Doesn’t win a lot but can keep matches together.

Ryuji Hijikata: Formerly known as Toshizo, he was Voodoo Murders junior and is now trying his hand as an unmasked babyface. Painfully generic, he at least knows he’s a mid-40s guy without much of a look or a hook and is total fodder. Hey, maybe he’ll turn it around but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

MUSASHI: Freelancer, he’s been brought up as a challenger for World Junior Heavyweight Championship. From what I understand he’s a classic journeyman type and seems talented if not superlative. Has a nice frog splash if mostly generic cruiser offense outside of that. Wears cool tights that are of a woodblock print pattern.

So that’s it, they do have other freelancers that show up and regular out of company talent, but that’s the main roster as of this point. If you have any questions I’d love to answer them below.

Oh, and if you want to check them out, ajpw.tv is 900 yen, or less than 6 dollars American a month.