All Japan Pro Wrestling: Fierce Battle! Summer Action Wars 08.10.25

So I know I’m reviewing Marigold but we just had a pretty big AJPW show pop up so I gotta throw some love your way for that. We got almost 1600 in Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan, which considering it’s population is less than 250k is pretty dang impressive for All Japan in the Air Water Arena. The crowd is lively and they’re all active as we start the show.

EDIT: Due to formatting issues I’m reposting this, the initial commentary section (I read and appreciate all of you guys!) is right here.

Hideki Suzuki vs. Ryo Inoue

Background: Hideki is a big bully babyface shooter guy (though he’s VERY heelish) and Ryo is a cocky young junior rookie type who has a lot of KENTA/Kawada in him as a swaggering undersized dude. Definitely playing him up as a sort of hardrock punk rock guy with a leather jacket with patches and long hair. Hideki is dressed in black trunks with a big “CATCH” written on the back with the proper, boring haircut. Don’t think there’s any particular beef other than Suzuki is a smug jerk who likes beating up rookies (but is a face now?) and Ryo picks fights he can’t win.

The Match: Hideki just swallows up Ryo on the mat and slaps him around a little bit but doesn’t look to finish. He just sorta lays on him while Ryo squirms around. Inoue reaches the ropes so Hideki just corners him and blasts with bodyshots and then kicks him around as this is just a slaughter. But not an interesting slaughter. Ryo finally staggers up but he collapses again and Hideki just continues to stomp on him, and now we get a sleeper and Ryo is out.

DUD

I uh…don’t get the point of any of that. Ryo looked like a total punk, Hideki looked dominant in a way but it wasn’t interesting. Absolutely counterproductive from my standing and I say this as more than a guy who dislikes Hideki, what is any of that? I guess at least it was short but wow. Just terrible.

Post-match Suzuki whoops Ryo some more. Cool.

Hokuto-gun (Hokuto Omori, Kuma Arashi & Takashi) (c) vs. Kuroshio TOKYO Japan, Seigo Tachibana & Shiro Koshinaka

Background: Hokuto-Gun are a group of monsters lead by Omori, and Kuma is a big bear guy (literally, he likes bears) and Takashi is a gi-pants wearing cheating jerk. Kuroshio is of course a guy who had a cup of coffee in NXT and wears a jacket and is a goof, Seigo has a yakuza gimmick and wears a red suit and calls people bro (it’s not deep) and Shiro is apparently some old indie guy with a Samurai gimmick so his tag-partners came out with the topknots and headbands and stuff. And in either mockery or solidarity with Takashi, Hokuto-Gun are all in karate outfits.

The Match: We get a promo from Hokuto and then a show of respect as all of his crew offers handshakes to start and the challengers immediately brawl and we get Takashi and Kuroshio doing some comedy oversell stuff. Hokuto in to do some cheating on Seigo before he comes back but Hokuto-Gun takeover and it’s just y’know, there are three heels. They do the heel business. Kuma comes in and gets some power stuff on Seigo before Takashi runs in to cheat excessively. We get damage to the nose and then some throat strikes. More abuse on Seigo who is flopping around and retching as Takashi mugs to the crowd. Hokuto goes in for the wounded animal and they have a comedy slugfest before Seigo uncorks a crisp elbow and a STO and in comes Shiro who just does some old-man stuff and wipes out everybody with a hip-check off the apron. Back inside and he gets actual offense before another hip-heck and in comes Kuroshio for Shiro to work on Omori and well, we get some miscommunication. And Takashi rolls through and just does his throat-thrust deal and this is farce. Anyway, Hokuto-Gun cleans house and loads up their finish on Kuroshio but they mess it up and Seigo tries to run interference. It all breaks down for a finish flurry but Hokuto-Gun isolates Kuroshio, they do the bit again, and Takashi gets a lariat for 3.

**

Look. It was just…some comedy stuff between people who do that stuff. And a few non-comedy people who just ride along.

Dan Tamura & Rising HAYATO vs. Saito Brothers (Naruki Doi & Senor Saito)

Background: Just a couple juniors in the aftermath of the AJPW Tag Festival deal. Naruki is “Mr. Saito” and the self-adopted brother of the Saito Brothers. Dan is a bruising junior that basically wrestles like a small heavyweight and HAYATO is one of the bigger rising stars of the division as a handsome, jacked, tattooed alt-gothy guy that does a lot of high-flying.

The Match: Tamura and Doi start with some standing grappling and my goodness, Dan is so much bigger, not fat, just like…broad. We do some basic standstill stuff, Doi jaws at the crowd, and in comes Senor Saito and HAYATO. We get a lockup and a clean break from Senor Saito and then some more arm wrench stuff until HAYATO does an overhand chop, and they mix up the formula with Senor getting an eye gouge but HAYAYTo gets a springboard dropkick to force a Senor powder and then fakes a dive before flipping back into the ring and Doi goes in for the ambush and we stretch out HAYATO and get some double-team elbows and MCMG-esque quick doubles. And we settle back down with a rest hold from Senor before Doi tags in to stomp and jaw. HAYATO eventually gets a running elbow after a series of evasions and in comes Tamura to run over everybody. Doi turns that into a slugfest though and after an eye gouge gets a takedown and a senton before bringing in Senor Saito. The masked man get a facebuster for 2 and tries to fire up the crowd (not successfully) and teases a strike but he runs into a Samoan drop. THe babyfaces try a double but an eyepoke and some other cheating sets up HAYATO to get demolished again. Tamura just destroys everybody though and HAYATO turns a pop-up powerbomb into a frankensteiner on Senor Saito for 3.

**¼

Look, they had some interesting double teams but this was very paint by numbers. HAYATO definitely should be involved in bigger stuff and hopefully this leads to that.

Davey Boy Smith Jr., Kento Miyahara & MUSASHI vs. HAVOC (Oddyssey, Shotaro Ashino & XYON)

Background: So DBSJ and Kento were former tag partners in the World’s Strongest Tag Determination League and MUSASHI is the former junior champion and just a versatile good hand vet babyface. HAVOC is a new stable of sorta monsters (but not Hokuto-Gun!) that consist of established suplex merchant Shotaro, Roman Reigns cosplayer XYON and now the former Odyssey Jones as Oddyssey. Whan an insane stable.

The Match: XYON starts by taunting massively to the point where Kento of all people is perturbed…before Miyahara realizes that he can taunt and pose himself. So they just preen and peacock for a while before we get the monster lockups and Kento is tossed aside as we are told “HE’S TOO STRONG BABY!” and then XYON gets a headlock but Kento gets a boot before running into XYON’s block and it all breaks down as Shotaro runs in for a flying uppercut and then Oddyssey runs in and daps up Ashino. The faces all powder and scheme before Kento tags in MUSASHI against Shotaro and we get a MUSASHI dropkick and a Shotaro suplex before Oddyssey tags in and just wrecks the junior. Corner splash, headbutt, body attack, stomps and then XYON is tagged in to clubber away. The hard whip lets Shotaro come in and the crowd is HOT for MUSASHI while Ashino picks at his ears and suplexes the junior. MUSASHI finally gets a drop toehold to break free for a second and then an enzuigiri brings in DBSJ who goes against Oddyssey and we get the clash of titans as they just run against each other before The Odd One (dunno if that’s his nickname but I’m giving it to him here) drops him, gets a leg drop and just runs him into the corner. XYON tags back and gets the kicky punchy and the heady butty. But Davey gets a DDT and now we set up another tag as Kento is just HOPPING on the corner. Miyahara runs wild with this comeback sequence…and brings in MUSASHI but XYON stuff the double with clotheslines and we get MUSASHI against the Aussie in a strike battle and the smaller MUSASHI fells XYON with dropkicks before it’s tag time. The faces all go in on XYON and a Blackout Knee sets up MUSASHI’s frog splash for 2.8 and the junior continues to wail away but the big Samoan gets a pump kick, Kento gets taken out by Shotaro, Oddyssey takes out Davey Boy, and then we get a Shotaro German, Oddyssey running splash, and a XYON diving headbutt gets 3 on MUSASHI.

**½

Just a generic undercard Star Match but HAVOC maybe have something as a trio with different skills. I do think it’s funny that AJPW has two different evil gaijin stables with Japanese leaders right now.

Rei Saito comes out and cuts a promo and apparently it’s about how he needs surgery for his shoulder and won’t make the King’s Road Tournament but he’ll be back afterwards. Hopefully this means he’ll only be out for a few months and not a long time as the Tournament is in September. Also Rei is in a muscle tee, red gym shorts and sneakers and I’d be lying if I said that doesn’t look supremely comfortable. Hopefully Rei can get his body right and won’t pull a Go Shiozaki here.

Daisuke Sekimoto & Ryuki Honda vs. Ren Ayabe & Talos

Background: So I am legitimately very confused by this match as I’m not sure if ELPIDA is still a thing. It’s not a secret but Yuma Anzai is apparently taking some time off (I’ve heard injury, I’ve heard other reasons as well) and maybe ELPIDA is done, but Honda and Ren are both members of ELPIDA. So yeah, we have Big Japan Ace Daisuke Sekimoto, a broad, cubical man who had an in-ring scare but is apparently fine teaming with crazy brawler Ryuki Honda against the team of smug tall guy Ren Ayabe and the seven foot (okay well not really) long-haired tatted up gaijin goliath Talos who last I checked was a member of Hokuto-Gun. So a weird collection of partners unless I missed like seven stable breakups.

The Match: Talos and Daisuke start and Sekimoto gives up a ton of size and gets powered into the corner as Kyohei Wada gets all athletic and steps into the ropes to check on it. Man that was artful for a 70 year old. Sekimoto tries again and actually reverses the hold in the ropes as he swings at Talos but the gaijin is just too big and the Big Japan man is stuffed and slammed. Daisuke breaks out a dropkick and we get a double tag as Ren and Ryuki meet up. Lockup, break…Ryujki swings in the ropes, Ren is aloof and just brushes it off and they slug it out before Honda gets the knockdown with a shoulder. Daisuke comes in and gets a slam and stomps as Ren is our gangly dude in peril. We get some choking while Honda does his taunt. But Honda gets distracted jawing with the ref and Ayabe boots Honda down, tosses him and we get a beating throughout the audience. And Ren absolutely DESTROYS Ryuki on the outside and we got back and when Honda fires up…Ren had already tagged in Talos to continue to destroy Honda. The two giants continue to just tag in and wreck Ryuki… but Honda finally gets a desperate spear on Ayabe and in comes Daisuke…to zero in on Talos and try to take down the goliath. Sekimoto gets cornered but uses grit and bulk to wipe out his opponents after a number of efforts and then gets a delayed brainbusters on Ren. Crossbody by the Big Japan man gets 2. Ren gets his jumping clothesline for a double-down and then comes Talos. Corner splash, sidewalk slam, regular big-man stuff. Chokeslam attempt but Sekimoto breaks it up and we get a double tag to Ryuki and Ren who just light each other up before Ayabe wins. Talos comes in for a splash and they get a bearhug/big boot combo for 2. Honda fires up though and Daisuke runs in and we get a double brainbuster instead. Back to Ren and Ryuki who both tease finishers but Honda lands a lariat for 2.9. Honda tries a Final Vent but Ayabe slips out and Talos gets a back suplex slam and Ren gets his full nelson slam for 2.9. Ren gets Death Roulette (spinning Falcon Arrow) for 3 and Ren looks mildly disgusted.

***

So maybe this is higher than it should be, but it’s also maybe the most Ren has clicked for me. He’s been a guy that I’ve always hemmed and hawed about, but this match Ren felt like he was himself the whole way through and was calling it. Honda is good and Daisuke is excellent, so maybe he was just clicking with top guys, but Talos is uh…not that and Ren felt like he was running things. So yeah, if we have heel jerkwad Ren, maybe this is a fine start to that.

Seiki Yoshioka (c) vs. Atsuki Aoyagi – AJPW Junior Heavyweight Championship

Background: Atsuki is coming off of winning the Junior Festival tournament and is a very, very traditional highflyer in the sense of his finisher is a 450, he does handsprings and various jumping kicks. He has some fancy power moves and of course is Yuma’s younger brother. He’s a colorful, fluffy bayface going for the belt in his hometown. Seiki is an outsider as a mid-30s veteran. Seiki is all about speed and brutal offense, he’s super jacked and kicks the faith out of folks and has a number of big, jawdropping head dropping moves. This match will be quick with Seiki as the erstwhile heel as the stronger, more built, faster, older, and meaner opponent. Atsuki is rocking baggy turquoise shorts while Seiki has black tights with a lightning pattern..

The Match: We start with some standing grappling and random reversals into a standstill. International that Aoyagi wins and he tries a dive that he springs out of and Yoshioka evades regardless. A moonsault by Atsuki lands though and the crowd is HOT for the local kid. Back in and Atsuki tries stuff but his handspring is met with Seiki’s basement dropkick and the champ tosses Aoyagi outside and just wrecks him ringside and then tosses him to the wolves of regular fandom. Seiki heels it up with tosses and blatant tosses but he’s very much in the Bret Heel here. Or maybe more as Seiki bounces Atsuki’s head off the ring post. Some desperate strikes by Aoyagi but Seiki just demolishes him with the same. Seiki heels it up with a choke on the ropes and a grin to the ground and he stomps away and does big strikes and just taunts the crowd between them, very heavyweight brawl right now. Atsuki does show good babyface fire by continuing to get up for the hammering kicks and a big crowd chant irks Yoshioka and lets Aoyagi get to his feet and reverse a whip into a pop-up dropkick for a double-down. Atsuki is up first and gets some of his high-flying and evasion sequences to take out Seiki with another dropkick. Atsuki goes for his fisherman’s bomb but Yoshioka slips out and lands a facecrusher and after a rope-running sequence, Seiki remembers he has way better strikes and just pulverizes Aoyagi in the corner. More strikes have Yoshioka in control but the hometown hero gets back up and doesn’t step down and they’re slugging it out. Yoshioka is just smiling throughout this like a jerk and now he’s asking for more with his hands behind his back. Okay I didn’t know Seiki had this in him. Atsuki stays standing with a pair of superkicks but Seiki survives and gets his floating axe kick for a double-down. Atsuki gets up but goes for a reverse springboard and gets kicked so he collapses into a tree of woe and Seiki gets the diving stomp and then an Emerald Flowsion for 2.9. Seiki goes for the Crash Driver but Atsuki slips and goes for his handspring kick, gets caught, but flips out and gets a 540 kick and then the handspring kick to drop Yoshioka. Aoyagi gets rolling Fisherman’s busters for 2.8 and then goes up for a moonsault that misses. Yoshioka gets a kick flurry out of the corner for 2 and then a South Asian Deathlock with a chinlock to stretch out the challenger. Aoyagi crawls towards the ropes so Seiki goes for a surfboard stomp for 2.5. Seiki drags Atsuki to the top rope and the champ calls for the end, and then Aoyagi slips off, pops up with a kick, and pulls off a Spanish Fly for 2.9. Atsuki’s moonsault gets 2.8, and then Aoyagi goes for the 450 into Seiki’s knees. A scoop driver (not a Michinoku as it lands like the Made in Japan, with one leg over the body but it didn’t have a half-nelson) gets 2.9 and Seiki is losing his mind here. Yoshioka runs into a frankensteiner for 2 and they do a rollup sequence that ends with Seiki getting the Crash Driver position…and Atsuki turning that into a victory roll for 2.8. Seiki just kicks Atsuki’s head off, but he delays too much for the buzzsaw kick and Atsuki gets a poison rana and then cuts off the comeback with a dropkick. Fisherman’s bomb by Atsuki gets 2.7 and he goes up for a moonsault, no cover, another moonsault gets 2.8. Aoyagi goes up AGAIN and the Firebird Splash gets 3.

****

Okay, so this was A LOT, but it still had tons of that AJPW magic. Seiki overall just demolishing his opponent who wouldn’t falter to the strikes as the hometown man and crawling back to heat the match up, Seiki was fantastic as a jerk here and him getting thrown off his game and basically letting Aoyagi do a big gutsy comeback was great stuff. One thing I appreciate is that neither the Crash Driver or 450 were kicked out of, they were teased, countered, whiffed, but the man who hit his finish WON.

Post-match we get the big babyface speech though it’s pretty short.

Jun Saito (c) vs. Yuma Aoyagi – Triple Crown Championship

Background: We get a long video package on them, but overall these guys are peers in weird ways. Jun is older but Yuma is far more experienced in pro wrestling. Both are the cool guys in their brother tag-team and the more well-rounded members of their partnership. Yuma is a very versatile guy who can basically do anything in the ring and mixes it up on his opponents weakness, while Jun has a well-rounded power and strike offense and even is the ‘high-flyer’ of his tag-team. In singles Jun is 2-0 against Yuma but the tag-feud is much more split. Jun is also on his second defense this reign against Yuma and he beat him by debuting his new super finish, the Shouten Kai, and given the strategies of Yuma that has to be on the man’s mind. Aoyagi is in the traditional blue and black with short, blonde-ish hair while Jun is in red and black with the long ponytail and goatee. Also, obviously like little brother Atsuki, Yuma is a local guy.

The Match: We get the main-event staredown into the main-event lockup. Jun wins, clean but reluctant break, second lockup into a standing switch and Jun gets a headlock of DOOM! International leads to a Yuma dropkick that Jun shrugs off and a Saito shoulder sends Aoyagi powdering. We get the usual mauling and Yuma gets tossed into the guardrails a few times before Yuma reverses and Jun takes a gnarly looking bumps as he goes chest first into the railing and flips over it, now Aoyagi is unleashing strikes, Jun eats the railing again and Yuma gets his springboard leg drop to the head (always looks awesome) and then more strikes before Jun fires back with a boot and rams Aoyagi into the post. This is a good bit more heated than these sequences usually are and they’re laying it in. We finally head back inside and Jun get a quick 2, and then gets a slam and elbow drop for another 2. Jun next gets the main-event sleeper of DOOM and Yuma squirms in the hold and breaks free before he gets knocked down again, we get the rope-assisted press from Jun and he UNLEASHES THE HAIR. Massive pop for that and then a good reaction for a delayed brainbuster as Jun is just wiping the floor with Yuma. Jun with a whip that gets reversed into a dropkick by Aoyagi…but Jun holds onto the ropes and Aoyagi crashes and burns but gets the champ with a second attempt. Yuma keeps it fast with a springboard reverse crossbody and then a diving crossbody. Brainbuster attempt by Yuma is stuffed and they slug it out a bit before Yuma speeds it up again and nails the champ with another dropkick. Aoyagi goes up AGAIN though and this time Saito sniffs it out and boots the challenger off the top to tumble outside (in a very safe bump). Jun follows and they struggle on the apron with both guys going for stuff and it getting stuffed…until Jun nails a chokeslam on the apron. And Jun goes for the countout win instead of following up and Yuma recovers to slide in…and eat a series of boots and a backdrop driver for 2 from the champ. Jun loads up a superplex but Yuma turns that into a sunset flip powerbomb (and a real powerbomb, he walks to the middle before dropping Jun) and then pops up for a flying elbow, Jun gets the dramatic no-sell with a brainbuster though and when Yuma tries the same Saito wipes him out with a lariat for a double-down. They both crawl up the ropes and slug it out and get this, Yuma gets ANOTHER dropkick to set up a tornado DDT off the ropes for 2.8. Yuma goes for his Rockstar Buster but he still can’t get Jun off his feet who blocks it and grabs a goozle that sets up a Psycho Break attempt that Yuma slips free from…only to run into another lariat. Another Psycho Break is turned into a cradle for 2 and Yuma then gets an O’Connor roll for 2.8 before slipping into an attempt at his Endgame choke, but Aoyagi can’t hook the arm and Jun turns it into a brainbuster and then spears The Fool. Chokeslam by Jun gets 2.7 as the champion’s flurry is relentless. Psycho Break lands but just gets 2.9. A second Break is attempted and Yuma turns that into an inside cradle for 2.9, Yuma then levels Jun with a lariat and goes up for an elbow, and then he goes to another turnbuckle with another elbow, but only 2.99. Rockstar Buster attempt number 2, but Jun is still too big, so Yuma gets his spinning heel kick and now the Rockstar Buster lands for…2.9, and now Yuma gets The Fool, 2.99 and the crowd absolutely bought that as the finish. Yuma tries to rally but Jun gets the goozle slap (a tribute to an injured Rei perhaps?) and then spins into a lariat and gets the Jackhammer for 2.8. Jun then gets a vertical suplex left and…transitions to a chokeslam? It looked kind of awkward but I think that’s a Taue move. Anyway it gets 3 regardless!

****

I do enjoy the chemistry between Yuma and Jun as they actually feel like guys trying to WIN a match and not just randomly doing stuff for no reason. Yuma’s strategy of keeping it fast and basically only being able to gain space by using his speed and flying as in standup and extended exchanges Jun’s superior offensive arsenal was too much. That said, the heat for Jun’s matches is getting weird cause he basically plays the heel role in terms of building heat, he’s beloved by the fans and does enough cool stuff he’s not really getting boos and his opponents aren’t either. Which is fine, but he’s in a weird quasi-tweener space where the company is booking him like a top babyface in a lot of ways but he has a heelishness in his style and work that can lead to weird reactions. That said, he was good year, solid presence for a better worker to bounce around even if they flubbed the finish. I think it’s supposed be like the Shouten Kai but instead of a side slam he drops them like a chokeslam? Anyway, I’m sure he’ll demolish Atsuki with it next show and it’ll look proper.

Post-match Jun talks about DOOM! And eats a watermelon but no challengers walk out. That said, the Royal Road tournament is coming up and that will establish whatever challenger for Jun will be next I assume.

I’ll be back with Marigold stuff probably, but will try to cover some of the Royal Road deal.