It is the end of 2018; thus, it is time to reflect on the year in pro wrestling. Today, we will look at a promotion that is on its way back to prominence. It is a promotion that is in a transition period. This is, of course, All Japan Pro Wrestling.
All Japan is a promotion that set the wrestling world on fire in the mid-90s, with numerous classic matches featuring Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Toshiaki Kawada and many others. Then, in 1999, AJPW founder and owner Giant Baba passed away. Baba was very popular with the wrestlers when he was in control. The heir to the company, his wife Motoko, was not. When she took over the company, many top wrestlers, led by Misawa, left to form Pro Wrestling NOAH, leaving AJPW in the dark for years.
AJPW still has not returned to its former glory, and it likely never will, but 2018 showed a lot of promise as to what is in stores for them in the future. If I could use one word to describe AJPW in 2018, it would be “stable.”
In 2016, Kento Miyahara established himself as the ace of AJPW, and has carried the company on his back ever since. This is much akin to Hiroshi Tanahashi being the centerpiece to a recovering New Japan Pro Wrestling in the late 2000s. 2018 was a year where Miyahara continued to be the main attraction, but the company also worked to build around him, pushing newer talent and pushing other, established talent to near the same level as Miyahara.
At the beginning of the year, the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship found itself around the waist of Joe Doering, who, aesthetically, is as close to a modern Stan Hansen as any wrestler in the world right now. He fits the mold of what a top gaijin (foreigner) should be in AJPW right now. A big, mean dude who beats the heck out of people, and puts on good, believable matches.
But, eventually, the championship had to find its way back to the stable ace Miyahara. This came on March 25 at the final day of the Dream Power Series. This win assured that Miyahara would be champion heading in to Champion Carnival, which was the G1 Climax before the G1 Climax existed.
Champion Carnival was easily the highlight of the year for AJPW. This is due in big part to the consistent excellence of the A Block. This block consisted of Miyahara, Doering, Shuji Ishikawa, Yuji Hino, Ryoji Sai, Naoya Nomura, The Bodyguard, and current NJPW star Shingo Takagi. The tournament started off with a bang, with Takagi defeating Miyahara in the main event of the first night, earning himself a future title match (at least we all thought that until he signed with NJPW).
The B Block was not a bunch of slouches either. Suwama, Zeus, Jun Akiyama, and Pro Wrestling NOAH star Naomichi Marufuji killed it pretty much every night.
The finals saw Marufuji defeat Miyahara in a legitimate match of the year contender. This of course earned Marufuji a title match a month later on the final day of the Super Power Series at Korakuen Hall. They had another brilliant match, this time with Miyahara winning and retaining the title.
This whole two month stretch for AJPW showed that maybe they are ready to compete with the bigger companies like Dragon Gate, or maybe even NJPW. During the Champion Carnival tour through the Super Power Series, NJPW was having their Wrestling Dontaku tour. This is one of the lower points of NJPW’s year business-wise, but nonetheless AJPW outdrew them at Korakuen Hall for the last three nights of the Carnival. Things were really looking up during this first half of the year.
The end of the second Miyahara-Marufuji match would end up being an omen for the rest of AJPW’s year. Miyahara wins and he is celebrating with his belt. At this point, everyone is wondering who will be next to step up to challenge for the belt. Would it be Zeus, who Miyahara beat to win his first Triple Crown title? Would it be Suwama, the last man to beat Miyahara for the belt? Nope, it was Dylan James, at the time one half of the World Tag Team Champions with Ryoji Sai. This match was the first example of a theme for AJPW for the rest of 2018: good, but not too terribly exciting.
Speaking of not that exciting, I guess I should talk about AJPW’s junior heavyweight division in 2018. Atsushi Aoki won the junior heavyweight championship on February 3, defeating Tajiri (the same Tajiri that was in WWE). From there, Aoki held the title for 204 days, featuring bland match after bland match.
The junior title has been on a wild ride over the last few months. First, Koji Iwamoto, who is not bland and kind of exciting, defeated Aoki to win the title on August 26 at Summer Explosion, which is a show I will talk more about later when I get back to the heavyweights. But, for the time being, this was exciting. There was a fresh face on top of the division, there will be good matches, it is gonna be great.
Then Iwamoto lost the title in his first defense to Shuji Kondo. This is like the Dylan James thing again. Kondo is good, but we want fresh faces, and he is not it. Plus, Kondo’s reign did not end up amounting to anything. He had one successful defense, albeit in a very good match with Hikaru Sato, then he dropped the belt back to Iwamoto on November 29.
So, it’s good that Iwamoto has the belt again, but why did we need two months of Kondo as champion? Why couldn’t Iwamoto hold the title all the way through and establish himself as the true top guy of the division? At least Iwamoto’s first defense will be exciting, as he faces Yusuke Okada, another good up-and-comer, on January 2.
The second half of the year for the heavyweights was not as weird and a bit more exciting than the juniors.
The tag team division had a wild start to the year before finding stability in the second half. Dating back to last year, the tag titles went all over the place, with many short reigns due to unfortunate injuries to Jake Lee, and then Yuji Okabayashi. Shuji Ishikawa and Suwama won the titles on January 3, just to lose them immediately to Miyahara and Yoshitatsu, who then immediately lost them to The Big Guns (Zeus and Bodyguard), who, again, immediately lost the titles to James and Sai. The only reason these two lasted more than three weeks with the belts is because they held them through Champion Carnival, thus not defending them for an extended period. Finally they lost the titles to Suwama and Ishikawa, now called Violence Giants. They ended up being the Miyahara od the tag team division, in that they brought stability and legitimacy to titles that desperately needed it.
The other tag team titles in AJPW, the All-Asia Tag Team Championships, had no issues with stability. Akiyama and Yuji Nagata won the vacant belts in February and were the best dad team in the world. It was just two past-their-prime but still very good wrestlers running through everyone for five months. This awesome team was designed to legitimize the belts for a little while before they eventually put over a couple of young, up-and-comers. Those young guys were Yuma Aoyagi and the break-out star of 2018 in AJPW: Naoya Nomura.
This title change was part of maybe the most newsworthy show for AJPW in 2018: Summer Action Series on July 29. This show had three title changes: the All-Asia Tag title, Bodyguard defeating Ryoji Sai for the All-Asia Heavyweight title, and, in the main event, Zeus defeating Miyahara for the Triple Crown title.
In early 2016, AJPW needed a new top guy after Suwama was injured and could not defend the Triple Crown. This was when the company decided to pull the trigger on making Miyahara the guy. He won the vacant title by defeating Zeus, and it was an early example of Zeus’s over-arching story of the last few years: he is rapidly improving by the year but is always fingertips away from really being a top guy.
So, when he defeated Miyahara to finally win the big one, it was seriously the most emotional title win of the year in any promotion (Kenny Omega be damned). Plus, it was a killer match in front of a hot Osaka crowd, who were all there to see their home-grown boy Zeus (he is an alumni of Osaka-Pro Wrestling) win. After the match, Bodyguard carried Zeus around the ring on his shoulders and they both celebrated with their new belts. What a moment.
It really was a great moment, but that is all it was: a moment. I do not think AJPW was ready for Zeus to be champion, even if Zeus himself could carry the company for a little while no problem. What I mean by this is, Zeus won the title, and suddenly was one of the best wrestlers in the world. At every opportunity, he put on great matches, even when not working with other great wrestlers.
But, the main problem of Zeus’s title reign showed on August 26 when he made his first title defense against Ishikawa. It was a great match, fitting of an AJPW main event, but the building was half-empty. What sets this show apart from any other show during this title reign, was that Miyahara was not on the show in any capacity, not even a random tag team match on the undercard. It was up to Zeus to sell the show as champion, and he failed.
Unfortunately, AJPW was not ready for anyone but Miyahara to be the main attraction. So, September rolled around and the Royal Road tournament (AJPW’s version of the New Japan Cup) came around. There were plenty of stories to come out of this tournament. Zeus and Nomura had one of the best matches of the year in the promotion on the second night, with Zeus coming out on top. The biggest story was Kengo Mashimo, a product of Kaientai Dojo, coming in and beating all the big dudes in the tournament. He choked out Ishikawa in the first round, beat Doering with a roll-up in the second, and made Zeus tap out in the semi-finals. He was a made man, earning himself a tag title match by beating Ishikawa and possibly a heavyweight title match by beating Zeus. But, in the finals, he ran in to Miyahara, who was on a mission to get his belt back. He went through Yoshitatsu, Lee, Yuji Hino and finally Mashimo to win the tournament and earn his rematch.
That rematch came on October 21 in Yokohama. After a 34-minute war between two equals, Miyahara was finally able to catch Zeus with his second straight-jacket German suplex of the match, get the win, and regain the title. This match seriously ruled. The story of both men played in to the psychology of the match perfectly, it built extremely well with some great near-falls. Miyahara re-established himself as the guy and got to finish the year as champion.
The final big thing of the year for AJPW was the Real World Tag League tournament. It was not too terribly exciting, but there were some great matches. This tournament was really meant to set up a bunch of big matches for the New Year’s War shows. The newly formed team of Doering and James, called the Bomber, won the tournament and will face Violence Giants in the main event on January 2. Kai, tagging with Mashimo, pinned Miyahara, earning himself a heavyweight title shot in the main event on January 3. Both of those shows will be at Korakuen Hall.
Overall, it was a pretty good year for AJPW. There were some great matches, but there was also a slight feeling of stagnation. Besides Miyahara, most of the main eventers are in their late 30s-to-early 40s. There are no younger guys ready to step up and be in that main event scene. 2019 will be a very important year for guys like Nomura, Aoyagi, and Lee. They need to step up into that role and bring new excitement to the promotion.
End of Year Awards
Wrestler of the Year: Kento Miyahara
Show of the Year: Champion Carnival Finals – April 30
Feud of the Year: Kento Miyahara vs Zeus
Tag Team of the Year: Violence Giants (Suwama and Shuji Ishikawa)
Match of the Year: Kento Miyahara vs Naomichi Marufuji – Super Power Series, May 30
