On October 24th, the fans of All Japan Pro Wrestling have witnessed a match of the year contender. It was at their Raising An Army Memorial Series. It was also their 47th anniversary touring at the Korakuen Hall. The match they had as the Triple Crown Champion, Kento Miyahara defending his title against the winner of the Royal Road Tournament last month, Jake Lee. This was an important match because it could have lead to All Japan pulling the trigger on a new top star. Kento’s goal would’ve been in jeopardy if he were to lose. Since he wants to break the record of successful title defenses in one run. A lot was at stake for both of these men.
Only one of them would come out the winner as it was hard to figure out what direction did they want to go. Since either outcome would’ve been perfect for this match. Thirty-three minutes went by in this match and the future was decided. Kento Miyahara would win the match to retain his triple crown championship.
The story for this match was excellent since we have been witnessing the growth of Jake Lee in the past year. Since his return from injury and wanted to show he’s the future of the company next to Kento. Since his career has started, he would never defeat Kento in a singles match. No matter how many times he came close but the quality of the matches kept improving each time. During 2019, they had a trilogy of matches that all had importance. Since the first time was the Champion Carnival finals, the finals of the Royal Road Tournament, and now for the Kento Miyahara and his Triple Crown Championship.
The only time Jake would defeat Kento was during the Royal Road Tournament finals to get the title match. It was a big deal for Jake because it showed that he was capable of defeating Kento at the right moment. However, Kento would defeat him to make up for that loss. It would prove to him that Jake only got lucky and the ace stays up at the top of the mountain. Although Jake would come up short again, he did prove that he is a future Triple Crown Champion. He is someone that could lead the company into the future along with Kento.
This was probably the only time that Kento could’ve lost the title and fail to break the record. With the win over Jake in this match, it seems pretty clear that he’ll at least tie the record. However, him breaking it to make eleven defenses will be a different story.
Kento currently has eight successful title defenses under his belt during his reign. He has talked about wanting to break the record of successful title defenses in one run. The record is still held by Toshiaki Kawada with ten defenses. It means he would need to successfully retain it two more times to tie the record or he could try to break the record by retaining it three times. Who would be his next challenger since he most likely won’t be defending the title until January after the Real World Tag Team League?
Dylan James would be a strong possible contender since they had a great match last year. Fans would love to see it happen again if Dylan can score a pinfall on him during the tournament. If they would want to try and have someone new challenge for the title, then why not have Yuma Aoyagi get a shot at it? Kento did say that he, Jake Lee, Naoya Nomura, and Yuma Aoyagi were the future of the company. Jake and Naoya had their chances to go for the title this year. Why not see how Yuma can fair in the main event? If he really is another one that is considered the future of the company, then there’s no harm in seeing him having a match at a big level. It gives Kento another name on his list of title defenses.
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read the article and as a little surprise. I will have two of Kento and Jake’s matches listed down below. Their title match would’ve been on here but it doesn’t appear to be on Youtube or Daily Motion yet. So if you do want to give it a watch, please subscribe to AJPW at ajpw.tv where you can watch All Japan for about $8 a month.
Champion Carnival Final:
Royal Road Final:
