Welcome to my latest preview and today I’m gonna be talking about All Japan’s last big show before we move on to this year’s Champions Carnival that will take place sometime in April. We have three big title matches on this show and quite a bit to cover, so let’s just not waste any time and talk about the card from top to bottom, shall we? Here is the AJPW Dream Power Series.
Six Man Tag Team Match
Atsuki Aoyagi, Danji Tamura, & Hokuto Omori vs. Evolution (Atsushi Aoki, Hikaru Sato, & Yusuke Okada)
Preview: Our opening contest is a six-man tag team match with our young lions, Atsuki Aoyagi, Danji Tamura, and Hokuto Omori taking on three members of Evolution, Atsushi Aoki, Hikaru Sato, and Yusuke Okada. Our three young lions have been rather impressive lately and they would usually pair off with veterans in tag matches or fight each other in singles competition, but now it looks like they’ll be fighting the Evolution members from the junior division. If any of the rookies can somehow manage a win here, it would be a huge step for them in the right direction but their opponents are also no laughing matter either. Will Evolution school the young boys or will they somehow get one of the biggest wins in their starting careers?
Six Man Tag Team Match
Jun Akiyama, TAJIRI, & Ultimo Dragon vs. Black Menso-Re, Masanobu Fuchi, & Takao Omori
Preview: We got another six-man tag team match here as Jun Akiyama, TAJIRI, and Ultimo Dragon will be taking on Black Menso-Re, Masanobu Fuchi, and Takao Omori. It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen Ultimo Dragon wrestling in All Japan since he’s been busy touring around the globe to give people special matches, but now it looks like he’s coming back to give us this next match. Masanobu Fuchi recently had his 45th Anniversary special a month ago and still amazing that he’s still going after all this time. It’s pretty much an entertaining match with veterans of the game and the older guys are more of the bigger draws in All Japan, so no reason they wouldn’t take advantage of booking them whenever they can. Which one of these two teams will get the win here?
AJPW Dream Power Series
Six Man Tag Team Match
Atsushi Maruyama, KAI, & Zeus vs. Dylan James, Joe Doering, & Francesco Akira
Preview: We have another six-man tag team match taking place as Atsushi Maruyama, KAI, and Zeus team up to take on Dylan James, Joe Doering, and Francesco Akira. There’s really nothing significant about this match like the previous two before this one since you need exhibitions to keep the fans happy while the others will be showcased with their skills. KAI recently failed at Dragon Gate to win the Open the Twin Gate Championships, so he could at least try to win for his team but I think Zeus has a lot on his plate when it comes to their opponent since Dylan James and Joe Doering are a strong team to beat. Which one of these two teams will win the match?
Tag Team Match
NEXTREAM (Yoshitatsu & Yumi Aoyagi) vs. Sweeper (Jake Lee & Ryouji Sai)
Preview: Our next match here is a tag team match as NEXTREAM members, Yoshitatsu and Yuma Aoyagi will be taking on members of Sweeper, Jake Lee and Ryouji Sai. I was expecting this match to be for the vacant All Asia Tag Team Championships but it looks like that’s not the case here since it’s just a regular match with no title on the line. Since Naoya is no longer Yumi’s partner, he’s gonna be paired off with Yoshitatsu this time around when he’s usually paired with Kento Miyahara. While there’s no prize on the line for this match, this could definitely lead to something for these two teams and also some hype leading to the Champions Carnival since all four of them are in the tournament. Which one of these two teams will win and what will be the future payoff?
AJPW Dream Power Series
World Junior Heavyweight Title Match
Koji Iwamoto (c) vs. Kotaro Suzuki
Preview: Our first title match of the show is Koji Iwamoto defending his Junior Heavyweight Championship against Kotaro Suzuki. These two are no strangers to each other as the two have fought at the Junior Battle of Glory Tournament and the two would fight on the first day of their respective block where Kotaro would actually defeat Koji in the match.
Koji is the current champion and was even the reigning champion during this whole tournament and despite Kotaro defeating Koji, he would fail to win the block as Koji would be the one to advance to the finals. Once Koji fought Seiki Yoshioka in the finals of the tournament, Yuji would actually win the whole thing and would actually make the challenge to defend the title against Kotaro next so he could avenge his loss when they last fought. Will Koji be able to retain his title again or will Kotaro get the upper hand on him again?
World Tag Team Title Match
Strong BJ (Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi) (c) vs. Violent Giants (Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama)
Preview: Our next title match for this show is Strong BJ defending their titles against the team that they defeated them for and probably my favorite tag team in current professional wrestling, Violent Giants. If you’re not familiar with Strong BJ, they’re a tag team from BJW (Big Japan Wrestling), which is known for their deathmatches and also strong style type of wrestling but anyway, they came in to make a challenge to Violent Giants to bring the titles to a BJW show and put them on the line.
On the January 13th show in BJW, Strong BJ would actually defeat the Violent Giants to win their tag team titles. On February 24th, they would retain the titles against Sweeper and Violent Giants would make a challenge after to try and reclaim their tag team titles. If it’s anything like their previous match, it’s sure to be hard-hitting and a not miss. Will Strong BJ remain on top or will Violent Giants bring the belts back home?
AJPW Dream Power Series
Triple Crown Title Match
Kento Miyahara (c) vs. Naoya Nomura
Preview: This is our third title match and the main event of the show as we have Kento Miyahara defending his Triple Crown Championship against former NEXTREAM member, Naoya Nomura. So how did this match come about? Well, During their Excite Series tour in February, Both of them would have individual matches on the February 24th show. Naoya Nomura would defeat Dylan James in a singles match and Kento Miyahara would have his second successful title defense against Suwama.
After Kento would defeat Suwama, Naoya would come in to make the challenge to his stablemate and announce his departure from the NEXTREAM group in the process, leading him to also vacate the All Asia Tag Team Championship with Yuma Aoyagi. This will be Kento’s first defense for turning 30 but also his last title defense until May where he will fight the winner of the Champions Carnival or just make a challenge himself if he does somehow win this tournament. Kento said he wanted to break the record for most title defenses for the Triple Crown Championship and he would need to retain it nine more times in order for him to do so. Will Kento be able to retain it once again or does Naoya pull the surprise victory.
That’s all the time we have for this preview and I hope you enjoyed the read, along with getting excited about this upcoming show. If you’re not familiar with All Japan Pro Wrestling, this is a good time to get invested into them with the Champions Carnival coming up soon. They even have a streaming service called ajpw.tv that you can look up and is cheaper than NJPW World if you wanna add a new subscription because they’re a great company and have an amazing ace leading them back to the promise land.
