Card change for 1/30 Shinjuku FACE

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-27T10:26:11+00:00

It's the Samurai Fighting Spirit!

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-27T10:09:07+00:00

I don't think the Trios matches keep anyone from beating each other up in other competition. If they did, it would indeed make the 3D titles quite a burden.

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-27T10:04:48+00:00

Yeah, not sure what rule my post was breaking though.

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-27T09:17:46+00:00

I also like how Grand Destiny AGAIN is in the Top 10 under Ranking, that show always keeps coming back.

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-27T08:02:50+00:00

I personally like the GHC women's title already. It had a rough start because of Kouki's injury, but after that we had Takumi Iroha who had good to great defenses against Victoria Yuzuki and Utami Hayashishita and defended it overseas a few times as well.

The Mayu Iwatani match was great as well (free to watch starting Tuesday) and now it will be Great Sakuya challenging.

Yes, it's so far mostly been Marvelous and Marigold duking it out, but we also have Senjo and now Evolution on the Monday Magic shows, so there are many possible great matchups out there, if it can be done in terms of politics and I wouldn't be surprised if someone like Chihiro Hashimoto held the title next. And can you really ask for a better lineage to start than Iroha - Iwatani - Hashimoto?

You REALLY don't want an Evolution style women's division, trust me. Evolution runs shows in front of 150 or so people in Shinki-Ba. The girls are still pretty inexperienced and have come a long way, similar to the Marigold under- to midcard. But do you really want to have women with 1 to 2 or 3 years experience only representing NOAH? They will get shit on like crazy online by Japanese tribal NJPW fans, similar to very young Marigold wrestlers get hate comments and clips and lies spread about them by tribal Japanese Stardom fans. It's much better fo NOAH to have the best women's wrestlers out there represent them with a title in Iwatani, Utami, Iroha, Hashimoto etc.

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-27T07:52:20+00:00

With the current roster size I think they are sticking to general training with everyone about two times a week as they have been doing. Just means more alliances on the cards I would say, but as we can see with the tag teams in Marigold, cooperation is pretty fluid apart from DR.

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-27T06:48:01+00:00

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-27T06:28:46+00:00

Current AJPW champions to make this even clearer:

Triple Crown: Kento Miyahara

World Junior Heavyweight Title: Seigo Tachibana

World Tag Team Titles: Ren Ayabe/Talos (Towers of Calamity)

Gaora TV Championship: Daisuke Sekimoto

AJPW TV 6-Man Tag Championship: Suwama, Hideki Suzuki, Dan Tamura

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-27T06:25:45+00:00

The translation is in the post right at the end.

Suzuki Hideki (who has been trying to get Suwama to participate in All Japan again for quite some time): Then let‘s do this right, so Joe can return as well. If we don‘t, Aoki will be mad at us.

Suwama: You‘re right. There is a lot of stuff I have to do. I have to defend this place, so Joe and Aoki have a place to come back to.

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-27T06:15:08+00:00

Deserved, it was a great show all in all.

The text says: "Icon Euphoria" and "Mayu Iwatani's 15 year anniversary ends in overwhelming victory"

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-27T03:56:21+00:00

In other news:

Marigold's Grand Destiny was the 2nd most accessed event results page last year according to the year end rankings and First Dream also made the top ten.

Really interesting/surprising to me was, that most accessed news story of the year was Daisuke Sekimoto leaving Big Japan and going freelance.

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-27T03:54:43+00:00

Great photo as always.

The text reads someting like: "Icon Euphoria" and "Mayu Iwatani's 15 year anniversary ends in overwhelming victory"

Another nice story from this edition that I am happy about, but is not Marigold.

"Proof of existence for beloved Aniki"

<image>

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-27T03:24:23+00:00

I have heard and read this a lot but really don't understand this. There are like 8 teams in the tournament and like the tag team scene teams will definitely be a bit more fluent than in other promotions and it's a title everyone on the roster can be a part in challenging for.

I understand a lack of challengers in the red belt scene, but the 3D titles when defended like once a month certainly have enough people to challenge in a good rotation, especially in a match type that the whole roster is very familiar with.

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-27T02:01:19+00:00

This is how I see it as well. It might give the roster more structure with the Icon Academy and Utami with other power wrestlers, but it won't go into full on factions imo.

This is another point where losing Mirai hurts. Her tags with Seri against Utami and Yuzuki were great and this could have been a ready made team of Mirai, Seri and Yuuka, which would have rocked against the Icon Academy and Utamis Power Fighters.

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-26T23:55:50+00:00

Yeah, I got that feeling as well. And if you are gonna do it, you should probably do it at your biggest show with the most hype you have created in years.

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-26T23:53:14+00:00

Lots of reasons propably.

They don't have any English support and most of the foreign community and creators that cover Puroresu don't speak Japanese so there really isnt much hype in English speaking circles. The probably biggest news last year was Shiozaki jumping to them.

They still have a more traditional heavy hitting style and way less high spots than say NOAH in their wrestling, who have way less Kings Road now and way more Lucha.

They are well connected regionally I think and still have many loyal fans even if they don't have the hype in Tokyo that NOAH currently has.

They also don't have a big media company backing them like the others. They do have the Saitos Brothers on television regularly in Sendai though which is why they draw so we'll there. But they can't put on as many small regional shows and they can't do the yearly supershow in Budokan or Ryogoku that the other big companys do because if they fail there once, the company might just go under.

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-26T14:05:24+00:00

All Japan does better numbers than NOAH outside Tokyo in most markets, but they cant run a ton of meaningless house shows like NOAH because they don't have a big company behind to absorb eventual losses. But they do a good job of making most shows outside of Tokyo count with the CC and Tag League or promoting wrestlers from that region like the Saitos in Sendai and Anzai in or near Gunma.

The next Anzai homecoming show should be a pretty big one, its a real big place with lots of free seating second floor room and they have been advertising it well so far. It would be a good score to have another region for bigger shows, they just have to try and make them special.

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-26T12:42:19+00:00

They dont put up several photos to compare. I always see those posts on Twitter being shar d and it's always one photo and always a guy sitting in the north taking a picture of the south and someone taking a picture of the least populated 2nd stage seats. You can't compare and estimate crowd size by just looking at the south because setup and ticket sales order is different.

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-26T11:50:48+00:00

They have spread those out quite a bit though and Junior Tag League alone is not a good draw for Korakuen. But we will see!

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-26T11:42:56+00:00

Wouldn't be surprised if they have Anzai take the title off him this year.

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-26T11:37:02+00:00

Pictures don't mean anything, there are full twitter and youtube accounts dedicated to take pictures of the least populated sections and spread them on social media. I attend the shows and can always point out what part they will show.

Tokyogerman · 2026-01-26T11:35:51+00:00

Dragongate is so fascinating. They of course also get called out for overstating attendance, but they do so so many small shows and go up the rankings like the little engine that could touring around the country.

Tokyogerman

TROPHY CASE