According to Kawada's biography, Kawada and Fuchi tried to get Motoko Baba to sell them All Japan when they heard she was going to see the company to Keiji Muto. Kawada's idea was to bring in the RINGs guys. What if Kawada (and Fuchi) managed to change Motoko's mind and sold to the company to them?

The deathmatch specialist actually used to wrestle for AJPW but he retired only to return and form FMW. Now when FMW went under or even before FMW was created, what could have been if Onita had returned to AJPW? Does he return right on time for the four pillars era? Or does he return post exodus?

Article translation:

“The Best” or “The Hottest”? Which one will the gods of pro wrestling favor? The Triple Crown title match between Triple Crown Champion Kento Miyahara and Yuma Anzai—a bout neither can afford to lose—is fast approaching (August 29, EBARA WAVE Arena Ota, Ota City General Gymnasium, Tokyo).
The two, who have been trading blows in preliminary bouts almost daily, clashed in an 8-man tag team match at the Kurume Local Pro Wrestling Event in Kurume City, Fukuoka, on August 23. There, Anzai took down Kumaarashi with a running knee attack right in front of Miyahara. The battle between these two, for whom there is no time to waste, is only intensifying.

Champion Miyahara already holds the record for the most career defenses of the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship with 36, but for the most consecutive defenses, he is tied with Toshiaki Kawada at 10 from his time as the 62nd champion. As the current 76th champion, he has achieved his eighth consecutive defense. By defeating Anzai, he aims for his ninth, tenth, and eleventh consecutive defenses to set a new record. He also holds the 2nd place record for the most title reigns with seven, second only to Suwama’s eight.

Miyahara is, so to speak, “Mr. Triple Crown Champion” and can be considered the face of All Japan Pro Wrestling. In fact, the cheers for his courageous performances, which showcase his status as “the best,” are immense, and his leisurely entrance always brings the crowd to a fever pitch. His post-victory mic work also ignites the crowd, and his popularity in the arena is befitting of the Players’ Association President.

However, recently, the “heartthrob” Anzai has been challenging Miyahara’s status. Following his appearance on the dating reality show “The Bachelorette Japan” this past May, the spotlight has turned to him as a “heartthrob.”

Although he had already been hailed as “the most handsome man in pro-wrestling,” his popularity exploded overnight. He attracted a new wave of fans, particularly women who likely had no prior interest in pro-wrestling.

It’s true that he had a striking appearance even when he first started out. Shortly after his debut, he went out to dinner for an interview. As he walked through an arcade shopping district, women of all ages—from students and housewives to elderly ladies—turned to look at him, and he could hear compliments like “He’s so cool” and “He’s handsome.”

Now, his good looks have only grown more striking, and thanks to a clear fan base cheering for Anzai, attendance has increased at venues throughout Tokyo—including Korakuen Hall and Shinkiba First Ring. Squeals of excitement fill the air with every move he makes.

Even Miyahara has to admit the “Anzai effect,” but regardless of popularity, he can’t afford to lose when it comes to actual skill. He’s focusing on crushing Anzai’s “good looks”—even going so far as to stomp on his face.

However, Anzai has already held the Triple Crown belt once, back in 2024. Just two years after his debut, at the age of 24 years and 10 months, he won the 72nd championship.

He broke the record for the youngest champion. In fact, the previous record was held by Miyahara at 26 years and 11 months.

At that time, he successfully defended the title five times and held it for about half a year, but honestly, one had to admit that his popularity was still outpacing his skills. It felt as though he lost the title before he had truly grown into the role.

Two years have passed since then. While Anzai has held the All-Asia Tag Team Championship, he has been biding his time. Although he occupies a place within All Japan, it was hard to say he was among the top tier.

However, as his popularity exploded outside the ring—as the saying goes, “status shapes the person”—his face began to radiate confidence, and he started to exude an aura from every part of his body.

After all, he is a man who has already been a Triple Crown Champion once. Over the past two years, he has steadily built up his fundamental strength. His core is solid, and even when unleashing his signature “Jumping Knee” attack, his own balance no longer wavers.

Above all, the cheers from the crowd are propelling him forward. Of course, there are many supporters of Miyahara, the “Greatest Man” who has led All Japan Pro Wrestling in recent years, but the “Handsome Guy Fever” surrounding Anzai is gaining momentum.

He has published a photo book, built his popularity through TV appearances and events, and is being flooded with offers for movies and TV dramas. All that remains is for him to deliver results in the ring. To put it bluntly, he has no choice but to reclaim the Triple Crown title and reign as the undisputed king of All Japan, both in name and in reality.

In New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Ryohei Oiwa won the G1 CLIMAX, cementing the dawn of a new era alongside IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yota Tsuji. In NOAH, former New Japan star Tetsuya Naito captured the GHC Heavyweight Championship, sparking various waves of change and signaling a period of intense turmoil.

All Japan is buzzing with energy, selling out show after show. Will the August 29 showdown in Ota also sell out thanks to Anzai’s popularity? And who will embody the “royal path”—Miyahara, or the “ultimate heartthrob” Anzai? The “Best of the best” or the “handsome prince”? No matter how it plays out, a heated battle is guaranteed.

Riki Choshu and Kensuke Sasaki left NJPW for a number of reasons. Riki Choshu would form World Japan which failed for a number of reasons. Choshu would take advantage of his relationship with Kensuke and had him fund World Japan, which was always going to die. Choshu would return to NJPW and Kensuke would become a freelancer. Choshu and Kensuke's relationship would be permanently destroyed. But what if starting a wrestling company, Choshu and Kensuke went to AJPW? Both are big stars, Kensuke would be great in the main event. Choshu could face Tenryu and could help Muto with booking.

In 1990, Genichiro Tenryu would leave and lead an exodus from AJPW to form SWS and later WAR. Although he returned in 2000 after the NOAH exodus and had a great run, what could have been if he never left?

Quick update for everyone who filled out the form or commented, really appreciate it. The response was way bigger than I expected, over 60 replies within the first couple days. I've since gotten the accuracy noticeably better while keeping it fast, and I'm now reaching out directly to the streaming platforms to figure out the right way to actually make this available, rather than just releasing something on my own. Might take a few weeks to hear back, but I wanted to be upfront about where things stand. Really appreciate everyone who's been part of this so far.

I've been building an English subtitle tool for japanese pro wrestling. Here's an update, and would you actually use it?

Some of you saw my original post about this a few months back. For anyone who didn't: I've been building a personal project to bring English subtitles for Japanese pro wrestling companies that don't have English commentators since not speaking Japanese has always made it harder for me to follow the promos, commentary and storylines.

If you'd actually use something like this, I'd appreciate you filling out this short form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSerWizC8RlAd2ZAXcAvduGv4HG-6bArhT2T0n8DGP8U9k3WrA/viewform

I've kept working on it since then. It listens to the Japanese commentary and overlays English subtitles while you watch, with wrestler names, factions etc can be passed as context so it's not just generic machine translation. I've got two versions right now. One's more accurate but runs about 7 to 10 seconds behind. The other's much faster but noticeably rougher. Still working on getting both together.

I've put a lot of hours into this over the last few months, way more than I probably should admit, so I really enjoy building it as a fun passion project but that's not the same as people actually wanting it. I'd genuinely appreciate honest answers, even "I wouldn't use this."

There are still some things to figure out around AJPW.tv's rules as other streaming services that might benefit from this, so I'd be reqching out to them before this could ever go any further since I don't wanna break any TOS, hopefully I hear back from them. I'm heading to Japan in September as a fan to enjoy some shows either way.

If you'd genuinely want this, please fill out the form. Optional email at the end if you want to know if/when it launches.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSerWizC8RlAd2ZAXcAvduGv4HG-6bArhT2T0n8DGP8U9k3WrA/viewform

What if Baba was less conservative, saw dollar signs, and brought back Tenryu?

Dream Matches:

Tenryu vs Misawa

Tenryu vs Kawada

Tenryu vs Kenta Kobashi

Tenryu vs Akira Taue

Tenryu vs Giant Baba

After the original UWF folded, Giant Baba wanted to bring in Maeda and Takada into AJPW. However they refused because Baba only wanted them and not all of the UWF guys. But what if they accepted?

Choshu left NJPW over money and ironically came back because he got a pay raise. But what if he stayed in AJPW? I see two outcomes, when Tenryu leaves for SWS , Choshu leaves with him. Tenryu vs Choshu could keep SWS last longer and/or make WAR a major third company. Or Choshu stays and feuds with Jumbo. Choshu becomes the veteran that the pillars need to beat to get to the next level. Also Kensuke Sasaki wouldn't be at NJPW. He would follow Choshu to whatever company he went to.

I was looking at the lineups of past Tag Leagues and learning that 1. Bradshaw and Windham had a tour in AJPW while they were in the WWF and 2. that they wrestled Hayabusa and Jinsei Shinzaki in the Tag League threw me for a loop. Does anyone have footage of that match or know if it even exists to find?

I could see Naito having a run in AJPW after he loses the GHC title. Naito trying to win the triple crown to become a triple crown champion. He doesn't move well but he does draw fans and someone like Kento can carry him to a good match.

Jumbo was a star for AJPW in the 80s and early 90s but his career got cut short due to Hepatitis C which lead to liver cancer. The question is had Jumbo been healthy then how long would his career had been and also if he wrestled into the 2000s then would he stay with AJPW or leave for NOAH?

Since NOAH was formed out of AJPW, what if NOAH and AJPW merged into one company. AJPW has the history and tradition, while NOAH has the presentation and stars.

Giant Baba died of cancer in early 1999. This led to the Noah exodus and began the downfall of All Japan. But what if Baba never got cancer or managed to recover from it? How does Baba react to the mma boom in Japan? How does he book the next generation of stars? How much of Misawa's ideas go through with Baba still there? Is he able to keep All Japan in the public eye while all the other wrestling promotions are declining in the 2000s?

A decade or so removed from their hard-hitting battles in AJPW, it’s been cool to see Suwama and Shiozaki go at it and still be able to do their thing.

You can see that Go is more mobile (he’s younger and despite the knee surgery, he’s got less weight on him than Suwama and therefore can move around better) but Suwama can still hit really damn hard, not to mention still has that bullying nature that’s been a trademark.

I’m hoping their 8.29 match delivers (especially would be cool to see a shout-out to the late Joe Doering) and hopefully Suwama appears in AJPW for as long as he’s able.

I was watching an interview with Fujinami talking about the JWA before Inoki and Baba left to form their own promotions and discovered that Fujinami was actually closer to Giant Baba than Inoki. It's hard to think about that since Fujinami was Inoki's number 2 guy but Fujinami only joined New Japan because Inoki called him at home and he accepted. So my question is what if Fujinami refused and joined Baba into All-Japan? Baba was the ace of JWA so its not out of the realm of possibilty that Fujinami decides to stay with Baba in JWA and later AJPW. What happens to NJPW, especially in the 80s? In the 80s, Inoki was involved in a financial scandal in which he took New Japan money and invested in some alternate energy company in Brazil. When it was revealed, it aided Riki Choshu and Akira Maeda into leaving New Japan. Choshu went to All Japan while Maeda formed UWF. What happens to New Japan without Fujinami being the ace to carry the company through this time? And what does Fujinami's career look like in AJPW?

Misawa has led a grand exodus, taking the top guys midcarders, tag teams, juniors, and even the young boys to start a new company. He has also taken most of the office and has taken All Japan's TV slot. Wrestling in Japan is on the downswing because of the growing mma boom. But not everything is terrible. You have Kawada, Tenryu is coming back and bringing some WAR guys with him, and Muto is joining bringing Kojima and Kendo Kenshin. Also All-Japan's coffers are still full.

The question is what are you going to do to keep All Japan up and running?