All Japan Pro Wrestling for the first time in over 4 months was back in Korkauen Hall with the Summer Action Series finale. This show would feature 2 title matches. In the main event of the evening, Suwama would defeat Violent Giants tag partner Shuji Ishikawa to retain his championship. But before that match, we had a junior championship match and it has a very interesting result.
In July of 2019, the wrestling world would have a tragedy with the death of Atsushi Aoki. Atsushi Aoki, before his death was the All Japan Junior Champion. After his death, the championship was never declared vacant, until they were able to have a brand new championship design and retire the old design to give to the family of Atsushi Aoki.
Because of this, All Japan for the next few months didn’t have a focus in the junior division. But mid-way through the Real World Tag League, a mini-tournament took place to crown a brand new AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Champion. Which would include the likes of Hikaru Sato, Fuminori Abe, Koji Iwamoto, and debut of the Dragon Gate partnership with Susumu Yokosuka.
At the beginning of the year, Susumu Yokosuka would defeat Hikaru Sato to become the brand new AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Champion. His reign would feature multiple title defenses. Including incredibly impressive in his bouts with Akira Franchesco, Yusuke Okada and the eventual rematch with Hikaru Sato made the reign of Yokosuka very entertaining. But all things come to an end. On today’s show, Susumu Yokosuka would battle Koji Iwamoto, a wrestler that many consider the ace of All Japan’s junior division.
In the bout, Koji Iwamoto would defeat and end the over 200-day reign of Susumu Yokosuka. This is the not the first time he has held this championship. This is his third reign, with both reigns in the past being in total almost 200 Days. This era of the junior division continues to get more intriguing it All Japan. The near future of All Japan is unknown with the Champions Carnival set to take place soon but with no competitors currently announced. One thing that is certain is we will most likely see a Tag Championship match between The Violent Giants and the team of Jiro Kuroshio & Kento Miyahara as it was hinted at the very end of the show.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can watch All Japan Pro Wrestling on AJPW.tv.
