Aoki & Tamura Have Match Of The Year Contender To Kickstart Zennichi Jr. Festival
All Japan Pro Wrestling was live from Korakuen Hall on Sunday evening for the first event in its Nettou Summer Action Wars 2026 series. The show featured eight matches, six of which were part of the Zennichi Junior Festival, the annual round-robin tournament AJPW runs during the summer.
Before the matches officially began, AJPW spent a few moments remembering Dory Funk Jr., who passed away on August 4. The former NWA Worlds Champion wrestled for many years on the Cerulean mat, both as a singles wrestler and as a tag team wrestler alongside his legendary brother, Terry Funk, and served for many years as the Pacific Wrestling Federation’s chairman.
The first match of the night was between AJPW Junior Champion Dan Tamura and freelancer Yuya Aoki, a man who has recently become a semi-regular presence on AJPW’s shows after electing to leave Big Japan Pro Wrestling as a contracted wrestler.
If you like hard-hitting, spine-tingling wrestling, then this is the match for you. These two men absolutely destroyed each other. They both fired off incredible lariats, tear-jerking chops and hellacious suplexes. It’s amazing that, before this meeting, Tamura and Aoki had only met once in singles action, but that was merely a ‘jiu-jitsu exhibition’. This was a war of attrition.
If you want to see two men discover that they are each other’s wrestling soulmates, this is the match for you. Not only did these two raise the bar for Match of the Tournament to almost impossible heights, but this also ended up becoming one of the best matches of the entire year. What makes this even better is that Yuya Aoki defeated Dan Tamura at 11:05 after rocking him with a bone-crushing lariat to the neck and face, meaning these two will undeniably have another singles match in the near future, this time with the belt on the line.
The second match of the evening featured Shota Kofuji, who entered his first-ever Zennichi after officially joining the promotion in January, taking on Naruki Doi, another freelancer who mostly splits his time between All Japan and Dragon Gate. Kofuji entered Korakuen Hall sporting a fresh blond haircut and new orange gear. For any DDT or NOAH fans, think of Kofuji as looking a little like Junta Miyawaki. Doi, on the other hand, is a former two-time AJPW Junior Heavyweight Champion.
This was a super-quick match, with Kofuji attempting to plant Doi early with some high-impact flying. However, the veteran was able to knock the wind out of Kofuji with a suplex and senton combination early on. He continued to turn up the pressure until he was able to trap Kofuji in a tight Boston Crab, which Kofuji tapped out to at 3:49. While this was a quick match, it felt like these two maximised their time.
Following an eight-man tag team match in which Hideki Suzuki, Ryuki Honda and the Saito Brothers defeated Kuma Arashi, Ren Ayabe, Shotaro Ashino, and Yuma Aoyagi, the tournament returned with a match between Yasutaka Yano and Seigo Tachibana.
Yano arrived in All Japan as a full-time wrestler back in May, and the less said about his past, the better. Seigo Tachibana, meanwhile, is signed to Up Town while also appearing regularly on AJPW shows. He is also a former AJPW Junior Champion, having lost the belt to current champion Dan Tamura on June 18.
This was another pretty fun match, featuring a fiery high-flyer and someone who uses more ground-based attacks. A lot of Yano’s offence came as a way to parry Tachibana’s attacks, and that strategy seemed to work. When he was able to dictate the pace, it proved too tough for his larger opponent to answer. However, whenever Tachibana was able to get an attack in on Yano, his moments on top felt much more impactful. This clash in styles made what was expected to be an extended squash much more interesting. Tachibana was able to earn the victory in the end after hitting Yano with a head-rattling rolling elbow, followed by a Yankee Hammer at 10:14.
The next contest saw reigning GAORA TV Champion Masaaki Mochizuki take on the enigmatic Hokuto Omori. Mochizuki was not originally planned to be in this tournament, but he came in with days to spare to replace Atsuki Aoyagi, who was forced to drop out after suffering an ACL injury a few days prior. While it’s unfortunate that the ace of AJPW’s junior division was forced to miss this, the 56-year-old Mochizuki being in any tournament is a treat. Omori, on the other hand, was until recently part of AJPW’s heavyweight division, having only recently been redesignated as a junior.
Omori took the early advantage, attacking Mochizuki with a flurry of offence before taking the action to the outside. The two wrestlers brawled all over the ringside area at Korakuen Hall, much to the delight of the 1,368 fans inside the fabled arena. The match soon returned to the ring, with Mochizuki in charge.
Mochizuki showcased a ton of intensity in this match, while Omori played the underdog in peril very convincingly. Every time Omori was able to take an inch from his opponent, it felt genuinely earned. Perhaps it was his experience as a heavyweight that helped him absorb as much as he did from the Dragon Gate legend. These two showed some great chemistry and worked with each other’s strengths in mind, helping the match feel much quicker than the runtime would indicate. Mochi would end up putting down Omori with the Twister at 10:34 to earn his first two points.
All Japan once again pivoted from the Zennichi, this time to announce the 16 men who will take part in the promotion’s Royal Road Tournament next month. There was then a ‘Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship Pre-match’, with current Triple Crown Champion Kento Miyahara teaming with Suwama to take on Go Shiozaki and the man who will challenge for the Triple Crown on August 29.
After all that heavyweight business was handled, the tournament continued with the final A Block match of the evening, pitting Rising HAYATO against Leon de Oro. Rising HAYATO is arguably the promotion’s second-most-popular junior behind only Atsuki Aoyagi, and was until recently one half of the All Asia Tag Team Champions alongside Aoyagi. Leon de Oro is a luchador from Mexico who, unfortunately, doesn’t have a Cagematch profile as of writing. He only recently started making appearances for the company and is easily the biggest unknown in the competition.
This match started off at a blistering pace, with both men trying to gain the advantage with their unique flying attacks. This was one of those matches where, if you blinked, you were at risk of missing another move from one of these guys. Leon de Oro utilised his lucha background to try and outrun the former AJPW Junior Champion, but HAYATO was able to meet him at almost every turn. Neither man had much time to strategise on the fly, meaning there was plenty of back-and-forth action.
The story of this match was simply that these two men were trying to outdo each other and put on a show. Both men clearly showed that they had respect for one another, and there weren’t any moments where either did anything to undermine that. While this was a tournament match, there was a sense of gamesmanship here that was refreshing, especially this far into the show. Rising HAYATO would eventually catch Leon de Oro with a Hurricanrana before rolling him up for the three-count at 11:38. The two men then shook hands in a show of respect.
The final match of the evening was a clash between MUSASHI and his tag team partner, Seiki Yoshioka. Both men are former AJPW World Junior Champions, with MUSASHI the most recent of the pair to hold the title, while Yoshioka was the man who unseated him in May of last year. Yoshioka was also the champion during last year’s Zennichi and eventually lost the belt to that year’s winner, Atsuki Aoyagi. The two men have also held the All Asia Tag Team Championship together on two occasions.
MUSASHI’s strategy early on was to inflict as much pain on Seiki Yoshioka’s neck as possible, while Yoshioka’s answer to everything was to try to kick MUSASHI’s soul out of his body. In the early going, however, both men were able to read their opponent pretty consistently, leading to an early stalemate.
This match continued to escalate, with both men throwing more potentially devastating manoeuvres at their opponent. There were moments that were simply impossible to write about as the action reached a blistering pace. Following one of these sequences, MUSASHI rolled to the outside and was soon met by a crazy La Quebrada from Yoshioka, who flew so far with the move that he landed beyond the guard rail. MUSASHI somehow recovered in time to get back into the ring and land a majestic Tope con Hilo for revenge.
It was following that sequence that the match shifted into another violent gear. Yoshioka delivered a diabolical double-foot stomp to MUSASHI’s neck while he was tangled in the second rope in the corner. Following some more back-and-forth action, MUSASHI hit Yoshioka with a sickening headbutt, followed by a superplex, also for two. Surprisingly, this match continued for several more minutes until Yoshioka finally put MUSASHI away, first with a Made in Japan, followed by a Crash Driver to win at 20:21.
All Japan will continue the Zennichi Junior Festival on Saturday, August 15, with not one but two shows from Shin-Kiba 1st RING. The afternoon show will feature four matches, including Dan Tamura vs. Masaaki Mochizuki and Rising HAYATO vs. Seiki Yoshioka, while the evening card will also feature four matches, including Shota Kofuji vs. Yuya Aoki, and MUSASHI vs. Seigo Tachibana.
For more coverage from the tournament and everything surrounding All Japan Pro Wrestling, WrestlePurists will keep you updated.
Zennichi Jr. Festival 2026 Current Standings
A Block:
Rising HAYATO – 2 points (1-0)
Seigo Tachibana – 2 points (1-0)
Seiki Yoshioka – 2 points (1-0)
Leon de Oro – 0 points (0-1)
MUSASHI – 0 points (0-1)
Yasutaka Yano – 0 points (0-1)
B Block:
Masaaki Mochizuki – 2 points (1-0)
Naruki Doi – 2 points (1-0)
Yuya Aoki – 2 points (1-0)
Dan Tamura – 0 points (0-1)
Hokuto Omori – 0 points (0-1)
Shota Kofuji – 0 points (0-1)
