You’d better answer the call from Kento Miyahara because it’s time to check in on All Japan Pro Wrestling!
The first half of the 2026 Champion Carnival was anchored by Miyahara, Go Shiozaki, and Yuma Anzai’s round robin challenge over the first three days of the tournament. As the tournament entered its shaggier middle stretch, other narratives took hold: could Hideki Suzuki really dominate his block and how much longer can Shiozaki’s body hold together against the tolls of his punishing style?
Elsewhere in Japan, it was time to play some Alphaville, Echo & the Bunnymen, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Frankie Goes to Hollywood not just because we want to remember the Liverpool punk band Big in Japan but because it’s time to check in on Daisuke Sekimoto’s former home base, Big Japan Pro-Wrestling. Specifically, our interests turn to BJW’s junior heavyweight and heavyweight title matches at their most significant show of 2026 so far, Big Japan 31 Beyond the Survivor.
(“Big in Japan” will always conjure memories of listening to Steve Somers’s overnight show on WFAN because his entrance music was a clip from that song with a quote from Jerry Seinfeld laid over it. To no one’s surprise, Seinfeld penned the intro to Somers’s memoir.)
In this edition, I covered:
- Kengo Mashimo vs. Kento Miyahara (AJPW, May 5, 2026)
- Madoka Kikuta vs. Go Shiozaki (AJPW, May 17, 2026)
- Go Shiozaki vs. Hideki Suzuki (AJPW, May 17, 2026)
- Kosuke Sato (c) vs. Satsuki Nagao (BJW, April 29, 2026)
- So Daimonji (c) vs. Kazumasa Yoshida (BJW, April 29, 2026)
Kengo Mashimo vs. Kento Miyahara
AJPW Champion Carnival Day 9
May 5, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 6/1/26: 65
Cagematch rating as of 6/1/26: 8.38
After starting the tournament with a loss to Shiozaki and an inconclusive time limit draw with Anzai, Miyahara needed to bear down if he wanted to emerge from Block A. And bore down he did: he beat Oddyssey (who should be angling for co-promotion with the upcoming Christopher Nolan blockbuster if he hasn’t already), Kuma Arashi, and Rei Saito. Unfortunately, Miyahara lost to Talos (whom he had defeated to retain the Triple Crown Championship in January), and he only had seven points and was stuck behind Saito, Shiozaki, and Talos in the standings.
Miyahara’s only chance to advance was by beating his old Carnival nemesis Kengo Mashimo, who famously wrestled Miyahara to a time limit draw in the 2016 Carnival. Sure, Miyahara had beaten Mashimo in every singles match since that time limit draw. And sure, that time limit draw was a decade ago. Mashimo entered the match with six points; if he won, he would have eight and join those three in first place. Surely, Miyahara would beat Mashimo to reach nine points to win Block A and help AJPW avoid a four-way tie. He even wore the gold tights for this!
Welp.
So, how did the shaggy Mashimo overcome the sleek golden child? Mostly, he hoisted Miyahara on his own petard. After Miyahara proved how hard-headed he was with multiple headbutts to Mashimo on the floor outside the ring, even draping him on the ring apron to headbutt him, Mashimo reversed Miyahara’s attempt to slam him on to the apron. Mashimo then used the ring post to damage Miyahara’s right arm and henceforth targeted it to slow Miyahara. For example, to counter Miyahara’s suplex attempt, Mashimo wrested Miyahara’s right arm and kicked it to force Miyahara to retreat in pain.
This left Mashimo, the former Kyushu Pro Champion, STRONGEST-K Champion, 2AW Openweight Champion, and Strong Style Legend Champion, feeling pretty cocky.
Miyahara then struck him down for his hubris by elbowing him in the face and reset the match with a brainbuster. He then tried to take control with a pair of running looks, his ambition twisting him into a gurning demon.
Again, Mashimo stopped the Miyahara express in its tracks by targeting his right arm when Miyahara was a little too cocky with his form on the pin.
With the hurt right arm in context, Mashimo was able to break Miyahara’s grip in the Shutdown German Suplex twice. Miyahara and Mashimo traded a knee strike for an enziguri kick, and Mashimo trapped Miyahara in an arm submission that he could not escape to shatter Miyahara’s hopes to win the Champion Carnival this year.
Mashimo and Miyahara did it again. They built a match around Miyahara’s inevitable Shutdown German Suplex and let Miyahara go so far as to lift Mashimo off the mat in the hold before his strong right arm succumbed to the damage that the wily Mashimo inflicted. For all of Miyahara’s self-assuredness, power, and skill, Mashimo was able to outmaneuver him and leverage his human vulnerability to pain against him.
You can watch this match and the show on AJPW.tv. I really dug the story they crafted here, especially in the wider story of this year’s tournament.
Go Shiozaki vs. Madoka Kikuta
AJPW Champion Carnival Day 10
May 17, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 6/1/26: 310
Cagematch rating as of 6/1/26: 7.61
Say what you will about Madoka Kikuta (that he might be the most disappointing member of the underwhelming Reiwa Six if they didn’t also count Kota Minoura in their company, that his second reign as the Open the Dream Gate Champion and his faction, Gajadokuro, have been an unmitigated disaster for Dragongate, that his dead-eyed stare in his photo would simultaneously horrify and titillate Stanley Kubrick), but he sure is a big guy…for you.
After beating Yuma Anzai and Kento Miyahara in statement victories in this year’s Champion Carnival, Shiozaki stumbled with losses to Talos, Rei Saito, and Kuma Arashi. He only arrested his fall with a win over Mashimo, and a win over Oddyssey brought him to a decision match against Talos. While Shiozaki survived against Talos, he became more sports tape than man and an homage to Diamond Dallas Page in WCW/nWo Revenge.
As tough as Shiozaki was by deed and reputation, even he had to accept the reality that his style had once again exacted its toll. If Kikuta hadn’t scouted him prior to the match, he certainly knew that Shiozaki was in trouble after the first shoulder charge.
Of course, because Kikuta was a sniveling bully, he scurried away after the chop he invited from Shiozaki packed a little more punch than he had expected. Also, of course, because Shiozaki is braver than he is smart, Kikuta baited him out of the ring (despite the referee’s best efforts) and beat him around the EBARA WAVE Arena Ota. He didn’t fare much better when he and Kikuta returned to the ring as Kikuta used his size to push Shiozaki around (well, he will) without breaking much of a sweat.
Shiozaki got his opening when Kikuta actually tried a little. Kikuta threw Shiozaki to the ropes to set up a boot attack, but Shiozaki dodged and bowled Kikuta over with a jumping shoulder charge. Somewhere in the process, Shiozaki also picked up a nosebleed to go with all of his other injuries.
They battled with chops, and Kikuta remained standing despite Shiozaki’s best efforts. They traded lariats too, and it seemed like Kikuta would pull a victory out of his very large behind after a couple of jumping butt attacks. Shiozaki made Kikuta’s sweat fly with some chops, but Kikuta staggered Shiozaki with his own chops. However, Shiozaki, as he is wont to do, seemed to gain strength from his pain. As Kikuta learned, you could beat Shiozaki’s chest into ground hamburger mush, but you could never break his spirit.
Unfortunately for Kikuta, Shiozaki knew that Kikuta favored a rolling lariat and baited him into exchanging lariats. For all of Kikuta’s size and power, Shiozaki had the grittiness of Grizzlies-era Zach Randolph and the firepower of 2023 Ja Morant in his arms and laid Kikuta out with a lariat and a Go Flasher. Smelling blood in the air (and not just because he had a nosebleed earlier), Shiozaki challenged Kikuta to go on and survive the Gowan Lariat. Kikuta did not, and whatever was left of Shiozaki advanced to the Champion Carnival final, which was scheduled for later in the evening.
It was a smart setup to get the matches where Shiozaki would go against fan favorites out of the way early. That allowed AJPW to drive as much fan investment into him as possible against an easy to despite antagonist like Kikuta in the tournament semi-finals. Furthermore, it was thrilling to see how far a competitor can go when their own body started to betray them. By this point, Shiozaki’s right arm and ribs were practically mummified, and Kikuta added a busted nose to the pile. Like the New York Knicks in the 2024 playoffs, where they had lost almost all key players to injuries, Shiozaki became the sentimental favorite because he kept striving through his pain. All in all, Shiozaki’s philosophical cosplay of Guts was much appreciated.
I wish Kikuta would move with a little more menace and cruelty. His size positions him to play the bully well, and I think he can be more compelling as a mean bully instead of a sarcastic bully. He played his part to throw bombs with Shiozaki well, and I think this might be one of his stronger performances in some time.
You can watch this match and the show on AJPW.tv.
Go Shiozaki vs. Hideki Suzuki
AJPW Champion Carnival Day 10
May 17, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 6/1/26: 119
Cagematch rating as of 6/1/26: 8.10
Block A in this year’s Champion Carnival had more star power thanks to Anzai, Miyahara, and Shiozaki and tempted fans to give in to astonishment thanks to Talos’s and Oddyssey’s size. Conversely, Block B was highlighted by Hideki Suzuki’s unlikely run to the top. After starting the tournament with losses to Xyon and Daisuke Sekimoto, Suzuki ripped off victories over Ren Ayabe, Ryuki Honda, Kikuta, and Rei Saito to win his block. No match lasted more than 14 minutes, and the divisive Suzuki rolled into his match against the battered and bruised Shiozaki after beating Rei Saito in a little more than a minute.
The conditions seemed set for Shiozaki to prove the doubters wrong and persevere. Instead, Suzuki showed that you could actually taste the newspaper and defeated Shiozaki again in a tournament. (In 2022, Suzuki beat Shiozaki in NOAH’s N-1 Victory tournament. Prior to that, Suzuki and Shiozaki wrestled to a draw in 2019.)
Suzuki and Shiozaki started with some hand fighting that the crowd treated with respectful applause. However, the crowd wanted violence, not just competition, so they popped their corks when Shiozaki clobbered Suzuki with a lariat out of Suzuki’s arm wrench. It also established that Shiozaki’s ribs and arm hurt more than even before. The man in black trunks and boots fled out of the ring, and the gun-slinging half mummy followed. Shiozaki targeted Suzuki’s throat with his chops, and his running knee lift to Suzuki’s dangling head gave Shiozaki an early advantage.
A suspended thigh choke from the top turnbuckle stopped Shiozaki’s momentum, and it allowed Suzuki to do his own Garvin stomp on Shiozaki’s vulnerable ankle and wrist joints. A neck wrench and a knee drop got a nearfall for Suzuki. Sadly, Suzuki and Shiozaki were out of sync on Suzuki’s knee to Shiozaki’s stomach against the ropes, which made Suzuki’s transition to an abdominal stretch clunky. They replaced that sour taste with Shiozaki’s arm drag out of the stretch over the top rope to the floor though.
A short brawl on the floor led to Suzuki dropping Shiozaki chest first on the guardrail. A series of knees to Shiozaki’s chest left him slumped on the floor, miserable and bleeding from the nose again. Though Suzuki appeared nonchalant, he was relentless. Every time Shiozaki tried to rise, Suzuki beat him back into the ground. When Shiozaki tried to re-enter the ring, Suzuki simply pounded on his ribs with his fists. When Shiozaki tried to get some momentum behind him for a lariat, Suzuki just lifted his knee so Shiozaki collided with it.
Suzuki’s placidity gave Shiozaki plenty of space to go large with his acting. Where Suzuki would lightly shake his knee out to show that he was dinged from his attack, Shiozaki rolled around on the mat clutching at his ribs to strongly convey that he was in great pain. He grabbed at ribs every time he swung his arms for a chop, when he landed on a diving shoulder block, or when Suzuki’s arm grazed his chest on a kick out.
Suzuki, on the other hand, was a machine that turned air into violence. He was relentless on the attack, elbowing Shiozaki’s back in the corner into well-worked dough, and equally persistent in his defense, blocking every chop from Shiozaki with his raised arms. Whether from a kneeling position after trapping Shiozaki’s legs or standing in the corner after he absorbed Shiozaki’s best chops, he hammered Shiozaki’s injured ribs with quiet malevolence.
Near the end, Suzuki and Shiozaki traded a Dragon Suplex for a Go Flasher and a Pedigree for a Limit Break, but the momentum was on Suzuki’s side. Shiozaki survived a couple of double arm suplexes and even pushed past his broken limit with a desperate lariat, but Suzuki cut him off from the Gowan Lariat with a last elbow to the ribs. Suzuki kicked him in the chest a few times and finally pinned Shiozaki with his double arm suplex hold.
Whew. In the past, Suzuki’s detached persona left me feeling bored and disconnected. Here, he was a great foil for Shiozaki, who did enough emoting for both of them. Shiozaki cycled through all of the emotions – pain, determination, desperation, and the relief of defeat – in his battle. The contrast between them made Suzuki seem like a robot coldly executing his program to destroy Shiozaki’s ribs and force him to stay down. The blood from the unintended cut on his nose and his nosebleed from the Kikuta match heightened the match’s emotional stakes.
This was a rad cap on this year’s very enjoyable Champion Carnival. You can watch this match and the show on AJPW.tv.
Kosuke Sato (c) vs. Satsuki Nagao
BJW Big Japan 31 Beyond the Survivor
April 29, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 6/1/26: 77
Cagematch rating as of 6/1/26: 7.44
My goodness, why did BJW choose this camera placement for its hard camera? They held the show at the Yokohama Budokan, and neither Sareee’s 15th anniversary show nor Stardom used this setup.
As New Japan Pro Wrestling’s “best” junior heavyweight wrestlers geared up for this year’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament and AMAKUSA neared the end of his reign as the GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion, Kosuke Sato continued his lengthy reign as the BJW Junior Heavyweight Champion. He won the title from Ikuto Hidaka on May 5, 2025, and his reign was tied for the second longest reign. (Kota Sekifuda held the title for 651 days between 2021 and 203, while Yuya Aoki held the title for 402 days between 2019 and 2020. Sato’s reign also clocked in at 402 days, as of this writing.)
Along the way, Sato fended off individual challenges from Jacob Crane, Isami Kodaka, Brahman Kei, and Takato Nakano and a group challenge from Joji Otani, Kaji Tomato, Masaki Morihoro, Nakano, and Tatsuhiko Yoshino. Though that didn’t look like a list of junior heavyweight luminaries at first glance, Sato did his best despite toiling in relative obscurity. His victory over Hidaka received a rating of 7.88 based on 15 votes, and his defense over Crane received a rating of 8.08 based on 12 votes.
Nagao was Tochigi Pro Wrestling’s Bright Future Openweight Champion from April 5, 2025 to April 10, 2026. He identified as a Tochigi Pro wrestler, so he stayed with Tochigi Pro after its acrimonious split with Pro Wrestling ZERO1, and the highest profile he has achieved so far has been in NOAH’s Limit Break shows. He defeated Daiki Odashima in a singles match at a January 2025 Limit Break show.
While both Sato and Nagao both met the 200 pounds weight limit to qualify to wrestle for a junior heavyweight title, it was immediately apparent that Nagao had a size advantage. At 5’8″ and 198 pounds, Nagao was bigger and taller than Sato, who was billed at 5’7″ and 176 pounds. That size difference gave the opening grappling segment a harder edge as Sato struggled to contend with Nagao. So, the crowd was primed for Sato’s draping DDT on to the apron to bring the opening section to a close.
After taking Sato’s first barrage, Nagao went on the offensive. I appreciated how Sato continued to fight even after Nagao caught his leg and admired the speed with which Nagao lifted Sato for this slam.
Given the obvious size difference, Nagao and Sato settled on a big threat vs. underdog champion dynamic where five of Sato’s strikes were at best equal to one of Nagao’s strikes. Within that context, Sato impressed with his determination. Sato winning a struggle over a vertical suplex seemed like a triumph for him and his fans in attendance. I just enjoyed Sato’s simple act of staying on Nagao to try to pin him and keeping the pressure on after Nagao kicked out for the third time.
The match’s tenor picked up from fierce competition to a fight for survival after Nagao’s headbutt bloodied Sato. Woozy and wobbly, Sato retaliated as best as he could, but Nagao started to detonate his bombs, like his running forearm strike to the back of Sato’s head or his brainbuster. When Nagao hesitated on the top turnbuckle, Sato threw him down with a superplex that dumped Nagao on his head. He pounced on Nagao and locked in a front chokehold. He rolled with Nagao to deepen the choke and ultimately forced the referee to stop the match because Nagao could not escape.
Sato and Nagao didn’t deliver a state of the art junior heavyweight match that pushed the envelope in what the human body was capable of doing. Instead, they wrestled a throwback junior heavyweight match that was accentuated by Sato’s gritty resilience and desperation. Nagao and Sato had very good chemistry together. I suspect that your appetite for the match will depend on your level of comfort with headbutts in professional wrestling because it was a key moment in the match.
You can watch the match and the show on BJW Core.
So Daimonji (c) vs. Kazumasa Yoshida
BJW Big Japan 31 Beyond the Survivor
April 29, 2026
Cagematch ranking as of 6/1/26: 380
Cagematch rating as of 6/1/26: 7.5
We last saw So Daimonji when he had attempted to out-meathead Hayato Tamura in a very entertaining tag team match in *checks notes* GLEAT. Yoshida had challenged Daimonji unsuccessfully for Daimonji’s BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship in January, and he had his rematch here. Daimoji’s technically affiliated with Pro Wrestling Land’s End, so he was an outsider who held BJW’s title. That positioned Yoshida as the BJW wrestler who aimed to reclaim the company’s championship.
During Daimonji’s reign, he fended off challenges from former champions Yuya Aoki and Yasufumi Nakanoue as well as a pair of fifty-years-old wrestlers, Ryuji Ito and Kankuro Hoshino. (In fact, BJW scheduled Aoki to be Daimonji’s first defense, and I’ve consistently advocated for a former champion to be a new champion’s first defense.)
Yoshida is the next in BJW’s line of beefy lads with potential who have tried to take the mantle of representing Strong BJ from Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Okabayashi. For a while, I had my hopes pinned to Takuya Nomura and Hideyoshi Kamitani, but those hopes didn’t quite pay off. Daimonji fulfilled the brief as an outsider, and BJW’s leadership and I probably share the hope that Yoshida can succeed where Daichi Hashimoto, Kamitani, and Nomura did not.
Similar to Sato and Nagao, Daimonji and Yoshida were also characterized by the size disparity between the challenger and champion. Yoshida was billed at 6’1″ and 220 pounds, while Daimonji was billed at 6’1″ and 242 pounds. Like previous champion Yuya Aoki, Yoshida transitioned from the junior heavyweight realm to the heavyweight; Yoshida was the Niigata Junior Heavyweight Champion in 2024.
Describing Daimonji and Yoshida’s opening segment as deliberate would be a kindness; a less filtered adjective would be perfunctory. The fight along the perimeter of the ring also felt fairly aimless until Daimonji positioned a chair just so after posing with his championship belt on it. That allowed Yoshida to knock him into the chair, back up in a fairly comical way, and then hit Daimonji with a running boot to the face. It was like watching someone play Mouse Trap or Deception IV: Blood Ties because the pieces slotted in to place so cleanly.
Surprisingly, Daimonji weathered Yoshida’s storm, which was punctuated by his Air Raid Crash, first. I suppose that it made sense that the younger challenger would get his licks in first to establish his credibility, though the match formula usually dictated that the champion beat on the challenger first to create the conditions for a comeback.
Though Yoshida is leaner than Daimonji, he could act like he hit hard, which boded well for his chance to ascend to the land of the big boys.
Daimonji started his section with a knee attack and a DDT, and he tried to keep Yoshida at bay with a cravate. The crowd powered Yoshida to body slam Daimonji, and Yoshida followed up with a chop and punch combo in the corner, a running knee to Daimonji who was lying across the turnbuckle, and a back suplex. It was a simple, muscular burst from Yoshida. Unfortunately, he decided to perform a monologue while holding Daimonji for an attempt at a suplex, which gave Daimonji plenty of time to collect himself and slap a sleeper hold on to Yoshida.
They leaned further into simplicity by exchanging Boston Crabs, and Daimonji kicked it up a notch by leaning into Yoshida’s smaller size and bending him with a Liontamer. After a trip around the world along the 35.4437° N and along 139.6380° E, Yoshida finally pulled off his superplex on Daimonji. However, Daimonji was temporarily possessed by the spirit of Roman Reigns, and he exorcised the haunting by cocking his fist and hitting Yoshida with a Superman Punch. I really hated it when Daimonji did that, so I was pleased that Yoshida brushed the punch off and plopped Daimonji with a back suplex.
Yoshida and Daimonji reached for the epic by exchanging punches and boots, and Daimonji paid tribute to BJW’s past with a twirling lariat a la John Zandig. Yoshida’s suplex gave them a breather, and then they laid the law once again and show that they were prepared for war with a standing punch battle. Yoshida denied Daimonji whatever he was planning on the top turnbuckle by dropkicking him to the floor, and he forsook gravity and expectations about BJW World Strong Heavyweight title matches with a somersault plancha to Daimonji.
Now into the final stretch, Yoshida and Daimonji picked up their pace. Yoshida leaned further into the junior heavyweight war crate with a Busaiku Knee, but Daimonji proved his strength advantage over Yoshida by blocking Yoshida’s suplex and twisting him around for a piledriver. Daimonji held on to his sleeper hold through Yoshida’s back suplex, and he clubbed the back of Yoshida’s neck with a sliding lariat. Frustrated at Yoshida’s perseverance, Daimonji tried a more powerful sliding lariat by running the ropes a few times, but Yoshida dipped into the junior heavyweight box of toys again with a Go To Sleep.
After Yoshida paid tribute to KENTA and CM Punk with the Go To Sleep, he hit a piledriver that produced a credible nearfall. Daimonji escaped from Yoshida’s arms again and tried to put Yoshida to sleep with a hold. When that didn’t work, he tried to knock Yoshida out with a draping DDT and a leaping DDT. The crowd and I agreed that Yoshida kicking out of Daimonji’s lariat and a crucifix powerbomb after that was very cool. Equally cool was Daimonji’s little running lariat, particularly its vicious speed.
Despite the pain Daimonji had heaped on him, Yoshida persisted to Daimonji’s annoyance. He invited Yoshida to get back to his feet, and Yoshida almost caught him with a roll-up. A couple of Busaiku Knees later, and Daimonji got the stand up duel that he had wanted earlier. A couple of piledrivers later, and the crowd roared with approval as Yoshida claimed the title from Daimonji.
Perhaps it was the Busaiku Knees or how the match presented Yoshida as the junior heavyweight challenging the bonafide heavyweight, but this match reminded me of Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H from WrestleMania XXX. Because I could feel every second of its 30 minute run time, I wish Daimonji and Yoshida had moved faster throughout, and the pausing for monologues got more sports entertainment into my Strong BJ than I would have liked. Because Yoshida wrestled as a junior heavyweight against Daimonji, the match just felt odd. However, the closing was energetic, and the crowd was enraptured.
You can watch the match and the show on BJW Core.
Next time: “Meet the Mets
Meet the Mets
Step right up and greet the Mets!
Bring your kiddies
Bring your wife;
Guaranteed to have the time of your life” – Glenn Osser, “Meet the Mets”
While the Metropolitans haven’t been Amazin’ at all this year, we can at least see watch some great wrestling matches from Marvelous, House of Glory, St. Louis Anarchy, and Marigold.
