All Japan Pro Wrestling has been a promotion one of the most popular promotions since the 70s and was responsible for some of the biggest names in Puroresu History. Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa, Stan Hansen, Akira Taue, Nobuhiko Takada to just name a few. But AJPW is still quite unknown to many people. Today, I want to cover AJPW once again as I cover the best wrestlers in AJPW currently. As I just mentioned, the names in this list are current. Not past wrestlers. It’s the Only One, The Social Manager... THE HYMANTOR HERE TO GIVE ANOTHER POST. Let’s begin.

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The Best Theme.

Zeus is a name many people will know if they watched early WWF. But with this Zeus, this Zeus knows how to do absolutely everything. All Japan’s Zeus is world renowned for his brutal kicks, brutal lariats, and a strong man persona. Zeus is incredibly talented, knows how to work with many of AJPW’s workers and has accomplished the biggest goal of becoming Triple Crown Champion earlier last year. Zeus has a weird theme and in the subject of internet jokes, if it’s weird. It means best. Zeus has a track record of working with the best. Kento, Naoyo and even to this day his match with Shuji Ishikawa was still one of the best AJPW matches of the damn year. Zeus is extremely strong as well, can lift up certain man like it’s nothing. Zeus was known for many years as a tag competitor, but recently going in for the world title scene gave me joy for appreciating the work that he delivers. I honestly hope that he wins back the title and gets a proper reign. Because Kento can’t hold it forever.

Indie Wrestling Big Dog.

Shuji Ishikawa, alongside Suwama is known as the tag team... the violent giants and were responsible for some of the best tag matches of the year. But when Shuji isn’t teaming up with Suwama, Shuji is tearing it up with the best workers on the scene. World-renowned for working in multiple Japanese promotions, such as DDT & NOAH. Shuji Ishikawa Style is brutality. Like everyone in this list, Shuji is a veteran of the promotion, known for his knee strikes, known for his middle rope double stomp which looks brutal considering how big the man is. Shuji hasn’t even been in AJPW that long, but anything that Shuji is in has to be entertaining in some way. He would be one of the most appealing parts for me, especially if I decided to watch NOAH. He can be funny, he can be mean and can also be entertaining as hell to watch. Watch his matches with Kento & Zeus. This man doesn’t give up, this dude is a veteran who’s continuing to get better and I’m happy he’s in here.

Former Ace.

Suwama is the former ace of the company. Passing the torch to Kento Miyahara In 2016. Suwama is known for his spinning powerbomb, his speed, and his lariats. I swear, lariats are the most common thing in AJPW... like Stardom’s fascination with the Dropkick. Suwama has a history of great matches with almost everyone in the promotion and has a track record alongside Shuji as one of the best tag teams of the year and still going on to this day. Suwama has held the Triple Crown Championship multiple times and is almost always involved at least once a year in the world title scene, even recently with his match with Kento Miyahara. He works body parts, he can work with most and can be one of the most entertaining parts of an AJPW Tag Match with Shuji. He’s pretty much in here with the same amount of love as Shuji. The difference being of Suwama being a former ace of the company who helped AJPW throughout its dark times.

Bruises.

When you think about brutal strikes, Beautiful speed and the ability to get the crowd so hyped for the match and give people something truly incredible. You think of KAI who I nickname “Bruises” because his body looks like it has been run over multiple times. KAI has a very unique look and honestly somehow who I’ve always seen as having so much potential to become Triple Crown Champion. But he never was, he has held titles before. But getting so close to defeating the world champion in a tag league to a major roar from the crowd honestly brought a lot of potential towards KAI. KAI was a tag team competitor and a Junior for years, coming up into the Heavyweights with a lot of promise of being a bigger threat. His recent match with Kento really showcased this man’s potential as a whole. KAI has something very special about him that’s really hard to determine, especially this late into his career. Great striker, very charismatic, has a great look for him to be something, maybe either Dragon Gate or NOAH could see the potential that he has.

The Owner.

Jun Akiyama is the current owner of AJPW and responsible for the promotion’s revival in the mid-2010s. Akiyama who is a 20+ Year veteran at this point was a staple in AJPW & NOAH for many years. Akiyama is one of the greatest stars and one of the Final veterans who is still wrestling to this very day and responsible for the revival when he revived AJPW into a brighter light. Speed, ability to work and put on great matches with legit anyone except Ryouji Sai... which I swear no one can. Jun Akiyama has almost always delivered and gave something that was truly incredible. While in later years, he has become famous for the multiple knee strikes. Hitting these knees to the chest of his opponents until he just stays down for him to hit his brutal exploder Suplex. It’s very easy to see while people love Akiyama. His matches with Kobashi were very entertaining. Especially the 04 encounters in NOAH. Jun might be incredibly repetitive with his knees this late into his career. But he’s becoming too old to give a damn as he’s almost 50. He doesn’t have what it takes to be a world champion. But like the appeal of Suzuki. Even at a later age, he can still deliver when he needs to. Especially in his match with Marufuji in last year’s Champions Carnival.

Career Renaissance.

If you remember the name Yoshi Tatsu, you either remember his awful run within WWE or his awful run within New Japan. But when I think of the man known as Yoshi Tatsu, I remember the possible third option and that is the career renaissance that this man has been having within the AJPW product. Yoshi Tatsu or known as Yoshitatsu within the company has been part of the tag team known as Yoshiken. Alongside Kento Miyahara. Yoshitatsu has been getting a lot better as a wrestler and is usually part of some of the better tag matches of the year. Yoshiken was a pretty entertaining part of AJPW’s product and he has been a staple of the promotion for the last two years. He’s doing well for himself and finally has newer gear, which is really nice to see. He has held tag gold, but has yet to hold any singles gold within AJPW.

Cowboying Survivor.

The reason this next pic is labeled as “Cowboying Survivor” is the fact that his gimmick is a cowboy and that he has also survived cancer. Joe Doering has been the top foreign talent in AJPW for the past few years, holding the triple crown championship multiple times within the promotion. He has been part of the Evolution Faction and has been in the tag scene with Dylan James as of recently. Joe Doering is a brutal wrestler. Known for lariats and a simple powerbomb finishing maneuver. Joe Doering isn’t one of my personal favorites, but I do consider him one of AJPW’s top talents within the company. Doering still has a lot of potential within AJPW, if AJPW decided to actually have a mid-card, it could be interesting to have this man to be in that conversation.

Armdrag City Bitch.

It’s really hard to choose names for wrestlers who don’t have much info. Koji Iwamoto is the top junior of AJPW’s roster and responsible for making the Junior Division interesting for the past few months. Koji doesn’t have much competition, especially for the lack of Junior Division. Don’t get me wrong, they have a Division. But not many names to make it somewhat interesting. It’s why Koji is the only Junior on the list. Koji is known for kicks and his heart of a warrior and keeps on going when the matches get tough. Koji can work with some of the Heavyweight talents in the tag scene and give out a really good match when he’s needed to. He also doesn’t give out boring matches and always tries to make his appearance memorable which is really good.

The Future.

When people ask who do I see as the future of AJPW? It could go down to two people and I labeling them here as The Future as their both former partners. Firstly, Jake Lee. Jake Lee returned from an injury in 2018 to a massive ovation. Known for his kicks and a personality that could be compared to Shibata with giving a care in the world and can give out many great matches without hen he needs too. Jake Lee hasn’t had that many stand out singles matches, but he has potential to be a great singles star as his match with Kento was a greatly underrated bout.

The other guy who I have labeled the future multiple times of AJPW is Naoyo Nomura. Naoyo Nomura could be the heart & soul of the promotion behind Kento as this man gave out some of the best performances in not only last years major tournaments, but in almost every match that he participates in. Naoyo Nomura is extremely over with the crowd with his never stash down attitude. AJPW is one of those promotions where these types of attitude are amazing and Naoyo has that in spades. Great in ring competitor who can get absolutely destroyed and it’s a matter of time before he gets a push to the Main belt. With being focused as the second most talented member of NEXTStream behind Kento Miyahara. The only thing that is known that when the time comes, Naoyo Nomura is the future of AJPW.

Part-Time Talent.

Ironic that I have a disdain for part-time talent, but I have a love for the part-time roster members as they aren’t pushed heavily on occasion. Daisuke Sekimoto & Yuji Okabayashi are known as STRONG BJ... yeah, I know. These two Whenever their part of AJPW always makes their appearances memorable. In the March Korakuen, they had a fantastic bout with Shuji & Suwama. Daisuke being part of last year’s tag league with Akiyama truly showcased Daisuke’s ability to destroy absolutely everyone. Yuji returned to AJPW earlier this year and i have no doubt that they’ll keep on giving out great performances.

The other part-timer that I have always enjoyed his appearances on is Kotaro Suzuki. Kotaro Suzuki for a time in AJPW was having a sour spell, while he was winning. None of them very memorable as he never went for major jr gold for some reason. Until he went to NOAH In late 2018 and was responsible for many of the better Jr matches for the promotion... until Coming back to AJPW for March’s Korakuen to give out a very memorable performance against Koji Iwamoto. Which made both look fantastic and give everyone a showcase on Koji’s potential as the Ace of The Junior Division. I’m personally a major Mark for Suzuki, the dude can put out fantastic performances, but also has a feel of no one talking about him.

The Ace.

Kento Miyahara. The man who brought AJPW into relevancy with his title run in 2016 and is a man that is Continuing to make AJPW better with his absolutely electric and lovable Ace personality. Kento is known for his knee strikes. Hitting them from out of nowhere on multiple occasions. Kento’s sometimes repetitive knee strikes and sometimes lack of selling sometimes is one of my major complaints about Kento. But I can never doubt his in-ring ability and ability to give out many fantastic performances. I can give you a list of matches that he’s participated in. If you search his name up on YouTube, you would see his matches with Zeus & Kai.

One of those matches being an incredible bout before WK13 and one of those matches featured him getting his fourth reign started. In terms of personality, Kento has an Ace feel to him. He’s extremely over with the crowd and is treated like a big deal. After his match with KAI, I finally started to enjoy his work a little bit more to just see how charismatic this dude is. For at least the next few years, I can see Kento Miyahara being the ace of AJPW for many years to come and with the roster of so many fantastic workers. AJPW can become more popular to the mainstream with the help of this major roster. It’s why covering this promotion was such a pleasure to do. Which leads to the end of this article.

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Wrestling Amino Twitter.

It’s no secret that as of recently, the Wrestling Amino Twitter came back after a long time hiatus due to lack of faith In the project. That has changed due to me finding tweet schedulers to give out match of the day and tweets showcasing the articles that are created here in Wrestling Amino. But... with my ambition on making the project even better. We now showcase many promotions around the world and want to showcase Independent Wrestling whenever we can. This WrestleMania Weekend, On The Horizon will showcase the many great bouts that are happening that aren’t just NJPW and WWE. But also starting to cover unique articles that are created here and give a showcase to reviews created by many great users among this community. The Wrestling Amino Twitter is going into a new era. Be part of it and follow it on Twitter and give suggestions on what you want to see more of on the Twitter.

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Conclusion.

I hope you beautiful people enjoyed today’s article and by next week, it’s guaranteed to be borderline chaotic because it’s WrestleMania Weekend. So... what am I covering this weekend? Well... I might cover my predictions for the event, but might also cover predictions for Takeover... if there are enough photos as WM35 has so many freaking matches. Regardless, after this entire week. I think we’ll all be exhausted. I’m exhausted from writing today, I have many upcoming projects including community events and giving out even more focus on WA’s Social Scene with returning PPV Chatrooms. I’ll see everyone later.

The Social Manager... SIGNING OFF.