AJPW New Year Wars 2025 - Tag 3: WrestleFile Historical Verdict

The strongest decision is putting the World Junior title change directly before the Triple Crown main event. MUSASHI had pinned Doi on January 3 and immediately challenged, so the January 26 victory closes a clear three-week progression rather than arriving without setup. All Japan also had extra institutional context around MUSASHI after he joined the promotion and became wrestlers' association vice-president, which makes a first singles championship win feel like an intentional elevation rather than an isolated upset.

Saito over Anzai is equally important even without a title change. A champion's first defense determines whether a new reign becomes more than a transitional moment. Saito had won the Triple Crown on New Year's Eve, and beating Anzai across 28:13 establishes him against one of the promotion's central younger heavyweights. Later title history confirms that this was the beginning of a much longer run rather than the peak of a short reign.

Miyamoto retaining over Ashino is disciplined follow-through from the January 18 submission loss. Ashino had earned the challenge by submitting the champion, but the title match reverses that result and gives Miyamoto a second successful defense. The six-man champions also receive a sensible first defense, with Aoyagi pinning former champion Omori rather than relying on Aja Kong to absorb the decision.

ELPIDA's win keeps younger talent active underneath the title program. Honda pinning Inoue is not as consequential as the two championship matches that follow, but it gives the group another concrete result against a team led by Miyahara and keeps the middle of the card from functioning only as filler between title matches.

The 1,012 attendance gives the Makuhari show a different scale from the smaller Shinjuku FACE event eight days earlier. All Japan promoted four championship matches for the card, and the official result page preserves both AJPW TV and GAORA SPORTS as archive outlets. The sponsor-branded venue presentation and larger exhibition-hall setting make the event read as a destination show rather than another compact tour stop.

The match order is well structured. The opener establishes the Saito side, the GAORA TV title appears second, a non-title tag resets the card, then the six-man championship, the ELPIDA six-man, the World Junior title change and the Triple Crown main event escalate the stakes. The final two matches receive 16:27 and 28:13, clearly separating the primary championships from the shorter first half.

Four title matches could have made the card feel overstuffed, but the undercard is concise: the first three matches all finish under 11 minutes. That leaves room for the final four without stretching the event through multiple long preliminaries. The structure supports the A- grade because the card's most important results are also its best-positioned matches.

Availability evidence is unusually strong. The official result page links directly to AJPW TV and a GAORA SPORTS event page. WrestleFile keeps the AJPW TV service root as the stable archive reference and records GAORA as an additional historical broadcaster rather than assuming a permanent event-specific replay will always remain accessible.

MUSASHI's first World Junior Heavyweight Championship is the clearest permanent historical marker. Doi entered as the 69th champion with five successful defenses and failed on his sixth attempt. MUSASHI became the 70th champion and later title-history records show that the reign continued into May, giving the Makuhari victory a durable place in the championship chronology rather than making it a one-night change.

Saito's first Triple Crown defense is the other major marker. He had won the championship from Davey Boy Smith Jr. on December 31, and January 26 is where the reign first proves it can continue against a fresh challenger. Later defense records show Saito ultimately reached seven successful defenses before losing the title in September, so the Anzai match is the opening chapter of a substantial reign.

Anzai remains important even in defeat. He had scored prominent wins on January 2, January 3 and January 18, including a singles victory over Shotaro Ashino. Moving from those results into a 28-minute Triple Crown challenge shows how quickly All Japan was positioning him as a championship-level heavyweight. The loss narrows his upward run without erasing it.

The GAORA and six-man defenses provide secondary continuity. Miyamoto's second defense resolves Ashino's January 18 challenge, while Aoyagi, Abe and Sato record the first defense of the six-man titles they won on January 2. Neither result carries the long-term weight of the top two matches, but together they make the show unusually dense with title-history entries.

As an archive event, Tag 3 is one of the more useful January 2025 records because several threads converge in one place: a first World Junior reign begins, a long Triple Crown reign records defense No. 1, two other champions retain and ELPIDA receives another meaningful win. The A- grade reflects both the card's breadth and the fact that its final two matches created consequences beyond the night itself.