AJPW Summer Action Series 2024 Day 3: WrestleFile Historical Verdict

The best booking choice is giving the last three matches three different jobs. Aoyagi-Ayabe determines the next title challenger, Miyahara-HAYATO closes NEXTREAM on a dedicated singles match, and Anzai-Honda protects the Triple Crown champion while allowing Honda to look credible in a twenty-plus-minute challenge. None of those outcomes cannibalizes the others.

Aoyagi beating Ayabe is defensible even though Ayabe was being pushed. Aoyagi is the more established Triple Crown challenger and the End Game referee stoppage makes the result decisive. Ayabe still receives a focused singles platform against a top-level opponent rather than being buried in a multi-man fall.

Miyahara over HAYATO is also predictable but useful. The contemporary review framed it as a favorite-versus-underdog match in which HAYATO received enough hope spots to look competitive. Closing NEXTREAM with Miyahara winning preserves his established hierarchy while still giving HAYATO a meaningful singles stage.

The main event then keeps Anzai’s reign moving without a shortcut. Honda had pinned Anzai in a tag five days earlier, so the title challenge had a direct competitive hook. Anzai avenges that fall in the championship setting, reaches a fourth defense and immediately transitions to Rei Saito as the next challenger. That sequence makes the event feel like a genuine chapter rather than an isolated defense.

An attendance of 1,341 gives the Korakuen card a solid scale for AJPW’s summer run. The building is large enough for the title matches to feel important but compact enough that the undercard does not need arena-level spectacle. CAGEMATCH independently records the same attendance and identifies the event as a live AJPW.tv stream.

The show is clearly back-loaded. ProWresBlog disliked the ActWres girls opener and the All Asia Tag title match, then became much more positive from the ten-man tag onward. That progression matters because the card’s most important programs all live in the second half, so the event improves as the stakes rise instead of peaking early.

The Kyohei Wada anniversary six-man provides a ceremonial middle point with Masanobu Fuchi, Takao Omori, Suwama and the Saito Brothers. It is short enough not to derail the title-heavy second half, and the post-match flowers plus appearances by Shiro Koshinaka and Masao Inoue give the referee’s milestone a distinct place on the show.

The AJPW TV archive currently surfaces this July 20 event in the Summer Action Series 2024 playlist, which is stronger availability evidence than a generic service homepage. WrestleFile still avoids asserting universal access terms because subscription and regional requirements can change, but the event-specific series archive is verified.

Anzai’s fourth Triple Crown defense is the defining result. His reign had already established him as the centerpiece of the younger generation, and Honda arrived with a direct pin over him from the July 15 tag. Beating Honda in a full title match converts that loss into a coherent challenger story instead of ignoring it.

Aoyagi’s contender win creates the next scheduled title match at Tachikawa. That keeps the summer title picture moving through wrestlers from different recent factions and generations. Ayabe loses the direct path on this night but remains important enough to receive a singles decision match rather than being removed through a multi-man technicality.

Miyahara-HAYATO is important for a different reason: it is labeled as the NEXTREAM final special singles match. NEXTREAM had been part of AJPW’s identity for years, and the bout gives the group’s closing chapter a visible singles marker instead of allowing the stable to disappear without a dedicated result.

MUSASHI and Yoshioka’s first All Asia Tag Team defense also matters to the title ledger even though the contemporary review disliked the match. The champions leave Korakuen with the belts intact, and the masked Senor Saito presentation keeps Doi’s affiliation with the Saito Brothers orbit visible.

For WrestleFile chronology, the show ties together multiple July threads at once: Anzai consolidates the Triple Crown, Aoyagi earns the next shot, NEXTREAM closes, Rei Saito steps forward after the main event and the All Asia champions record their first defense. That makes July 20 more useful historically than its uneven match quality might suggest.