Wrestlers to Watch in 2025... Atsuki Aoyagi

週刊プロレス Weekly Pro-Wrestling, 

2025/1/29 No. 2338, p.51

AJPW's Wrestler to Watch in 2025 is... Atsuki Aoyagi

"To show everyone how fun All Japan juniors are, I'll be in the centre, soaring and moving us forward!"

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Looking back over 2024, Atsuki Aoyagi has almost no memories about his matches. That's due to the injury to his left knee at the February Korakuen Hall show (left ACL, meniscus, interior ligament injuries). Because of his long-term absence, he only had six matches before his comeback on New Year's Eve.

In February, Katsuhiko Nakajima was the Triple Crown Champion. Along with electric current explosion matches and women's matches that left fans wondering what kind of organization they had become, AJPW lost sight of their true nature. Fans were starting to leave, and there was a sense of unease within their ranks. The mood was dark.

Then, with Yuma Anzai becoming the youngest Triple Crown Champion in history, and the Saito Brothers exploding in popularity, AJPW gained new fans, and the shift in focus to the new generation brought in a return to brighter times. The return of excitement in the venue made you wonder if there had ever really been a sense of unease in AJPW.

During the course of this, Atsuki had been away, so he didn't know from experience the changes that had happened. While he couldn't work in the ring, he mostly sat in the commentary booth, so among new fans, he was known only as a serious commentator, and not as a wrestler.

The frustration of not being there when things were going so well. However, being so impatient wasn't going to help his recovery, so he'd prepared himself to train for the day he'd make his return, and he made it in time for AJPW's final show of the year.

On December 31st in Yoyogi, he heard the "Atsuki" calls in the venue, and really felt like  he had returned to the place where he belonged. Once again, he realised how much he enjoyed pro-wrestling. He thought that flying in the ring was what gave his life meaning. "(When I heard the calls) I felt really good. Like, "This is what it's all about!". I thought I was grateful for those calls before I got injured, but it made me realise how good it felt to hear them. It made me remember how much I love pro-wrestling. Pro-wrestling had somehow started to feel like work. There are good things and bad things about that, but (while I was out) nobody really gave me any recognition. It didn't make me that sad or anything, but when I got back out there, people were cheering for me, and getting praised like that felt incredible. I didn't want it to stop".

He got through his return match with no problems, and at the start of the new year, at the January 2nd Korakuen Hall show, he won the customary New Year Battle Royal. The next day, he fought in a junior ten man tag match, and felt the progress that had been made by the AJPW juniors in his absence. 

"What they were doing felt really high level. I haven't made any conclusions about them yet, but it really felt like they'd become high  level wrestlers. In AJPW last year, the heavyweights were standing out, but I feel like the juniors have come a long way".

Atsuki wants to be in the centre of these high level AJPW juniors once again. With this in mind, for his shikishi (square board used for autographs), he has written the kanji 「動」 (meaning movement/motion, or change). 

"Rather than "AJPW is exciting", I want to hear "AJPW juniors are exciting". During that match (on January 3rd at Korakuen), I felt that the juniors are in a position to be able to take on the heavyweights this year".

He wants to show everyone how exciting AJPW's juniors can be. To that end, Atsuki will be soaring more than enough to make up for last year!

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The thing he did in 2024 that left the biggest impression was... His huge success as a co-producer

「NEW AGE CHRONICLE-Z」, a show for wrestlers with a career of fewer than ten years, was proposed by Rising HAYATO. The third of these shows, held in Shin-kiba on February 8th, saw Atsuki in the role of co-producer with HAYATO, and it was a huge success. In his match, he appeared as a HAYATO-esque "Rising ATSUKI". Having fun in a slightly different way from the usual, the sold-out audience were captivated.

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Written by Kenji Takao for Weekly Pro-Wrestling magazine (Japanese).

Translated into English by Michelle @puroresueikaiwa

Please do not use without permission and credit.

Yuma Anzai's "Promise To Me", part 8 (English)

English translation

Yuma Anzai's "Promise to Me"

Weekly Pro-Wrestling

No.2333, 2024/12/25 issue, p.20

What are the do's and don'ts of tryouts?

☆Tryouts will be held on December 22nd. Will you be there?

Anzai: 

I'll be there with them.

☆What will you be paying attention to?

Anzai:

I think the most important things are their attitude towards wrestling, and their way of seeing things. Being able to keep going even when they can't do something. Being in pain on their 20th try but gritting their teeth and keeping going so they can do it the 21st time, I think that's important. In my opinion, for people who can endure the training and make their debut, those things are necessary. Physical strength and all that will eventually come, if they can do that.

☆Even if you can't do everything in the test, it's possible.

Anzai:

I think so. The final decisions are made by people above us, so we don't know what they look for, but, for example, it feels better watching people who yell even if their movements are unsteady, rather than people who look down while gasping for breath as they throw hands. When you think pro-wrestling's tough, and you see someone put in the effort again and again, isn't that how it goes? If you can appeal to people's hearts, then I think a lot of importance is placed on that.

☆Isn't it difficult to make a decision?

Anzai:

Yeah. But, when it comes to making matches for people to watch, it's like, it's better to watch someone do 20 push-ups while giving it everything they've got, rather than someone doing 30 push-ups in a mechanical way. That kind of thing is so important in pro-wrestling. Someone who can only do 80% but gets a response  from the audience is better than someone who can do everything but just goes through the motions. Even a small movement can change everything. We can see those kinds of things well, and I think there's a real possibility that they'll be better than someone who can do it 100% of the time.

☆So, that means there are people who do everything perfectly and still fail...

Anzai:

I think so, definitely. There are physical fitness tests in the tryouts, but the final goal is pro-wrestling. If it were a push-up contest, naturally everyone who could do the push-ups would pass, but if you eventually want to become a wrestler, I think everyone understands that the road to making your pro-wrestling debut is very tough. It's important to be able to see if someone will be able to take it. This is coming from someone who didn't do the tryouts, though (strained laugh).

☆That's because you're elite.

Anzai:

No it ain't (laughs). I'd never say anything like that, but there were lots of people who did the tryouts at the dojo and gave up in the end, and talking to the wrestlers that saw these things happen, some of them could do the push-ups, and some of them were very vocal. I think they got extra points for that, and in the end, it was all about their motivation and their never-give-up attitude. You never know what's going to happen until the end.

☆If you had entered the tryouts, do you think you would have passed?

Anzai:

Hahahaha! Yeah, I wonder. But, I guess I'm relatively tall, so I've got that going for me.

☆You've also got the makings of a star.

Anzai:

Hehehe, I guess the people watching would have seen that. Then, there are short guys, people without a good physique, people who are a little on the old side, and they give up. But, if you look at Nagao, he isn't so tall, but he's making his debut, and the Saito Brothers tried out when they were in their thirties, and I think it would have been a waste if any of them had given up on themselves. There are some application guidelines. But, even if someone doesn't meet all the guidelines, they'll pass the tryouts if they're the kind of people we want to work with and to see doing pro-wrestling, so I don't want them to get fixated on arbitrary things.

Translated into English by Michelle @puroresueikaiwa

Please do not use without permission and credit.

Yuma Anzai's "Promise To Me", part 7 (English)

English translation

Yuma Anzai's "Promise to Me"

Weekly Pro-Wrestling

No.2328, 2024/11/27 issue, p.13

What does it mean to be a tag partner?

☆The Real World Tag League has started, and we wanted to know, what does being a "tag partner" mean to you?

Anzai:

For me, it's someone who can help me make up for things that I lack. If they can cover my weaknesses, I feel like I can use my strengths to their full advantage.

☆Your first partner was Yuji Nagata.

Anzai:

I'd just started wrestling then, so I wasn't really aware of what my weak points were. So, I felt like there were a lot of important points where I just had to try my best to do something. Once I understood what I had to do, I gave it everything I had, and I what I was doing was no good, Nagata-san would do it.

☆Was that easy to do?

Anzai:

It was really easy, so I had a real sense of security. Because it was Nagata-san, hehe. With Nagata-san behind me, I had to think about what I could do, and what he could do for me.

☆You had a sense of security (with Nagata), so was it different with your next partner, Ryuki Honda?

Anzai:

Yeah. A year had passed, so I had more experience, and Honda was in the same school year as me. We could suggest moves to each other in a way that I couldn't do with Nagata-san. At that time, I just wanted to get on with wrestling, but Honda kept messing around... so, I was kinda pissed off with him (*strained laugh*).

☆Because he's very spirited, isn't he.

Anzai:

Yeah! He can do things that I can't, and he made me realise it was good to have him in my corner. In the best possible way, joining up with him opened new doors for me. That

was the best thing about tagging with Honda.

☆After that came your present tag partner, Rising HAYATO. He's become your senior.

Anzai:

Even though it's said that he's my senior... HAYATO has a really deep way of thinking compared to others, and there probably aren't many people who truly understand him. But, similar to how it was when I was with Honda, I think I have those kinds of thoughts, too.

☆For example?

Anzai:

Starting with things like, "What do you think a pro-wrestler is?", I feel like it's kinda like Kamen Rider or Ultraman. If I say it's like being a cool hero of justice, HAYATO makes me think about the monster that was defeated by that Ultraman. He says that the monster must have had some kind of reason why it came to earth. People don't usually think about that kind of thing, do they?

☆That's true.

Anzai:

Most people just think, the bad guy arrived, they were defeated, and that's the end of the story. It's really difficult to understand (*strained laugh*)

☆It's not that he's twisted or anything...

Anzai:

I think he has that side to him, too. Like when he gets drunk, hahaha.

☆Do you have stories about him being drunk?!

Anzai:

Hehe. When Honda opened those doors for me, things I'd never thought about before came out, and I realised that HAYATO is someone who has something that I didn't realize until I got information from outside. Because of that, I feel blessed to have him as my partner. He gave me a different option. 

☆If you had to give yourselves a team name, what would it be?

Anzai:

What would it be... If I said something weird now, you'd start calling us that, wouldn't you (*strained laugh*).

☆What do the fans call you?

Anzai:

They usually call us "AnHaya". If we had to properly think of a team name, it would need to be Punk something... I've been listening to the same kinds of songs because of HAYATO.

☆He's had an effect on your private life.

Anzai:

He's just so cool. I still don't understand what he meant when he was talking about Ultraman, though... 

Translated into English by Michelle @puroresueikaiwa

Please do not use without permission and credit.