AJPW Ōdō Tournament 2023 Preview

AJPW announces the participants and first round matches of the 10th Ōdō Tournament

By: Steven R. Jackson

On August 19th, AJPW will kick-off their tenth Ōdō Tournament from Korakuen Hall. An openweight single-elimination tournament, the Ōdō (also known as the Royal Road) tournament sees All Japan stars, wrestlers from rival promotions, and freelancers, fight for the right to be named number one contender for the Triple Crown championship.

As with the 2022 tournament, 16 participants will be taking part and every match will be streamed live on AJPWTV.

The featured image of the tournament bracket with romanized names are courtesy of @RoyalRoad72.

Brackets and schedule

August 19th, First round matches [Korakuen Hall] (left side)

• Dan Tamura vs. Kotaro Suzuki (freelancer)
• Shuji Ishikawa vs. Ren Ayabe (representing JTO)
• Hokuto Omori vs. Takuya Nomura (representing BJW)
• Satoshi Kojima (representing NJPW) vs. Rei Saito

August 21st, First round matches [Shinkiba 1stRING] (right side)

• Jun Saito vs. Hayato Tamura (representing GLEAT)
• Suwama vs. Fuminori Abe (freelancer)
• Kento Miyahara (2022 Ōdō tournament winner) vs. Atsuki Aoyagi
• Yuma Aoyagi (Current triple crown champion) vs. Ryuki Honda

August 22nd, Second round matches [Shinkiba 1stRING]

August 27th, Semi-finals and final [Aichi-Nagoya International Conference Center]

Fun facts:

• This is Fuminori Abe, Hayato Tamura and Satoshi Kojima’s first appearances in the Royal Road tournment.
• The tournament features members of AJPW’s stables; Zennichi Shin Jidai and Gungnir of Anarchy.
• This is the first year since 2019 that the semi-finals and finals will be held in the Nagoya International Conference Center.
• 2023 participants Suwama, Kento Miyahara and Kotaro Suzuki all took part in the first Royal Road tournament in 2013.
• The 2023 tournament is the first Royal Road tournament since 2016 not to feature any gaijins.
• In his six previous appearances, current reigning Triple Crown champion, Yuma Aoyagi has never made it past the first round of the tournament.
• If Satoshi Kojima wins the 2023 Royal Road tournament, he’ll be the first wrestler to win the G1 Climax and the Royal Road tournament.

Former winners of the Ōdō Tournament

• 2013: Akebono
• 2014: Go Shiozaki
• 2015: Jun Akiyama
• 2016: Suwama
• 2017: Suwama
• 2018: Kento Miyahara
• 2019: Jake Lee
• 2021: Suwama
• 2022: Kento Miyahara