Atsuki Aoyagi And Rising HAYATO Advance To The AJPW Zennichi Jr. Festival Finals Set For Aug. 3rd

By: Lewis Carlan

The All Japan-Pro Wrestling Zennichi Jr. Festival Final is set and it will feature two of cornerstones of the promotions junior heavyweight division. Rising HAYATO and Atsuki Aoyagi won their respective tournament blocks at the AJPW Summer Action Series 2025 event on July 26th in front of a sold out Shin-Kiba 1st RING crowd.

Aoyagi won the B Block by defeating Dan Tamura and HAYATO got past Seiki Yoshioka to secure victory in the A Block. They both finished with 6 points each.

HAYATO & Aoyagi will now face each other in the main event of the AJPW Summer Action Series 2025 at Ota Ward General Gymnasium in Tokyo on Aug. 3rd. The winner of that match will earn an opportunity at the current AJPW Jr Heavyweight Champion Seiki Yoshioka.

Both Aoyagi and HAYATO have been arguably the top two Jr Heavyweights within AJPW for many years. On Aug. 3rd both will be looking to prove who the better competitor is as they are expected to fight hard to win the Zennichi Jr. Festival.

After HAYATO won Block A, he made a post match backstage comment indicating that he had hoped that Aoyagi will win Block B so they can have a rival clash. HAYATO stated he believed that is what the fans wanted. We now know that HAYATO’s wish came true and his desired showdown with Aoyagi became a reality.

Here are the full results for AJPW Summer Action Series 2025 on July 26th plus final Zennichi Jr. Festival tournament block standings courtesy of purolove.com:

• AJPW World Tag Team Title Skirmish: Kento Miyahra, Ren Ayabe & Ryuki Honda defeat Hokuto Omori, Talos & Hideki Suzuki (8:49) after Miyahra’s blackout against Suzuki.
• Triple Crown Skirmish: Jun Saito, Rei Saito & “Mr. Saito” Naruki Doi defeat Yuma Aoyagi, Shotaro Ashino & Ryo Inoue (8:17) after a jackhammer from Jun against Aoyagi.
• Zennichi Jr. Festival – Block A: Hikaru Sato [4] defeats Seiki Yoshioka [4] (9:49) with a Cross Armbreaker.
• Zennichi Jr. Festival – Block A: Rising HAYATO [6] defeats Seigo Tachibana [4] (21:46) with the Overdose.
• Zennichi Jr. Festival – Block B: Fuminori Abe [2] defeats MUSASHI [4] (10:32) by pinfall.
  
• Zennichi Jr. Festival – Block B: Atsuki Aoyagi [6] defeats Dan Tamura [4] (22:54) with a Firebird Splash.

Zennichi Jr. Festival Group Stage Final Standings:

Block A:

• Rising HAYATO [6]
• Hikaru Sato [4]
• Seigo Tachibana [4]
• Seiki Yoshioka [4]
• Ryo Inoue [2]

Block B:

• Atsuki Aoyagi [6]
• Naruki Doi [4]
• Dan Tamura [4]
• MUSASHI [4]
• Fuminori Abe [2]

All AJPW events can be seen on AJPW TV subscription streaming service.