Former Pro Wrestling NOAH Star Seiki Yoshioka Set To Compete For AJPW

By: Lewis Carlan

Former Pro Wrestling NOAH star Seiki Yoshioka is set to step foot back into an All Japan Pro-Wrestling ring as he has been confirmed for three appearances for the promotion in February. Yoshioka is scheduled for the February 24th, 25th and 26th shows that will be part of the AJPW Excite Series 2024 tour. He expressed his excitement on X, formerly known as Twitter, indicating that it’s been along time since he has been in an AJPW ring and he is ready to have fun.

2月そろそろ動きます
23日岡山
24日福岡
25日京都
参戦決定
久しぶりの全日本プロレスのリング
楽しんでいこうか！#ajpw https://t.co/IDlQCKsJRJ

— Seiki Yoshioka (@SEIKI1005) January 30, 2024

Yoshioka will be competing in strictly tag team encounters during the three AJPW Excite Series 2024 events. The matches in which Yoshioka will be participating in are as follows:

• February 23: Kuroshio TOKYO Japan, Seigo Tachibana and Seiki Yoshioka vs Jun Saito, Rei Saito & Toshizo
• February 24: Naruki Doi & Hokuto Omori vs Seiki Yoshioka & Seigo Tachibana
• February 25: Rising Hayato, Hikaru Sato, Seiki Yoshioka & Fuminori Abe vs Dan Tamura, Ryo Inoue, Naruki  Doi & “brother” YASSHI

The eight man tag team bout on February 25th could reap big rewards for Yoshioka if he is able to win the match for his unit by defeating Dan Tamura. Tamura is the current AJPW Jr Heavyweight Champion and a win over him would instantly place Yoshioka in title contention, should he decide to remain in All Japan past February 25th.

Yoshioka’s last appearance for All Japan was back in February 2019 when he was defeated by Koji Iwamoto in the Jr Battle of Glory tournament finals. He spent the last few years as a member of the Pro Wrestling NOAH roster before deciding to leave promotion at the end of 2023. Yoshioka initially took a break from NOAH in October 2023 that was only expected to last until the conclusion of 2023. In December, he announced that he would be leaving NOAH altogether and thus terminated his contract. He indicated that he will be taking on new challenges that would make it difficult for him to remain with NOAH on a full time basis.

Yoshioka is a former GHC Jr Heavyweight Champion, GHC Jr Heavyweight Tag Team Champion and WRESTLE-1 Cruiserweight Champion. He has only competed twice in 2024, once for GLEAT and once for DragonGate.