We all know the saying:
“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
The immortal words of the bard have been cited countless times, in many different contexts, over the centuries. They have become part of the English language, an adage often separated from its original text, as a testament to their enduring nature and significance.
Everyone’s path to greatness – and what it means to be great – is different, and it is rarely straightforward. What comes easily to some might be a game of trial and error to others, and the Fates can be cruel to those who attempt to reach above their station.
But it often, if not always, starts with one simple step.
It starts with taking a chance on yourself.
For Yuma Anzai, it started on January 1st, 2024.
“Throw out the map and the fear, and embrace the freedom that comes from being your own best hope.”
Buddy Wakefield, The Headline Of An Article I Read While Peering Over The Shoulder Of The Person Sitting In Front Of Me On An Airplane, Gentleman Practice
On that day, the All Japan Pro Wrestling super rookie published a post singling out the uneasiness that surrounded the company that winter, and he vowed to leave the past behind, embrace the future, and become the present. To do this, the young prince had no other choice but to bring honor back to All Japan, and to the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship, then held by Katsuhiko Nakajima.
Nakajima had arrived in All Japan in October, shocking the crowd in Korakuen Hall by throwing a bouquet of roses at lifelong rival and All Japan ace Kento Miyahara, before defeating Yuma Aoyagi for the championship the following month. Since then, the former prodigy, who had grown up into a fierce, if controversial fighter, ruled by a code that very purposefully defied all the values of the promotion.
Defining and detailing the meaning and value of the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship definitely could, and probably should, warrant a whole article of its own. One of the oldest and most prestigious professional wrestling championships in Japan, it has been held and defended by some of the biggest names in wrestling over the course of its nearly four decades of history, with the inaugural champion, Jumbo Tsuruta, forever etched into history as one of professional wrestling’s greatest. It has been held by the likes of Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, and Stan Hansen, to name only a few, all men who would go on to join Tsuruta in the pantheon of the discipline. It is often regarded as one of the most prestigious accolades in the profession, carrying with it a history and a legacy that is revered by most who hold it.
Most importantly, though, like most, if not all, championships in professional wrestling, it is representative of and represented by the man who holds it, and is a marker on his journey into greatness.
Yuma Anzai is, by all accounts, no ordinary rookie. Recruited by All Japan stalwart Suwama and making his debut in September of 2022, the young man almost seems too good to be true.
While a background in amateur wrestling is always a good start, it does not always guarantee a smooth transition into the world of professional wrestling. However, this was not something Yuma Anzai had to worry about. In a world of rookies trying their best to get the fundamentals down, Anzai bloomed onto the scene near immediately. A prodigious talent who seemed to have been born for the ring, his abilities immediately capture the hearts and minds of an audience hungry for a new hero to attach themselves to. In the somewhat aging landscape of the All Japan roster, Yuma Anzai is a breath of fresh air, a prospect who, through sheer effort and power of will, yes, but also thanks to his innate ability, gives the crowd someone new to believe in.
In many ways, everything about Anzai draws a picture that’s hard to look away from. His earnestness, going out there day-after-day, putting up the fight of his life in every match no matter how seemingly insignificant, his seemingly God-given gift, and youthful good looks that make it easy to imagine him at the top of a poster or on the cover of a show program, he seemingly has it all, but now it’s up to him to prove that it’s enough.
By the time Anzai got his first shot at the Triple Crown, against one of his trainers, the highly accomplished and immovable Yuji Nagata, he hadn’t even celebrated one year as a professional wrestler, a feat in itself. It was an honorable effort, but one that was never going to be enough to topple the veteran, not when Anzai still had so much to learn, so much growing to do.
However, it’s not enough for Anzai to just rest on the hype and excitement that built itself up around him in these first few months. He knows there’s still a lot of work to do, and throws himself headfirst into it. In early 2023, he forms a team with fellow youngster Ryuki Honda, marking the start of a New Period in All Japan. Together they brave the Real World Tag League, ultimately coming up short in the block stage, but forging a bond that would shape both of their careers for the better moving forward. That same year, he also enters the Champion Carnival for the first time – and though he only scores three victories, one of those is against eventual winner Shotaro Ashino. He also gains passage aboard the Ark, joining Pro Wrestling NOAH’s N-1 Victory tournament, where his efforts earn him praise although he fails to see the results he likely hoped for. Not everything comes easy, but he keeps on going.
As 2024 dawns, at All Japan legend Masanobu Fuchi’s 50th Anniversary show, Anzai finds himself winning the honor of closing the show in a match with the man himself. In a contest that highlights and honors the passage and persistence of time, Anzai brings the future in full view and convinces Fuchi to trust him with it – and with the facelock maneuver Anzai uses to win, a link to the kings of old.
katsuhiko nakajima, 30 march
In March of 2024, the Triple Crown belt is still firmly in the grasp of Katsuhiko Nakajima, and the fearsome striker has one specific person in the viewfinder: Suwama, record 8-time champion, now a scout and trainer for the promotion as well. Someone who, in Nakajima’s words, represents everything wrong with modern All Japan. Letting young wrestlers go and make fools out of themselves in other places instead of using them to build the place back up to its former glory, letting All Japan take backseat to all these other companies, all sins Nakajima attributes to Suwama, all wrongdoings that he believes he has to make Suwama pay for.
But Suwama refuses to play the game, ignoring Nakajima’s verbal attacks and acidic call outs. Instead, it’s Yuma Anzai who steps up to the challenge.
Even as Anzai comes out to the ring following Nakajima’s title defense against Jun Saito, Nakajima keeps calling out for Suwama.
The stage is set for March 30th, 2024.
Even on the day, as their match is about to start, the audience in Ota City Gymnasium watch as the VCR that rolls out on the screens shows Nakajima looking past Anzai before they even lock up, already, and still, calling out for Suwama.
The match in itself is a brutal affair. It’s obvious there is a gap between the two of them that Anzai, despite his gifts, despite his best efforts, may not be able to close. Nakajima brutalizes him like a lion playing with a lamb, dismantling him so thoroughly, so viciously, that one might even want to see the towel thrown in, to save what might be left of the young hero before it’s too late. It’s a ghastly sight, Nakajima picking Anzai apart, the glee on his face as he does a terrifying sight, the future looking bleaker by the second as vicious strikes are laid into Anzai over, and over, and over again. Everytime Anzai attempts to mount a comeback, barely standing, legs ready to give out from under him, Nakajima lays into him with even more force, even more disdain, as if to tell the crowd that he will not hesitate to kill their hero, to destroy their future before it can even get started.
But Anzai doesn’t give up.
He can’t.
For Nakajima, this might just be a formality, but for Yuma Anzai, it’s the match of his life. He threw everything on this one chance, made a promise that he fully intends to keep, even if it kills him. And it just might, but can he truly face this All Japan audience, that put so much faith in him, that entrusted him with their dreams, that even now as he fades away, is still cheering for him, if he cannot even lay down his life and give them all of himself?
If he can find one opening, survive just one more minute, then maybe all this won’t be in vain. Nakajima, true to form, revels in the slaughter, takes his time, even decides to let Anzai go to find a more brutal end to the hunt. All it takes is one chance. In the midst of the carnage, Nakajima lets go of a hold that very well could have marked the end of the road for Anzai, to walk around, gloat a little, and prepare to put the young challenger away properly with the Vertical Spike. It takes another few excruciating minutes of toying with Anzai, of punishing him for even daring to step up to him, before Nakajima finally decides to put an end to it all. But in the time it takes for the champion to bask in the moment, Anzai rallies, finds what strength is left within him to counter the final blow and catch Nakajima with a knee strike and a German Suplex for the count. In the time it takes to flip a page in a book, Yuma Anzai has set history back on its proper course.
One single moment to change everything.
Three seconds to eternity.
As the out of breath commentator puts it while the still dazed new champion collects himself against the ropes, “Yuma Anzai has become the future of All Japan”.
Immediately following his title win, Anzai is joined in the ring by a collection of All Japan’s champions, all wildly different in age, style and demeanor, but all with one thing in common: every one of them, from the towering Saito Brothers (World Tag Team Champions), to the stoic Dan Tamura (then one half of the All Asia Tag Team Champions), and the subversive Rising HAYATO (then World Junior Heavyweight Champion), entered All Japan at the turn of the decade, and all represent, in their own way, a new generation ready to pick up the pace. They all picked up major victories on this show – all in title matches – and are determined to prove they can be trusted to lead.
It’s the dawn of a new day, and Yuma Anzai is leading the charge.
Shortly after his title win flipped the place on its head, All Japan resume their year with the 2024 edition of the Champion Carnival, the year’s premier singles tournament. Before he can make a single defense of his newly won title, Anzai enters the competitive field with a target on his back. It’s his second time in the tournament, but his position – and the stakes that come with it – could not be more different, and he knows this. Everybody knows this, and everybody is intently watching as he enters his first match of the tournament, against Jun Saito.
On April 14th, 2024, on the first night of the Champion Carnival, Yuma Anzai arrives to the ring as a man transformed. He’s traded the solid color trunks (in his case, solid black) traditionally worn by rookies for his first set of custom gear – subtle panels of dark grey and black and a glittering trim – and eschewed his modest t-shirts in favor of a custom Sukajan that, true to its inspiration in American varsity jackets, makes him look like the star player.
But perhaps nothing speaks of Anzai’s determination more than the finisher he debuts to defeat Jun Saito on that day, kickstarting his run in earnest.
The Gimlet, as Anzai calls it, is an impressive feat of strength.
In that way, the Gimlet represents how Yuma Anzai now sees himself: now that he has brought the Triple Crown back to its rightful place, he has to go above and beyond, because he has no other choice. Deep in himself he knows he still has a lot to prove, and as a challenge to himself, the Gimlet is a move that’s as impressive as it is difficult to pull off – the entire weight of his opponent, and in turn, the entire weight of the world, carried on Anzai’s young shoulders.
That weight is something Anzai has known since his debut. Coming onto the scene as the most promising young prospect in years, he became acquainted with the pressure of performing and succeeding almost as soon as he was born into the ring. It’s what has molded him into what he is today, what informs everything he does, everything he says, every promise he makes.
And now that he is the champion, that pressure is more present than ever, heavier than ever, posing one simple question: Who will you become?
As the Champion Carnival progresses, Anzai finds himself faced with a wholly different challenge than the previous year. It’s not just about winning – it’s about defending his honor as champion, proving he’s not here to be just another body in the field.
He makes a show of dispatching the visiting Lord Crewe in his second match, but the winds were set to turn eventually. In the game of generational struggle against his friend and tag team partner Ryuki Honda, he faces his first defeat of the tournament, getting caught in the whirlwind of Honda’s relentless energy. It’s a loss that stings, especially now that at least one of his future challengers has been all but confirmed to be his best friend and partner, but he carries on. When he faces his mentor Suwama, Anzai is ready to prove that he’s not that naive, starry eyed young boy anymore. Though it would be one thing to overpower Suwama, in this proving ground of a match, Anzai instead chooses to go for sentimental value, and ends up submitting his teacher with the hold that had been entrusted to him by Masanobu Fuchi in January 2024 – when Anzai had barely begun his ascent, when this was still all just the idea of a dream.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t have time to reflect on these emotions for long, as Rei Saito waits right around the corner, and he has a score to settle for his brother. For all his effort, Anzai gets a taste of overwhelming power, and another loss to his record – adding another name to his list of potential challengers in the process, once it’s all over.
Though he recovers with a win over another powerhouse in Hartley Jackson, danger still lurks around the corners of the ring, and the last match of the tournament, the one that could settle it all for Anzai, is a test of will and mind against accomplished grappler Hideki Suzuki. Against Suzuki, Anzai is confronted with everything he has yet to learn, and he ends the tournament on a loss – his third overall, meaning he is out of contention for the finals. Most likely not the outcome he had hoped for, not what he would have wanted, and he ends his second Champion Carnival with a rogues gallery of challengers ready to topple him for good.
“Cut me open and the light streams out. Stitch me up and the light keeps streaming out between the stitches.”
― Richard Siken, The Dislocated Room, Crush
First in line, of course, is the winner of the Champion Carnival, the strongest of them all, some might say, and someone who knows all too well what it’s like to be at the top, and what it takes to stay there.
Kento Miyahara, 29 may
Kento Miyahara knows well the pressure of being the guy when you’ve barely just become a man. In 2016, aged 26, he became the then-youngest Triple Crown champion in history, a record that remained untouched until Anzai came along. But by the time that happened, Miyahara had won the title an additional five times, as well as scoring multiple tag team title reigns and a bevy of tournament victories. He’s done it all, he’s won it all, and with his recent Champion Carnival win – the second in his career – he’s ready to take back what is, to him, his rightful place upon the throne.
But Yuma Anzai has arrived, and he won’t let go of the crown so easily. The match is a heated affair, with Miyahara punishing the young champion, eagerly reminding both his opponent and the crowd of exactly who he is, and what he is about. It’s not a pretty fight, not with so much on the line.
Even though he is the ace, and even though the crowd chants his name, Miyahara isn’t afraid to play the game a little rough if he has to. If he feels like there’s something he wants, something he deserves, he will take it, anyone who stands in his way be damned. He’s got the experience for this, these championship matches are his specialty, his area of expertise. He’s known adversaries that were so much scarier, so much bigger, so much stronger, than this young upstart who dares to sit on his throne. He treats Anzai like he needs to learn what pain is, what bitter defeat tastes like.
Anzai in turn, refuses to let himself be talked down to.
Miyahara might be the best of the best, for now, but he won’t be here forever. It’s time to step aside, to let a new generation take the lead for now. Through the adversity, it begins to feel like Anzai, more than trying to upstage the Best of the Best, is trying to show Miyahara that the Triple Crown is in good hands with him. He pulls no punches, even if it might mean cutting his hand on mirror shards.
Knees and suplexes are exchanged, the present and the future collide, images of what was, what is, and what one day will be all flashing before the audience’s eyes as the two do battle for their respective generations. Miyahara knows he has the crowd, knows they love him and always will, because he has been the chosen one for so long. Or at least he thinks, but the tides are always bound to turn sooner or later. Anzai fights out of the scarily effective Shutdown German suplex, and when he uses it on Miyahara in turn, the look on the latter’s face speaks a thousand words.
Even as he keeps fighting, he understands.
Yuma Anzai is telling his opponent, and everyone else watching, that he is not here to be a placeholder for anyone. He takes pride in who he is, in what he has accomplished, looks anyone who has dared call him a fluke in the eye and demonstrates that he can go the distance.
In the end, Miyahara falls to the Gimlet, still at full strength, and the young champion stands tall, confirming the arrival of a new era.
Immediately following his title defense over Miyahara, Anzai finds himself at the center of the formation of a brand new unit to shake up the landscape of All Japan Pro Wrestling. After his show closing statement, he is joined by his partner Ryuki Honda, of course, but also by then World Junior Heavyweight Champion Rising HAYATO, and promising recent All Japan signee Ren Ayabe – who had joined the company on the very same show where Anzai won the Triple Crown, and then made a big statement by defeating Miyahara on the opening night of the Champion Carnival.
A few weeks later, the unit would reveal its name – ELPIDA.
From the Ancient Greek “Elpidios” (Ἐλπίδιος), meaning “one who is hopeful”, the name also references the lesser Greek deity Elpis, daughter of Nyx. The spirit of hope, Elpis is also, according to some myths, the mother of Pheme, the personification of fame and renown, who offers notability to those who earn her favor.
The statement made here by the four young men could not be clearer.
Hope can be a nebulous concept, yet it is one that we all find ourselves turning to in our moment of need. It is a driving force that keeps us going, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity. It had become something of a theme for Yuma Anzai even before the formation of his unit, and as his title reign progressed, he kept his promise to carry and keep the hope alive for All Japan after the long, cold winter the company had just experienced.
It is with that hope, for himself, his peers, and his audience, that Yuma Anzai carries on through the summer with the Triple Crown belt on his shoulder.
hideki suzuki, 24 june
The challengers line up, each of them different, each of them a new obstacle for Anzai to overcome, a new lesson to learn.
Hideki Suzuki’s pragmatic approach nearly gets the better of him. As a tried and true student of the game, the unflappable grappler challenges the young champion’s explosive energy with his cerebral, methodical version of pro wrestling, twisting his way into Anzai’s head and nearly breaking through his confidence. He invokes the teachings of his master, the legendary Billy Robinson, breaks Anzai down bit by bit, refuses to let Anzai use his power against him.
Suzuki, after Anzai’s title win, had said that no matter how it is obtained, a victory cannot be denied – the winner is simply the strongest man. He does not see the young champion as a fluke, does not want to diminish the strength it took to accomplish what he did. But there’s still a world between the two of them, and Suzuki intends to show Anzai just how vast it is.
Through his own methods, Suzuki forces Anzai to understand that he cannot always rely on that, that he has to use his head, as well as his heart, if he wants to come out on top. He plays with Anzai, twists the narrative to make him come face to face with his own shortcomings.
There’s a fire, almost an anger, bubbling right beneath the surface, that threatens to erupt and take everything with it – himself included – whenever Anzai feels like someone is looking down on him because of his youth and inexperience. If he can learn to channel it, then he’ll be unstoppable. But against a fighter as shrewd and level-headed as Hideki Suzuki, it nearly becomes his undoing, Suzuki catching Anzai at every turn when the young champion tries to show off his superior strength, taking advantage of Anzai’s desperation to prove himself, and the ensuing recklessness.
And although Anzai falters, although he struggles to go hold for hold with the specialist, he remembers the frustration of the Champion Carnival loss, and soon Suzuki eventually finds himself at the mercy of a more powerful force than his own mind games: a pure, and as of yet unbreakable spirit. He may not have all the experience required yet to beat a master strategist at his own game, but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t cut through the fog and force Suzuki to fight him on his own terms, to play another kind of game that Anzai knows he will win.
This, perhaps more than anything else, is what makes Yuma Anzai a supernova. The sometimes foolish bravery and recklessness with which he throws himself into every move, the fire burning everything in its path until the oxygen runs out, saying without needing any words, “Look at me, and only me. Look at me and believe that I can do this, that I can keep this promise, that I will give you everything, even if, in the end, there is nothing left of me.” It’s better to burn bright even if you burn out, than to never create any light at all.
It doesn’t matter who shows up next. Yuma Anzai will welcome them to his kingdom, and he will show them exactly why what he did on that fateful night in the heart of Spring was not just a stroke of luck.
suwama, 13 july
In the sweltering summer heat, the young prince continues his ascent.
There, standing in his path, he finds a familiar face.
Suwama is no stranger to the Triple Crown, quite the contrary. The 8-time champion is a record holder, a symbol of modern All Japan, and the one who found Yuma Anzai, brought him into this world. If he has to be the one to take him out, bring him down a peg or two, then so be it. It must not have been easy for Suwama, to lose in the Champion Carnival, to feel himself fade out under the shadow of the phenomenon he created.
He may not be in the prime of his life or career anymore, but there’s still a whole lot of fight in him, and Anzai feels true power when Suwama drops him, keeps dropping him, over and over again, with his signature backdrop – a move that Anzai would later adopt for himself – making Anzai realize that if pure strength can’t always be everything you need to win, it certainly always brings you closer to victory than most other assets.
So, Suwama simply brutalizes Anzai, intent on showing him exactly how wide the gap between them still is, how things would not go his way a second time, that there is still much to be learned and much respect to be earned. But in between the lines, looking at the match through the eyes of Suwama himself, it was a final lesson, almost a passing of the torch, saying, if you can survive this, you’ll survive anything. You’ll find your way by yourself, without needing me or anyone else to show you the way.
True to his reputation as a prodigious student, Anzai listens, and he learns. He learns that if you fall twice, you get back three times, or more, however many times you need until it’s your opponent who, in turn, cannot stand up anymore. He learns that sometimes you need to kill your idols to truly honor them, to prove that the trust they put in you, the hope they engraved, wasn’t wasted.
If Anzai had submitted Suwama to win their Champion Carnival bout, here it’s clear that the young champion wants to show his strength, wants to prove himself to his teacher, to step out of that shadow. Maybe Nakajima’s words still ring in his ears, maybe he still feels inadequate, like he’s just a placeholder, or a fluke, but Anzai wants to dispel it all, free himself from the pressure, not once and for all, not yet, but for long enough to be able to say he overcame such a symbolic hurdle. He wants to show that he can carry himself as a champion who will overcome the past, all the expectations that have weighed on him, because there is nothing else to do but move forward.
So he fights through Suwama’s barrage of attacks, survives the backdrop, and finally, through sweat and tears, hoists his mentor up and puts him down with the Gimlet, using all of his might to pull off the victory, clean, on his own strength alone.
Soon enough, that strength would be tested again – along with Anzai’s heart.
ryuki honda, 20 july
If many wrestling rivalries are built upon animosity and resentment, there are those too that are born out of mutual love, and respect, and a desire to grow together even if it means destroying each other in the process. All the better to build each other back up, better, stronger.
Yuma Anzai and Ryuki Honda’s friendship was forged in fire, and they stoke the flames everytime they meet. Last time, in the Champion Carnival, Honda found the way to victory, and thus, the way to a title challenge.
Sometimes, you learn from those who have been here before you, and sometimes it is the ones who you grow alongside that have the most to teach you.
The two have known each other since the before times, competing in the same amateur tournaments before entering the world of professional wrestling. Competitive spirit runs through every fiber of their battle-hardened bodies, and they both have a lot riding on this match, the youngest on average in the history of the Triple Crown Championship.
Though Honda might not be able to match Anzai’s statuesque height, he makes up for it in raw strength, overpowering Anzai on multiple occasions, challenging his partner to dig deep and find the will to give back as good as he gets. They exchange German suplexes like they’re running drills, like they’re testing each other’s limits, seeing how far they can take this until one of them just cannot stand back up again. But they trust each other to do so, every time.
When the tide seemingly turns, and the crowd starts cheering for Honda over him, Anzai springs awake again. This is his crowd, these are his people, and he’ll be damned if he lets another take his place in their hearts – even that other happens to be his best friend.
But then, at the halfway point of the match, Anzai learns the hard way that all’s fair in love and war, when Honda fakes an injury to catch him by surprise and nearly steal his crown. Although they may be the same age, belong to the same generation, Honda has a leg up on Anzai in terms of experience and he intends to use every trick, even the dirty ones, to get under his partner’s skin and take the championship for himself.
Anzai takes the tricks and the scheming in stride and powers through, shows that even though it hurts, even though this is taking an emotional toll on him, he will do what it takes, what he has to do, to keep what’s his, to keep on fulfilling his promise. Perhaps there’s a part of him that knows one day, somewhere down the line, they will meet again in these same circumstances, and he will not be enough. But for now, he cannot afford to not be enough.
There’s a lot of pride in Ryuki Honda – he’s a former World Tag Team champion, an Oudou Tournament finalist, and even got his first chance at the Triple Crown months before Anzai debuted – and though it might be a primary motivator, it also ends up being his undoing. He postures, gloats, even antagonizes referee Kyohei Wada, and all the while, Anzai, instead of letting himself be dominated by emotion, keeps his single-minded focus. He has his own pride, the one conferred to him by the title he carries on his shoulder, by the promise he made, by the hopeful looks and cheers of the people still rooting for him. When he struggles to get Honda up for the Gimlet, and gets himself almost caught again by a flurry of strikes, Anzai has to resort to headbutting Honda, knocking the importance of this bout into his friend once and for all, before putting him down with the finisher he’s seemingly staked his entire reign on.
But if this was war, there’s still love to honor. After the match, Anzai makes sure to thank Honda for a match well fought, for the fun they had today. The crowd, following the leader, echoes this sentiment.
With this crowd behind him, hanging onto his every word and trusting him with their hopes, Anzai has proven capable of miracles. However, it’s a wholly different story when he finds himself in a place where the crowd have their own hero to root for, born and raised to carry their own dreams forward.
rei saito, 3 august
Rei Saito is nothing like the rest, and after defeating Anzai in the Champion Carnival, he’s looking to avenge his brother once and for all.
In front of the Saitos’ hometown crowd, facing the veritable mountain of a man that is Rei, who already got the better of him once this year, Yuma Anzai knows there is no time for second thoughts, and no place for failure. He knows he is at a natural disadvantage. Rei is home, in front of a crowd whose voices are drowning out the few still daring to root and chant for Anzai. Rei is bigger, more powerful, and the tactics and techniques Anzai has used before won’t do here. Though his heart and his resolve remain steady, he’s exhausted by the journey already behind him, the grueling schedule of defenses, the lessons he’s had to learn.
Here, he is David, and Goliath has no mercy.
Rei throws him around like it’s nothing, takes the time to play to the crowd, uses every bit of his physical advantage to make an example out of the young champion. Everything Anzai throws at him, Rei can throw it back with twice the force, twice the impact, and for a time, the mountain seems impossible to climb.
Anzai tries to find a way out. If he can’t use his strength, if he’s going to be overpowered at every turn, then he’ll have to rely on speed, catch Rei by surprise. It almost works, and he gets close a few times, just close enough to hold onto hope. He just needs to keep his foot on the gas, even if the tank is nearly empty.
Unfortunately, he learns that not everything can come easy to him. Everytime he seems to have Rei where he wants him, the hometown hero gets back up and gets him back,
For a long moment, Anzai lies motionless in the center of the ring, body covering the All Japan logo, his mind no doubt racing with thoughts of what it would mean if things were to end here and now. And the answer is simple: they can’t. So, he powers through, fights through the pain and the exhaustion, gets back up.
He tries another approach yet again, locking Rei in the hold that had gotten him a victory over his own mentor, but it’s not enough, and soon his pride takes over and despite the pain, despite the exhaustion, he chooses to once again try to go to his main weapon, the Gimlet, to try and end his torment. But before he can even attempt the move, Anzai has to throw himself into the deep end, launching a series of frantic, reckless headbutts at Rei in the hopes of getting him tired enough, dizzy enough, that he couldn’t fight back. It’s only nearly enough.
What seemed like a confident declaration of his determination and power from Anzai when it debuted against Jun Saito becomes a herculean effort against Rei, to the point that Anzai has to escape a narrow predicament and use the turnbuckle to help himself actually lift Rei up. But, not to be deterred from his goal, always keeping his vow close to his heart, Anzai does it, because it’s what he has to do. It’s what he promised he would do, shoulder all the hopes and dreams for the future, and keep going further.
“I said to the Sun, “Tell me about the Big Bang”. The Sun said, “It hurts to become.”
Andrea Gibson, I Sing The Body Electric, Especially When My Power Is Out
The story of Yuma Anzai and the Triple Crown, at its core, would end up being one of survival and self-sacrifice. He was going to fulfill his promise; for as long as he could, even if it cost him everything, even if he had to break himself down to achieve it.
Stubbornly, Anzai keeps on using the move he prepared just for this as his last weapon, even as his body gives out and gives up on him, because the promise that he has made is all that he can see.
yuma aoyagi, 17 august
On August 17th, 2024, Yuma Anzai marched towards destiny.
Today, he’s staring directly into the unknown, going into his sixth defense attempt against former champion Yuma Aoyagi.
Aoyagi is conditioned for this, he’s been down this championship road before, and as his motto so proudly claims, “victory loves preparation”. He’s had time, since his title loss to Nakajima, to regroup and rethink his place in the pecking order. He’s watched as Anzai set on his own path, knowing that eventually his turn would come again. In some twisted way, that included a brief yet heated feud with Kuroshio Tokyo Japan (of all people) and a failed attempt at at least regaining the World Tag Team Championships, Yuma Aoyagi has spent this time being the hero of his own story. He earned this match by defeating Anzai’s unit mate, Ren Ayabe, and Aoyagi is here to prove that he’s not going to let himself fall in the in-between of generations.
By this point, Anzai has been through the gauntlet, and it’s showing. This is a first time singles match, and it’s clear that the champion is taking Aoyagi very seriously as a threat to his reign. He doesn’t know what to expect, only that Aoyagi will not hesitate to take advantage of that fact.
So with nothing left to do but fight, Anzai throws everything he can at Aoyagi. He grows reckless with his own body, despite knowing that it will only carry him so far now, after everything he has been through. Because he knows he has no time to waste, that Aoyagi is in better condition, that it will only take one slip up for everything to be over.
That it could end just as easily and quickly as it began.
Aoyagi takes any chance to target Anzai’s already weakened legs, to literally cut him off at the knees, knowing how dangerous the Gimlet is. As a counter, all Anzai can do is lay all his remaining strength in every strike, every blow, every dropkick and every suplex, hoping that it will be enough. But he can’t escape Aoyagi’s well oiled strategy. There’s too much distance to close and though he tries his hardest, he knows his legs won’t carry him that far. Not today. Anzai fights back valiantly, even mounting one last, desperate counterattack after escaping Aoyagi’s Rockstar Buster twice, using the Backdrop, and the Jumping Knee, anything he can think of, anything his body can still pull off. But, well scouted as ever, Aoyagi keeps escaping every Gimlet attempt, wearing and tearing the champion down until finally, Anzai reaches the end of the road.
And in the end, it’s not so much Anzai’s failure as it is Aoyagi’s victory. Anzai puts everything he has into the match, but he is weary and worn down, five months of going full throttle and refusing to give up an inch finally catching up to him. The Champion Carnival, the title defenses, the weight of responsibility. He falls not because of an inherent weakness, but because everyone must, eventually, to build themselves back up again.
If he politely refuses to shake Aoyagi’s hand as the new champion offers it, it’s not because he is bitter, or angry. Rather, Anzai would explain that he simply didn’t feel himself worthy yet, that he still had a lot of work to do. And while he may be right, and there are still many years in the ring stretching ahead of him, the work he accomplished throughout these five months as the Triple Crown champion cannot be diminished.
Yuma Anzai may have seemed, at first, like he stumbled into greatness the same way we are all born into this world, unprepared and unlearned, but he grew into it as naturally as embers turn into a flame. Maybe he doesn’t know everything yet, there’s still lessons to be learned, challenges to overcome, and there will be many occasions to measure himself up to those who can still help him grow.
It’s a tall task to be the one to stand up for a whole company, for a whole audience, for an idea and a dream of a future where nothing is guaranteed. Though anyone would agree that Yuma Anzai was destined for great things from the start, it’s probably not too far fetched to say that no one would have predicted him throwing himself into the inferno so early, and emerging forged into a wrestler, and a person, worthy of carrying the weight of hope on his shoulders. Though many may have dismissed him, or wanted to write him off, though his own peers may have underestimated him at times, he found the grace and the determination within himself to carry on.
He might not be at the top anymore, for now, but as we all must, Yuma Anzai continues on his way.
Even though he loses to unit mate Ren Ayabe in the first round of the Royal Road tournament, he strengthens his bonds with ELPIDA, particularly with Rising HAYATO, who has his own path to trace. The two form a tag team and soon capture the All Asia Tag Team titles – proving the strength of their bond not just through their chemistry in the ring, but also by handcuffing themselves together at the press conference.
After winning this, only the second championship of his career, Anzai also finds himself targeted by another contemporary in Ryo Inoue, who challenges Anzai’s legitimacy. Anzai in turn keeps pushing back, staking his pride on every fight, keeping his vow close to his chest even as Inoue grows more and more devious. The story continues, as it always does, as it always will.
There will surely be a reunion between Yuma Anzai and the Triple Crown, sometime in the future, as he keeps carving a path for himself and continues to become the man he was always destined to be. He and his career might still be young, and there might be so many many battles to fight still, but the way he fought through the circumstances to fulfill his promise will be remembered as his mission statement, as the one thing that defined his character for years to come.
There is still much to prove, and much to learn, and as Yuma Anzai takes his next step forward, spearheading a new generation, there will be many things hanging over his head, questions of power and worthiness, of what it takes to climb back up the mountain. But there’s nothing to fear anymore. The future has already begun.
Images from @alljapan_pw unless stated otherwise.