Jun Saito Defeats Davey Boy Smith Jr. At AJPW’s New Year’s Eve 2024 To Become New Triple Crown Champion

We have a new AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion!

Jun Saito defeated former WWE Superstar Davey Boy Smith Jr. at AJPW’s New Year’s Eve 2024 on December 31st to become the new All-Japan Championship Wrestling Triple Crown Champion. Despite currently being one-half of the AJPW World Tag Team Champions along with his brother Rei, this marks the first major singles title Jun Saito in his career.

Davey Boy Smith Jr. commented on his title loss at AJPW’s New Year’s Eve 2024 to Jun Saito via social media, sharing a clip from the match and thanking the All Japan Pro Wrestling fans, adding that while he did not win the match tonight, he will be back in 2025.

“It was a nice reference to Dory Funk Jr on commentary here. Who I have been studying quite a bit lately. Thanks for the All Japan fans who came and supported tonight’s New Years Eve event also. I did not win tonight, however I will be back!!! 2025 will be another great year!!!”

Davey Boy Smith Jr. had been the AJPW Triple Crown Champion since November 4th, 2024 when he won the title from Yuma Aoyagi at AJPW’s Giant Series 2024, becoming just the seventh foreigner to win the AJPW Triple Crown Champion in history.

Davey Boy Smith’s contract with All-Japan Pro Wrestling is set to expire in January of 2025.

We will keep you updated if we hear anything more about Davey Boy Smith’s wrestling future.

Want to discuss wrestling further? Join our Discord community by clicking here! 

If you enjoy Bodyslam’s content, you can help donate to the site here. You can also visit our PWTees store and buy Bodyslam official merchandise here.

You can listen to all of Bodyslam’s podcasts by following us on Spotify and subscribing to our YouTube Channel, Twitch, Apple, Google, or any of your favorite podcast platforms.

Follow me on X: @ToddHomegrown
Follow us on X: @BodyslamNet