Zeus leaving AJPW, will serve as President of Osaka Pro Wrestling

Former Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Zeus is leaving All Japan Pro Wrestling to serve as President of Osaka Pro

Photo Courtesy: AJPW

Zeus will serve as co-President of Osaka Pro Wrestling.

In 2014, Zeus made his debut for All Japan Pro Wrestling. Since that time, he has gone on to capture the Triple Crown Heavyweight, World Tag Team and All Asia Tag Titles along with winning the Champion Carnival tournament in 2020. Zeus will be departing All Japan after seven years to serve as co-President of Osaka Pro Wrestling.

His contract with All Japan expires on December 31st of this year and Zeus will begin his new position on January 1st, 2022. Fellow co-President Takeki Fukuda and Director Toshiki Toeda are behind this rebranding of Osaka Pro as well. They are aiming for a launch next Spring under the new regime. Osaka Pro last ran a show in July and prior to that was February 2020.

Zeus acquired 100 percent of the Osaka Pro shares in August. During a press conference (via Yahoo! Japan), he expressed that he’s always had love for Osaka Pro and wanted to regenerate it. It was around May that Zeus began to chat with All Japan officials about the idea of running Osaka Pro.

Zeus began his wrestling career in 2006 with Osaka Pro. He wants to establish a working relationship with All Japan and had the following to say on the matter:

I am grateful to All Japan Wrestling. Thank you for understanding my thoughts and making me feel comfortable during this difficult time. I think I was able to fight [during] the best times of All Japan Wrestling. We are talking about building friendly relations with All Japan Wrestling and working, so if we have the opportunity to continue, we will stand in the ring of All Japan Wrestling. I made it clear.

Zeus made it to the second round of this year’s Royal Road tournament and in September, he and Izanagi dropped the All Asia Tag Team Titles to El Lindaman and T-Hawk. Zeus’ most recent match was on 10/9 for All Japan.

About Andrew Thompson 9404 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.