Pro Wrestling NOAH wrapped up their 2022 schedule today with the final N INNOVATION event of the year, shining the spotlight on their Jr. Heavyweight division once more with a major event headlined by two title matches.
Today’s event was held at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.
The announced paid attendance was 320. Vocal cheering was allowed meaning this sounded like a higher number than what reduced capacity would usually be, possibly a sellout (the venue’s normal capacity is roughly 500).
Match 1: Shoki Kitamura beat Hi69 by submission.
Match 2: Ninja Mack, Alejandro & Andy Wu beat Shuji Kondo, Tadasuke & Hajime Ohara. Alejandro pinned Tadasuke after Casadora con Hero.
Match 3: Yasutaka Yano beat NOSAWA Rongai. UPSET ALERT!
Match 4: Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Eita went to a No Contest. Tadasuke & Hi69 interference.
Match 5: YO-HEY & Kzy (Dragon Gate) beat GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Atsushi Kotoge & Seiki Yoshioka to win the titles. YO-HEY & Kzy become the 54th GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Kzy pinned Kotoge after KZ Time.
Main Event: AMAKUSA beat GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion Dante Leon to win the title. AMAKUSA becomes the 52nd GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion. The former Haoh plays the ultimate revenge version of Kongo Bongo…first he got kicked out of the faction. Then he got kicked out of NOAH. Then he snuck back under a mask and a new name. Now he does what most of Kongo has not been able to do-win the Jr. Heavyweight Championship. Very fun times ahead.
And with that, Pro Wrestling NOAH’s 2022 comes to a close. It was another up & down year especially with generally poor attendance for major events despite being helped out by funding from CyberFight Corporation to keep them going, and once again they were hurt by their top stars going down with injuries for long stretches. And then it became all about Keiji Muto when he announced he will retire in February, and I believe they did become the first promotion to run the new Ariake Arena in Tokyo (built for the 2020 Summer Olympics). The start of 2023 will be all about Muto’s retirement but they also have a literally red-hot rivalry between Kenoh & Kaito Kiyomiya that shows no signs of slowing down. It’s always been a bit of a struggle for the promotion since the death of founder Mitsuharu Misawa, but they always keep him in their hearts and continue voyaging forward.
The first event of 2023 is ABEMA presents “NOAH THE NEW YEAR” 2023 on 1/1 at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. It’s an absolutely loaded blowout event with a one-last-time worldwide dream match as former New Japan superstar Shinsuke Nakamura, currently competing in WWE, returns to Japan for a special single match against Keiji Muto. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in English only will begin at 1:45 AM ET/10:45 PM PT on 12/31. This is an ABEMA-exclusive broadcast so the original Japanese broadcast will only be available on demand after the event.
