GREAT VOYAGE 2023 in OSAKA, the latest in Pro Wrestling NOAH’s signature blowout event series, is in the books. Today’s loaded event featured 3 title matches and a pre-event appearance by Keiji Muto for the final time ahead of his retirement event next week.
Today’s event was held at Osaka Prefectural Gym in Osaka and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese and English. You can also watch the first 3 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.
The announced paid attendance was 2092. Apparently they had reduced capacity compared to New Japan’s event the day before (50% here) so it’s not as bad as it sounds.
Match 1: Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito beat Kinya Okada & Taishi Ozawa. Yone pinned Ozawa after Kinniku Muscle Buster.
Match 2: Chris Ridgeway & Daga beat Tadasuke & Hajime Ohara. Daga pinned Tadasuke after Magnum.
Match 3: Kazuyuki Fujita, Hideki Suzuki & Timothy Thatcher beat Masato Tanaka, Masaaki Mochizuki & Yoshiki Inamura. Suzuki pinned Inamura.
Match 4: Katsuhiko Nakajima, Masakatsu Funaki, Shuji Kondo & Hi69 beat Naomichi Marufuji, Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., AMAKUSA & Ninja Mack. Hi69 pinned AMAKUSA after Michinoku Driver (Velo).
Match 5: El Desperado (New Japan) & NOSAWA Rongai beat YO-HEY & Yasutaka Yano. Desperado pinned Yano after Pinche Loco.
Match 6: Kenoh & Manabu Soya beat Jake Lee & Anthony Greene. Soya pinned Greene after a jumping DDT.
Match 7: Dralistico beat Atsushi Kotoge.
Match 8: Masa Kitamiya & Daiki Inaba beat GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Takashi Sugiura & Satoshi Kojima to win the titles. Kitamiya & Inaba become the 63rd GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Kitamiya beat Kojima with Decapitated Prison. Next up: Kenoh & Soya. That match will happen at GREAT VOYAGE 2023 in YOKOHAMA on 3/19 at Yokohama Budokan.
Match 9: GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Yoshinari Ogawa & Eita beat Junta Miyawaki & Alejandro to retain the titles. Eita pinned Alejandro after Imperial Uno. V1 for the champs. Next up: Ridgeway & the returning HAYATA. That match will happen on 3/19.
Main Event: GHC Heavyweight Champion Kaito Kiyomiya beat Jack Morris to retain the title. V4 for Kiyomiya.
The next event is chocoZAP Presents KEIJI MUTO GRAND FINAL PRO WRESTLING LAST LOVE ~HOLD OUT~, Muto’s retirement event, on 2/21 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo. This will be a PPV ONLY broadcast on WRESTLE UNIVERSE for about $38 for non-subscribers and about $30 for subscribers. Purchase includes the live event and replays for one week. There is no word on when it may be available for all UNIVERSE subscribers if at all (for comparative purposes, as of this past Friday the January Tokyo Joshi Pro PPV is still not available at all following the one week replay period). The event will begin at 2 AM ET/11 PM PT.
