Pro Wrestling NOAH continues the never-ending STAR NAVIGATION 2024 Tour today with a rare weekday matinee, which actually makes for very convenient live viewing for US fans as a result. In addition to serving as build for the upcoming Victory Challenge Tag League, there are 2 title matches headlining the event. First, since GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Jack Morris & Anthony Greene won’t be defending the titles for a while (until after the tag league), Greene decided to challenge Morris for the GHC National Championship in the meantime so the champs will face off for the “Red belt”. After that, their factionmates, YO-HEY & Tadasuke, will defend the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in the main event against the odd couple pairing of HAYATA & Eita, who are unpredictable together to sya the least given their history.
Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in English only. This is yet another ABEMA exclusive broadcast that is otherwise available only in Japan so their commentary and some audio will be muted and some parts of video may be edited out (that version will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese shortly after the event). This may be changing soon as WRESTLE UNIVERSE announced a major overhaul in its service to take effect in one month, including more like Korakuen broadcasts and much more. There will be a price increase though, it’s going from 900 Japanese yen/month to 1298 yen/month (from about $6 US to around $8.75) It’s hard to predict how long this event will go but I imagine WRESTLE UNIVERSE won’t want it to go too long to avoid having to broadcast THREE events live at the same time, but with 2 title matches among 8 total I’m guessing it’ll go in the range of 3 hours.
Late add: You can also watch the first 2 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.
Today’s lineup:
Hi69 vs. Alejandro
Daga & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Hajime Ohara & Super Crazy
Ninja Mack vs. Junta Miyawaki
Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba, Takashi Sugiura & Ulka Sasaki vs. Go Shiozaki, Atsushi Kotoge, Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf
Kenoh, Yu Owada, Kaito Kiyomiya & Ryohei Oiwa vs. Manabu Soya, Shuji Kondo, Saxon Huxley & Timothy Thatcher
Naomichi Marufuji & Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Jake Lee & LJ Cleary
GHC National Champion Jack Morris vs. Anthony Greene for the title
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions YO-HEY & Tadasuke vs. HAYATA & Eita for the titles
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 6:15 PM PT/9:15 PM ET. The event is scheduled to begin at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET.
6:15 PM PT UPDATE: The live stream ha started. We should be going to the venue in a few minutes.
6:30 PM PT UPDATE: Gonna be joining later than scheduled. Guess we gotta wait for all that ABEMA exclusive stuff to finish up.
6:35 PM PT UPDATE: Reload and we seem to be good, so live updates begin now…
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Your hosts are Stewart (BANG!) Fulton & Mark Pickering. For some matches, they will be joined by ring announcer G-Man (he of the undoubtedly plastic chin).
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. Haven’t gotten a good look at the crowd or setup yet but looks and sounds like a decent crowd so far, hopefully at least 1000. (It’s not quite the full capacity setup and not a sellout but it looks like it’s going to be over 1000 and maybe over 1100) (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1115)
Match 1: Hi69 vs. Alejandro. 15 minute time limit
Result: Alejandro beat Hi69
Match 2: Daga & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Hajime Ohara & Super Crazy. 20 minute time limit
Result: Daga & Yoshinari Ogawa beat Hajime Ohara & Super Crazy. Daga pinned Ohara after Diablo Wings.
The YouTube broadcast ends here.
Match 3: Ninja Mack vs. Junta Miyawaki. 20 minute time limit
Result: Ninja Mack beat Junta Miyawaki. Mack may have suffered a left knee or upper leg injury during the match.
Match 4: Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba, Takashi Sugiura & Ulka Sasaki vs. Go Shiozaki, Atsushi Kotoge, Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf. 30 minute time limit
Result: Go Shiozaki, Atsushi Kotoge, Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf beat Masa Kiramiya, Daiki Inaba, Takashi Sugiura & Ulka Sasaki. Kotoge pinned Inaba after Kill Switch.
Match 5: Kenoh, Yu Owada, Kaito Kiyomiya & Ryohei Oiwa vs. Manabu Soya, Shuji Kondo, Saxon Huxley & Timothy Thatcher. 30 minute time limit
Result: Manabu Soya, Shuji Kondo, Saxon Huxley & Timothy Thatcher beat Kenoh, Yu Owada, Kaito Kiromiya & Ryohei Oiwa. Soya pinned Owada after Ballistic. Afterwards, the participants from Match 4 return to the ring with microphone for tag league promos.
Match 6: Naomichi Marufuji & Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Jake Lee & LJ Cleary. 30 minute time limit
Result: Naomichi Marufuji & Kazuyuki Fujita beat Jake Lee & LJ Cleary. Marufuji pinned Cleary after a Spanish Fly.
Match 7: GHC National Champion Jack Morris vs. Anthony Greene for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: GHC National Champion Jack Morris beat Anthony Greene to retain the title. V3 for Morris.
Main Event: GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions YO-HEY & Tadasuke vs. HAYATA & Eita for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Result: GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions YO-HEY & Tadasuke beat HAYATA & Eita to retain the titles. Tadasuke pinned Eita after a piledriver. V3 for the champs. Afterwards, Tadasuke with microphone. He challenged Daga for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship. Daga responded in English & Spanish…accepted. With a catch: Daga & Yoshinari Ogawa get a shot at the Tag Team Titles. More to come on all this later today. After this, YO-HEY encouraged Tadasuke to sing, which led to some comedy karaoke to send the crowd home happy.
The next event is tomorrow at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama for the start of the Victory Challenge Tag League. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 11:30 PM PT/2:30 AM ET.
UPDATE: Eita was injured during the main event. Sprained left knee. Out indefinitely. Also, Daga-Tadasuke for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship will happen on 3/2 at GREAT VOYAGE 2024 in NAGOYA and Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. participation has been announced for 3/17.
