Pro Wrestling NOAH continued the never-ending STAR NAVIGATION 2023 Tour today, an event that abruptly took on a different tone last week when top Jr. Heavyweight Daisuke Harada announced he was being forced to retire due to a neck injury suffered last year. He returned today for a quick exhibition match before retiring.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese and English. The live broadcast was English only as it was an ABEMA exclusive broadcast in Japan.
The announced paid attendance was 1310. The promotion didn’t say this but based on recent capacity numbers for Korakuen events this may have been a legit sellout. If not it likely was close.
Match 1: Shuji Kondo, Tadasuke & Hajime Ohara beat Konya Okada, Yasutaka Yano & Taisho Ozawa. Tadasuke pinned Ozawa after Jidanda Lariat to the back of the head.
Match 2: Super Crazy, Extreme Tiger & Lancelot beat YO-HEY, Seiki Yoshioka & Alejandro. Lancelot pinned Yoshioka after Lancelot Fly.
Match 3: Daisuke Harada Retirement Match: In an Exhibition Match, Daisuke Harada vs. Atsushi Kotoge went to a 1 minute time limit draw.
Match 4: Takashi Sugiura, Kazuyuki Fujita & Hideki Suzuki beat Naomichi Marufuji, Masaaki Mochizuki & Shuhei Taniguchi by ref stoppage. Sugiura beat Taniguchi with a front neck lock.
Match 5: Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Manabu Soya beat Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba & Yoshiki Inamura. Soya pinned Inaba after a jumping DDT.
Match 6: Eita beat HAYATA by DQ. Belt use.
Match 7: Chris Ridgeway beat Yoshinari Ogawa by submission.
Match 8: Jake Lee & Anthony Greene beat Kaito Kiyomiya & Atsushi Kotoge. Lee pinned Kotoge after a skewered front high kick.
Main Event: GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion AMAKUSA beat Hi69 to retain the title. V2 for AMAKUSA.
The next event is Tuesday at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama, continuing the also-never-ending SUNNY VOYAGE 2023 Tour. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 2 AM PT/5 AM ET (for those in the US, remember the spring time change happens this Sunday so we go forward 1 hour).
