Pro Wrestling NOAH ran this month’s N INNOVATION event today, and on paper it was a big event with 2 title matches and someone’s NOAH run ending. More potential big shifting in the Jr. Heavyweight ranks.
Today’s event was held at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE
The announced paid attendance was 360, a legit advance sellout.
There were a few late changes to the card yesterday and today before the event-first, Alejandro had to be removed from the card due to a fever. He was to have teamed with Kaito Kiyomiya to face Shuji Kondo & Hi69. Extreme Tiger was the telacement. Until…after that Daisuke Harada also had to be removed from the card. Fever. Because he was part of the champion team, it meant the Open The Triangle Gate Championship would now be VACANT. The scheduled title match was now for the vacant titles with Tiger replacing Harada, and TBA again with Kiyomiya in the first match.
Match 1: Kaito Kiyomiya & TBA, which ultimately wound up being Satoshi Kojima (who IS NOT a Jr. Heavyweight), beat Shuji Kondo & Hi69. Kojima pinned Hi69 after a Western lariat.
Match 2: Yoshinari Ogawa beat Kai Fujimura by submission. It only went 51 seconds. (Comment after watching on replay-this may have been a botched finish. Fujimura seemed to clearly have his shoulders up before the 3 count and the ref casually counted. Ogawa had caught Fujimura in a dropkick and was maybe setting up a Figure 4 but sat down for the pin. Very questionable but I think the ref blew this one)
Match 3: Seiki Yoshioka beat Yuya Susumu.
Match 4: NOSAWA Rongai, Eita & Kotaro Suzuki beat Atsushi Kotoge, YO-HEY & Extreme Tiger to win the vacant Open The Triangle Gate Championship. NOSAWA, Eita & Suzuki become the 81st Open The Triangle Gate Champions. Eita pinned YO-HEY after Imperial Uno.
Match 5: In a Loser NOAH Expulsion match, Tadasuke beat Haoh. As a result, Haoh is done with NOAH.
Main Event: GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion HAYATA beat Hajime Ohara by submission to retain the title. V2 for HAYATA. Next up: Yoshioka. That will happen on 7/16 at Nippon Budokan.
The next event is tomorrow at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 2 AM PT/5 AM ET.
UPDATE: Potential correction on the opening match-when I watched the replay, Hi69 was announced as HIROKI, which is a name he later used before becoming Nioh.
