Pro Wrestling NOAH kicked off the annual N-1 VICTORY Tournament today with an event in Yokohama.
Today’s event was held at Yokohama Budokan in Yokohama and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese and English. The live broadcast was available for free. You can also watch the first match FOR FREE on YouTube.
The announced paid attendance was 949. After better for their last major event, back to not so good on paper. (While the venue’s maximum capacity is 5000 and it probably was well below that, the setup probably was still for at least 3000)
Match 1; N-1 VICTORY Block B: Alpha Wolf beat Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr.
Match 2; N-1 VICTORY Block A: Dragon Bane beat Atsushi Kotoge.
Match 3; N-1 VICTORY Block B: Titus Alexander beat Tavion Heights (WWE).
Match 4; N-1 VICTORY Block A: Josh Briggs (WWE) beat Ryohei Oiwa.
Match 5; Shuhei Taniguchi, Hajime Ohara, Junta Miyawaki & Kai Fujimura beat Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura, Eita & Ninja Mack. Taniguchi pinned Marufuji after Tani Special. More on this at the end.
Match 6: N-1 VICTORY Block B: Ulka Sasaki beat Yoshiki Inamura by ref stoppage (technical submission).
Match 7: N-1 VICTORY Block A: Masa Kitamiya beat Jack Morris.
Match 8: AMAKUSA, HAYATA, YO-HEY & Tadasuke beat Daga, Yoshinari Ogawa, Super Crazy & Yu Owada. AMAKUSA pinned Owada after Opening of the Country.
Match 9: N-1 VICTORY Block B: Kenoh beat Manabu Soya.
Main Event: N-1 VICTORY Block A: Luis Mante (Dragon Gate) beat Kaito Kiyomiya.
Day 2 is Friday at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.
Now for the Match 5 fallout-because of this results, Taniguchi got a GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match, and his partner to challenge Marufuji & Sugiura will be Shuji Ishikawa. That match will happen on 8/12 at Culttz Kawasaki in Kanagawa and is now a late addition to the otherwise-finalized card.
