Pro Wrestling NOAH kicked off the annual N-1 VICTORY Tournament today, the promotion’s annual Heavyweight single tournament, which is in a round-robin format with 2 blocks.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in English. The live broadcast was English only due to being an ABEMA exclusive broadcast in Japan-that version will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE shortly if it’s not already.
The announced paid attendance was 1548, a legit advance sellout. Some standing room only tickets were sold today.
All matches were N-1 VICTORY matches with one exception.
Match 1: Block A: Daga beat Tetsuya Endo.
Match 2: Block B: Jack Morris beat Daiki Inaba.
Match 3: Block B: Galeno beat Harutoki.
Match 4: Block A: Masa Kitamiya beat Manabu Soya by submission.
Match 5: Block B: Ricky Knight Jr. beat Kenoh. Obligatory first day UPSET ALERT!!!
Match 6: Block A: Kazuyuki Fujita beat Ulka Sasaki.
Match 7: Block B: Naomichi Marufuji beat OZAWA by countout.
Match 8: Hiromu Takahashi (New Japan) beat GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion YO-HEY to win the title. Takahashi becomes the 59th GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion.
Main Event: Block A: Kaito Kiyomiya beat KENTA.
The next event is Wednesday at Okayama Convention Center 1st Floor Event Hall in Okayama. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.
UPDATE: Injury Report-OZAWA was injured in his loss to Marufuji. Left foot, later diagnosed as a Lisfranc injury. Out indefinitely but will miss the rest of the tournament. All remaining matches will be forfeits.
The first challenger for Takahashi will be Eita. That match will happen on 10/11 at Ryogoku Kokugikan.