On Sunday, NOAH returned to Korakuen Hall with a major rematch from this year’s New Year event.
GHC Heavyweight Champion OZAWA defended his title against former champion Kaito Kiyomiya with the stipulation that Kiyomiya would have to join Team 2000X, if he lost.
OZAWA won the title from Kiyomiya on January 1 and prevailed in the rematch, which was highlighted by a super aggressive version of Kiyomiya and a terrific atmosphere in the arena.
Kiyomiya played the aggressor with brutal strikes, leading the audience to chant his name. They fought into the stands after Kiyomiya dropkicked OZAWA over the guardrail.
Kiyomiya hit the first of many shining lancers (shining wizard), which OZAWA kicked out of but the second attempt at the maneuver missed the target and took out the referee.
OZAWA turned the tables and hit his shining lancer, but Kiyomiya popped up smiling and ate OZAWA’s strikes with a grin on his face. This was some of Kiyomiya’s best character work, and the audience enjoyed it.
Kiyomiya hit multiple shining lancers while the referee was down. Yoshitatsu entered with a chair and he was taken out by a shining lancer.
Kiyomiya grabbed the seat of a chair but refrained from striking OZAWA and climbed to the top when he was knocked off balance. OZAWA hit a one-man Spanish Fly and stole Kiyomiya’s new move, the Sky Walk Elbow drop for a two-count.
OZAWA climbed to the top and hit the Real Rebel and pinned Kiyomiya.
The atmosphere was tremendous, and both men felt like big stars in front of this audience as the two franchises of NOAH with the beginnings of a long-term rivalry.
Earlier in the show, Tetsuya Endo left Team 2000X to form a team with Takashi Sugiura. Endo appeared during the post-match to challenge OZAWA, and OZAWA countered by proposing a Survival Three-Way match along with Sugiura for a future date.
OZAWA gave the show-closing speech and has the charisma that few in the industry possess right now, and has been a major bright spot for NOAH this year.
RESULTS:
*GHC Heavyweight Championship: OZAWA © over Kaito Kiyomiya
*GHC Jr. Heavyweight Championship: YO-HEY © over Tadasuke
*KENTA, Kenoh & Ulka Sasaki over Manabu Soya, Daiki Inaba & Saxon Huxley
*Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf over AMAKUSA & Junta Miyawaki, Eita & Super Crazy & HAYATA & Yuto Kikuchi
*Naomichi Marufuji, Masa Kitamiya & Takashi Sugiura over Tetsuya Endo, Daga & Owadasan
*Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara over Alejandro & Kai Fujimura
*Shuhei Taniguchi & Muhammad Yone over Shuji Kondo & Daiki Odashima
