Masa Kitamiya wins NOAH’s N-1 Victory Tournament

Photo Courtesy: Pro Wrestling NOAH

Masa Kitamiya is the winner of Pro Wrestling NOAH’s N-1 Victory Tournament.

Tuesday’s final at Korakuen Hall featured Kitamiya winning his first N-1 tournament by defeating Jack Morris in the final to secure a future GHC heavyweight title match.

After minimal involvement during the N-1, Team 2000X was all over this match to aid Kitamiya. Tadasuke and Yoshitatsu were ringside for the match and frequently got involved on behalf of Kitamiya.

Morris sold for the first portion of the match but battled back on the floor with a post shot and Irish whipping Kitamiya into the guardrail. It led to Morris landing a reverse springboard crossbody over the rail onto Kitamiya as the broadcasters compared the move with the one that took out OZAWA.

Morris hit a Frog Splash in the ring and a more spectacular version to the floor, putting Kitamiya through a table.

Kitamya recovered, taunted the crowd, and used Saito suplexes before missing a senton off the top turnbuckle. Morris nearly had the match won after a Tiger Driver for a big near-fall, and then hit a shooting star press as Yoshitatsu yanked the referee out of the ring.

Morris repeatedly kicked out after chair shots to the back, a piledriver on the chair, a senton off the top, and a Saito suplex off the top.

The Gamma Stranglehold was applied and forced Morris to submit at 23:01.

It was Kitamiya’s first N-1 win after competing each year since 2016, which is the year he lost in the final to Minoru Suzuki (when it was called the Global League).

Kitamiya called out GHC champion KENTA and attacked the title holder with chair shots, setting up their championship match.  

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Born on a Friday, John Pollock is a reporter, editor & podcaster at POST Wrestling. He runs and owns POST Wrestling alongside Wai Ting.