#GHC heavyweight championship

[honestlychiefbanana]

Highlights of Gabe Kidd vs Kaito Kiyomiya NOAH Grand Ship 2024 In Yokohama

[wrestlingmgc]

GHC Heavyweight Champion Kazuyuki Fujita

[king-tyrone36]

leg·end

/ˈlejənd/

noun

plural noun: legends

1.

a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated.

"the legend of King Arthur"

Similar:

myth

saga

epic

folk tale

folk story

traditional story

tale

story

fairy tale

narrative

fable

romance

folklore

lore

mythology

fantasy

oral history

tradition

folk tradition

old wives' tales

mythos

mythus

yarn

2.

an extremely famous or notorious person, especially in a particular field.

"the man was a living legend"

Similar:

celebrity

star

superstar

icon

famous person

great

genius

phenomenon

luminary

giant

big name

celeb

megastar

[orangebapecamoprint]

[puroresu-musings]

NOAH "THE NEW YEAR" 2024 Review (Jan 2nd, 2024, Ariake Arena, Tokyo)

1, GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Title 3-Way Elimination Match - Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane (c) vs. Alejandro & Ninja Mack vs. YO-HEY & Tadasuke ***3/4

2, Jake Lee, Jack Morris & Anthony Greene vs. El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Titus Alexander & Vinnie Massaro **1/2

3, Masa Kitamiya vs. Tomohiro Ishii ****1/2+

4, Go Shiozaki vs. Satoshi Kojima ****

5, Great Sakuya & Nagisa Nozaki vs. Haruka Umesaki & Miyuki Takase **1/2

6, Takashi Sugiura vs. Ulka Sasaki ***

7, Hiroshi Tanahashi & HAYATA vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Yoshinari Ogawa ***1/2

8, GHC Jr. Heavyweight Championship - Daga (c) vs. Eita ***

9, NOAH/NJPW vs. House of Torture 12 Man Elimination Match - Kaito Kiyomiya, Shota Umino, Daiki Inaba, Shuji Kondo, Ryohei Oiwa & Junta Miyawaki vs. EVIL, Ren Narita, SHO, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi & Dick Togo ***3/4

10, GHC Heavyweight Championship - Kenoh (c) vs. Manabu Soya ****1/2

11, Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kota Ibushi *

This was my first full NOAH show I've watched in forever and it was a great watch. They pulled in a great crowd of over 5K, it had very good matches up and down the card, two fantastic bouts, but unfortunately it ended with one of the worst matches you're likely to see all year...

Things started hot with the Jr. Tag Title 3-Way. You know what to expect here; lots of crazy spots, not much in the way of traditional "psychology", and 100mph action. The crowd loved this and it was a great way to kick things off. There was confusion over the elimination nature of this one, and had it ended after after the first fall, I think I'd have liked it more, but it was a great little opener with the GLG duo of YO-HEY and Tadasuke eliminating both opponents at 8:48 and 12:24 respectively to win the straps. Things cooled down a tad with the next match, which was decent enough but just your standard 6-Man, which saw the GLG were victorious again.

The next match was something of a Dream Match for me, one that's been teased for a good couple of years now as Ishii and Kitomiya, two of my favourite guys from their respective companies, had an absolute war that is a strong MOTYC only two days in! You know what to expect here, it was tsandard Ishii big match fair, which is always tremendous. They pounded each other with chops, Lariats, headbutts, forearms punches and suplexes for 15:04, before Ishii got the win with the Vertical Drop Brainbuster. Amazing. The next match too was excellent as Go Shiozaki went over ageless veteran Satoshi Kojima, in a battle of the Go-wan Lariats! This was great, and kept relatively short at 13:56. Shiozaki won after an exchange of Lariats. Go formed a new faction called Team NOAH in the post-match.

Next up we got a couple of interesting debuts. "The Great Muta's daughter" Great Sakuya (Riko Kawahata) debuted in a doubles clash which ended in a DQ after she blew the dreaded Dokukiri in poor Umesaki's face. This was very silly, and the crowd were dead for it, but whilst it certainly wasn't great, it certainly wasn't bad either. The next match was better as former MMA fighter Ulka Sasaki battled NOAH legend Takashi Sugiura in a nice little exhibition. Sasaki looked good here, and it featured some good sequences, before Sugiura naturally won at the 11 minute mark with the Olympic Yossen Slam.

After intermission we got the ZSJ/Ogawa vs. Tana/HAYATA tag match. This was really good, as you'd expect, though at nearly 18 minutes it was a little long. They teased a lot of stuff with Zack and Tanahashi for their TV Title match at the Dome tomorrow. Sabre Jr. won for his team when he submitted HAYATA with a crazy leg stretch. The GHC Jr. Title bout was decent enough, as Daga retained over Eita in exactly 13 minutes. I expected a bit more here, and it ultimatly came off as a bit of a squash as Daga dominated the whole thing, despite the crowd really wanting Eita to win. The 6 on 6 Elimationation match was actually a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. Like everyone else, I'm at the end of my tether with this HoT stuff (and don't even get me started on Narita's inexplicably asinine inclusion in this nonsense), BUT, this match proves if done right, it can be pretty great. Obviously we got all the token House silliness like the never-ending stream of low blows, interference and incompetent refereeing, but it built really well as it boiled down to Kaito and EVIL, with Kiyomiya looking like a hero as he overcame the odds and sent EVIL to the floor with a Shining Wizard at the 26:14 mark to win for the babyfaces.

The first half of the Double Main Event; Kenoh's GHC Heavyweight Title defence against former tag partner Manabu Soya came next and it was another fantastic, hard-hitting war, and another early MOTYC. We all know Kenoh's great, and I've always been a fan of Soya since his All Japan days, but he's kind of lingered in the NOAH mid-card since arriving and gotten lost in the shuffle somewhat. Well this was a coming out party if ever there were one, both guys looked fantastic here, and I was worried someone was going to get legit KO'd at points, given how hard they were hitting each other. Kenoh missed a Moonsault knee drop by a considerable margin at the end there, but recovered well by devastating the big man with some headkicks and got the submission win at 28:36 with the Kenoh Special. Excellent, excellent match. Shiozaki came out in the post match and challenged Strong Fist to a title match, which will be happening on January 13th. Count me in as these two always have great matches together. And this is where I'd recommend everyone just turn this show off...

The Marufuji/Ibushi main event *sigh*... look I'm sure everyone already knows about this match, something that once upon a time was a dream match, but in the harsh realities of 2024, was an abject nightmare. This match was all kinds of bad, as Ibushi came into this thing banged up to oblivion and physically incapable of doing... anything, really. AND IT WENT 33:26!!! Which honestly felt like a good couple of hours watching live. Ibushi announced he was working through a broken hand and foot in the days prior, and when he made his entrance with tears streaming down his face, I feared the worst. The reality is this match shouldn't have happened, or if it did, have it go like 10 minutes maximum or something. And certainly don't have it be the main event! It was total insanity to book this to go north of 30 minutes. But even then, nobody made Ibushi try to do his signature spots in this thing. The guy couldn't even get himself up to go over the ropes on a backdrop, so what made him think attempting a Moonsault to the floor was a wise move? Well, he seemingly broke his ankle doing so, and the match only descended into more of a train wreck from there. The crowd were dead, almost like they were at a funeral, the "action" was a level lower than snail pace, and watching it was a profoundly sad experience. I never thought I'd see the day when the Keiji Muto of 2023 looked more mobile and having more business being in the ring than Kota Ibushi ever. Ibushi won with Kamigoye to put everyone out of their misery, none more so than the two guys in the match, then there was a totally bizarre post match where Kiyomiya and Jake Lee came out and seemingly banished Ibushi from NOAH. Ibushi could barely stand or walk on his way to the back, and this is a match I'll never watch again in my life. I had thought about giving this a DUD, but I couldn't be that harsh given the circumstances. Also, Marufuji did try his best out there, bless him. But the fact is Ibushi needs some time away from the ring to heal. I mean, this could be the end of his illustrious in-ring career, which is beyond heartbreaking, and he's looked a shadow of his former self since he returned to wrestling last Spring, but he wasn't even the same person out there on this show.

All in all, this was a great supershow from NOAH, marred slightly by a catastrophically bad main event, for obvious reasons. But I recommend everyone check it out up the fab Kenoh/Soya match, and just pretend the Ibushi/Maru match never happened.

NDT

[kensukeoffice]

Kensuke Sasaki at 2008 GHC Heavyweight Championship

[zedxspacess]

thinking how today is the anniversary of Glory by Honor V aka the night were Bryan v KENTA and Nigel v Marufuji happened, and even though Bryan and Nigel's feud wasn't the focus, that night plays a small part in adding to the theme of Bryan constantly outshining Nigel despite Nigel's successes.

The match most people point as the MOTN is Bryan and Kenta's, with Bryan successfully defending his world championship while suffering a shoot hurt shoulder.

Then they'd say Nigel's is a close second, with some preferring it to Bryan's. It was special in that it was the first time the GHC heavyweight belt was defended in America, Nigel was the first defense of Marufuji's reign overall, and they worked a NOAH/King's Road style match in ROH. And they absolutely tore the house down. Still in second place to Bryan for MOTN though.

Later on when Nigel is world champion, he also defended his title against Kenta while suffering torn biceps. But that isn't brought up as much as Bryan's defense.

[pwrestlingxpress]

AEW Has a Problem

Everything that I type here is all in my opinion and it's something I didn't want to discuss at first but feel like it's time to say it. AEW has a problem and that problem is CM Punk.

How did this problem start, you ask? Go back to the post-media event of "All Out 2022" where just minutes after regaining the AEW World Heavyweight Championship, CM Punk lashed out at the media instead of talking about his reaction to the return of MJF (aka Maxwell Jacob Friedman) from earlier that day.

His words caused a backstage brawl that resulted into suspensions of himself and all around him including Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, Kenny Omega, Brandon Cutler, Michael Nakazawa, etc. Also, due to that brawl, both the AEW World Heavyweight Championship and the AEW Trios Championship were vacated.

The Trios title ended up being help by PAC, Rey Fenix, and Pentagon until January 2023 while the AEW World Heavyweight Championship would be returned to Jon Moxley who regained the title and held onto it until November where he lost in what many can considered controversial fashion to Max Friedman.

Many people including myself were under the impression that a deal was reached where CM Punk would be let go by the company for his actions. Not the case as we learned that this Saturday (June 17, 2023) a new AEW show will premiere called "AEW Collision" and the show will heavily involve CM Punk.

Now...how did people react to his imminent return. Not very good. From everything I heard and read, the reaction was very negative with boos almost all over arenas and on social media. AEW tried to cover it up by finding those who'll cheer his return. It didn't work. Worse than that...the announcement of his return caused slow ticket sales so what happens next...let's announce his return match.

CM Punk, Dax Harwood, and Cash Wheeler vs. Jay White, Juice Robinson, and Samoa Joe. If you're a Jay White fan, you'd be like "yay, Jay's on AEW Collision" in an exciting way but when you read he has to face Punk in 6-man tag action you like "yay, Jay's on AEW Collision" but your excitement meter goes down.

To make matter worse for AEW, they aired a VTR of Punk last night on AEW Dynamite that got the crowd booing even more. And from the people I follow on social media, all were furious that AEW keeps on showing Punk. Some even ask "why has he not been punished yet for his actions" "why is he getting awarded when everyone got punished"

These questions I cannot answer but I can say that AEW has a problem (CM Punk). They've tried almost everything to cover up the problem and instead have made it worse. And now...I read something in which this problem AEW has with Punk is so bad, I don't know how they're going to solve it at this point. That something...an interview that apparently and/or reportedly went out of control. Read some details on it and...it's not good.

The last time I watched AEW was the week before "All Out 2022" in which I was starting to question Punk's booking at the time but was somewhat proud to see Kenny Omega back in the ring. Haven't watched AEW since then and until they release CM Punk, have no intention to watch AEW again though there'll be times I'll watch certain highlights but not a full show.

One more thing I've been reading since they've been announcing his return was a proposed match against KENTA at "Forbidden Door 2023" taking place June 25th in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. From what I read, many are thrilled about the proposed match because this could solve the one issue many have, who really owns the "GTS'. Instead, I read that Punk was "not interested". Reading that really boils me up because how in the world can you not be interested in facing a former GHC Heavyweight Champion, a 3-time GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion, a 3-time GHC Junior Tag Team Champion, a former GHC Tag Team Champion, a former Global League winner, a former IWGP United States Champion, a former NEVER Openweight Champion, and a 2-time (and reigning) Strong Openweight Champion. Why in the world do you say "not interested" to someone is regarded by many to be the best the world has to offer. Read KENTA's response to the proposed match and...it's a interesting one because he'll only do it if it requires the money provided but if Punk is saying "not interested" then why bother.

Again, AEW has a problem that they've yet to solve and based on all I've read, based on all I've heard, and based on almost everything I've said here...are not even going to attempt to solve the problem and it's a shame that this is happening. None of this would have happened if they had just fired Punk. Instead, look where we're at right now. This (AEW Collision with Punk) is going to blow up in their face.

With that...done talking about Punk here. Again, everything I just typed right here on my Pro Wrestling Express is all in my opinion. Feel free to comment on your opinion in this ongoing problem that AEW has no attempt to solve at this time.

[a2zsportsnews]

Omos Confirms WWE Return After Relinquishing GHC Tag Team Championship

Omos took the pro wrestling world by storm after winning the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Titles with Jack Morris at NOAH The New Year. He would have solid matches in NOAH since then but it appears Omos has now confirmed he will be returning to WWE after relinquishing the Tag Team Title. At Pro Wrestling NOAH’s latest event, Omos and Jack Morris kept the GHC Tag Team Championship in a match that…

[honestlychiefbanana]

Highlights of Kaito Kiyomiya vs El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. NOAH Wrestle Magic 2024

[wrestlingmgc]

PROGRESS World Champion & GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Chris Ridgeway

[thefightjournal]

NOAH - KENTA vs Yuji Nagata - GHC Heavyweight Championship match - 2013.12.7

[orangebapecamoprint]

[leaveharmony]

It took someone on the JPN side of the chat pointing out that Global Heavyweight Championship is just

....GHC

And now I cannot stop laughing

[kensukeoffice]

Kensuke Sasaki and Akitoshi Saito at 2008 GHC Heavyweight Championship

[blackbellaswan1]

got a solid 2 hours of sleep so i could watch kenoh beat jake lee for the ghc heavyweight championship

hope jake lee fans are having a horrible day💚💚💚🩷💖