Pro Wrestling NOAH closed out its year with two title changes on Friday’s card.
In front of 320 fans at Shinjuku Face, AMAKUSA ended the brief title reign of Dante Leon to become the new GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion.
It was the sixth title change of the year for the junior heavyweight championship and ends Leon’s run with the title that began last month.
Amakusa, 37, is the former “Haoh”, who lost the rights to his name earlier this year when he was defeated by Nioh. The seventeen-year veteran has wrestled for DDT, Kaientai Dojo, Michinoku Pro, and Big Japan prior to joining NOAH three years ago.
After the match, Junta Miyawaki returned and issued a challenge to the new champion. The match is set to take place on January 1st at Nippon Budokan.
JUNTA MIYAWAKI IS BACK! And he’s challenged NEW GHC JR HVT Champion @AMAKUSAAMAKUSA! @noah_junta: “I'm Miyawaki, and I just returned from Mexico. I'm here to win that belt!”#noah_ghc #NInnovation #wrestleUNIVERSE pic.twitter.com/qOPdeZp0aD
— Pro Wrestling NOAH Global (@noahglobal) December 23, 2022
The other title change saw YO-HEY & Kzy become the new GHC junior heavyweight tag champions by beating Atsushi Kotoge & Seiki Yoshioka after Kzy pinned Kotoge with KZ Time.
The Stinger duo of Kotoge & Yoshioka held the titles for exactly one month and was Kotoge’s 11th reign as a junior heavyweight tag champion.
YO-HEY previously held the titles with partners HAYATA and Kotoge. It is Kzy’s first time holding the belts.
A challenge for the junior heavyweight titles was issued by Eita, who will team with Yoshinari Ogawa.
.@Eita_Luchador came out to challenge the NEW champions!
His partner will be YOSHINARI OGAWA! #noah_ghc #NInnovation #wrestleUNIVERSE #DRAGONGATE #noah_ghc #NInnovation #wrestleUNIVERSEpic.twitter.com/iGqQdCqC1Z
— Pro Wrestling NOAH Global (@noahglobal) December 23, 2022
NOAH will kick off the new year on January 1st with one of its biggest shows in years at Nippon Budokan with Shinsuke Nakamura taking on The Great Muta, Kaito Kiyomiya defending the GHC heavyweight title against Kenou, and the reunion of KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji as they challenge for the GHC tag team titles. The event will stream on Wrestle Universe on January 1st at 4 a.m. ET.
Here are the results from Friday’s show at Shinjuku Face (Courtesy: Purolove.com):
*GHC Jr. Heavyweight Championship: AMAKUSA over Dante Leon (champion) in 23:37
*GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championships: Kzy & YO-HEY over Atsushi Kotoge & Seiki Yoshioka (champions) in 27:53
*Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Eita ended in a no-contest in 18:28
*Yasutaka Yano over NOSAWA Rongai in 13:41
*Ninja Mack, Alejandro & Kai Fujimura over Shuji Kondo, Tadasuke & Hajime Ohara in 11:53
*Shoki Kitamura over Hi69 in 9:22
