NOAH Grand Ship 9/25 English PREVIEW 4 Title Bouts & Keiji Muto Competes
By Mark Pickering
Pro Wrestling NOAH heads to Nagoya for Grand Ship 2022, one of its biggest shows of the year, on Sunday 25 September and fans around the world can watch the star-studded card live on Wrestle Universe with English commentary.
Nagoya’s Dolphins Arena (formerly Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium) will host 10 matches including four title matches and the second instalment of Keiji Muto’s headline-grabbing Retirement Road series.
The NOAH GHC Heavyweight Championship will be on the line in the main event as Kenoh makes his first title defence against N-1 VICTORY 2022 winner Kaito Kiyomiya.
Kenoh, who beat Satoshi Kojima at the Nippon Budokan in July to capture the sport’s most prized Championship for a second time, finished third in the N-1 VICTORY A Block after losing to Kazuyuki Fujita on the final night of Block action.
The Supernova Kiyomiya clinched B Block with a stirring victory over Satoshi Kojima before defeating A Block winner Hideki Suzuki in a must-see final to win the N-1 VICTORY for the first time.
Kiyomiya, the youngest GHC Heavyweight Champion in history - when he won the gold in 2018 at the tender age of 22 - utilised the world famous offence passed down to him from Keiji Muto to beat his most formidable foes in the N-1 having started his 2022 campaign with an unthinkable loss to newcomer Jack Morris.
Saitama man Kiyomiya has been receiving unprecedented media attention in recent months ever since he defeated Keiji Muto, at his fourth attempt, at the Nippon Budokan in July.
When he won the N-1 VICTORY in Osaka on 3 September there was a host of fans who were overcome with emotion and the tears flowed for the sizable crowd in the EDION Arena.
After winning the N-1 VICTORY, having lost the 2020 final to Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kiyomiya immediately challenged Kenoh for the GHC Heavyweight Championship and the game KONGO leader immediately accepted the challenge.
The future of NOAH will be at stake in the main event in Nagoya, as both the KONGO supremo and the Supernova bid to lead the Ark to its homecoming at the Ariake Arena on 30 October which also marks the return of cheering for the first time in two and a half years.
In the co-main event Keiji Muto, who its been announced will officially retire on 21 February 2023 at the Tokyo Dome, will have his Nagoya swansong.
Muto will team up with fellow former GHC and IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuyuki Fujita to face KONGO pair Katsuhiko Nakajima and Masakatsu Funaki.
Heavyweight ‘Grand Slam’ winner Muto, who turns 60 in December, announced on 7 September, alongside his fellow Musketeer Masahiro Chono, that he will grace the ring for the final time next February at the Tokyo Dome.
Tickets have understandably been in huge demand for Muto’s last match with ¥500,000 and ¥100,000 seats already sold out within hours. General sale starts on 19 November.
The Nagoya faithful are also snapping up tickets to see Muto’s last outing in the capital of the Aichi prefecture.
Muto links up with fellow former NJPW man Kazuyuki Fujita in what will be their first tag team outing together as a duo.
Fujita finished second in the N-1 VICTORY A Block as he recorded eye-catching wins over Go Shiozaki, Hideki Suzuki and Kenoh.
Fujita and Muto’s KONGO opponents Masakatsu Funaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima were both in the mix in B Block.
Two-time and defending champion Nakajima was eliminated on the final Block night having lost the head-to-head meeting with Kiyomiya while the now longest reigning GHC National Champion in history, Masakatsu Funaki, won four matches and lost three but ended his tournament on a high with a 57-second stoppage win over Takashi Sugiura via a rear naked choke (RNC).
Funaki, having now outlasted the 229-day title reign of his stablemate Kenoh, will defend his GHC National Championship for the fifth time against Masa Kitamiya – who beat the Hybrid Wrestler in the N-1 – on 30 September.
GHC Junior Heavyweight division standard bearer HAYATA will face the man who knows him better than anyone in YO-HEY.
STINGER standout HAYATA puts the gold on the line for the fifth time in his fourth reign as the champion.
The GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion, a title once held by the likes of Naomichi Marufuji, KENTA, Bryan Danielson and Katsuhiko Nakajima, was at stake in the main event at Ryogoku Kokugikan in April when HAYATA recaptured the title at the expense of Eita.
HAYATA has made successful title defences against Xtreme Tiger, Seiki Yoshioka, Shuji Kondo and STINGER colleague Chris Ridgeway but many pundits and fans see YO-HEY as his toughest assignment to date.
At Tuesday’s press conference the challenger suggested that if he loses this could be the last time he faces HAYATA for the title.
HAYATA was his usual laid back self and said that in his mind his victory is already guaranteed.
Three-time GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion YO-HEY has never held the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship having challenged for it on six occasions previously and the Flying Playboy is well aware of that.
YO-HEY cut a serious tone in front of the media at ABEMA Towers and tapped the belt that he’s desperate to take away from his former best friend on Sunday.
The GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Titles will be defended by the hard-hitting team of Hideki Suzuki and Timothy Thatcher for the first time against their stable boss Takashi Sugiura and Satoshi Kojima.
Legends Sugiura and Kojima, who are both former GHC Heavyweight Champions, are going by the name of ‘Taka and Satoshi’.
Suzuki and Thatcher beat The Tough pairing of Masa Kitamiya and Yoshiki Inamura for the vacant titles at the Nippon Budokan in July and following the conclusion of the N-1 VICTORY were swiftly targeted by Taka and Satoshi.
Hilarity ensued at the presser from both teams.
The challengers entered wearing sunglasses despite flood advisories being issued following a powerful typhoon hitting southern Japan.
Satoshi said it was just a coincidence that he and Taka were both wearing shades before the Killing Machine stated that he was told to wear sunglasses by the leader of Bread Club.
Thatcher said that he has a lot of respect for “Sugiura as the leader of the group” but this was lost in translation as Suzuki communicated his teammate’s words as: “Don't listen to a thug journalist like you talking to me like you're familiar with me.”
Sugiura-gun pair Suzuki and Thatcher enter with a phycological edge after Thatcher beat Taka and Satoshi in singles matches in the space of four days with his devastating Fujiwara Armbar.
The laughing stops and the pain starts in Nagoya when the bell sounds on Sunday and these four top heavyweights will go all out for the win.
STINGER will defend their GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles against the NOAH Junior Army’s Atsushi Kotoge and Seiki Yoshioka.
Chris Ridgeway and Yoshinari Ogawa, who are one of the most cohesive and tactically astute teams in all of professional wrestling, make their second title defence having bested then STINGER colleagues Yoshioka and Yuya Susumu in May.
The two sides faced off in 6-man tag team elimination match in the main event of Wednesday’s N Innovation event at Shinjuku FACE.
YO-HEY stole the show as he pinned HAYATA, who were the final two, to record a huge win for the JR Army alongside Atsushi Kotoge and Seiki Yoshioka which will see the challenges arrive in Nagoya brimming with confidence.
Elsewhere on the card, The Genius of The Ark Naomichi Marufuji competes in 6-man tag team action as he partners with Jack Morris and El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. to face Masaaki Mochizuki, Masato Tanaka and Daiki Inaba who holds a pinfall win over Marufuji from March.
KONGO’s regular junior heavyweight trio of Tadasuke, Hi69 and Hajime Ohara face the masked trio of America’s Ninja Mack, Japan’s Alejandro and Mexico’s Xtreme Tiger.
The Funky Express take on The Tough as Muhammad Yone and Akitoshi Saito meet Masa Kitamiya and Yoshiki Inamura in a showdown which won’t be the faint hearted.
Former GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions NOSAWA Rongai and Eita, who are chasing a match against Katsuhiko Nakajima and Kenoh, square off against Yasutaka Yano and Kai Fujimura, both of whom hold pinfall wins over NOSAWA.
NOAH dojo graduate Taishi Ozawa who has lost out to Yoshiki Inamura and Masa Kitamiya since debuting will have his work cut out for him once more as he opposes KONGO enforcer Manabu Soya in our opener in Nagoya.
Watch NOAH Grand Ship live on Wrestle Universe from 16.00 Japan time on Sunday 25 September - https://www.wrestle-universe.com/en/lives/oXo4P3U3NnwMmvAbNdjxNf
Send us your predictions for the event using the hashtags #MutoFinal and #noah_ghc