Pro Wrestling NOAH has announced the competitors and their blocks for this year’s N-1 Victory tournament.
The N-1 is a round-robin tournament that features four blocks of four wrestlers, with the winners of each block advancing to the semi-finals.
The eventual winner will receive a GHC Heavyweight Championship match against current NOAH kingpin, Naomichi Marufuji, who himself will not feature in the tournament.
This year’s tournament includes several veteran performers such as Keiji Muto, Masato Tanaka and Kazuyuki Fujita, as well as multiple-time GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion Kotaro Suzuki.
The blocks are as follows:
Block A
Takashi Sugiura
Kaito Kiyomiya
Manabu Soya
Keiji Mutoh
Block B
Kenoh
Daiki Inaba
Masaaki Mochizuki
Kazunari Murakami
Block C
Katsuhiko Nakajima
Kazushi Sakuraba
Kotaro Suzuki
Masato Tanaka
Block D
Masa Kitamiya
Akitoshi Saito
Masakatsu Funaki
Kazuyuki Fujita
The tournament will begin on September 12th and conclude on October 3rd.
Previous winners of the N-1, or The Global League as it was previously known, include current New Japan stars KENTA, Minoru Suzuki and Yuji Nagata, as well as current GHC National Champion Takashi Suguira, who will feature again this year.
Last year’s winner Katsuhiko Nakajima will feature in the veritable shark tank that is Group C and will be looking to repeat his success, having established himself as one of NOAH’s most exciting stars.