At Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Great Voyage 2021 In Fukuoka, Keiji Mutoh looked to step up to his first title challenger for his GHC Heavyweight Championship since ending Go Shiozaki’s 405 day reign on 12/2/21. The challenger was to be a former title holder Kaito Kiyomiya, who had been looking to score a singles victory over the 58-year-old champion after falling to him in one on one competition last August.
Since Kiyomiya made the challenge to Mutoh immediately after his title win last month, the two had squared off twice on opposing sides in six-man tag action with Kiyomiya’s side taking the loss on both occasions. Could the champion, who made his pro-wrestling debut before the champion was even born, turn back the much younger challenger?
In this instance, the answer was yes. Mutoh was able to fend off the 24-year-old challenger, ultimately making him submit following a 30+ minute contest to a cross armbreaker.
Following the match, Mutoh’s next challenger immediately made his presence felt. The freshly minted co-holder of the GHC Tag Team titles Masa Kitamiya marched to the ring and ultimately delivered a Saito Suplex to Mutoh to make his intentions known.
📢GHCヘビー初防衛に成功した武藤敬司‼
そこに現れたのは、マサ北宮🔥🔥🔥
相手にしない武藤に北宮はまさかのサイトースープレックスを敢行❗️❗️❗️#noah_ghc#ノア福岡国際pic.twitter.com/2eHihfUbUN
— プロレスリング・ノア ｜PROWRESTLING NOAH (@noah_ghc) March 14, 2021
Elsewhere on the card:
Shuhei Taniguchi & FULL THROTTLE (Hajime Ohara and YO-HEY) defeat Yoshiki Inamura, Kinya Okada & Yasutaka Yano
HAYATA defeats Junta Miyawaki
Mohammed Yone defeats Akitoshi Saito
STINGER (HAYATA & Susumu) defeat Daisuke Harada & Kai Fujimura
The Sugiura Army (Kazuyuki Fujita, Kendo Kashin & NOSAWA Rongai) defeat Kongo (Kenoh, Haoh & Nioh)
GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship Match
Atsushi Kotoge defeats Seiki Yoshioka (c) to crown a new GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion
Go Shiozaki, Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura & Kotaro Suzuki defeat Kongo (Katsuhiki Nakajima, Masa Kitamiya, Manabu Soya & Tadasuke)
The event is available to watch for free for the next week on Abema.