Pro Wrestling NOAH‘s (NOAH) N-1 Victory starts tomorrow, with the opening event featuring many major matches. Among these is a title match in the junior heavyweight division for the show. In this Match Point, we will cover the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match between Atsushi Kotoge and Hajime Ohara facing the defending champions, Seiki Yoshioka and Yuya Susumu.
明日はGHCJrタッグ選手権
小峠さん・大原さん、2人なら絶対取る！
この状況を最大限の力に変えて大爆発してくれる。
全力で闘う2人を全力でサポートします！#noah_ghc#n12021 pic.twitter.com/x1sWrqPvoV
— 原田大輔 DAISUKE HARADA (@noah_harada) September 11, 2021
The Upcoming GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match
The New Era of STINGER
For a time, Atsushi Kotoge was part of the STINGER faction. He was in said faction for about two years, where he would gain title success. Most notably, he saw a reign as GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion for the sixth time in his career. Kotoge would leave the faction and later win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship in early 2021. In the first match, he ended the reign of Seiki Yoshioka at 30 days with no successful title defenses. Kotoge became a good friend of Yoshioka as part of Full Throttle.
This would light a fire under Yoshioka, as he left the Full Throttle faction to pursue STINGER. Yoshioka found common ground with Yuya Susumu, who returned to NOAH earlier this year. This tag team caused a major upset by defeating the former GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, Daisuke Harada and Hajime Ohara. With this win, STINGER claimed the junior tag titles once again.
Full Throttle Explodes
Since losing the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship, Atsushi Kotoge has been in something of a funk. After losing his championship to the high-ranking member of STINGER, HAYATA, Kotoge aimed to prove that STINGER is weak. This would be done by defeating the top junior tag team in Pro Wrestling NOAH, regardless of the faction they were part of. Someone who also has a personal gripe with Seiki Yoshioka is Hajime Ohara, who was betrayed by Seiki Yoshioka when he pursued STINGER and broke up Full Throttle.
For Atsushi Kotoge, this seems like an easy match. In the case of Hajime Ohara, it’s about getting back his GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship that he lost with his fellow man, Daisuke Harada. For Seiki Yoshioka and Yuya Susumu, it’s about the stranglehold that they have in NOAH’s junior tag team division. With one successful title defense so far, Yoshioka must battle two people from his past, with his partner Susumu, in a match where the betrayal of Full Throttle could be seen as worthwhile.
In terms of history between these two teams, as of recently, Ohara would gain a victory in a six-man tag match. This match was where Kotoge and Ohara challenged for the titles. Ohara and Kotoge have a history with the STINGER team, most notably losing to Yoshinari Ogawa and Kotaro Suzuki when they first attempted challenging for the championship.
Seiki Yoshioka and Yuya Susumu vs. Atsushi Kotoge and Hajime Ohara – In Closing
While he never was an official member, Hajime Ohara has been a valuable member of Daisuke Harada’s tag team of Momo No Seishun Tag. Winning the tag team championships wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for a tag team, with a combined 11-plus Junior Heavyweight Tag Team title reigns under both of their belts. The champions haven’t treated Atsushi Kotoge and Hajime Ohara as much of a threat. This could come back to bite them going into this title match on the opening night of NOAH’s N-1 Victory.
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can watch Pro Wrestling NOAH as well as DDT, TJPW, and more on Wrestle Universe.
