Pro Wrestling NOAH is on a company-wide expansion when it comes to these bigger shows for the company. NOAH’s Grand Square 2021 in Osaka’s card will feature three major titles matches that could decide the future of the Junior and Heavyweight divisions. We also do have a special way to end off the N-1 victory in glory as well. Let’s get into it.
NOAH”s Grand Square 2021 in Osaka Full Card:
- Daiki Inaba and Kai Fujimura vs. Kinya Okada and Yasutaka Yano
- King Tani, Mohammed Yone and Akitoshi Saito vs. Tadasuke, Nioh and Hao
- Masa Kitamiya and Junta Miyawaki vs. Manabu Soya and Aleja
- Yoshinari Ogawa and Seiki Yoshioka vs. YO-HEY and Kotaro Suzuki
- Takashi Sugiura, Kazuyuki Fujita and Kendo Kashnn vs. Masakatsu Funaki, Masato Tanaka and Maasaki Mochizuki
- GHC Junior Tag Team Championships: Atsushi Kotoge and Hajime Ohara (c) vs. NOSAWA Rongai and Eita
- GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship: HAYATA (c) vs. Daisuke Harada
- Keiji Mutoh and Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kenoh and Kaito Kiyomiya
- GHC Heavyweight Championship: Naomichi Marufuji (c) vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima
GHC Junior Tag Team Championship Match!
At the start of the N-1 Victory, Atsushi Kotoge and Hajime Ohara would become the new GHC Junior Tag Team Champions. This team would end the reign of STINGER’s Seiki Yoshioka and Yuya Susumu. After the match. They were challenged by one of the newest tag teams of NOAH, Eita, and NOSAWA Rongai representing Los Perros del Mal de Japón. Eita has been with Pro Wrestling NOAH since the formation of the faction in June of 2021. He has experience in other companies, most notably Dragon Gate as one of their former Open The Dream Gate Champions.
Eita is even a tag specialist being former 5-time Open The Twin Gate Champions. But for NOAH he’s been very inactive until now, this marks his first title opportunity in the company. NOSAWA Rongai has been pretty active in the heavyweight scene, most notably for having a long feud with Kaito Kiyomiya.
This is also the second time Rongai has challenged this belt this year. It’s one of the more predictable matches on the card.
Because it seems very unlikely that we’ll get new champions, especially Rongai who books for Pro Wrestling NOAH. But crazier things have happened in this company. If we were to call this match, we call an easy defense for Atsushi Kotoge and Hajime Ohara. If Rongai and Eita would win this match, it would mark the first championship for Eita and for Los Perros del Mal de Japón.
GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship Match!
If you would like a more detailed preview of this match, click this link. HAYATA has been the GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion since MUTA the WORLD. Since he won the championship, he has faced off against former adversaries like Kotaro Suzuki and YO-HEY. Both matches represent big moments in the career of HAYATA. His next opponent, however, represents the biggest moment in his career when he faces off against Daisuke Harada. In 2020, HAYATA, YO-HEY, Tadasuke, and Daisuke Harada were a faction known as RATEL’S. This faction ended when HAYATA would betray his faction and join STINGER.
Since then, Harada and HAYATA had two drastically different paths. Most notably involving a year-long war between STINGER and Daisuke Harada and his friends, most notably Hajime Ohara and Atsushi Kotoge. Daisuke Harada is not new to the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship scene, and he’s considered one of if not its top star of its division. Daisuke Harada has however shown a new light in him as of recently. Knowing he doesn’t have to hold the GHC Junior Tag Team Championships and get back to a career of making history with that championship.
For HAYATA, it represents the crowning moment for his role within his faction and represents the end of the demons that follow his reign. For Daisuke Harada, it represents revenge for the betrayal of HAYATA. It’s one of the biggest matches for HAYATA for this reason. These two have a match history, as of recently, they had a 30-minute time limit draw on the September 15th show. They also had an abrupt match in the N-1 Victory Finals show that lasted under a minute. HAYATA actually lost his 2nd reign as GHC Junior Champion in his 4th title defense. He might try to right that wrong going into his 4th defense here.
This is one of those matches that are hard to call, but if we could call it. We will call a brand new Champion with Harada winning the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship here. If Harada does win it, it would be the 5th reign as champion. This would be a major accomplishment in the modern era of NOAH. It’s been since the days of Yoshinobu Kanemaru who holds the record of most championship wins for that championship in particular.
SPECIAL TAG OSAKA N1 LIMITED MATCH!
In the semi-final for the event, we have a farewell match for the N-1 Victory. This match features Keiji Mutoh and Kazushi Sakuraba facing Kenoh and Kaito Kiyomiya. In the N-1 Victory, Kaito Kiyomiya came out with a complete change in his look and showcased a brand new attitude going into this tournament. He would make it to the semi-finals of this tournament against his partner here, Kenoh. Kenoh would eventually go into the finals of the tournament, to a losing effort against Katsuhiko Nakajima.
Keiji Mutoh and Kazushi Sakuraba would have a mixed run in the tournament with Sakuraba ending at 3 points and Mutoh at 4 points. Kaito Kiyomiya and Keiji Mutoh do have a history together. Mutoh is considered the man responsible for the career trajectory this year for Kaito. Most notably putting him down in the spiral of losses that he received last year and even earlier this year. Sakuraba and Kenoh do have a history too, most notably being part of Kenoh’s GHC National Championship reign.
The animosity between Kaito Kiyomiya and Kenoh should be interesting. But Kaito Kiyomiya needs to show his focus on finally defeating Mutoh once and for all in this match. If we were calling this match, we see Kaito Kiyomiya and Kenoh picking up the victory. Whoever pins Mutoh or even Sakuraba could be considered a potential future contender for the GHC Heavyweight Championship down the line at potentially DEMOLITION STAGE or NOAH the BEST. Just because of how active they both were recently in NOAH’s GHC Heavyweight Championship scene.
GHC Heavyweight Championship Match!
If you would like a more detailed preview of this match, click this link here. In the main event of this show, Naomichi Marufuji defends the GHC Heavyweight Championship against Katsuhiko Nakajima. The reign of Naomichi Marufuji started in June of this year. When Naomichi Marufuji would defeat Keiji Mutoh to win the championship at CyberFight Festival. Since he won the championship, he has battled Takasi Sugiura and Kazushi Sakuraba.
This upcoming match represents his third title defense against potentially his biggest challenge yet. Katsuhiko Nakajima is the winner of the N-1 Victory Tournament. A tournament that he won for the second year in a row, thus guaranteeing this opportunity. Katsuhiko Nakajima and Naomichi Marufuji do have a short history. Most notably in the Global League/N-1 Victory scene, with only one GHC Heavyweight Championship match between them in the long and defining careers of both men.
They also have a history as tag partners in 2014 as part of the BRAVE Faction. But the most important thing to know of this match is that Nakajima wanted Marufuji in his 2017 reign as champion, but it would never happen.
It wasn’t until Nakajima would lose his title, until Marufuji would get back into the GHC Heavyweight Championship scene.
It was considered humiliating by Nakajima. When it comes to win-loss records between them, it’s currently a 2-3 record, with Nakajima with the advantage. This does not even consider how damaged Katsuhiko Nakajima is. Just coming out of a major tournament, facing someone who was off for the entire tournament.
The winner of the N-1 Victory has rarely won in their eventual title matches, and it’s been since the days of Global League 2018 since it last happened with Kaito Kiyomiya. Could it happen for the first time since the rebranding of this tournament? Our prediction is it’s unlikely. Katsuhiko Nakajima besides the N-1 Victory accomplishment has been fighting and clawing for this opportunity for YEARS, marking it one of his biggest matches.
However, Marufuji has the advantage of being the Ace of NOAH. He has been well-rested and being their biggest draw for the major shows going into January 1st’s Budokan Show. But that’s the thing about Pro Wrestling NOAH. With the year that has already happened, the companies are in an area that if they wanted to go back to something, it could finally be Nakajima winning the GHC Heavyweight Championship. We will find out the results of all these bouts on October 10th with NOAH’s Grand Square 2021 in OSAKA.
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. You can watch Pro Wrestling NOAH as well as DDT, TJPW, and more on Wrestle Universe.
