{"id":108316,"date":"2022-01-14T16:10:34","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T21:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=108316&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=108316"},"modified":"2022-01-14T16:10:34","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T21:10:34","slug":"pro-wrestling-noah-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2022\/01\/14\/pro-wrestling-noah-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro Wrestling NOAH Struck by COVID-19 Cases, Announces Card Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After a spectacular start to the year, <strong>Pro Wrestling NOAH<\/strong> recently suffered an unfortunate COVID-19 sparked setback. Just days away from their <strong><em>Bumber Crop<\/em><\/strong> show, headlined by <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/12\/20\/wrestlers-2021-katsuhiko-nakajima\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong>Katsuhiko Nakajima<\/strong><\/a> defending his GHC Heavyweight Championship against former <strong>Aggression<\/strong> tag team partner <strong>Masa Kitamiya<\/strong>, NOAH has suffered a heavy blow of multiple COVID-19 positive tests.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A number of wrestlers scheduled to feature on Sunday 16th January\u2019s card in Sendai will be missing because of positive Coronavirus tests or being close contacts to positive cases. NOAH listed, in no particular order, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Yoshinari Ogawa<\/strong>, <strong>Junta Miyawaki<\/strong>, <strong>Kaito Kiyomiya<\/strong>, <strong>Yoshiki Inamura<\/strong>, <strong>Kinya Okada<\/strong>, <strong>Yasutaka Yano<\/strong>, <strong>Super Crazy<\/strong>, <strong>Tadasuke<\/strong>, <strong>Daiki Inaba<\/strong>, and <strong>Masato Tanaka<\/strong> as the wrestlers who will miss Sunday\u2019s show.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"tl\" dir=\"ltr\">We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and concern to our fans.<br><br>[Missing wrestlers] (in no particular order)<br>Yoshinari Ogawa, Junta Miyawaki, Kaito Kiyomiya, Yoshiki Inamura, Kinya Okada, Yasutaka Yano, Super Crazy, Tadasuke, Daiki Inaba, Masato Tanaka.<br><br> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/noah_ghc?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#noah_ghc<\/a><\/p>&mdash; PRO WRESTLING NOAH (@noahglobal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/noahglobal\/status\/1481963566869934081?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 14, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tanaka is the only absence not related to a positive Coronavirus result, as NOAH stated on Twitter that he will miss the show due to \u201cpoor physical condition\u201d, although he has received a negative PCR test.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The main event of Nakajima vs Kitamiya and the semi-main of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/12\/23\/wrestlers-of-2021-kenoh\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong>Kenoh<\/strong><\/a> and <strong>Manabu Soya\u2019s<\/strong> challenge for <strong>Keiji Muto<\/strong> and <strong>Naomichi Marfuji\u2019s<\/strong> GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Championship remains intact. Although, the rest of the card will be subject to significant reshuffling. <\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We await the full altered card, but one match added so far is the new GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion, <strong>Daisuke Harada<\/strong> facing <strong>Seiki Yoshioka<\/strong> in a non-title affair, with the cancellation of an eight-man tag team contest. Harada and Yoshioka are two of the very best junior heavyweight wrestlers in the world, so even though the deck is stacked against them, NOAH is pulling through.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p>One of the wrestlers who have received a positive test, Kaito Kiyomiya, recorded a short video for Pro Wrestling NOAH&#8217;s Twitter account. He sincerely apologized for the inconvenience caused to fans, while words of encouragement for wrestlers and staff were urged.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Kaito Kiyomiya: \u201cIt turns out that several wrestlers, including me, are infected with COVID. We sincerely apologise to all those who were looking forward to the Sendai show on Sunday\u201d<br><br>Please send your words of encouragement to our wrestlers &amp; staff!<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/80P4Giv9D8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/80P4Giv9D8<\/a><\/p>&mdash; PRO WRESTLING NOAH (@noahglobal) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/noahglobal\/status\/1481966728368521218?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 14, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NOAH is a company undoubtedly familiar with crisis and challenge, so it won&#8217;t be a surprise to anyone that the company will carry on and still look to produce a top-notch card for their first big show since the Budokan on New Year&#8217;s Day. However, the number of COVID cases will pose some meaningful concern within the Japanese wrestling scene, as it quickly follows <strong>All Japan Pro Wrestling<\/strong> receiving five positive results a few days prior.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Yuma Aoyagi<\/strong>, <strong>Shotaro Ashino<\/strong>, <strong>Rising HAYATO,<\/strong> and <strong>Masanobu Fuchi<\/strong>, as well as one staff member, all tested positive, as AJPW confirmed on January 12.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Masanobu Fuchi, Yuma Aoyagi, Shotaro Ashino, Rising HAYATO, and one staff member received a positive test for the Coronavirus. They all have mild symptoms. We apologize for any concerns.<br><br> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ajpw?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#ajpw<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ajpwint?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#ajpwint<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/00zjPKWdXp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/00zjPKWdXp<\/a><\/p>&mdash; AJPW International (@ajpwint) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ajpwint\/status\/1481166805406466048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 12, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hopefully, these strings of cases in both AJPW and NOAH are a blip, and won&#8217;t persist into a greater number of positive cases. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We wish a speedy recovery to all of those who have tested positive.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><em><span class=\"s1\">Stay tuned to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\"><span class=\"s2\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/span><\/a> 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ddtpro.com\/universe\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span class=\"s2\">Wrestle Universe<\/span><\/a> and ABEMA.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a spectacular start to the year, Pro Wrestling NOAH recently suffered an unfortunate COVID-19 sparked setback. Just days away from their Bumber Crop show, headlined by Katsuhiko Nakajima defending his GHC Heavyweight Championship against former Aggression tag team partner Masa Kitamiya, NOAH has suffered a heavy blow of multiple COVID-19 positive tests. A number [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4036,"featured_media":108343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,6975,13,12,24,2192],"tags":[6173,7584,4028,7113,4066,1844,5816,7112,6052],"class_list":["post-108316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ajpw","category-international-wrestling","category-international","category-news","category-noah","category-wrestling","tag-daiki-inaba","tag-junta-miyawaki","tag-kaito-kiyomiya","tag-kinya-okada","tag-masato-tanaka","tag-super-crazy","tag-tadasuke","tag-yoshiki-inamura","tag-yoshinari-ogawa"],"modified_by":"Robbie Sutter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4036"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}