12/28/2025

© NJPW

Wrestle Kingdom

January 4th, 2026

Tokyo Dome, Tokyo

On January 4th 2026, over fifty thousand people will pack the Tokyo Dome for the retirement of Hiroshi Tanahashi. “The Ace Of The Universe” will close out his twenty-six year career by headlining the biggest wrestling show in Japan in over two decades against one of his greatest projects in Kazuchika Okada. The New Japan President has given his all to the company in his final year, wrestling over one hundred and forty matches, including his highest number of singles matches since 2005. He arrives at the Tokyo Dome in the strongest shape possible for a man at this point in his career, which feels like somewhat of a remarkable feat considering his physical struggles this past summer in particular.

His match with Kazuchika Okada, which we covered the politics around in depth in our previous issue, will get significant time at the top of this shorter card than usual and will be followed by a lengthy retirement ceremony that is also expected to be shown on the Japanese primetime TV broadcast on the same night. A number of former IWGP Champions who reside in Japan as well as abroad have been invited to attend these proceedings, which will only add to the emotion at the end of the night. It is the retirement match, though, that has sold out the Tokyo Dome, with Tanahashi looking to put on the strongest in ring performance he can in his final bout, whilst once more illustrating his incredible crowd connection as he plays the underdog against an Okada who will be leaning into his AEW character to play the ultimate heel.

It is almost an expectation at this point, in regards to thinking, that Tanahashi will put Okada over to end the show, but the retiring man losing his last match is not as conventional as one would think. In fact, it was particularly interesting this past week to see Tanahashi make comparisons between himself and Antonio Inoki considering that Inoki won the last of his “Final Countdown” matches against Don Frye in the Tokyo Dome back in 2008. With Okada part of another organisation at this point and interpromotional politics being now mixed into the build to the match, it is harder to see what value there is in this situation to Okada winning unless he has already agreed to work further programs in future with New Japan where he will be put over the top New Japan talent that is coming through. If not, given that one of the company’s major aims with this show is to attract back lapsed fans, an incredible babyface closing moment for Tanahashi may end up being of much greater value to the company than a by-the-books Okada win.

© NJPW

The spotlight placed on this card by the Tanahashi retirement match means that New Japan cannot view this card as simply the closing of a chapter, and must instead use it to showcase a clear direction for 2026 and those who will be looked to in order to carry the company forward. That has led the card to having three other clear focal points; Aaron Wolf, Yota Tsuji and Kosei Fujita. Wolf is perhaps the man with the most pressure, the former Olympic judoka carried extensive public interest in Japan and is the largest part as to why New Japan were able to upgrade their television for this show. It is fair to say he has struggled somewhat in the angles run on shows leading up to the Dome but he will be well prepared for this match, with weeks of rehearsals (for a far longer duration than what was required for the Best of the Super Junior Final this past summer) being put into place in order to ensure that this debut is a success. His presentation will also need an upgrade for this show, with the hope that aspects such as cardio, confidence and a more defined look can be something generated through more time on the road in the forthcoming year. Whilst no one in New Japan is raving about his performances in training, there is the belief that he is showing enough in these outings to perform well in the Tokyo Dome at the very least. Working with EVIL will allow for easy heel heat and interference spots that should cover for his lack of experience, and will have Wolf end his night with gold in the form of the NEVER Openweight Championship. Where he goes from there remains to be seen.

Yota Tsuji is another man in the “must win” category on this show. Tsuji, who arguably should have been champion well before now, cannot afford to fail again and is expected to be crowned here and endorsed by Tanahashi as the man to lead the company in 2026. He faces Konosuke Takeshita, a man who has been let down somewhat by the booking on his way to his title victory over Zack Sabre Jr. back in October, and whose triple contracted status has provided somewhat of a case study on if such an agreement can work across multiple promotions at the highest level. He provides a good obstacle for Tsuji, and his stellar in-ring pedigree should lead to an excellent title match where Tsuji comes through. With Tanahashi and Naito removed from being in ring attractions in 2026, New Japan needs a full time world champion on the road who understands the realities of the situation he finds himself in and has multiple opponents available to him that can form ready made programs. Tsuji is ready to exist in that spot, with his work in the second half of this year, and in building up to this match in particular, showing a new level of confidence in his storytelling that hasn’t been seen previously. Last January 4th, his match and Global Championship win against David Finlay was the highlight of the card; he will be looking to leave a similar impression here, at a point when there will be more eyes on him than ever before.

Kosei Fujita may not look as clear a focus when looking down the card, but he is the third man of focus, and is expected to come through the number one contender’s four way for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match to face champion DOUKI at a forthcoming show. This has looked like a strange placing from the moment it was announced; after all, surely crowning Fujita in the Dome would be of more value? But with three bigger moments already planned for the top of the card, the company doesn’t want Fujita’s first title win to feel lost in the shuffle in a sea of memorable moments. Whether this ends being to his benefit or his detriment will be played out in the coming months, however, on this show, look for him to defeat El Desperado, Taiji Ishimori and SHO in what is hoped to be a fast and dynamic matchup (don’t ruin it, SHO). Fujita was the last junior to face Hiroshi Tanahashi before his retirement, which should tell you enough about his standing going into 2026.

© NJPW

New Japan will also showcase the top talent of fellow Bushi road promotion STARDOM, with recent Tokyo Sports MVP winner Saya Kamitani taking on Syuri for the IWGP and NJPW Women’s Championships. Kamitani’s barrier breaking year has deservedly received heavy attention from the Japanese media and public alike, and therefore, highlighting her on this show is the right call. Her meeting with Syuri puts her up against someone she hasn’t wrestled in a singles since before her rise to current prominence and has never beaten, it’s an easy story to tell for this match, and will likely lead to another achievement to be added to her resume by the end of the night.

Perhaps the biggest criticism of this show is that most of the key figures of which stories and major titles in the promotion have centered around over the past year have been placed in multi-man matches that don’t feel as though they have any major weight. Zack Sabre Jr. and Hirooki Goto, the two men who have carried the IWGP Heavyweight crown for most of the year, will be part of the Never 6 man Ranbo, which will also include last year’s Dome headliner Shota Umino, Yuya Uemura, Ryohei Oiwa, Boltin Oleg and IWGP Tag Champions the Knock Out Brothers. Sabre Jr. and Oiwa are likely to close this match with an angle with the Knock Out Brothers to promote their tag title match on “New Year’s Dash”, a show that will give them a lot more time for the title match but is also being set out to kick off the New Japan year after the end of season feeling Dome show. Andrade El Idolo also returns to New Japan as part of United Empire in the other multiman against the War Dogs, which also sees Henare returning from injury and an X participant still to be announced. DDT’s Chris Brookes will also challenge ELP for the TV title on the preshow, with the 6 man Ranbo replacing the regular pre show variation.

New Japan hope that a condensed main card and a focus on Fujita, Tsuji and Wolf will ensure that it is these men that are remembered outside of the Tanahashi retirement going into 2026 and that there are significant enough payoffs here that it will satisfy more long standing fans who may be disappointed in how little of the previous year has ended up being reflected in the Tokyo Dome card. In the end, though, it will be hard for anything here to not be overshadowed by the retirement of the most impactful wrestler of his generation. New Japan doesn’t exist anywhere close to its current form without Hiroshi Tanahashi, and all that emotion and gratitude will be at the forefront come January 4th as The Ace plays his final show. It will truly mark the end of an era in NJPW, and hopefully the birth of another.

© STARDOM

STARDOM “Dream Queendom”

29th December 2025
Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan

“Dream Queendom” sees the close to a tremendous year for STARDOM. From a business perspective, as well as a creative perspective, I feel comfortable saying it is the best year of any promotion in the world, bar CMLL. Given the extenuating circumstances and numerous setbacks STARDOM has suffered since 2024 including the loss of some of their biggest stars like Utami Hayashishita, Giulia, Tam Nakano, Mayu Iwatani, as well as major injury stretches for stars like Maika and Syuri, it must be considered especially impressive.

World of Stardom Title: Saya Kamitani (c) vs. Saori Anou

Spearheaded was the year by major star Saya Kamitani, who was made by her mentor Tam Nakano like rarely a wrestler has ever been made before and broke through to the mainstream with her role on the morning TV show LOVE IT! among multiple other TV appearances, which ultimately lead to her bringing the first joshi pro wrestling match to terrestrial TV in Japan in 23 years. She currently holds the company’s main championship, the World of STARDOM Championship as well as the NJPW Strong Championship. Only the World of STARDOM Championship aka “the red belt” will be relevant for this show, however, which is an important factor to her alleged “double booking” for the Tokyo Dome 6 days later. A double booking it is not, as they cleverly split the two challenges between her two championships. This does not only beat the double booking allegations, but it actually makes the “Dream Queendom” match against Saori Anou extra spicy as STARDOM has the rare opportunity to get the red belt off of Saya, while crowning her with another one of the promotion’s main championships, the IWGP title, just less than a week later and keeping her a double champion. So despite what many people will try to tell you this match is anything but a foregone conclusion.

There are also several factors that would speak for Saori Anou to dethrone Saya here. Saori herself is one of the most popular joshi wrestlers in the scene. The tremendous house of 2,837 people she drew together with her partner Natsupoi for their produce show in Ota City General Gymnasium in May has to be considered one of the most impressive numbers anyone drew this year relative to the announced card. Additionally they overshot their crowdfunding target for the show by a whopping 500%. Saori’s star power is not the only reason why a title change would make sense, as she is also part of the stable formerly lead by the great Tam Nakano, who was retired by Saya Kamitani earlier in the year and the faction has been seeking revenge on Saya ever since. The storyline is there, the perfect opportunity is there, so why not just pull the trigger? Well, there is also a certain Maika factor. Maika, who recently returned from Tommy John surgery, has arguably an even better redemption story against Saya Kamitani as Saya cost Maika her first red belt reign on the night she turned heel. Additionally, Maika has been looking extremely impressive since returning with a burning passion and newfound energy, even pinning Saya Kamitani in Korakuen Hall in an eight man, albeit with major help from Saori Anou.

This fire burning inside of Maika had weirdly been missing from Saori in recent weeks as she was her quite stoic usual self, but seemed to lack focus in matches, which lead to her being pinned several times to cost her and partner Natsupoi the tag league. This was resolved, however, when she finally opened up in the recent press conference, stating that she thinks a lot about Saya Kamitani and how she brought pro wrestling to the masses, more than she was ever able to. How several of her stablemates have fought Saya unsuccessfully and how much improved her situation could be if she would finally be the one to dethrone Kamitani. All her frustration and anger about Saya finally boiled over as she attacked the red belt champion which led to a big brawl to end the presser. An almost eerie parallel to the press conference for last year’s “Dream Queendom” was not only the ensuing brawl, but the visual symmetry. While Saya last year was the one in the dark dress who couldn’t handle her envious thoughts and bottled up frustrations, while the calm and collected Tam Nakano in a red dress clearly was outclassing her in their dispute, it was Saya Kamitani this year to wear the red dress and own the high ground while Saori in her dark dress lost her cool. Last year it was the woman in the red dress who tragically lost in the end. Will history repeat?

No matter the outcome here, this triangle of red belt contenders promises to continue with exciting stories in the future. The match itself promises to be an excellent bout as well, as Saori Anou is certainly one of the best and most complete wrestlers on the entire STARDOM roster.

© STARDOM

Wonder of STARDOM Title: Konami (c) vs. Saya Iida

In the semi-main event Konami will defend the Wonder of STARDOM Title aka “the white belt” against Saya Iida. This is certainly not the white belt match one would have expected just a few weeks ago. Starlight Kid held the title until early November and her reign was one of the greatest reigns in any promotion all year. One would have hoped she would be rewarded with a big match on the second biggest show of the year, but unfortunately she finally fell to lingering injuries as the dastardly Konami beat her savagely in her second challenge for the belt at “Crimson Nightmare”. Starlight Kid has been out nursing her injuries since. As much of a despicable heel Konami may have been, she is undoubtedly simultaneously one of the more underrated feel good stories in STARDOM this year. Konami, who was so worn down physically and mentally by the end of 2021 that she had to take a long hiatus, was left unable to tour with the company and only showed up for events in her hometown for quite some time. Slowly she worked her way back, got better and picked up a more regular schedule again, just before disaster struck once again when she was knocked out in the first move of the match against arch rival Syuri, a match that surely would have meant a lot to them both. This setback however, against all odds, seemed to light a fire in Konami, and her comeback story this year was a joy to watch. Already declared past her prime by many due to her many set backs, she clawed her way back bit by bit, starting with her tremendous first challenge against Kid in March and highlighted by an amazing upset victory against Sareee in the opening night of the five star grand prix, STARDOM’s major annual singles tournament. Not many expected Konami to be the one to dethrone Starlight Kid, but I would lie if it wasn’t at least a little bit of a feel good moment after all the hardships Konami went through, even if she is firmly planted on the evil side of the roster in kayfabe and cheated her way to victory.

Her opponent is also rather unexpected, but very similarly to Konami, is also a really underrated story of STARDOM’s 2025. Saya Iida has never really been a standout star on the roster. The very short but extremely buff wrestler who got herself the “Gorilla” moniker hasn’t seen much success in the singles division, but she did have an outstanding tag team title run throughout half of the year with partner Hanan. In the 5Star Grand Prix she may not have seen much success points-wise, but she made sure to give it her all on every single night and I don’t think her absolute workhorse brilliance throughout the tournament went unnoticed, neither by the audience, nor by the booker. After the 5 Star, she continued with impressive performances leading to a tag league run where she was arguably one of the, if not THE most over wrestler in many towns of the tour, seemingly out of nowhere. And not only that, she got two pins on Konami early on in the tour to immediately get herself in the conversation for a white belt match. To top it off, if anyone had not been convinced of her as a challenger yet, in the actual number one contender match against Ami Sourei she had a career best performance. If you are still not convinced of Iida as a serious contender, I can’t really blame you, but I can not deny that she has done everything within her own might to turn herself into one over the past months.

Her partner Hanan, however, had been taken out brutally by Konami (iconically while her overly cutesy “happy girl sun shine” theme was playing in the background) months ago and has been out injured ever since. This obviously brings in an additional major emotional stake for Iida to get revenge for her partner – and should Konami retain, the next program against Iida’s best friend, who may be making her comeback soon, is already made.

© STARDOM

Goddess of STARDOM Title: BMI2000 (Natsuko Tora & Ruaka) (c) vs. Sakurara (Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara)

Speaking of the former tag team champions, the current champions Natsuko Tora and Ruaka from heel unit H.A.T.E. will defend their titles against the Goddesses of STARDOM tag league winners Sayaka Kurara and Aya Sakura. Incidentally also New Blood champions, the two young upstarts happened to defeat the current tag team champions in the finals of the tag team tournament already to win the entire thing. The two Cosmic Angels, who have a natural conflict with H.A.T.E. due to the demise of Tam Nakano (who directly took Kurara under her wings and made her a major player in the last story of her career), have the chance to finish a tremendous underdog babyface tag team run that went against all odds to even end up in the position they are now. This is the most archetypal good vs evil story you can think of, the power of friendship and innocence against an evil overpowering force.

An interesting thing to think about is that every one of the defending champions of all the major title matches I have previewed so far comes from heel unit H.A.T.E. and I think it is fair to say that all of them are the bets on favourites to win and retain their titles. This fact alone may make at least one upset more likely and it might as well be the tag titles. You wouldn’t want to send everyone home super unhappy, right, Taro?

Special Singles Match: Natsupoi vs. Sareee

Elsewhere on the card we have a special singles match penciled in where, in many peoples’ eyes, the best wrestler in the world Sareee is taking on her real life best friend Natsupoi. This match has been built on the basis of Natsupoi claiming to have thought about quitting wrestling, not having the motivation and fun anymore to continue. Sareee essentially claimed, after a tremendous tag team battle on her self produced show “Sareee ISM 9”, that she would beat the fun back into Natsupoi if she had to. On this basis, they have faced each other several times during the STARDOM tag league, and every time the clash was spectacular. On the last Korakuen when they fought one more time in a six man, Natsupoi was finally able to pin Sareee which ultimately lead to this singles match, which easily has the potential to steal the entire show.

The Re-Debut: Fuwa-chan vs. Hazuki

The last standout match on the card sees former social media star Fuwa Chan take on her trainer Hazuki in her re-debut into wrestling. Fuwa Chan was one of the most prominent influencers in Japan until she made some rather tasteless comments on social media in 2024. She ended up losing all of her sponsorships and went entirely radio silent for over a year. The nature of her comments was very iffy especially in the context of STARDOM’s history with respect to Hana Kimura, so taking Fuwa Chan back in after that was unexpected to say the least. It has to be said, however, that Fuwa Chan did more to exercise repentance than most any modern influencer in a similar situation. She accepted her public downfall silently with no protest or phony apologies and completely left the public eye for a long time. What nobody knew is that during that time was that she actually went to England to train in a wrestling school, as after losing her spot as a comedian her resolve became clear: she wanted to follow pro wrestling, the sport she fell in love with while she was in two exhibition matches with STARDOM in 2022. Back then, Hazuki was already her trainer and it turns out the two had been keeping in contact. If the general public in Japan can forgive Fuwa Chan, this could be a big coup for STARDOM, as Fuwa Chan used to be a big time celebrity. Her return tweet after over a year of complete silence on Twitter, showing herself kneeling in a STARDOM ring, has at this point 64 million impressions and 193k likes. Numbers many wrestling promotions would dream of for publicity in a single tweet. She also performed in the Tokyo Dome in front of 53,000 fans before, where she also had a wrestling show match with a comedian as part of her performance, agented by Hazuki. Fuwa Chan back in 2022 looked surprisingly good for a celebrity performer who was only there for two matches and even if she should have regressed, Hazuki is an absolute master of the craft and will most certainly make sure that this is gonna be a really good and fool proof match.

Overall this card is looking to be a ton of fun, the matches are all built intrinsically very well and should all be good to great. STARDOM can’t really do any wrong right now; their roster is the most solid roster in the world pound for pound, and with this already being close to a sell out it will also prove to be once again a massive success for STARDOM, which broke the 100,000 ticket barrier rather comfortably this year, a feat not to scoff at in the Japanese puroresu landscape of the 2020s.

(As at the time of writing, the full card had not been announced.)

© 4bui34

NOAH Reborn: The Real Rebel’s 2025 Revolution

The NOAH Rewind 2025

By the end of 2025, NOAH wasn’t just back – they were one of the best drawing promotions at Korakuen Hall. And at the center of it all stood OZAWA: the King of Korakuen Hall, the Real Rebel himself. *record scratch* Yeah, you’re probably wondering how NOAH pulled that off. Look no further than OZAWA. Normally, I would be careful to be as nuanced as possible and lay out all the possible reasons for the growth in popularity of a company. But, nope. It was OZAWA. While I would love to write a dissertation on OZAWA’s drawing power, I will have to give the short version in respect to my lovely colleagues previewing the huge New Japan and Stardom shows. NOAH is still the little brother, after all. But don’t worry, you’re in good hands. The hands of someone who has watched every aired NOAH show of 2025. Yes, including the November house shows depicting Manabu Soya’s mid-life crisis as he dresses like his injured stablemate YO-HEY.

OZAWA returned from his European excursion at the end of 2023 before turning heel on then GHC Heavyweight Champion Kaito Kiyomiya. OZAWA went on to challenge the ace in what was one of the most shocking and well-executed moments of 2025 at the Nippon Budokan on 1st January 2025. OZAWA was treated with trepidation, with fans hesitant to react one way or the other to him. As the match progressed, OZAWA’s charisma was on full display as he mocked, taunted and outplayed the ace. His antics, such as breakdancing and stealing Kaito’s poses, convinced the attending crowd to ordain OZAWA as the next champion, before he had even won the match. They turned on Kaito, booing him mercilessly and chanting for OZAWA. The charismatic, self-proclaimed “Real Rebel” had already done his job in getting himself over and being the shot in the arm the promotion needed after a dire 2024. After watching this match live, I contacted as many people as I could – yes, including e-mailing Dave Meltzer – like an excited child exclaiming “Mum! Dad! Come look, I found a superstar!” While slightly embarrassing about how giddy I was after that match, looking back, it is easy to see why. It is not often you see Japanese fans turn on a babyface in the main event of a big show like that, even rarer in favour of a complete unknown who had just re-debuted in the promotion and was in his first match back.

NOAH not only booked OZAWA in that position knowing he would deliver – no, they went one step further and gave OZAWA the title in that same match, beating the ace in their first ever encounter with each other. If that’s not cojones, I’m not sure what is. Since then, OZAWA has repaid back the faith as the promotion reaps the rewards from his popularity. NOAH did not rest on its laurels during the year as it combined OZAWA’s push with a cost-cutting exercise, downgrading the arenas it was touring in as well as lining up five new sponsors in 2025. Throughout the year, NOAH welcomed LINE Yahoo as a Platinum sponsor, Applibot and Mercari as Gold sponsors, HaRENO as a Silver sponsor and BASE FOOD as a Bronze sponsor, bolstering its existing catalogue of promotional partners. They loaded up the Korakuen Hall shows with title matches each month and hosted a limited number of big shows in addition to the New Year’s show with one in May and one in October at Ryogoku Kokugikan, and a show at Sendai Sun Plaza Hall in November. All of this cost-cutting was validated by CyberFight’s annual financial statements. The company, which also owns DDT, TJPW and the Wrestle Universe streaming service, posted losses of ¥14 million, down from ¥212 million the year before. DDT and TJPW underwent similar cost-cutting exercises, with DDT hosting almost 20 shows at the cheap Ueno Park venue. By funnelling the fans into Korakuen Hall with the allure of seeing OZAWA perform, the promotion averaged 1,436 in 2025 (as at the time of writing), with a median of 1,550. The median shows you just how often NOAH was selling out the venue.

This put NOAH at the top of the list in the venue, after hard fought battles with DDT, who stopped posting attendance figures but are likely in a similar ballpark, and Stardom, the fastest growing promotion in 2025 spearheaded by the now retired Tam Nakano and the “Phenex Queen” Saya Kamitani. While Stardom cumulatively drew more fans to Korakuen Hall by virtue of more events, their average was 1,351 with a median of 1,400. However, the promotion made large gains in the rest of the country and ran a much larger number of shows at big venues, notwithstanding the record-breaking number of 7,503 at Yokohama Arena in April for Tam Nakano versus Saya Kamitani in a Title vs. Career match. I don’t bring up Stardom, and specifically Saya, for no reason. I mentioned earlier that NOAH’s comeback was largely centered around OZAWA – but what makes me say that? OZAWA’s media presence in 2025 has largely correlated with Saya’s own presence. The two are tied for the most front covers of Weekly Pro Magazine (Shupro) at 7 each, with even the retiring Hiroshi Tanahashi, responsible for drawing a sell-out at the Tokyo Dome, and Hirooki Goto only managing to wrack up 5 each. Yes, OZAWA and Saya even steal the media spotlight from the traditional giants. Note that I say media spotlight, which doesn’t always translate to attendance. OZAWA and Saya have captured the online generation of fans who have engaged with the NOAH and Stardom products like never before, as both serve as a “soft draw” in getting new fans into the promotion. That being said, Saya takes the crown in this department given Stardom’s dominance on Shupro’s news and match result rankings. Stardom has 16 out of the top 100 news items in the last calendar year, beating out New Japan and NOAH who are tied with 9. Stardom also holds 24 out of the top 100 match results pages, with NOAH coming in fourth with 10. OZAWA and Saya would publicly interact on social media as they bickered and fought over who would become the Tokyo Sports MVP, a prize won by a New Japan star every year since 2011.

© 4bui34

That is not where the similarities between the two end. The arc of both characters have mirrored each other, with both debuting as heel characters in 2024 and shepherding the fans to their cause, not even bothering to pretend to be heels by mid-2025. OZAWA would receive raucous chants for his name as he closed out Korakuen Hall main events after defending his title, and Saya would be showered with praise herself in the same scenario. They are both the same age, both regularly pull out flashy moves (sometimes just for the sake of it, especially in the case of OZAWA) and both have a background in dancing. They have both even licked their opponents during title matches at Korakuen Hall in 2025. While Saya’s dream-like title reign would continue, OZAWA’s was ended in what I consider the best finish of 2025, a knockout kick by Kenoh in July at Korakuen Hall. It was shocking, dramatic and the perfect schadenfreude for the cocky champion who had poked and prodded the hotheaded Kenoh over the course of a month. In my opinion, this was the peak of NOAH in 2025, and it is perhaps not a coincidence that it is when the focus was shifted away from OZAWA. KENTA would go on to become champion just a day later at a back-to-back sold out Korakuen Hall ahead of the N-1 Victory tournament. The exciting part about the tournament was figuring out where OZAWA would fit back into the picture, but on the first night of the tournament OZAWA attempted to mock his opponent Naomichi Marufuji by copying his move from 2006. OZAWA tried a moonsault over the barricade onto Marufuji, which Marufuji botched in an unforgettable moment in his match against KENTA 19 years prior. The schadenfreude that OZAWA so regularly elicited was back for another lick itself, as OZAWA injured himself and was ruled out of the rest of the tournament with a lisfranc fracture in his foot. While the N-1 did pretty good attendance-wise, it felt like something was missing. Jack Morris, who was in OZAWA’s block, made the finals against Team 2000X’s new Chairman, Masa Kitamiya, in a spot that seemed destined for OZAWA to begin his babyface turn. Whether or not that was the direction isn’t the point, NOAH were headed for a cold fourth quarter without their talisman.

While it would be absurd to say NOAH had a bad year, they certainly did not finish strong after a great first three quarters. Aside from the heavyweight title scene, largely booked well, the junior heavyweight division had been on fire for much of 2025, set ablaze by the arrival of super rookie Daiki Odashima, who turned out to be one of the best junior heavyweights on the planet within a year of his debut. Spurred on by the new rookie, even veterans such as Eita and YO-HEY found their groove with several great performances, and Los Golpeadores (Alpha Wolf and Dragon Bane) cemented themselves as one of the best tag teams in the world due to their work in that division. New Japan’s junior heavyweight ace, Hiromu Takahashi, decided he had wanted a taste of the NOAH’s junior division and ended up beating YO-HEY to become champion. Hiromu has been an excellent champion so far and deservedly pushed strongly as he won the Junior Grand Prix while champion. Three new rookies debuted in December, allowing NOAH to continue cycling people up their roster, a key part of a major company. That was an important observation pointed out by a great article in Shupro which compared NOAH to All Japan, stating that Yuma Anzai, a former Triple Crown Champion, was still stuck doing rookie chores due to their lack of new blood. With the junior division and new rookies, NOAH is in a good place to rebound from a sluggish fourth quarter and have an exciting 2026. But to fully secure the turnaround, they still need some juice at the top of the card.

GHC Heavyweight Championship: Yoshiki Inamura (c) vs. OZAWA

After KENTA’s mediocre GHC Heavyweight Championship run, which was neither bad nor good, Yoshiki Inamura returned from his own European excursion and became the new champion. Inamura led the way into NOAH’s final big show of the year in Sendai which ended up failing spectacularly with an attendance of 832, as NOAH seemed to forget they were running a show in a venue that big and failed to do the necessary promotion and matchmaking. Inamura, with an Americanised gimmick where he speaks half Japanese and half English (a gimmick the fans love and his charisma makes work), intended to nominate his next challenger in a post-match promo after defeating Kaito Kiyomiya in Sendai. Inamura began his nomination and bellowed into the microphone in his signature manner: “Misterrrrrrrr…” before the words “OZAWA” rang out through the speakers of the arena. The cameras switched to OZAWA, stood up holding a mic and thanking Inamura for nominating him as the next challenger. OZAWA, very much aware of his faux heel act, leaned into the same criticisms that he and Saya Kamitani had received of being a “fake heel” and decided to go one step further and become a goody two-shoes, repenting for his past actions and claiming he would right all the wrongs he committed. Of course, Inamura was not about to nominate OZAWA, believing him to be injured as OZAWA walked around with a crutch and a brace on his foot. After goading Inamura into accepting the challenge out of Inamura’s sheer politeness and being fooled by OZAWA’s nice guy act, OZAWA sprinted out of the arena. You’d think Inamura would cop onto the fact he was being played, but his character is apparently as dumb as bricks.

Now the next GHC Heavyweight Championship challenger, OZAWA met with the champion in a press conference on 2nd December. OZAWA mentioned that they used to share the same room with each other during their excursion in the UK, and that Inamura was OZAWA’s debut opponent. OZAWA continued to pretend that his foot was hurt, saying that he could barely work. OZAWA said that his injury on the opening night of N-1 had spurred his change of heart and he wanted to repay the fans. When the two stood up to take photos, OZAWA hit Inamura in the back with a crutch, and then continued smashing him with the crutch before stomping him with the foot that was in a brace. He then put on his old black coat and sunglasses, completing his return to the old OZAWA. He force fed Inamura the almond cake that he had brought him, before proceeding to eat the cake off of Inamura’s face. The unhinged, unpredictable nature of the Real Rebel that had swooned fans across the country throughout the year was back for another New Year’s show that he intended to make his own, two years in a row.

© kayonces

Then, after Inamura’s house show match on 13th December in Nagoya, OZAWA ambushed Inamura with his crutch. OZAWA, donning a long black coat, scarf and still with the foot brace, told a story about Inamura feeding stray cats during their UK excursion, claiming that Inamura had never thought about the impact that it would have on the cats after he left the UK and once they had become dependent on him. OZAWA cut this promo while holding a LEGO toy cat, as if the story was from the point of view of the cat. He shoved the toy into Inamura’s face and called him a selfish, egotistical bastard. He walked to the back without using his crutch.

OZAWA elaborated on his hatred for Inamura in an interview given to Shupro and published in issue #2390. He spoke of a situation during their UK excursion where one of their senior colleagues went out drinking, but Inamura caught them and reported it to Kaito Kiyomiya. OZAWA thought it should have been something that they sorted out in the dorm, but Inamura just wanted to show off that he was “properly supervising” the dorm and sucking up to Kaito. OZAWA said that three of their seniors, and two of Owadasan’s class quit, as well as everyone in the class after Owadasan. He puts the blame solely on Kaito Kiyomiya and Yoshiki Inamura who were doing the training. OZAWA points to Daiki Odashima’s success, as well as the quick debut of Yuto Koyanagi, Hiroto Tsuruya and Midori Takahashi who debuted eight months after they joined. OZAWA said that it took him 14 months, and Owadasan 15 months, and it wasn’t a coincidence that the next batch debuted quicker after Inamura left, and that he wished he had a senior as good as Odashima. OZAWA said, given the fact he was a trainee for 12 months in New Japan and 14 months in NOAH, he got tired of the dojos. Under Kaito and Inamura several trainees quit who OZAWA thought had potential, and he believes it to be a sad waste of talent. OZAWA said that if fans want to watch “strong guys,” they should just go and watch MMA. The old-fashioned mindset isn’t equipped to understand what makes pro wrestling interesting (I agree with him). OZAWA then pointed out that Odashima actually failed his NOAH entrance test but only debuted after he passed the rookie audition on Kenoh’s YouTube channel. OZAWA asserts that under the Kaito-Inamura system, Odashima would have never debuted. This is all part of his rebellious attitude. He wants things to change, to move on with the times. He said the fact that he wants numerous “candidate wives” is the reason he cannot wrestle as freely as he used to, to avoid upsetting the women across Japan. If open marriage were acceptable, it would allow him to wrestle as he wishes. The polyamorous, socially liberal Real Rebel.

OZAWA pointed out another example where OZAWA got hurt immediately in the UK and got an MRI on his arm. The medical costs, partially insured, left OZAWA with a 400k yen bill. NOAH said they’d cover it as it was incurred during training, but later they revoked the offer after learning he had incurred the injury during non-official training. OZAWA suspected that it was Inamura that told the company, leaving him to foot a massive bill. OZAWA then mocked the attendance in Sendai when Inamura faced Kaito, before saying he did not care about the belt, just to get Inamura off the top of the NOAH mountain. OZAWA feels that if Inamura is not knocked off the top, then there is a real possibility of NOAH going backwards and the trainee system suffering greatly, leading to a waste of talent. He feels it is his mission to destroy Inamura.

Let’s not beat around the bush, NOAH would need even bigger cojones than they had in January 2025 to put Inamura over Kaito Kiyomiya and OZAWA back-to-back. It’s not impossible, but given they are the top two stars of NOAH in 2025 (regardless of your view of Kaito), Inamura’s title reign would need to have an ace up its sleeve to prevent being stale and not be overshadowed by dynamic pairs on the undercard. OZAWA and Kaito have an electric chemistry, with Kaito allowing OZAWA to do his best in-ring work in 2025, an area that is by far OZAWA’s weakness. It’s not that OZAWA can’t wrestle, he is abundantly athletically talented. It’s that he has not figured out how to put on compelling main-event style matches and he did not grow up wanting to wrestle, instead doing gymnastics and dancing. Yet, Kaito has been his best dance partner, so OZAWA losing wouldn’t be the end of the world if he could work a program with Kaito who is on the backburner himself. Alternatively, OZAWA’s stablemate and senior, both in storyline and reality, Owadasan, left on excursion as one of the biggest babyfaces in the company. An OZAWA and Owadasan pairing would do serious numbers as a duo and could easily jettison off the Team 2000X baggage becoming the biggest team in the company – that is if NOAH really wanted to run with Inamura. On the other hand, OZAWA returned on the 23rd December Korakuen Hall show, and judging by that match and Team 2000X’s performance, the unit definitely still has legs when OZAWA is around, so the OZAWA and Owadasan duo could just stay in Team 2000X too.

However if NOAH want to catch up to Stardom, DDT and New Japan, after the odd detour of KENTA, the re-establishing run of Inamura and the unfortunate injury to OZAWA, NOAH should double down on their bullish investment in January 2025 and return the crown to the King of Korakuen.

GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship: Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. AMAKUSA

Alright, enough about OZAWA. What’s going on elsewhere? As alluded to earlier, the Junior Heavyweight division has been the unsung hero of NOAH in 2025, which to be honest, is quite similar to All Japan. Hiromu has been inspired as the champion of NOAH’s junior division, becoming a wall for the NOAH juniors to attempt to overcome. It has been one of the best outsider angles of 2025, considering it is quite a hard balance to achieve, and Hiromu has managed to be a compelling bully while not pissing off any NOAH fans. In fact, the NOAH audience has embraced Hiromu as their new junior overlord and the fans largely enjoy the division throwing bodies at Hiromu as he fights them off like a final raid boss. His close friend, AMAKUSA, was cheated out of the Junior Grand Prix after a Jun Masaoka heel turn. Hiromu would come to AMAKUSA’s aid before going on to beat Kai Fujimura in the finals and nominating AMAKUSA as his next challenger. But, rather than exchange pleasantries, Hiromu announced that the 1st January was the final time he would “taste a NOAH junior” and he wanted to definitely and thoroughly smash AMAKUSA. The well spoken, heavily kayfabed character of Lord AMAKUSA who delivers his promos in Shakespearean-like speech shouldn’t detract from the fact he is one of the best workers in the division, and this may well end up being one of the best matches on the card. Given Hiromu’s promo and the fact he has pretty much faced most of the NOAH juniors already, I expect him to drop the title to his friend, but don’t count out the odds of Hiromu hanging around and maybe teaching some of those heavyweights a lesson.

© NOAH

GHC Tag Team Championship: Kenoh & Naomichi Marufuji (c) vs. BUSHI & XXXX

Los Tranquilos de Japon will be making an appearance at the Nippon Budokan on 1st January as Tetsuya Naito and BUSHI face the new GHC Tag Team Champions, Kenoh & Naomichi Marufuji, who won the titles on 13th December in Nagoya. Despite the match being officially billed as “XXXX”, NOAH have done the “AEW-CM Punk debut” gimmick and made it as obvious as possible that it is Tetsuya Naito, so there shouldn’t be complaints about “why don’t they just announce him?!” Unlike the CM Punk debut in 2021, Kenoh and Marufuji have used this as part of the storyline as they playfully mocked and teased Naito during their post-title win promo, with Marufuji even closing the show with Naito’s famous pose.

The tag division has been one of the lowlights of NOAH since Jack Morris and Omos vacated the titles due to WWE recalling Omos back to his home planet (who was actually getting over with the fans and having entertaining matches). Despite being locked into the promotion, I struggle to recall who were even the champions before Masa Kitamiya and Takashi Sugiura. I remember they won it in Kawasaki in August, but not who they were facing. *looks it up on Cagematch* Oh right, Daiki Inaba and Manabu Soya. You know, they had two really great matches where Inaba bled the hard way and Sugiura was just wailing on him, but alas, the booking of the division could not even allow me to recall that. It was exacerbated when NOAH decided to put the titles on NXT’s Honkerford and Tonkerford. The less said about that the better. The titles ended up at their rightful owners, NOAH’s uncs (complimentary) Kenoh and Naomichi Marufuji. Despite that, I think there is a real possibility that BUSHI and Naito take the titles. Naito does have regular European bookings in Spring 2026, but given NOAH’s booking of this division, I can see them not caring about that.

Special Tag Match (Invasion): Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. Jack Morris & Kaito Kiyomiya

The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson) attacked Kaito Kiyomiya as he was closing out his 10th anniversary show at Korakuen Hall on 7th December. He wants revenge. Jack Morris was there to help him, for some reason. Can we save Kaito from purgatory? If this match was meant to make me want to root for OZAWA to lose the main event just so he can work with Kaito, then bravo (since Kaito wouldn’t lose a title match to OZAWA three times in a row, presumably).

GHC National Championship: Dragon Bane (c) vs. Alpha Wolf

Ah, back to safety. Los Golpeadores, the masked brothers from Mexico who have been the most consistent, best workers in NOAH in 2025, are set for a singles match showdown for the GHC National Title which Dragon Bane won from the departing Galeno. The storyline is pretty simple. Alpha Wolf is a wolf. He gets hungry. He wanted a taste of the title. Bane is a good brother, so he is giving him the chance to eat the title. This will probably be the best match on the show unless something goes horribly wrong. Expect tope suicidas, tope con giros, all the topes, fast-paced counters, hurricanranas, Frankensteiners, Poisonranas – you get the idea.

Eight-Man Tag Match (Break the Silence): Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara, Hi69 & Mohammed Yone vs. HAYATA, KENTA, Tetsuya Endo & Ulka Sasaki

This match is being billed as “Break the Silence”. I watched all the shows but must have missed something. Team NOAH (Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara, Hi69 & Mohammed Yone) held a produce show on 29th November aimed at deciding their future without Go Shiozaki, who left to join All Japan. Team NOAH has not been kind about Shiozaki’s departure, basically telling him to get stuffed and ultimately deciding to continue without him with Kotoge as their leader. Do they intend on saying more about the acrimonious split with their former leader? Or is it just the name of the new unit led by KENTA, joined by HAYATA, Tetsuya Endo and Ulka Sasaki? After his defeat at the hands of Inamura, KENTA has been playing around in house shows and grouping up with the three misfits. Ulka already previously teamed up with KENTA earlier in the year alongside Kenoh, but they went their separate ways during the year. HAYATA was in PASSIONATE RATEL’s but left after he divorced YO-HEY following their GHC Junior Heavyweight Title, and Tetsuya Endo has been homeless since leaving Team 2000X in the summer after coaxed away by Takashi Sugiura (only to then be betrayed by him as Sugiura went the other way and joined Team 2000X). This match will hopefully play a role in deciding the paths each unit decides to go down.

PROGRESS Atlas Championship: Will Kroos (c) vs. Saxon Huxley

Will Kroos returned to NOAH in an unaired house show in Niigata on 28th November, following his successful run earlier in the year. By successful, I mostly mean that I loved most of his matches and so did the crowds. Manabu Soya’s PASSIONATE RATEL’S faction had mostly deserted him, except for his one, true love in Saxon Huxley. YO-HEY is out due to injury, HAYATA divorced YO-HEY before that and was already out of the group, and then Yuto Kikuchi said there was no point in him sticking around if YO-HEY wasn’t that. That caused Soya to dress and act like YO-HEY in recent weeks, but throughout his breakdown, Huxley was around for him. On 30th November in Shizuoka, Huxley pinned Kroos, setting him on the path of challenging Kroos. Then, on 13th December, Kroos paired with GHC Heavyweight Champion “Mr. Smack Daddy” Yoshiki Inamura against Manabu Soya and Saxon Huxley. This match feels like one straight out of Monday Magic.

Eight-Man Tag Match (Black New Year): Team 2000X (Jun Masaoka, Masa Kitamiya, Tadasuke & Takashi Sugiura) vs. Junta Miyawaki, Kazuyuki Fujita, Minoru Suzuki & Shuhei Taniguchi

The monster heel run of Masa Kitamiya, tearing through everyone at the N-1, took a lot of damage losing to KENTA, and then died a dramatic, violent, explosive diarrhea-laden death at the hands of NXT’s Hunk and Tunk. So, he’s part of the filler second match on the show. The only thread of a storyline I’ll pull out is that Fujita is the one that initially caused Kitamiya to turn heel, making him question why he was putting so much effort into NOAH as the Wrestlers’ Chairman and NOAH’s talent scout. Fujita pinned him one too many times, causing the personality shift.

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Daga & Daiki Odashima (c) vs. Alejandro & Kai Fujimura vs. Eita & Shuji Kondo

It’s not always bad to be the opener. In some promotions, it’s a privilege. That is usually not the case in Japanese promotions, though. Daga’s unlikely successful babyface turn in September led to him assisting Daiki Odashima to winning his first title in the promotion, just over a year after his debut. Kai Fujimura has been gaining momentum in recent months as he made his way to the Junior Grand Prix final before falling to Hiromu. Him and his brother Alejandro could pick up the titles here. Daiki will be fine no matter what. He’s a made man.

While this is not the absolute best card NOAH could put on, I’d rate it as a B+ card. There are some great matches on the show, two matches I feel nothing about, and one match I’d avoid like the plague. I’ll let you guess which is which. By far the biggest draw on the card for an avid NOAH watcher like myself is finally getting closer to the answer I’ve been searching for since July. What exactly was NOAH’s plan with OZAWA when he lost the title to Kenoh? I’ll have to keep watching to see all the storylines unfold and where the Real Rebel ends up. They got me.

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