Originally published at New champion crowned at Pro Wrestling NOAH's 'Grand Square in Osaka'
Pro Wrestling NOAH returned to Osaka on Sunday as Katsuhiko Nakajima faced Naomichi Marufuji for the GHC Heavyweight Championship.
For the second year in a row, Nakajima won the N-1 Victory tournament defeating Kenoh in an outstanding finale last weekend to earn the title match with Naomichi Marufuji.
The 33-year old Nakajima secured the championship by beating Marufuji with the vertical spike in the main event of ‘Grand Square 2021 in Osaka’ and winning the belt for the second time in his career. Nakajima previously held the title from October 2016 until August 2017.
#ANDNEW The Genius of The Kick @noah_katsuhiko defeats defending champion Naomichi Marufuji with a stalling Vertical Spike to win the @noah_ghc Heavyweight Championship for a second time! #osakaghc #noah_ghc pic.twitter.com/cc8ETg6TlB
— Pro Wrestling NOAH (@noahglobal) October 10, 2021
The new champion proclaimed, “I am NOAH” to the audience of 1,291 at the Edion Arena.
Following the win, Masato Tanaka confronted the new champion and issued a challenge. This comes after Tanaka defeated Nakajima during the round-robin portion of the N-1 Victory tournament in the C Block.
Marufuji ended his fourth reign as champion, which began this past June after defeating Keiji Muto at the Cyberfight Festival.
In other championship news, the team of Eita & NOSAWA Rongai won the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship defeating Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara in a four-minute match.
Eita debuted with NOAH this past June and helped form Los Perros del Mal de Japon with Rongai, Ikuto Hidaka, Kotaro Suzuki & YO-HEY.
HAYATA retained the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Championship against Daisuke Harada and it appears that NOSAWA Rongai will be the next challenger for that championship.
Champion HAYATA nominates @NOSAWARONGAI187 as his next challenger!
📺 https://t.co/bJH4wKM51I#osakaghc #noah_ghc pic.twitter.com/h4DbpAwFvn
— Pro Wrestling NOAH (@noahglobal) October 10, 2021
Here are the full results from NOAH’S ‘Grand Square 2021 in Osaka’ on Sunday (Courtesy: Purolove.com):
*GHC Heavyweight Championship: Katsuhiko Nakajima over Naomichi Marufuji (champion)
*Kenoh & Kaito Kiyomiya over Keiji Muto & Kazushi Sakuraba
*GHC Jr. Heavyweight Championship: HAYATA (champion) over Daisuke Harada
*GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Eita & NOSAWA Rongai over Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara (champions)
*Masato Tanaka, Masaaki Mochizuki & Masakatsu Funaki over Takashi Sugiura, Kazuyuki Fujita & Kendo Kashin (after the match, Mochizuki issued a challenge to Sugiura for the GHC National Championship)
*Kotaro Suzuki & YO-HEY over Seiki Yoshiaki & Yoshinari Ogawa
*Manabu Soya & Aleja over Masa Kitamiya & Junta Miyawaki
*King Tani, Muhammad Yone & Akitoshi Saito over Tadasuke, Nioh & Haoh
*Daiki Inaba & Kai Fujimura over Kinya Okada & Yasutaka Yano