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Tetsuya Naito Successfully Defends GHC Heavyweight Championship Against Kenoh

ByAndrew J.T. Gelinas
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Tetsuya Naito has retained the GHC Heavyweight Championship.

It took a little longer than he might have hoped, but Tetsuya Naito was able to continue his reign as GHC Heavyweight Champion on Tuesday after he hit Kenoh was a decisive Destino to get the pin at the 26:26 mark. This was Naito’s second successful defense of the belt, and all but confirms that his reign will cross 100 days next week.

Following the match, Naito was greeted by Yoshiki Inamura and Kaito Kiyomiya, who both agreed to face off in a 60-minute iron man match on December 6 to determine Naito’s next opponent, whom they’ll face off with on New Year’s Eve.

Following his win, Naito had a few thoughts regarding both his match with Kenoh as well as his future as champion.

“It’s been a few years since I last faced Kenoh. This is our second match. He’s still full of energy as always. I actually watched his YouTube videos carefully. It seems he’d been devising all sorts of strategies to counter me. That just means he’s really paying attention to me, right? It’s a pain, but honestly, I’m glad. The fact that he’s paying that much attention to me, I mean. Anyway, next up is my title defense on a December 31 at Yokohama BUNTAI. I don’t know if my opponent will be Kiyomiya or Inamura. But before that, I’ve got a lot of matches lined up. Pro Wrestling NOAH’s series starts this Saturday with the Osaka show right? But before that, I’ve got a title defense in Singapore. I’m going to Singapore and I’ll do my best to spread the name of this GHC Heavyweight Championship and Pro Wrestling NOAH as much as I can. After all, I’m the face of Pro Wrestling NOAH and its main star. I won’t give up this spot to anyone. Whether it’s Inamura, Kiyomiya, or whoever else comes along, it doesn’t matter. From now on, this year and next year, I’m still the star of Pro Wrestling NOAH.”

-Tetsuya Naito

Speaking of Naito’s upcoming trip to Singapore, he will be making his return to Singapore Pro Wrestling on November 13 where he’s going to defend his SPW Championship against an unknown opponent.

For more news from across Japanese professional wrestling, you can click here.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Tetsuya Naito as soon as we hear more.

Translation via DeepL.