Mysterious Phantom Invader Appears at Korakuen Hall, Attacks GHC National Champion Naomichi Marufuji

By: Ian McCord

At Pro Wrestling NOAH’s ninth event of the N-1 VICTORY 2026 at Korakuen Hall, a masked mystery man appeared to attack the GHC National Champion Naomichi Marufuji during a six-man tag team match against Los Tranquilos de Japon.

During the third match of the night, Naomichi Marufuji teamed with Shane Haste and HAYATA to take on the LTJ trio of Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI, and RYUSEI. At around the seven minute mark, Marufuji had BUSHI trapped in a submission in the middle of the ring when a large masked figure dressed in camouflage hit the ring and attacked the GHC National Champion. The masked man then dumped Shane Haste to the outside and hit HAYATA with a headbutt before continuing to beat down Marufuji and finishing things off with a huge powerbomb.

After tossing Marufuji to the outside, the masked man shook the hand of BUSHI, who appeared very confused by the whole situation and seemingly having no idea who the invader could be.

During his post-match comments, an angry Marufuji questioned the purpose of the masked man’s attack before demanding he be booked in a match.

From Naomichi Marufuji:

“Who was that? Probably Naito or BUSHI dragged him in, right? What’s the target here, huh, me? The belt? What is this, huh! You just wing it out there!? Hey, don’t go wrecking the match! Get him booked! I don’t care who you are, get out here! I’ll rip that mask right off! Don’t mess with me.”

Marufuji got his wish, with a tag match between the “Mysterious Phantom Invader” and BUSHI vs. Naomichi Marufuji and HAYATA made official for the N-1 VICTORY Final on October 4th.

Image Credit: Pro Wrestling NOAH

Elsewhere on the card in N-1 VICTORY competition, four Block B matches took place. Titus Alexander defeated Tetsuya Endo, Kouga picked up the win over Manabu Soya, KENTA snuck past Masa Kitamiya, and KENOH scored a hard-fought victory over OZAWA in the main event. Also on the card, Kai Fujimura defeated Alejandro to secure his first defense of the GHC Jr. Heavyweight title  with Dragon Bane stepping up as the next challenger for the title.

N-1 VICTORY 2026 returns on September 25th at Sendai PIT in Miyagi with four Block A matches scheduled for the event.

Here are the full results from NOAH’s N-1 VICTORY 2026 Day 9 courtesy of purolove.com:

• Yoshiki Inamura, Yuki Iino, Chen, & Atsushi Kotoge defeat Kaito Kiyomiya, Kazuyuki Fujita, Hiroto Tsuruya, & Hiroya Namiki (6:04)
• Tadasuke, YO-HEY, and Jun Masaoka defeat Dragon Bane, Daiki Odashima, and Yuto Koyanagi (6:15)
• Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI, and RYUSEI vs. Naomichi Marufuji, Shane Haste, and HAYATA – No Contest (6:56).
• N-1 VICTORY – Block B: Titus Alexander [6] defeats Tetsuya Endo [6] (9:04)
• N-1 VICTORY – Block B: Kouga [4] defeats Manabu Soya [4] (10:04)
• N-1 VICTORY – Block B: KENTA [2] defeats Masa Kitamiya [6] (11:27)
• GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title: Kai Fujimura (c) defeats Alejandro (18:09)
• N-1 VICTORY Block B: Kenoh [6] defeats OZAWA [6] (18:57)

N-1 VICTORY Standings:

Block A:

• Kaito Kiyomiya [9]
• Yoshiki Inamura [7]
• Shane Haste [6]
• Kazuyuki Fujita [6]
• Alpha Wolf [6]
• Chen [4]
• Takashi Sugiura [4]
• Yuki Iino [0]

Block B:

• Masa Kitamiya [6]
• OZAWA [6]
• Tetsuya Endo [6]
• Titus Alexander [6]
• KENOH [6]
• Manabu Soya [4]
• Kouga [4]
• KENTA [2]