Hayabusa Defeats Katsuhiko Nakajima in ZERO1 Fire Festival 2026 Opener

By: Ian McCord

On June 13th, Pro Wrestling ZERO1’s Fire Festival 2026 kicked off at Shin-Kiba 1stRING, with last year’s winner Hayabusa picking up a huge victory over rival Katsuhiko Nakajima in the opening round of the tournament.

In the weeks leading up to the Fire Festival, The Phoenix made it clear that he had two goals, defeat Nakajima on the opening night and go on to win the whole festival and retrieve the Fire Sword for another year.

Hayabusa made good on his promise in the main event of the festival’s opener in Shin-Kiba, defeating Nakajima in just under twenty minutes with a new Wrist-Clutch Falcon Arrow finisher for the victory.

After the match, Hayabusa got on the microphone and told Nakajima that after he wins this year’s Fire Festival and eventually wins the ZERO1 World Heavyweight Championship, the two will truly settle the score in a third singles match since they each hold a win over the other.

From Hayabusa:

“Katsuhiko Nakajima, thank you. But it’s still one win and one loss. Next is the decisive match. Let’s do this again after I win the Fire Festival and take the World Heavyweight title!”

(Quote courtesy of Tokyo Sports, English Translation via DeepL)

Hayabusa took to social media following the event to share his victory with the world, give an update on how his body is feeling after the match with Nakajima, and claim that he plans to go undefeated in the tournament.

From Hayabusa via X:

“Thank you to everyone who came out to the opening match of the Fire Festival at Shin-Kiba. I defeated Katsuhiko Nakajima and got off to a winning start. I’ve settled the score from March, but I’m still one win and one loss. There’s bound to be a third time. My whole body aches, but this year’s Fire Festival has only just begun. This year, I’m going to go undefeated and win back-to-back Fire Festival titles. The real fun is just getting started.”

Elsewhere on the card, three other Fire Festival 2026 matches took place. In other Block B action, Koji Doi sits in first place next to Hayabusa after defeating Tsugataka Sato with a Murderer Lariat for the win in (12:27). In Block A, Shuji Ishikawa defeated Ryunosuke Nagai and five-time Fire Festival winner Masato Tanaka defeated Kuroshio TOKYO Japan in the semi-main event.

Fire Festival 2026 action continues on June 21st at Juroku Plaza Hall in Gifu, where ZERO1 World Heavyweight Champion Junya Matsunaga takes on Kuma Arashi for Block A and Daichi Hashimoto faces off against Yuko Miyamoto for Block B.

Here are the full results from ZERO1’s Fire Festival 2026 opener on June 13th courtesy of purolove.com:

• Yuki Toki, Yasu Kubota, and Hide Kubota defeat Takuya Sugawara, Bryan Ishizaka, and Seigo Tachibana (10:47) following Hide’s 758i against Ishizaka.
• Junya Matsunaga & Kuma Arashi defeat Rich Port Ayala & Reece Alexios (12:02) following an Inside Cradle by Matsunaga on Alexios.
• Fire Festival – Block B: Koji Doi [2] defeats Tsugataka Sato [0] (12:27) with a Murderer Lariat.
• Fire Festival – Block A: Shuji Ishikawa [2] defeats Ryunosuke Nagai [0] with a Fire Thunder.
• Fire Festival – Block A: Masato Tanaka [2] defeats Kuroshio TOKYO Japan [0] (13:56) with the Sliding D.
• Fire Festival – Block B: Hayabusa [2] defeats Katsuhiko Nakajima [0] (19:43) with a Wrist-Clutch Falcon Arrow.

Fire Festival Standings:

Block A:

• Masato Tanaka [2]
• Shuji Ishikawa [2]
• Junya Matsunaga
• Kuma Arashi
• Ryunosuke Nagai [0]
• Kuroshio TOKYO Japan [0]

Block B:

• Hayabusa [2]
• Koji Doi [2]
• Yuko Miyamoto
• Daichi Hashimoto
• Katsuhiko Nakajima [0]
• Tsugataka Sato [0]