Los Tranquilos de Japon Victorious in NOAH NEO GLOBAL TAG LEAGUE Opener

By: Ian McCord

On May 23rd, Pro Wrestling NOAH’s NEO GLOBAL TAG LEAGUE kicked off at KBS Hall in Kyoto, with 480 fans in attendance to see A Block participants compete in the opening night of the tag team tournament.

The main event of the evening saw current GHC Tag Team Champions Tetsuya Naito and BUSHI defeat TEAM 2000X’s Masa Kitamiya and Takashi Sugiura after Naito planted Kitamiya with his Destino finisher for the win in (13:28).

Before the start of the tournament, Naito said that he and BUSHI plan to go undefeated in the tag league, and the ungovernable one doubled down on those comments during his post-match interview on May 23rd.

From Tetsuya Naito:

“I’m happy to be in NEO GLOBAL TAG LEAGUE for the first time. But we’re already the GHC Tag Champions, which means BUSHI and I are expected to win. The real question is: who can stop us? Who can change that destino? Open your eyes and stand in our way. Entertain us. Make us struggle. If a team like that appears, this league gets a lot more interesting.”

(English Translation via Pro Wrestling NOAH)

Elsewhere on the card, Tetsuya Endo and HAYATA defeated Lykos Gym, and The Good Brothers defeated Kaito Kiyomiya and Harutoki in the semi-main event, with both teams ending the night with 2 points on the board.

Here are the full results from NOAH NEO GLOBAL TAG LEAGUE night 1 on May 23rd courtesy of purolove.com:

• Yoshiki Inamura, Stallion Rogers, and Alejandro defeat KENTA, Katsumi Inahata, and Yuto Koyanagi (9:13) after Rogers hits Koyanagi with the “From Dusk Till Dawn.”
• Manabu Soya, Yuki Iino, Eita, and Midori Takahashi defeat Kazuyuki Fujita, Mohammed Yone, Hi69, and Black Menso~re (9:11) following Soya’s Passion IS against Menso~re.
• Atsushi Kotoge defeats Hiroto Tsuruya (7:27) with a Koumori Tsuri Otoshi.
• OZAWA, Tadasuke, Kai Fujimura & Jun Masaoka defeat Naomichi Marufuji, Kenoh, AMAKUSA & Daiki Odashima (12:34) following Tadasuke’s Neko Ou against Odashima.
• Neo Global Tag League – Block A: Tetsuya Endo & HAYATA [2] defeat Kid Lykos & Kid Lykos II [0] (11:26) following a Shooting Star Press by Endo against Lykos II.
• Neo Global Tag League – Block A: Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows [2] defeat Kaito Kiyomiya & Harutoki [0] (11:45) when Anderson pinned Harutoki after the Magic Killer.
• Neo Global Tag League – Block A: Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI [2] defeat Masa Kitamiya & Takashi Sugiura [0] (13:28) following Naito’s Destino against Kitamiya.

Neo Global Tag League Standings:

Block A:

• Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI [2]
• Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows [2]
• Tetsuya Endo & HAYATA [2]
• Kid Lykos & Kid Lykos II [0]
• Kaito Kiyomiya & Harutoki [0]
• Masa Kitamiya & Takashi Sugiura [0]

Block B:

• Naomichi Marufuji & Kenoh
• Kazuyuki Fujita & Mohammed Yone
• Yoshiki Inamura & Stallion Rogers
• KENTA & Katsumi Inahata
• Manabu Soya & Yuki Iino
• OZAWA & Tadasuke