Tetsuya Naito Retains the GHC Heavyweight Title as He Awaits His Next Challenger

By: Lewis Carlan 

The Pro Wrestling NOAH GHC Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito made his second defense of the title on Nov. 9th against rival Kenoh at a sold out Korakuen Hall.

Prior to the championship bout, Kenoh vowed to win the GHC Heavyweight Championship and Naito stated that he felt he would have an easy defense against his challenger. Neither of these statements became a reality.

While Kenoh failed to secure his fifth GHC Heavyweight Title reign, it was hardly an easy bout for Naito. On a few occasions, Kenoh was hair’s breadth of defeating Naito but just couldn’t finish the job.

Naito’s Los Tranquilos de Japon ally BUSHI tried to interfere in the bout but was held in check by Naomichi Marufuji.

Kenoh’s desire to dethrone Natio was crushed when the champion hit his Destino finisher which was enough to pin the challenger and end the bout at the 26:26 mark.

Natio didn’t have a chance to celebrate his hard-fought victory as former GHC Heavyweight Champion Yoshiki Inamura entered the ring to challenge Natio. Soon, former three time champion Kaito Kiyomiya appeared and felt he should be the next challenger for Naito.

It was determined that Kiyomiya will face Inamura on Dec. 6th in a sixty minute iron man match with the winner to face Tetsuya Naito for the GHC Heavyweight Championship on Dec. 31st at NOAH “THE NEW YEAR” EVE 2026.

Image Credit: Pro Wrestling NOAH

One thing is certain, Tetsuya Naito’s next GHC Heavyweight Championship challenger will be a very difficult one to overcome as it will be in the form of either Kaito Kiyomiya or Yoshiki Inamura.