Cyberfight Director Narihiro Takeda Explains Questionable Kota Ibushi vs Naomichi Marufuji Main Event At NOAH “THE NEW YEAR” 2024
On January 2nd 2024, Pro Wrestling NOAH will be holding it’s biggest show of the year NOAH “THE NEW YEAR” 2024 at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo.
The main event for that show was decided on December 2nd and it was revealed that it will be Kota Ibushi squaring off against Naomichi Marufuji in a one on one match up. This was named the main event despite that the GHC Heavyweight Champion Kenoh will be defending his title against Manabu Soya on the show as well.
Many fans, including the author of this article, were very vocal about the match choice for the main event and felt it should be the Kenoh/Manabu Soya GHC Heavyweight Championship match.
Kenoh himself took to social media and expressed his displeasure in the decision.
Cyberfight Director Narihiro Takeda explained his decision in making Ibushi vs Marufuji the main event in a blog entry that he wrote on December 3rd.
I decided to make the main event of Ariake a match between Marufuji & Ibushi. On a talk show Marufuji said that he would retire in 5 years. I would like to organize as many historic bouts as possible for Marufuji.
Cyberfight Director Narihiro Takeda
In the blog entry, Director Takeda emphasized that it was not the intention of Kota Ibushi or Naomichi Marufuji that their match be made the main event for NOAH “THE NEW YEAR” 2024 but that decision rests solely with him.
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