Muto’s last opponent goes face to face with the legend in Osaka, while Okada lays out Kiyomiya with a Rainmaker
Attendees at Pro-Wrestling NOAH’s February 12 event in EDION Arena Osaka got a pair of huge shocks either side of the night’s main event.
The first saw Tetsuya Naito’s music playing El Ingobernable to a NOAH ring. Signed to face Keiji Muto in Muto’s last ever match in the Tokyo Dome on February 21, Naito confronted the legend who had arrived to add colour commentary on the night’s final match.
Taking the microphone, Naito stated ‘when I heard that Keiji Muto was going to be here, I made sure to stay in Osaka. I’ve made the trip to Osaka for Muto before, back on December 10, 1999. Keiji Muto versus Genichiro Tenryu or the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, Battle Final. When Muto lost, I made the trip home, almost in tears.’
Turning his attention to Muto, Naito continued ‘never would I have thought that 23 years later I would be Muto’s final ever opponent. Muto, I know you want this to be one last grand work of art. Unfortunately, that won’t be. I want you to leave the ring for the final time in frustration and total defeat at the hands of Tetsuya Naito’.
After the GHC Heavyweight Champion Kaito Kiyomiya defeated Jack Morris to retain his title in the ensuing main event, he was getting set to send the fans in Osaka home when Kazuchika Okada hit the ring and laid the champion out with a Rainmaker. As the crowd showered the IWGP World heavyweight Champion with boos, Okada sneered that ‘if you want a match with me, you ask “Mr. Okada” and say please and thank you.’ Stating that there is ‘no way I’m shook or backing away from anything,’ Okada said that he would take the promoted match with Kiyomiya in the Tokyo Dome on February 21, ‘not for you, but because the ones I can’t stand are the NOAH fans’. Promising ‘despair’ for Kiyomiya at the Tokyo Dome, Okada left to a chorus of boos.
Muto and Naito will face off in the main event in the Tokyo Dome on February 21, as Okada and kiyomiya go one on one, and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi faces GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion AMAKUSA. The event is available on Wrestle Universe PPV.
