WhiteTail Wrestling

NOAH The New Year 2026

We begin 2026 in NOAH as they put on their big new year show at the Budokan in front of a good crowd of over 6,000. Overall this was not a great show there was way too much Team 2000X ruining a number of matches with their interference and heel schtick including the main event and what was set to be a great match between Dragon Bane and Alpha Wolf.

Daga & Daiki Odashima retain their GHC Junior Tag Titles in a decent opener. Will Kroos was really impressive in his match against Saxon Huxley and despite defeat and losing his Progress Atlas title he looks set for a potentially strong run in Japan. Kroos is a big man but he has good agility hitting an impressive top rope Spanish fly which was breathtaking to watch.

Alpha Wolf beat his brother Dragon Bane to win the GHC National Title but unfortunately he did it through a terrible generic heel turn which ruined what was set to be a great match.

The one surprisingly good match on this card was the Good Brothers defeating Kaito Kiyomiya and Jack Morris. Morris and Kiyomiya sold very well especially Morris and the Good Brothers looked like they wanted to be there which can’t always be said about them.

Tetsuya Naito made his debut undoubtably drawing some of this crowd and was the most over wrestler on this show despite that he is completely washed putting in an extremely poor performance tagging with BUSHI against Kenoh & Naomichi Marufuji. Naito looked old and very slow and Marufuji likewise looked way past his prime. Kenoh was by far the best worker in the match but he couldn’t save this from being a bit of a disaster.

By far the best match on this card was the GHC Junior Championship match which saw AMAKUSA defeat Hiromu Takahashi. Hiromu is still great when he wants to be and he worked hard here putting in a really strong performance in the first Match of the Year Contender for 2026. Fast paced and exciting action this was what you want a big junior title match to be ****3/4.

The main event was a disappointment OZAWA is a star for NOAH but his heel group Team 2000X has go away heat in the same way that the House of Torture stinks up NJPW. Yoshiki Inamura has a fake American cowboy pretending to be Stan Hansen gimmick and it doesn’t really work as a serious gimmick so that didn’t help things here. Lots of interference lots of bullshit. Inamura retains but this was not a main event level match.

Other New Year’s Day action

Tochigi Pro put on a Shinjiro Otani Aid show which was highlighted by an excellent match between Sareee and Mirai filled with high end work and exciting action this was a super **** match and a great way to kick off the year for these two Joshi stars. Outside of that there was nothing on this card worth bothering with although the main event tag match was decent enough.

Choco Pro had a new year show which was fun enough but isn’t really for me. I couldn’t stand the WAVE show which I turned off and in the US Indies Beyond Wrestling had one of their Wrestling Open shows which was ok with the highlight being a tag match between Bang and Matthews against the Miracle Generation.

Match of the Year

1. AMAKUSA vs Hiromu Takahashi – NOAH – 1st January 2026
2. Sareee vs Mirai – Tochigi Pro – 1st January 2026

Wrestlers of the Year

1. AMAKUSA
2. Hiromu Takahashi
3. Sareee
4. Mirai
5. Will Kroos
6. Alpha Wolf
7. Dragon Bane
8. Jack Morris
9. Kenoh
10. Kaito Kiyomiya

Tag Team of the Year

1. The Good Brothers
2. Kaito Kiyomiya & Jack Morris
3. Bang & Matthews
4. Miracle Generation
5. Daga & Daiki Odashima

Promotion of the Year

1. NOAH