NOAH The New Year 2026 had an early contender for Match Of The Year in AMAKUSA vs Takahashi, some very fun junior action and a typically impeccable production. For NOAH’s biggest show of the year though I confess I expect a bit more. The main event in particular needed to cut back drastically on the interference and mind games and focus on the actually very good wrestling happening, while some surprising undercard decisions left me feeling a bit cold. It was a fun enough show, but while the highest of highs was immaculate, the rest never came close to matching that level of excellence.
NOAH The New Year 2026 features Ozawa looking to claim the GHC Heavyweight Championship for the second year in a row, this time against champion Yoshiki Inamura. AMAKUSA also looks to bring the Junior Heavyweight Championship back to NOAH as he takes on the invading force of New Japan’s Hiromu Takahashi. Bushi has promised a mystery partner to take on Kenoh and Naomichi Marufuji for the GHC tag team titles, but will it be their destiny to claim the gold. Elsewhere on the card, its brother vs brother as Alpha Wolf battles Dragon Bane and The Good Brothers come to NOAH to take on Jack Morris and Kaito Kiyomiya!
| NOAH The New Year 2026 Star Ratings | |
| Match / In Ring Promo | Result and Star Rating. |
| NOAH The New Year 2026 Opening Match Daga and Daiki Odashima (c) vs Eita and Shuji Kondo vs Alejandro and Kai Fujimura- GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships | Daga and Daiki Odashima retain via Daiki Odashima German Suplex AMAZING – 4 Stars |
| Junta Miyawaki, Kazuyuki Fujita, Minoru Suzuki and Shuhei Taniguchi vs Team 2000x (Jun Masaoka, Masa Kitamiya, Tadasuke and Takashi Sugiura) | Masa Kitamiya by Submission via Octopus Stretch AVERAGE – 2.5 Stars |
| Will Kroos (c) vs Saxon Huxley- Progress Atlas Championship | Saxon Huxley by Pinfall via Avalanche Neck Hanging Bomb GREAT – 3.5 Stars |
| Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara, Hi69 and Mohammed Yone vs White Raven Squad (HAYATA, KENTA, Tetsuya Endo and Ulka Sasaki) | KENTA by Pinfall via GTS GOOD – 3 Stars |
| Dragon Bane (c.) vs Alpha Wolf- GHC National Championship | Alpha Wolf by Pinfall via Wolf Driver AMAZING – 4.25 Stars. |
| Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson vs Jack Morris and Kaito Kiyomiya | Karl Anderson by Pinfall via Magic Killer. GREAT- 3.75 Stars |
| Kenoh and Naomichi Marufuji (c.) vs Bushi and Tetsuya Naito- GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Championships | Bushi by Pinfall via Mist Assisted Role Up AVERAGE – 2.75 Stars |
| Hiromu Takahashi (c.) vs AMAKUSA- GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship | AMAKUSA by Pinfall via Stardust Press PERFECT- 5 Stars |
| Yoshiki Inamura (c.) vs OZAWA- GHC Heavyweight Championship | Yoshiki Inamura by Pinfall vis Discharge Splash AMAZING- 4 STARS |
NOAH The New Year 2026 Highs
The clear highlight of NOAH The New Year 2026 and a contender for match of the year on the very first day is AMAKUSA vs Hiromu Takahashi. This was an exceptional bout, charged by some amazing babyface fire from AMAKUSA and exceptional heel work from Takahashi. I didn’t realise until this match how good Takahashi is at taking the weight advantage in the Junior division and weaponising it. He dismantles AMAKUSA and every kickout gains more and more weight as AMAKUSA keeps surviving. One of the rare matches in which fighting for the soul of a company pays off perfectly. I’d love to see this Takahashi maintain for the rest of the year, as he is truly remarkable when he is at his best.
The juniors stole the show throughout the night in fact with typically strong matches. The opening 3 way tag was an exciting spotfest to get the crowd hyped up and featured excellent psychology of the other wrestlers targeting rookie champ Odashima and trying to keep his partner Daga out of the ring, only for Odashima to get the final pin. Later in the show Odashima targeted AMAKUSA for a shot at the Jr Heavyweight Title and based off his 2025 he really has earned it. Dragon Bane and Alpha Wolf may have had a controversial finish with Wolf joining the dark side, but I thoroughly enjoyed the hard strikes and storytelling between maybe my favourite tag team in Japan.
The main event, despite some major flaws, had excellent sequences and the talent of both Inamura and Ozawa shone through. I think the post match announcement of Inamura vs Kitamiya sounds like great fun and will probably outdo what was done here.
NOAH The New Year 2026 Lows
Let’s start the shows lows where we ended the highs, as the main event has invoked heavily mixed views in me. While the quality of the action was good, did it need nearly 15 minutes worth of stalling, heel beatdowns and mind games in a 21 minute match. If this went to 35 or 40 minutes then it could’ve been okay, but for the biggest show of NOAH’s calendar to be populated by constant team 2000X beatdowns does hurt the match overall. The overreliance on Ozawa’s faction took away agency from both competitors and dampened their star coming out of it.
In the worst kept secret in Japanese Wrestling History, it was Tetsuya Naito who filled the mystery partner slot alongside Bushi against tag champions Kenoh and Marufuji. An amazing reaction for Naito and some great work from Kenoh did save what was an otherwise very slow affair, expected given the combined age of the workers. Every competitor had moments of strong work but it did drag on and there were noticeable botches throughout. Bushi and Naito have the tag gold now so let’s hope they can do something with it, because these belts have been hot potatoed like crazy for months and could really use some stability and quality.
The showcase tag matches were what they were, undercard demonstrations of talents not in bigger spots. The debut of the White Raven Squad was a rudimentary showcase but more baffling was having Minoru Suzuki and Katsuyuji Fujita on the same team, setting up dissention and then having Kitamiya win quickly in 6 minutes without any payoff. Maybe my love for Suzuki outweighs his position in Japan now, but it still stung a bit we didn’t see more given the potential fireworks.
Finally, despite a totally solid match, I am surprised at the decision to give the Progress Atlas Championship to Saxon Huxley, a totally solid worker but someone who does not need it more than Will Kroos. Kroos is a real up and comer and the loss felt a bit of a dampener on his momentum, especially given it wasn’t the barn burner he is perhaps capable of.
Summary
NOAH The New Year 2026 had an early contender for Match Of The Year in AMAKUSA vs Takahashi, some very fun junior action and a typically impeccable production. For NOAH’s biggest show of the year though I confess I expect a bit more. The main event in particular needed to cut back drastically on the interference and mind games and focus on the actually very good wrestling happening, while some surprising undercard decisions left me feeling a bit cold. It was a fun enough show, but while the highest of highs was immaculate, the rest never came close to matching that level of excellence.
Matches- 0.75/1
Show Structure- 0.75/1
Atmosphere- 0.75/1
Storytelling- 0.5/1
Production/Theme- 1/1
Overall Rating- 3.75/5 Stars
Photo Credit- Pro Wrestling NOAH- January 1st 2026
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