Two legends of Japanese wrestling are set to reunite in 2023 as KENTA teams with Naomichi Marufuji for a one-off tag team match against Pro Wrestling NOAH’s resident tag team champions.
Marufuji and KENTA are long time rivals and former partners in the promotion. Their bouts in the mid-2000s revolutionised Junior-Heavyweight wrestling both in Japan and abroad. Their matches are revered to this day for their breakneck speed, brutal realism and incredible intensity and paved the way for the wrestlers of today to put on matches inspired by the duo.
With some big stars from outside the promotion wrestling for NOAH – including WWE’s Shinsuke Nakamura taking on Keiji Mutoh as the latter puts a lid on his legendary career – the two aforementioned NOAH Legends will team together one more time in a huge reunion match.
The duo of KENTA and Marufuji will wrestler against GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Takashi Sugiura and Satoshi Kojima at NOAH The New Year 2023, on Sunday, January 1 from the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Japan.
This will be the first time that KENTA and Marufuji will have teamed together since 2014, while the pair have not faced each other in the ring since their 2018 bout in honour of Marifuji’s 20 years in professional wrestling.
This match takes place on New Year’s Day 2023, on the same show as the highly anticipated Shinsuke Nakamura vs The Great Muta match. It could be the final time the two legendary NOAH wrestlers step into the ring together and would put an end to one of the most legendary and influential rivalries in wrestling history.
You can watch one of their greatest matches (and one of the best matches ever full stop) down below.