Great Voyage 2006: WrestleFile Historical Verdict

Tamon Honda, Junji Izumida and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi defeated Kentaro Shiga, Kishin Kawabata and Mitsuo Momota in the opening six-man tag at Great Voyage 2006. The match assembled long-serving NOAH performers on both sides of the ring, giving the Budokan crowd a familiar starting point before the show introduced younger heavyweights and championship challenges. Honda and Kikuchi had built reputations through hard physical wrestling, while Izumida supplied another experienced heavyweight presence. The opposing trio likewise brought years of Japanese wrestling history to the encounter.

A roughly fourteen-minute opener gave these veterans room for an actual team contest rather than a procession of brief appearances. Its result belonged to the full Honda–Izumida–Kikuchi trio and did not move a GHC title. For a reader reconstructing the card, the match illustrates how NOAH retained a supporting roster beyond its famous main-event stars. Viewers interested primarily in title outcomes can sample the opener selectively, but its team arrangement remains part of the destination show's history.

Daisuke Ikeda and Masao Inoue defeated Ricky Marvin and Yoshinari Ogawa in a tag match early in NOAH's Great Voyage 2006. The unusual pairing brought Ikeda's aggressive striking together with Inoue's veteran presence, while Marvin supplied a faster junior-heavyweight element alongside Ogawa's more methodical wrestling. That contrast made the bout noticeably different from the preceding heavyweight veteran six-man. Ikeda and Inoue received the official victory without being awarded either a junior or heavyweight team championship.

The historical value comes from the mixture of styles rather than a major title development. Marvin's speed and Ogawa's familiarity with NOAH's senior stars ensured that the losing team had an identifiable character, while the winners showed another facet of the promotion's wide roster. This was a supporting tag rather than the key contest of the event. The result should remain attached to these four wrestlers as two teams, without confusing the match with the later GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship defense.

Takeshi Morishima defeated Go Shiozaki in fewer than five minutes at Great Voyage 2006, a short result that gains interest from what both heavyweights would later achieve. Morishima was further along his rise toward NOAH's main events and used the encounter to establish a decisive advantage over Shiozaki, who remained in a younger developmental phase. They eventually became GHC Heavyweight Champions, but neither future reign should be mistaken for a title being defended in this particular singles match.

The compressed runtime prevented a lengthy escalation, so the contest isn't a strong choice for viewers seeking a complete heavyweight epic. It does supply a useful comparison of two developing careers at different stages. Morishima obtained a straightforward official win, while Shiozaki's defeat reflects his position at the time rather than a prediction of his eventual ceiling. Within a major Budokan card, the pairing offered a short glimpse of the next wave beneath the more established title programs.

Jun Akiyama and Makoto Hashi defeated Akitoshi Saito and Shuhei Taniguchi in a fifteen-minute tag match at Great Voyage 2006. Akiyama brought major championship experience and the authority of a NOAH founding star to his partnership with Hashi. The opponents combined Saito's longstanding heavyweight toughness with Taniguchi, a newer roster member still working to establish himself against recognized veterans. Akiyama and Hashi gained the team result without claiming a championship through this particular victory.

The match occupied an important supporting position between shorter early bouts and the card's later title attractions. Taniguchi's involvement is revealing in retrospect because he would have a longer career within NOAH, but that history should not be retroactively assigned to the losing team as a success. The fifteen-minute structure gave a mixture of established and developing wrestlers time to work together rather than simply appear. For historical viewing, it documents Akiyama's ongoing position in the promotion's hierarchy while offering a glimpse of its next generation.

Akira Taue, Atsushi Aoki, Mushiking Terry and Taiji Ishimori defeated Shuji Kondo, SUWA, TARU and “brother” YASSHI in an eight-man contest at Great Voyage 2006. The unusual lineup combined a former GHC Heavyweight Champion, emerging junior wrestlers and the Mushiking masked character against a visiting group with a confrontational presentation. The various personalities made this a different attraction from the straightforward heavyweight singles contests elsewhere on the show. The Taue–Aoki–Terry–Ishimori team earned the result as a unit.

The broad cast and approximately fifteen-minute duration gave the event variety, but no championship changed hands. The crossover aspect is more relevant here than the result's direct effect on a title lineage. Aoki and Ishimori would develop further in NOAH's junior division, while Taue's established career supplied the heavyweight connection. It is useful to preserve all eight wrestlers on their original sides in event discovery instead of reducing the attraction to Taue against one outside opponent.

Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Takashi Sugiura defeated NOSAWA and MAZADA to retain the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship at Great Voyage 2006. The champions had reasserted themselves as a team earlier in the year and faced visiting challengers with a distinctive outside style. Kanemaru's experience as a junior titleholder complemented Sugiura's aggressive physical approach, giving the reigning combination a credible advantage without rendering the challengers unimportant. Their victory was a successful defense, not a fresh title acquisition.

The more than twenty-six-minute runtime made this one of the evening's most developed competitive contests. NOAH treated its junior tag titles as a serious part of the Budokan program, giving the pairing considerable space before the more prominent heavyweight matches. NOSAWA and MAZADA's involvement offered a recognizable contrast with the home champions, but the result kept the GHC lineage with Kanemaru and Sugiura. The belt must be distinguished from the GHC Heavyweight title, whose holder changed in the show's final match.

KENTA, Mohammed Yone and Takeshi Rikio defeated Minoru Suzuki, Yoshihiro Takayama and Takuma Sano in a twenty-two-minute six-man at Great Voyage 2006. The winners combined KENTA's speed and striking with two established heavyweights, including former GHC champion Rikio. Their opponents included the notoriously dangerous Suzuki and the towering Takayama, producing the sense of an upper-card special attraction without attaching a championship. KENTA, Yone and Rikio secured the official team result.

Its placement immediately before the heavyweight title main event gave the encounter particular value as a bridge into the show's climax. The match assembled high-profile talent from different career paths, offering more than a conventional undercard rotation. It did not settle a singles feud through a one-on-one decision, and the victory should not be assigned to KENTA alone. The complete teams and the non-title status are key to understanding the result. The extended runtime makes it a worthwhile selection even for readers primarily interested in the headline championship change.

Mitsuharu Misawa defeated Naomichi Marufuji in 25:32 to win the GHC Heavyweight Championship at Great Voyage 2006. Marufuji entered as champion after dethroning Jun Akiyama and defending against KENTA, so his reign already carried a strong generational story. Misawa's challenge forced the younger champion to confront the founding star whose earlier achievements defined much of NOAH's identity. The lengthy Budokan main event ended with Misawa reclaiming the promotion's leading singles championship for his third reign.

The match was a title change, not a routine Misawa non-title victory or a successful Marufuji defense. Marufuji's loss didn't erase the importance of his first heavyweight reign; instead it established the difficult path facing the roster's emerging leaders. Misawa's experience and late-match control decided the encounter. For an archival viewing guide, the result forms the show's historical center and needs to be kept distinct from Kanemaru and Sugiura's junior tag retention earlier in the evening. It joined NOAH's past and future within one consequential title contest.