Great Voyage 2017 in Yokohama: WrestleFile Historical Verdict

Maybach Taniguchi, Yoshinari Ogawa and Akitoshi Saito defeated HAYATA, YO-HEY and Rionne Fujiwara in 6:23 to open NOAH's Great Voyage in Yokohama in March 2017. Taniguchi scored the deciding fall on Fujiwara with the Maybach Press, giving the veteran team a straightforward result against three younger competitors. Ogawa's junior heavyweight background offered a contrast to Taniguchi's size, while Saito brought his own experience from NOAH's heavyweight ranks. On the opposing side, HAYATA and YO-HEY represented a different stage of the evolving junior roster.

No championship was at stake, and the brevity of the contest restricted the amount of individual development each participant could show. The outcome is nevertheless useful as an early-card orientation before the event turned to junior title matches and visiting international talent. It also preserves an actual six-person result rather than reducing the opener to a generic veteran showcase. Taniguchi, Ogawa and Saito won; Fujiwara took the fall for the losing trio.

Taiji Ishimori and Hi69 defeated Daisuke Harada and Tadasuke to retain the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship at Great Voyage 2017 in Yokohama. Ishimori scored the fall over Tadasuke with a 450 splash at 11:41, completing the champions' first successful defense. The challengers were credible opponents from NOAH's evolving junior ranks, giving the newly established title team an immediate test of its chemistry. Harada's experience and Tadasuke's aggressive style made the pairing more challenging than a token defense against an unfamiliar visiting team.

This was the junior tag title, not the separate junior singles belt contested later on the show. Its significance lies in showing Ishimori and Hi69 retain against a serious challenger pair before the event moved deeper into the championship program. A first defense doesn't establish a record-breaking reign, but it gives the new champions a concrete result beyond the moment they initially acquired their belts. Ishimori and Hi69 left Yokohama still holding the championship.

Hajime Ohara defeated Hitoshi Kumano in 16:23 to retain the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship at Great Voyage 2017 in Yokohama. Ohara recorded his second successful defense by submitting Kumano with Muy Bien. Kumano's challenge gave a younger wrestler the opportunity to face the titleholder in a major singles contest, but he couldn't break the champion's control. The immediate outcome was a successful junior singles defense, not a championship transfer or a tournament result.

What followed the bell gave the match further relevance to NOAH's junior division. Ohara and Kumano showed respect, and Kumano asked the champion to join him in pursuit of the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. That request pointed toward a possible partnership even though the two had just wrestled as singles opponents. The result therefore served two purposes: strengthening Ohara's ongoing reign and providing a new team direction for the next stage of the junior roster.

James Storm defeated Kaito Kiyomiya in 8:35 at Great Voyage 2017 in Yokohama, giving NOAH a short but distinctive international singles pairing. Storm had a recognizable career through TNA/Impact and arrived as a visiting veteran, while Kiyomiya remained near the beginning of a career that would later take him to NOAH's leading heavyweight programs. Storm won with the Last Call, taking the direct match result rather than leaving the event with a disputed finish.

There was no championship attached to the encounter. Its historical interest has grown because Kiyomiya developed into a major figure after wrestling opponents such as Storm early in his career. Those later accomplishments should not be backdated as success on this particular night: Kiyomiya lost the match, and Storm was credited with the victory. The compact meeting illustrates NOAH's connections with international talent and provides a concrete point in the younger wrestler's development rather than an invented early title achievement.

Eddie Edwards defeated Atsushi Kotoge in 19:18 at NOAH's Great Voyage in Yokohama, finishing with the Boston Knee Party. Edwards was appearing through NOAH's relationship with TNA, giving the Japanese promotion another internationally experienced singles opponent for its increasingly competitive heavyweight roster. Kotoge had been associated with the junior division before moving toward larger heavyweight opportunities, so meeting Edwards provided an extended test at a different level. The length of the contest allowed both to establish an identity beyond a brief guest exhibition.

The victory went to Edwards without transferring a GHC championship, and it preceded his later success in NOAH's heavyweight title picture. This particular match is a non-title win, not the night Edwards first became GHC champion. Kotoge's defeat likewise doesn't erase the significance of his move toward heavier opponents. The show contained other international attractions, but Edwards and Kotoge offered an unusually sustained singles contest below the championship main event. Their different backgrounds made the pairing distinctive.

Naomichi Marufuji and Keiji Mutoh defeated Moose and KAZMA SAKAMOTO in 13:50 at Great Voyage 2017 in Yokohama. Marufuji scored the decisive fall over SAKAMOTO after the Shiranui, giving the NOAH-associated team the official victory. The attraction lay in an unusual pairing: Marufuji was deeply identified with NOAH's modern history, while Mutoh carried an extensive legacy in several Japanese promotions. Moose added a connection with the American TNA roster, and SAKAMOTO supplied experience on the opposing side.

Despite the recognizable names, this was a special tag encounter without a championship on the line. Its importance is a specific cross-promotional moment rather than a development that directly changed a title hierarchy. The 13-minute runtime gave the audience an opportunity to see the contrasting performers together before the later championship matches. Marufuji and Mutoh left with the victory, while Moose and SAKAMOTO were the losing partnership. The Shiranui finish makes the result straightforward to trace in the event record.

Takashi Sugiura and Kenoh defeated Muhammad Yone and Masa Kitamiya to claim the vacant GHC Tag Team Championship at Great Voyage 2017 in Yokohama. With no incumbent champions to displace, the result established a new team at the top of NOAH's heavyweight tag division. Sugiura already had years of main-event experience, while Kenoh brought an aggressive approach and a growing claim to larger matches. Yone and Kitamiya offered a credible mixture of veteran durability and younger power. The pairing of those four wrestlers made the decision consequential for the division, not simply a way of filling an empty title slot.

The victory also had implications beyond the new champions' first reign. Kenoh's success in a heavyweight championship setting gave him another credential as he moved through the promotion's hierarchy, and Sugiura remained central to the company's tag and singles programs. Yone and Kitamiya did not become irrelevant through the loss; the division still had viable opponents. The A- grade records a meaningful new-title pairing that belonged on a destination card.

Katsuhiko Nakajima successfully defended the GHC Heavyweight Championship against Go Shiozaki in the closing match of Great Voyage 2017 in Yokohama. This was his fourth successful defense, an important distinction for a wrestler whose first GHC reign had begun only months earlier. Shiozaki was no ordinary challenger. His established main-event history and physical style gave Nakajima a serious examination of whether the new titleholder could carry the division against someone who had already occupied that role. Nakajima's victory reinforced his place as champion instead of yielding the belt to an experienced predecessor.

The match followed another heavyweight title development on the card, when Sugiura and Kenoh won the vacant tag championship. Together, those two results emphasized NOAH's reliance on a group of credible, overlapping heavyweight contenders. The main event also established a direct result in the Nakajima-Shiozaki rivalry at a moment when both men's careers still had many important chapters ahead. Its A- grade reflects a successful defense with greater meaning than another number added to a reign.