The New Year (2025) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event promoted by Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah). The event took place on January 1, 2025, at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. The event is the fourth The New Year event, which is Noah's biggest annual event and as their equivalent to NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom and WWE's Wrestlemania. This was the second puroresu show to be held in the New Year's Day.
The event was headlined by Kaito Kiyomiya defending the GHC Heavyweight Championship against OZAWA. The second match of the show's "double main event" saw Ulka Sasaki facing WWE's Shinsuke Nakamura, the latter of whom returned to the NOAH ring after nearly 2 years away from the promotion.
Four other title matches included Daga defending the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship against Eita in a rematch from the previous year, Manabu Soya defending the GHC National Championship against Masa Kitamiya, The New NOAH's Leaders (Naomichi Marufuji and Takashi Sugiura) defending the GHC Tag Team Championship against Team 2000 X (Jack Morris and Omos) and RATEL'S (HAYATA and YO-HEY) defending the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against AMAKUSA and Junta Miyawaki and All Rebellion (Alejandro and Kai Fujimura) in a three-way match.
The event aired live on AbemaTV online linear television service and CyberFight's streaming service Wrestle Universe and FITE TV as a pay-per-view (PPV) in both English and Japanese commentaries.
Production[]
Background[]
In 2021, NOAH set a goal for the promotion to return to the Nippon Budokan on January 1, 2022 at New Year's Day. Since 2022, Noah began annually producing shows in the Nippon Budokan the The New Year, which became the first puroresu show to be held in the New Year's Day, becoming Noah's biggest annual event and as their equivalent to NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom and WWE's Wrestlemania. The first show ended up being a financial success, leading Noah to announce a second show in the following year in the The New Year. On July 13, 2024, at Destination, NOAH announced the show.
The event featured a special appearance by Shinsuke Nakamura, who is set to wrestle his first Noah match in two years against Ulka Sasaki. The match marked Nakamura's second match outside of WWE since 2016. Nakamura previously worked in Noah in 2023, with his last Noah match, being on January 1, 2023 at The New Year, where he defeated The Great Muta in his retirement tour. Both promotions had previously drafted an agreement to have WWE wrestlers working at the promotion's The New Year events, according to Tokyo Sports, with the final agreement being reached on October 26, 2023.
Storylines[]
The New Year featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
Kaito Kiyomiya, who defended the GHC Heavyweight Championship.
The New Year was main evented by Kaito Kiyomiya defending the GHC Heavyweight Championship against OZAWA. On November 17 at Deathnity, Taishi Ozawa turned on Kaito Kiyomiya and the All Rebellion stable and jumped to Team 2000 X, turning heel in the proccess, challenging him to a title match for the GHC Heavyweight Championship on January 1, 2025 at The New Year. The previous month, Ozawa made his return from excursion in the United Kingdom, joining Kiyomiya's All Rebellion stable, but suffered a broken left leg, shortly after. The following weeks, Ozawa began commenting on social media about Kiyomiya personal life, regarding his girlfriend, and also posted a photo of Kiyomiya smoking. On November 30, Ozawa challenged Kiyomiya to a match at The New Year, briging with him a contract for the title match, despite Kiyomiya ignoring him, he eventually lost his temper, leading Ozawa to attack him, revealing his injury to be fake. The following day, Ozawa attacked Kiyomiya and forced him to sign the contract, setting up their match for the event.
Shinsuke Nakamura, who faced Ulka Sasaki
On October 14, Keiji Mutoh, NOAH's scouting advisor, came to the ring for a major announcement. Afterwards, Shinsuke Nakamura appeared in a pre-taped vignette, annoucing that he would be facing Ulka Sasaki at The New Year, marking his return to the promotion since the 2023 The New Year on January 1, 2023. Nakamura and Sasaki were senior and junior at the martial arts gym "Wajutsu Keishukai". When Sasaki entered the UFC, they had formed a friendly relationship, especially in the United States. On October 27, Team 2000 X attacked Ulka Sasaki, after his match. Afterwards, they began targetting Sasaki, with Jack Morris confronting Sasaki, demanding a match against him on November 17, the winner facing Nakamura at The New Year. At Deathnity, Morris was defeated by Sasaki, confirming the match for the event.
Also at Deathnity, Eita challenged Daga after he had successfully defended the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship to a title match at The New Year. Daga had previously defended the title against him in the previous event on January 2, which Daga won. Daga made his debut for NOAH in Feburary 2023, as Eita's ally, due to connection that both previously shared in Mexico, however, Daga turned on Eita in May 2023 to join Stinger, with both becoming rivals in NOAH, over the following years. On December 1, Daga attacked Eita, before challenging him to a 60-minute two-out-of-three falls Mexican style match, which he accepted.
Jack Morris, who challenged for the GHC Tag Team Championship.
On November 30, Jack Morris challenged Naomichi Marufuji and Takashi Sugiura to a title match for the GHC Tag Team Championship for the event, alongside a mystery partner. Marufuji accepted his challenge under the condition that his Team 2000 X stablemate Yoshitatsu would not feature in the title match. On December 27, WWE's Omos was announced in a press conference as the newest member of the Team 2000 X, and revealed as Morris' partner for the match.
Following the match, after, El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. and his brother Galeno del Mal failed to win the GHC Tag Team Championship, Wagner challenged Galeno to a match at The New Year.
YO-HEY and HAYATA, who defended the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.
Also at the event, YO-HEY nominated Junta Miyawaki to be his next challenger to the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship at The New Year, as a revenge for losing to him in the first round of N Innovation Tournament on November 2. Shortly after, in a post-match interview, Miyawaki asked AMAKUSA to be his partner for the title match, which he accepted. The following day, Alejandro and Kai Fujimura also challenged HAYATA and YO-HEY to a title match, making it a three-way match.
Also on December 1, Manabu Soya successfully defended the GHC National Championship against Shuji Kondo. After the match, Masa Kitamiya challenged him to a title match, after he had pinned Soya during a tag team match on November 17, which Soya accepted.
At December 1st event, Kenoh made a challenge to a mystery opponent, a wrestler that suited the occasion to celebrate NOAH's 25th anniversary, at The New Year. On December 6, Kenoh made a surprise appearance at NJPW event, challenging KENTA to a match at the event, which he accepted. On December 14, Kenoh surprisingly attended KENTA's autograph session at Reversal shop in Tokyo. After purchasing a T-shirt, Kenoh joined the line of fans and waited his turn to confront KENTA. Their exchange began lightheartedly, with Kenoh criticized KENTA's current persona and challenged him to commit to wrestling in NOAH for a year if he lost at Budokan. KENTA rebuffed the demand, countering with jabs about Kenoh’s growing presence on YouTube. Tensions flared as Kenoh expressed his decade-long drive to avenge his loss to KENTA in March 2014.
Results[]
| # | Matches | Stipulations | Times |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1D | Tadasuke won by last eliminating LJ Cleary[Note 1] | NOAH The Rumble match for a future GHC Championship match | 23:54 |
| 2 | RATEL'S (HAYATA and YO-HEY) (c) defeated AMAKUSA and Junta Miyawaki and All Rebellion (Alejandro and Kai Fujimura) | Three-way tag team match for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship | 8:20 |
| 3 | Team NOAH (Atsushi Kotoge, Go Shiozaki, Hajime Ohara, and Muhammad Yone) defeated Black Menso～re, Kazuyuki Fujita, Shuji Ishikawa, and Tetsuya Endo | Eight-man tag team match | 8:25 |
| 4 | Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Daiki Odashima ended in a Time Limit Draw | Singles match | 1:00 |
| 5 | Galeno del Mal defeated El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. | Singles match | 9:52 |
| 6 | KENTA defeated Kenoh | Singles match | 15:24 |
| 7 | Eita defeated Daga (c) 2–1 | Two-out-of-three falls "Lucha Libre rules" match for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship | 7:07 |
| 8 | Manabu Soya (c) defeated Masa Kitamiya | Singles match for the GHC Heavyweight Championship | 12:51 |
| 9 | Team 2000 X (Jack Morris and Omos) defeated The New NOAH's Leaders (Naomichi Marufuji and Takashi Sugiura) (c) | Tag team match for the GHC Tag Team Championship | 10:48 |
| 10 | Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Ulka Sasaki | Singles match | 14:57 |
| 11 | OZAWA defeated Kaito Kiyomiya (c) | Singles match for the GHC Heavyweight Championship | 29:34 |
| |||
- ↑ Order of eliminations: Yu Owada, Yuto Kikuchi, Dump Matsumoto, Saxon Huxley, Masao Inoue, Shuhei Taniguchi, Zozaya, Harutoki, Masaaki Mochizuki, Titus Alexander, and LJ Cleary.