(NOAH) GHC NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH FEATURE ARTICLE: GHC National Champion, Katsuhiko Nakajima and the history of transformation

13th June 2020

Noah.co.jp 

The Wrestling Grand Prix Newcomer Award

Debuted in January 2004 at the age of 15 years and 9 months against Tomohiro Ishii at Korakuen Hall, at that time his debut was the youngest male wrestler. 

Joined Kensuke office in April 2004, and in June of that year, defeated The Great Sasuke at Michinoku Pro just six months into his career, and won his first singles match. Following this, he fought against veteran wrestlers such as Genichiro Tenryu, Kenta Kobashi, Tiger Mask I, Terry Funk and Mil Mascaras. He won the 2004 Wrestling Grand Prix and Rookie of The Year Award by fighting major athletes such as Abdullah The Butcher (he also won the Fighting Spirit Award in 2005).

In 2007, Nakajima defeated Shuji Kondo of All Japan, and took the World Junior Heavyweight title, setting the record for the youngest champion at 18 years and 11 months.

In 2008, he entered Pro Wrestling Noah's 1st Global Tag League, and won the Fighting Spirit Award. After that he showed more of his strength on the Noah mat, defeating KENTA in 2009 to become the 17th GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion.

In 2011, he defeated Kotaro Suzuki for the second time, and became the GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion. In November of that year, he won the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship from Ricky Marvin, and at aged 23 he achieved his third title reign. 

In 2013, Nakajima expanded from fighting the juniors to becoming a heavyweight and he challenged KENTA for the GHC Heavyweight. He failed to capture it, but it was his first step on the road to reaching Noah's peak. 

In February 2014, he won his first singles match against his teacher, Kensuke Sasaki. In this match Kensuke Sasaki announced he was retiring, and Diamond Ring suspended its activities as a pro wrestling promotion. Nakajima continued to participate in Pro Wrestling Noah as a freelancer, and in December of that year he announced that he would be signing with the promotion. 

Joining Noah, GHC Heavyweight

Nakajima became a Pro Wrestling Noah wrestler on January 1st 2016, and in October of that year, he defeated Takashi Sugiura at the Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium, being crowned for the first time as GHC Heavyweight Champion. As the young leader with the catchphrase, "NOAH the REBORN" (which was being used at the time), he succeeded in defending seven times. 

In 2018 he was teaming with Masa Kitamiya as "The Aggression" and defeated Mohammed Yone and Quiet Storm for the GHC Heavyweight Tag Titles, which he took for the first time. However, the following month, both his appearance and his fighting style changed completely when Go Shiozaki and Kaito Kiyomiya took the belts. With long permed hair, a beard and a bewitching appearance, he had a rough style of kicking his opponent in the face without any hesitation, while smiling evilly. The GHC Tag Championship was regained with speed the following month.

"Overcoming from being "Kensuke's son" to awakening as "Katsuhiko Nakajima"

In December of that same year, he dissolved the tag with Masa Kitamiya, and took the GHC Tag Championship with his new partner, Go Shiozaki. Although they lost the belts, in 2019 he and Shiozaki took them back. From then on they announced that officially their team name was "AXIZ". 

In recent years, while showing remarkable achievements in tags, he has been defeated on the singles front although he challenged both Takashi Sugiura and Kaito Kiyomiya for the GHC Heavyweight. He was a runner up in GLOBAL LEAGUE 2018, and the situation in which results were difficult to obtain continued. 

In January 2020, he took the WRESTLE-1 Championship title for the first time, after defeating the WRESTLE-1 champion, Daiki Inaba. However, he continued to disparage both the promotion and the championship, and never bought it to Noah. 

In May of that year, he defeated Takashi Sugiura for the GHC National Championship in a match held at the Noah Special Arena, and took the title for the first time. 

GHC National Champion, Katsuhiko Nakajima 

In the same month, Masao Inoue announced during the broadcast of NOAH "NEW HOPE" Day 2, that he would be challenging for the GHC National. Nakajima, who was watching the broadcast, announced on Twitter that he had accepted the challenge. The title match has been set for June 14th at NOAH "GO FORWARD" at the Noah Special Arena. 

What will happen at the GHC National Championship, which was challenged for on a TV match and the challenge responded to on screen via SNS, and will be held empty arena?

Link to original article from Noah.co.jp 

Picture credit: Noah.co.jp