#AndNEW: Takashi Sugiura Is The Inaugural GHC National Champion

During a press conference on October 3rd, Pro Wrestling NOAH would announce that they have created a new championship called the GHC National Championship and the match would take place on their big show on November 2nd called The BEST. The two people that would participate in this match were IMPACT’s very own Michael Elgin and former GHC Heavyweight Champion, Takashi Sugiura. This would be a first time ever match as they wanted to sell out the Ryogoku Sumo Hall with an already stacked card like the GHC Heavyweight Championship and the first-time-ever match between Naomichi Marufuji and The Great Muta. Takashi Sugiura became the inaugural GHC National Champion

Michael Elgin has been gaining quite the amount of momentum leading to this match when he would defeat NOAH legend, Naomichi Marufuji during Impact’s Bound For Glory pay per view to send a message to Takashi Sugiura. The match would finally happen at the semi-main event of the show and we would crown our very first GHC National Champion. After these two men going to war for twenty-one minutes and thirty-five seconds, Takashi Sugiura would defeat Michael Elgin to become the inaugural GHC National Champion!

The match was apparently an incredible brawl and it shouldn’t be too surprising due to Takashi being one of the best in Japan along with Elgin showing people what he can do in other promotions and not held back in New Japan Pro Wrestling.

It’s a big moment for NOAH to create this new belt as a secondary championship to NOAH
Photo / NOAH

This could open the door to potential new contenders from different promotions such as Impact and MLW. What’s next for Takashi and who will be his first challenger for the championship? Well, as of right now, we have no challenger for the title but during a press conference, he did say he had two criteria if anyone wanted to fight him for the title. The first one was that anyone is welcome to fight him and the second thing was that they have to love dogs. So if you’re not a dog lover, then you ain’t getting a shot at his title. Congratulations to Takashi Sugiura for winning the GHC National Championship. The show isn’t uploaded online yet but it will be uploaded on November 10th, so be sure to be on the search for it since it’s not a show nobody should sleep on.