Pro Wrestling NOAH’s GHC Heavyweight Title Vacated

Pro Wrestling NOAH have announced that the GHC Heavyweight Title has been vacated, after champion Kazuyuki Fujita tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of a scheduled defence at NOAH's Majestic 2022 event.

Fujita was set to defend the title against Go Shiozaki, but was forced to withdraw from the event, with Shiozaki set to face an as-yet unnamed opponent for the vacant tile. Kaito Kiyomiya issued a challenge to Shiozaki for the vacant title, but the match has not been made official.

After winning the title from Katsuhiko Nakajima in February 2022, Fujita’s vacating of the title ends his reign at 63 days, with Fujita having the second shortest combined time as champion in the title’s lineage, with only Yoshihiro Takayama holding the title for less. At the other end of the scale, Takashi Sugiura has 1,064 days as champion across four reigns, whilst the legendary Kenta Kobashi had the longest single reign at 735 days.

Updated card for NOAH Majestic night two on April 30:

• Go Shiozaki vs. TBD -  GHC Heavyweight Championship
• Takashi Sugiura & Hideki Suzuki (c) vs. Kenoh & Katsuhiko Nakajima - GHC Tag Team Championships
• Naomichi Marufuji & TBA vs. Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura
• Daisuke Harada, Atsushi Kotoge, YO-HEY, & Junta Miyawaki vs. Dragon Bain, Alpha Wolf, Extreme Tiger, & Ninja Mack
• Masakatsu Funaki (c) vs. Simon Gotch - GHC National Championship
• Masa Kitamiya vs. Michael Elgin
• Masato Tanaka & Daiki Inaba vs. Rene Dupree & Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr.
• Kazushi Sakuraba & Kendo Kashin vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Don Fujii
• NOSAWA, Lita, Texano Jr., Kotaro Suzuki vs. HAYATA, Yoshinari Ogawa, Chris Ridgeway, Seiki Yoshioka, & Yuya Susumu
• King Tani, Muhammad Yone, Akitoshi Saito vs. Manabu Soya, Tadasuke, & Hajime Ohara
• SLEX & Kawei Fujimura vs. Kinya Okada & Yasutaka Yano