Top NJPW Star Wins Tokyo Sports MVP Award

NJPW

Top NJPW star and former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito has won the Tokyo Sports MVP award for 2023.

On December 12, Tokyo Sports announced their 2023 awards for Japanese professional wrestling. The MVP award was given to NJPW star and Wrestle Kingdom 18 main eventer Tetsuya Naito.

In 2023, Naito started the year by defeating Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Kenoh and headlining the Tokyo Dome for Keiji Mutoh’s Grand Final event where he defeated the legendary star.

Despite coming up short in the New Japan Cup, the Los Ingobernables de Japon leader would bounce back later in the year.

In his biggest accomplishment of the year, Naito defeated Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada in two sensational matches on back-to-back nights to win the G1 Climax 33 tournament.

Speaking with NJPW, Naito discussed what this honor of winning Tokyo Sports MVP means to him and reflected on his 2023. He said:

“Thank you for choosing me as MVP. Looking back on this year, I wrestled Kenoh in a singles match, Shota Umino in a singles match, then Keiji Muto’s retirement match.”

“I thought it was a good start to my year, but I lost in the New Japan Cup quarterfinals to SANADA, and then I wasn’t able to make things click for a while.”

“But heading to Mexico in July put me in a better place to win the G1 Climax. In September in Kobe, I defeated Jeff Cobb and got revenge for my G1 loss.”

“Now I’m heading to ward the main event January 4. Yes, I won the G1, but I’m not sure I was able to really stand out as much as I’d like this year.”

“I never had a title match, and with that in mind, I had thought Hiromu Takahashi would take the prize.”

“I bet Hirmu is pretty disappointed right now. But I’m sure he’ll keep going more and more to increase his standing.”

Tetsuya Naito will now challenge SANADA for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship on January 4 at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18.

WrestleTalk would like to congratulate Naito on winning this year’s Tokyo Sports MVP.

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• tokyo sports
• Tetsuya Naito
• NJPW

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