For the last eight months, the tandem of Katio Kiyomiya and Ryohei Oiwa have experienced a great deal of success within Pro Wrestling NOAH. Kiyomiya & Oiwa began teaming together back in August 2023 at New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s G1 Climax 33. Oiwa, who is signed to NJPW, decided to head to Pro Wrestling NOAH with Kiyomiya to complete his excursion following the G1 Climax 33.
As a unit, Kiyomiya & Oiwa competed in the NJPW World Tag League 2023 and were the winners of the NOAH Victory Challenge Tag League 2024 in March. They had two opportunities to become the GHC Tag Team Champions but failed on both occasions.
It appears the team and even friendship between Kiyomiya and Oiwa could be coming to an abrupt end. On May 7th, Kiyomiya and KENOH formed a new faction in NOAH called New Rebellion. The faction quickly added Alejandro and Cristobal as members of the new unit. Kiyomiya, who won the GHC Heavyweight Title on May 4th formed an alliance with long time rival KENOH following his title win as the two have vowed to lead NOAH to new heights.
Kiyomiya’s attention has seemed to have shifted from teaming with Oiwa to his new faction and his upcoming match with NJPW star Gabe Kidd. Oiwa, who is currently on the outside looking in when it comes to New Rebellion, took to X and made two posts which could be hinting at his disappointment in Kiyomiya. It was announced by NOAH that New Rebellion will be competing in their first match as a faction with Ryohei Oiwa on the opposing team.
Here are the quotes made by Oiwa on X that were directed at Kiyomiya:
May 4th: “I don’t understand the situation,
What do you think of me, Kaito?”May 7th: “It’s like… a puzzle I’ve been working on. I’m trying to make a new puzzle. Before I can make a new puzzle, I’m going to break it in Korakuen.
Ryohei Oiwa (Via Twitter, translated with Deepl)
The seeds of a potential feud between the two have been planted and It will be very interesting to see how the next few weeks play out between Kiyomiya and Oiwa.
You can follow Lewis Carlan on Twitter @ShootingUpNorth
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