Naoya Nomura

###

Ishikawa, Kanazawa, Japan

**Naoya Nomura** (野村直矢, *Nomura Naoya*, born October 26, 1993) is Japanese professional wrestler.

Nomura is best known for his work in All Japan Pro Wrestling where he was a former two-times All Asia Tag Team Champion and World Tag Team Champion with one of his career highlight being when he joined Evolution where he would to change his attire to Evolution colors and dyed his hair yellow until he left the stable he returned to his old attire.

## Early Life

On its third year of elementary school he started rugby and body buiding. In October 2013 he was inducted to professional wrestling joining All Japan Pro Wrestling's dojo and at the time of the Keiji Mutoh mass exodus of AJPW to form Wrestle-1 he stayed loyal with the promotion and became the first trainee of the Jun Akiyama era in AJPW.

## Professional Wrestling Career

### All Japan Pro Wrestling (2014-2021, 2022-present)

On March 30, 2014 Nomura made is debut in All Japan against his teacher Atsushi Aoki. Later in that year he was sidelined with an injury but after five months of recuperating, he returned on October. On January 2, 2015 at all Japan's New Year Wars 2015 he defeated Yuma Aoyagi to pick up his first win in All Japan. On October 23 they lost to a Union Pro team of Shuji Ishikawa and Hiroshi Fukuda in his first tag team match. On November 23 to December 6 Nomura and Yuma Aoyagi participated at World's Strongest Tag Determination League and both finished the tournament with only 2 points. On the final day of the tournament after Suwama attacked Kento Miyahara, Suwama announced that Nomura was the new member of the Evolution. On January 3 Nomura had an opportunity for the Gaora TV Championship and he lost to the defending champion Yohei Nakajima and he also changed is attire for the Evolution colors and has yellow hair. On April 9 to April 23 Nomura participated at the Champion Carnival and he defeated in his first match one of the reigning World Tag Team Champions The Bodyguard. At the end of the tournament, Nomura finished the tournament with only 2 points.

On May 4, AJPW president Jun Akiyama made a surprise appearance for Wrestle-1, facing off with Keiji Mutoh with the two agreeing to a tag team match against each other on August 11. Later it was announced that Nomura and Yuma Aoyagi would be Akiyama's partner for the Pro Wrestling Love PPV. On July 30 Nomura announced that he was going to leave Evolution to start over his career. On August 11, Wrestle-1 presented an interpromotional six-man tag team match, which saw AJPW president Jun Akiyama take on former AJPW president Keiji Mutoh. In the match, the AJPW trio of Akiyama, Nomura and Yuma Aoyagi was victorious over the Wrestle-1 trio of Mutoh, Koji Doi and Kumagoro. After the Pro Wrestling Love PPV Nomura formed a team with Yuma Aoyagi and started a feud with Doi and Kumagoro.On September 19 Nomura and Aoyagi lost to Kento Miyahara and Jake Lee. After the match Miyahara and Lee invited them to join Nextream which they accepted. On November 11 it was announced that Nomura and Aoyagi would participate in the World's Strongest Tag Determination League at block B. At the start of World's Strongest Tag Determination League Nomura and Aoyagi lost to the teams of Jun Akiyama and Kendo Kashin, the reining World Tag Team Champions The Big Guns (Bodyguard and Zeus) and Get Wild (Takao Omori and Manabu Soya). In April Nomura took part of the 2017 Champion Carnival where he would finish the tournament with 4 points, scoring wins against former Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Takao Omori adopting a new finisher in the process spear and even defeated Omori in 48 second sand against The Bodyguard. Afterwards Nomura challenged Bodyguard into a title match for the World Tag Team Championship with his partner being his Nextream stablemate Jake Lee who defeated Bodyguard's partner Zeus. On May 12 Nomura and Lee unsuccessfully challenged again Zeus and Bodyguard for the World Tag Team Championship. On July 17 Nomura and Jake Lee defeated Zeus and The Bodyguard to win the World Tag Team Championship. Nomura and Lee vacated the titles, after Lee was sidlined with a left knee ACL rupture. On September 30 Nomura and Yuma Aoyagi defeated Taka Michinoku and Black Tiger VII to win the All Asia Tag Team Championship. Nomura and Aoyagi vacated the titles, after Aoyagi was sidlined with a Ankle injury. They would regain the titles on July 29 from Jun Akiyama and Yuji Nagata. From November 13 to December 11, Nomura and Aoyagi took part in the World's Strongest Tag Determination League, finishing the tournament with a record of three wins and seven losses, failing to advance to the finals of the tournament.

Later in 2019 Nomura would leave Nextram to join Jake Lee in Sweeper. In December, Nomura and Lee made it to finals of the 2019 World's Strongest Tag Determination League by finishing in second with a record of six wins and three losses. On December 9, they were defeated in the finals of the tournament by Violent Giants (Suwama and Shuji Ishikawa). Following the tournament, Nomura and Lee decided to disband the stable, after feeling a lack of unity within the stable due to Sai teaming with Zeus in the tournament. On December 21, Nomura, Lee and Koji Iwamoto announced the formation of a new stable called "Jin", literally translated to "Team". In February 2021, Nomura would suffered a spinal injury which sidelined him for eight months. On December 5, Nomura returned to AJPW after healing from his spinal injury to announce that he was going to depart from AJPW on December 31, before asking for a one final match. In his last match, on December 15, Nomura faced former Nextream stablemate Yuma Aoyagi in a losing effort.

On June 6, 2022, Nomura made his return to AJPW alongside Mizuki Watase, as Real Blood confronting his partner Yuma Aoyagi, who had previously requested Nomura to return to the promotion. Both entered in a brawl with Hokuto Omori, before Shuji Ishikawa and Takao Omori, took them out of the ring. On June 19, Nomura defeated Omori in his return match. Afterwards, Nomura stated that AJPW needed to offer someone stronger to challenge him. On July 14, Nomura and Watase faced Yuma Aoyagi and Atsuki Aoyagi. Following the match, named Jake Lee as his next target. In August, Nomura took part in the 2022 Ōdō Tournament, where he reached the semifinals, after defeating Takao Omori. However, due to testing positive for COVID-19, Omori took his spot instead in a match, where he would have faced Lee. Their feud continued following the tournament, and this led to a number one contenders match to the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship on September 18, which Nomura won. The following day, Nomura unsucessfully challenged Kento Miyahara for the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship. On October 30, Nomura asked Yuma Aoyagi to form an alliance for the Real Blood show on December 26, which he accepted.

On January 2, 2023, Nomura and Aoyagi defeated The Saito Brothers (Jun Saito and Rei Saito) to become the number one contenders to the World Tag Team Championship. On January 22, Nomura and Aoyagi defeated Kento Miyahara and Takuya Nomura to win World Tag Team Championship. They lost the titles to Pro Wrestling Noah's KONGOH (Kenoh and Manabu Soya) on March 21.

## Personal life

On August 18, 2022, Nomura tested positive for COVID-19 amid its pandemic in Japan after he was scheduled to face Jake Lee in the semi-finals 2022 Ōdō Tournament after he defeated Atsuki Aoyagi in the first round however he would test positive leading him to forfeit and be replaced with Takao Omori in the tournament.

## In Wrestling

* **Finishing moves**
	+ Frog splash
	+ *Lancer* (Spear)
	+ *Maximum* (High angle Death Valley bomb)
	+ *Nomura Lock* (Abdominal stretch to a seated opponent)
* **Signature moves**
	+ Boston crab
	+ Brainbuster
	+ Butterfly lock
	+ German suplex
	+ Missile dropkick
	+ *Musha-gaeshi* (Spear transitioned into a jackknife pin)
	+ *Northern Lights Bomb* (Scoop brainbuster)
	+ Northern lights suplex
	+ *Prince's Throne* (Fireman's carry double knee gutbuster)
	+ STF
* **With Yuma Aoyagi**
	+ Spear (Nomura) into a Jackknife hold (Aoyagi) combination
* **Entrance themes**
	+ "Heart of Soul" by Osamu Suzuki

## Championships and accomplishments

* **All Japan Pro Wrestling**
	+ All Asia Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Yuma Aoyagi
	+ World Tag Team Championship (2 times, current) – with Jake Lee (1) and Yuma Aoyagi (1, current)
* ***Pro Wrestling Illustrated***
	+ PWI ranked him #**316** of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016
	+ PWI ranked him #**342** of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2017

## References

1. ↑ *ja:武藤と秋山Wrestle-1で対戦へ* (in Japanese). *Daily Sports Online*. Kobe Shimbun (2016-05-04). Retrieved on 2016-05-04.
2. ↑ *ja:秋山ゴーサイン！武藤と“新旧全日社長対決”だ* (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2016-05-09). Retrieved on 2016-05-09.
3. ↑ *ja:Ｗ－１　秋山が武藤との“全日社長対決”勝利も若手に激怒！* (in Japanese). *Daily Sports Online*. Kobe Shimbun (2016-08-11). Retrieved on 2016-08-11.
4. ↑ *ja:【Ｗ―１】武藤vs秋山３年ぶり対戦 それぞれの思惑* (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2016-08-12). Retrieved on 2016-08-12.
5. ↑ Pro Wrestling Illustrated (PWI) 500 for 2016 . *The Internet Wrestling Database*. Retrieved on 2016-09-01.

* http://www.cagematch.net/?id=97&nr=133#2014
* http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=14368&page=12
* http://www.cagematch.net/?id=2&nr=14368&page=16
* https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/野村直矢\_(プロレスラー)

## External Links

* Puroresu Spirit Profile
* Cagematch Profile
* Twitter Profile