Earthquake Briefly Pauses Pro Wrestling NOAH Match

Pro Wrestling NOAH's Neo Global Tag League event from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan was briefly paused by an earthquake today.

A magnitude 5.5 earthquake struck the southern Ibaraki Prefecture at 7:46 pm local time as a multi-man tag team match of Tetsuya Naito, KENTA, BUSHI, and Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Masa Kitamiya, Takashi Sugiura, Tetsuya Endo & HAYATA was underway. The ground began to shake as Kiyomiya delivered multiple arm drags to his opponents, with the emergency warning system alerting those in attendance that an earthquake was taking place.

The match was paused as the earthquake continued, with fans in attendance remaining seated, while NOAH's announcers joked it was caused by Manabu Soya and Yuki Iino warming up for their Neo Global Tag League final match against The Good Brothers.

The eight-man tag team match soon got back underway despite the interruption by the earthquake, and the show continued too, with Soya and Iino defeating Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows after a 25-minute main event to win the Neo Global Tag League.

Earthquakes have halted Japanese professional wrestling events in the past, notably in March 2021 when Kota Ibushi, Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White, KENTA and Gedo at a New Japan Cup show was halted for 25 minutes after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake rocked Xebio Arena Sendai.