Watch Andre Corbeil "Impact Wrestling 3-31-20 Special Livestream. TNA Mar 31 2020" ... 


Published Mar 31 2020 By Andre Corbeil of wrestlingwithwrestling.com 


Join Andre Corbeil for this live TNA Special Impact Wrestling reactions Livestream! From the most trusted Impact Wrestling reporter in company history!  As Impact Wrestling delivers this impact wrestling TNA Special throwback episode on AXS TV..

#TNASpecial #TNA #ImpactWrestling #ImpactWrestlingLivestream #WrestlingWithWrestling #AndreCorbeil #TnaImpactWrestling #ImpactWrestlingTNASpecial 
#ALLNEWS

​MLW announces new Middle East/North Africa TV deal... 

Published May 31 2020 By Andre Corbeil. 


NEW YORK — Major League Wrestling ("MLW") has entered into a new partnership to broadcast MLW's flagship show MLW FUSION in the Middle East and North Africa starting this spring.

MLW programming will air on Wataaa Fight Channel. Wataaa Fight Channel provides fight driven content featuring martial arts, MMA, boxing and now Major League Wrestling.

"Now more than ever there is a demand for sports content and MLW's distinct combat sport-centered programming is a perfect fit for Wataaa," said MLW CEO Court Bauer. "MLW's global reach continues to grow with this deal putting us in more than 20 countries. We're very excited about introducing the league to more fights fans around the world."

The deal will bring original MLW programming to several new countries throughout the Middle East / North African region.
About Major League Wrestling
Major League Wrestling (MLW®) is a sports media holding company with a focus on professional wrestling sporting events/programming, digital content and ancillary entertainment. 

The fastest growing wrestling league today, MLW’s weekly TV series, Major League Wrestling: FUSION, airs Saturday nights 9pm ET / 6pm PT on beIN SPORTS in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico and in over 20 countries abroad.

MLW Fusion streams for free every Saturday night at 6:05pm ET on YouTube.com/MajorLeagueWrestling.
 
MLW features a roster full of high profile fighters and on-air talent from around the world including: CONTRA Unit, "Filthy" Tom Lawlor, Ross and Marshall Von Erich, The Dynasty, Low Ki, LA Park, Myron Reed and Injustice, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Brian Pillman, Alicia Atout and many more.
 
MLW is the parent company of the MLW Radio Network, the leading provider of professional wrestling podcasts in the world with 5-6 podcasts in the top iTunes 100 in the sports category on the average day.  
 
Like MLW on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/majorleaguewrestling 
Follow MLW on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MLW
Follow MLW on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/majorleaguewrestling 
​#mlw #majorleaguewrestling #allnews #wrestlingnews #mlwafrica

Due to the ongoing global Coronavirus pandemic, the Governor of Tokyo announced earlier this week that in order to contain the disease all public gatherings would be suspended, and so rather than cancel the show Noah chose to run Korakuen Hall for the first time ever as both an empty arena show, and with four title matches only. The arena was empty of fans, but naturally the time keeper, referee, other wrestlers, camera men and press were there, and even the lady from Battlemen turned up. 

Outside, the deserted Tokyo Dome Village had late March snow which fell quietly on the cold cherry blossoms, while inside the arena was eerily quiet with only the sound from the canvas and the click and whirr of the cameras and the creaky opening and the banging shut of the steel gate at ringside to be heard. Noah also changed the entryway to a raised platform and steps, instead of having the wrestlers enter from the sides.
Noah have hinted that they may do a couple more empty arena shows due to the current conditions. 

The event was streamed live on DDT Universe and Samurai TV, and started with Kaito Kiyomiya and Katsuhiko Nakajima shilling merchandise. Nakajima of course advertising the branded AXIZ merchandise. In these times it is vital that if we can, we support promotions by buying their merchandise, especially since wrestlers get a large amount of their income from sales.

Naomichi Marufuji came out before the event started and gave a small speed to the crowd (i.e. the viewers scattered like the cold cherry blossom petals all over the world), thanking everyone for tuning in. Later he was on commentary.

MATCH ONE
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Championship
STINGER (Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Kotoge) vs RATELS (HAYATA & YO-HEY)

Kotaro Suzuki was announced as "the successor of Misawaism".

Noisy YO-HEY, who loves the crowd reaction that he gets (he is usually the only one out of RATELS to stare directly into the camera when fans take pictures), couldn't really get his head around that there was no one there as he out of habit tried to rouse the crowd, did "GETZ" and then when he realised that there was no one there, he did it to the camera which he followed up by Kotoge's "Revolutionary Cape" dance. Fortunately, Tadasuke was also at ringside to drum up support, although YO-HEY seemed to be enough of a one man band.

STINGER being STINGER were not focused on the invisible crowd (and at times it looked like YO-HEY'S showboating to the camera might cost RATELS the victory), but on HAYATA'S injured ribs. Noah have been selling this for the past few weeks with Kotoge at one point taking HAYATA into the empty benches to jump on them, and yes, you could hear YO-HEY cheering HAYATA on from across the hall - it was that quiet.

RATELS fought hard for the belts, and STINGER fought hard to keep them; YO-HEY did an amazing dropkick in which he caught Kotaro Suzuki's back in mid somersault, but also took a headbutt from Kotoge which unsurprisingly crumpled him.

WINNER: HAYATA with the Headache on Atsushi Kotoge (22 minutes, 34 seconds)

As YO-HEY & HAYATA posed with the belts for the first time in about two years and two months (HAYATA trying to hide behind his, even though the arena was empty), Kotaro Suzuki who was looking thoughtfully at them, turned back and rolled Kotoge out of the ring. For both teams, tonight was going to be a night that marked a new beginning. 

MATCH TWO
GHC National Championship
Takashi Sugiura vs Minoru Tanaka

Although they are the same age, Takashi Sugiura came to the ring, held the belt up and looked unimpressed, and gave Tanaka the same the same kind of look that he normally gives the upstart younger heavyweights when they take him on. This was the first ever battle for the belt between a heavyweight and a junior. 

This match was a clash of two different styles, which worked surprisingly well; you had Tanaka's technicality and his speed as a junior, and Sugiura's brutality and brawling. Minoru Tanaka was straight away in with the submission move, he learnt from the pre-match that this is effective against Sugiura. That might have been all that was effective against him as the match was pretty much dominated by the heavyweight with kicks and elbows.

The finale of the match was a back and forth of reversals of submission moves, which ended with Takashi Sugiura getting the win, and Tanaka looking angry that this was one belt that he had not been able to collect just yet.

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with the ankle hold (14 minutes, 35 seconds)

Katsuhiko Nakajima came out to the ring to challenge for the belt, he had a big sarcastic grin on his face and he said in usual sarcastic\sinister fashion that that big red belt looked tasty, and he would like to try it. Sugiura, took the microphone, held to the empty darkened audience and then to the camera, and said "Audience? Everyone? Yes or No?" Despite this, Sugiura will put the belt up against all challengers (even people who he knows to be annoying like Katsuhiko Nakajima, who he once warned over the GHC Heavyweight "wouldn't be smiling when he gets an elbow to the face"), and he accepted the challenge.
Noah are yet to set a date. 

Trying to stick as much as normal to the usual format, Noah held a fifteen minute interval. This was started by Kaito Kiyomiya (who has a sniffle) coming out to the ring and giving a message of support and hope to Japan.

A video package of Kenoh was then run in which he started growling about the new Kongoh member who would join at Korakuen Hall on the 19th April. Naturally we had no name, but we did have a visual of Kenoh shaking hands with someone off screen, and then a shot of a muscled arm with a mole. The general consensus is that this is Daisuke Sekimoto, however, this falls down as fans cannot see Sekimoto being anything but a leader of a faction, and especially not playing second to Kenoh. Others have said it is someone from W-1 or even Yuki Okabayashi, but one thing is for certain whoever it is looks to be another monster wrestler to join Inamura and Kitamiya. So, following this video package, Kenoh (flanked by Kitamiya and Inamura) came to the ring dressed to fight, although he didn't have a match and repeated pretty much what he had just said in the video, although he did throw in a lot of remarks about not being able to see the "fuckers" in the audience.

The 19th April Korakuen is shaping up to be an exciting one, as in addition to the mystery Kongoh member, Noah also announced the return of Keiji Mutoh, Osamu Nishimura and Kazushi Sakuraba.

MATCH THREE
GHC Junior Heavyweight
Yoshinari Ogawa vs Daisuke Harada

RATELS came out to second Harada, Kotaro Suzuki with Yoshinari Ogawa, but no Atsushi Kotoge though (in all fairness though he had done a headbutt, and taken the Headache).

Yoshinari Ogawa immediately started being difficult, complaining about putting his belt on the line when Harada had withdrawn the IPW Junior Heavyweight challenge, and refusing to start the match. Harada remained stubborn, and in the end the referee took the belt from Ogawa and started the match whether he liked it or not. Interestingly, Daisuke Harada came to the ring without the IPW belt, so hopefully this is the last we will hear about it, although Noah GHC did speculate on whether Harada was going to become a double champion or not. This stalling was a kind of eerie echo of what was going to happen in the main event, as was Daisuke Harada's hair sticking up towards the end, and the bleeding from the mouth, both of which would happen to Go Shiozaki. 

This was a very technical match, Ogawa tortured Harada's arm and elbow, waiting behind every corner that Harada walked around, and even a kick to the face did not stop him. At one point he even went to the RATELS corner and did it right in front of them.
As well as Ogawa knew Harada, Harada knew Ogawa too, and this didn't stop him getting out of an Ogawa hold by using the ref to do a flip, something which he was told off for. 

Ogawa had made the comment prior to the match that he might "destroy STINGER and RATELS", and it seemed that the first sign of that came when he used Kotaro Suzuki as a human shield to prevent Harada from jumping through the ropes at him. Harada for some reason stopped, although he cares little to nothing for Suzuki, but Suzuki wasn't impressed by Ogawa using him in this way. Later Harada took them both out with a dive. 

WINNER: Yoshinari Ogawa with sneak pin following footstamp (26 minutes, 39 seconds)

Harada was furious at losing, and backed the ref into a corner and shoved him. Too angry and probably too shocked by what had happened to throw a complete tantrum and start throwing things, he stamped off angrily with RATELS, looking far more furious than I have ever seen him.
Kotaro Suzuki then made his move and attacked Ogawa. It turned out that it wasn't going to be Ogawa who destroyed STINGER, no, it was going to be Suzuki.
Getting on the microphone, Suzuki said simply he was challenging him for the GHC Junior, and after laying the belt over him, he walked off.

Backstage, Yoshinari Ogawa announced that due to Kotaro's actions, STINGER were finished. Suzuki, showing little remorse for what he had done, said that ever since he had returned to Noah he had two goals in mind; to challenge Yoshinari Ogawa for a belt, and to challenge Naomichi Marufuji. There are reasons why he has chosen these two specifically; Yoshinari Ogawa helped train him, and indeed no one has passed through the Noah dojo without his input, he is also the most senior man on the roster. Naomichi Marufuji is his "older brother" (which he has addressed him as in the past), being Mitsuharu Misawa's senior student.

MATCH FOUR
GHC Heavyweight
Go Shiozaki vs Kazuyuki Fujita

The whole of the Sugiura Army (including Rene Dupre who today made his Noah debut, but not in ring) came out in force to support Kazuyuki Fujita. Go Shiozaki, the champion, had only Katsuhiko Nakajima.
This was going to be a very different style match from a Noah one. Kazuyuki Fujita had said that one of the benefits of having no audience was being able to do something you wouldn't normally show the live public.

The match started with complete silence, with only the whirr of the cameras as they faced each other. Shiozaki took a few steps. No one moved for a few minutes, and the tension rose. Nishinaga tried to get them going, but they continued staring at each other. They even got a time warning.
The match got to ten minutes, they still hadn't moved.
Fujita eventually broke the deadlock by moving to the other side of the ring, but they continued to stare at each other. Fifteen minutes had now passed, and another fifteen would follow before Fujita finally broke and the pounced after thirty minutes.
Yes, they had spent thirty minutes cranking up the tension by staring at each other in an arena in which you could have heard a pin drop and it would have echoed like thunder. 

The match began with a mat based style takedown to begin with, not usual Shiozaki or Noah style. Fujita started taunting Shiozaki and telling him that the ropes are there, why can't he reach them? However, as soon as Shiozaki was on his feet this later became more Noah as the chops, kicks and lariats began. He also, like Harada, began bleeding from the mouth.

The match then took on another not typically Noah style turn when the fight went outside the ring, and Fujita went to hit Shiozaki with the GHC, which fortunately NOSAWA Rongai removed from him. Fujita then took a big bottle of hand sanitizer which was sitting near the ringside doctor, swigged from it, and spat it out on Shiozaki. Take it from someone who works in a hospital, his mouth is probably still tasting of chemicals. 

The fight went into the empty seats and up by the infamous stairwell, and then backstage into the empty hall and the lifts. Fujita even started calling them, but they didn't come quick enough. Then it went to the dark top corridor and down through that so heavy with Korakuen history area which seems to permeate every part of the building, to the balcony. While not much wrestling goes this far at Korakuen, to me what makes this both eerie and poignant is the fact that these balcony areas are not only where the wrestlers watch the matches, these are the places that got shut off when Noah ran the Misawa memorial shows, as no one was allowed up there aside from his portrait and therefore his spirit. It was from here that Fujita tried to throw Shiozaki off, but was fortunately stopped.
Shiozaki limped back with his Kobashi face on. It was on now more than ever before.

Fujita locked in a submission soon after Shiozaki was back in the ring, Nakajima could be heard yelling for him to get to the ropes. I say "heard" because although there was not a Korakuen crowd, the arena somehow seemed alive with people, there seemed to be so much more noise than a small crowd could make. 
After getting to the ropes, Fujita followed this up with stiff kicks to Shiozaki's head (it's probably fortunate here that Shiozaki is used to being kicked, having KENTA as Kobashi's senior student and therefore his "older brother"). Shiozaki (hair standing on end) went mad with lariats and got the win.

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan Lariat (57 minutes, 47 seconds)

Go Shiozaki gave a short speech afterwards, I think he was too dazed to do more than thank everyone and say "I am Noah", but he seemed a little more coherent backstage, although he had to lean back against the wall. No challenger has come forward yet, however.

Noah's next event will be the 4th April at the Osaka Edion Arena 2nd Stadium where they will open Global Tag League. The way things are looking, and judging by what Noah have said, we could well see another empty arena match and with it, perhaps more matches that you can't do for an audience. 

Picture credit: Tadasuke
GIF credit: Samurai TV

Noah arrived on a cloudy spring day with Mount Fuji hidden by mist, the sky later improved as the evening set in, but the summit remained wrapped by swirling fog (when I passed by on the Bullet Train to Osaka, I had a perfect view of the mountain with bright blue skies). The light inside the venue always seems to mimic the mountain, the last time Noah where here it was greens and yellows, and today it was a stark winter-spring grey white like the sky.

Backstage Naomichi Marufuji took a rare video of himself, Mohammed Yone (who didn't seem to be wearing any pants) and Atsushi Kotoge throwing a shuttlecock into a cup, Marufuji had been inspired by this for some reason by a friend who is a darts player. Later that evening he was on autograph duty, which sadly due to the precautions against the Coronavirus created what one fan called "a sense of distance", which is one thing that Noah has always strived against as they pride themselves on making their roster visible and accessible to fans at events. Knowing that fans would like pictures, but naturally Noah are not allowing fan pictures at the moment due to the risk of infection, Marufuji posed for them (albeit on his own, and behind a barrier). Speaking of Marufuji, it looks like the issue over the cancelled date for the GHC Heavyweight Tag will be resolved as over in DragonGate today Takashi Yoshida and Diamante called out MochiMaru (Naomichi Marufuji and Masaaki Mochizuki) over it and the date of April 8th has been settled.

Sadly no part of the show today was live-streamed.

MATCH ONE
YO-HEY vs Kinya Okada

Kinya Okada tested his kicks on YO-HEY, at one point it looked like he was doing a flying kick too.

WINNER: YO-HEY with the Face G (10 minutes, 31 seconds)

MATCH TWO
Mohammed Yone & Shuhei Taniguchi vs The Anti Wrestlers Alliance (Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue)

No one, not even Yone's partner Taniguchi, looking impressed by Yone's "Disco Fever".
There was the typical Masao Inoue beat down by Mohammed Yone and Taniguchi, Taniguchi gave it the worst to him though.

WINNER: Shuhei Taniguchi with diving body press on Masao Inoue (12 minutes, 58 seconds)

To the amusement of the fans, Akitoshi Saito scraped up Inoue afterwards and helped him out. Inoue then spent the rest of the show sitting at a table and watching the event.

MATCH THREE
The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Hideki "Shrek" Sekine, Hajime Ohara & NOSAWA Rongai) vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya, Haoh and Nioh)

Former policeman Hideki "Shrek" Sekine made his debut in Noah today, coming out with the Sugiura Army and wearing a white "Company Dog" t-shirt which looks like a tent on him. I don't think anyone in the audience could believe either his immense size or his power. I don't think there is anyone brave enough to tell him (except possibly Takashi Sugiura, who seemed to engaged with holding up the GHC National to Kenoh for some reason despite it being a belt that Kenoh says he has no interest in) that red is Kongoh's color... 

Melee brawl broke out and went to the four corners of the arena, Kitamiya vs Ohara, Kenoh vs NOSAWA, and it's hard to know who to pity more as Nioh was trying to fight Shrek, and poor Haoh was being stamped on by Sugiura. Inside the ring Shrek's shoulder tackle was likened to "the sound of a traffic accident" by one fan. His encounter with Kenoh was stiff kicks.

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with the Olympic Slam on Nioh (17 minutes, 4 seconds)

MATCH FOUR
Kaito Kiyomiya vs Yoshiki Inamura

"Inamura showed his strength, but Kiyomiya's was of Yokozuna Sumo".

Kaito Kiyomiya played the senior in this match, appearing in his white and light green ring wear, and with a big smile on his face. Once a somewhat nice boy who didn't want to hurt or offend anyone, he showed the cruel streak today that he has had to learn by necessity of being GHC Heavyweight Champion, by attacking Yoshiki Inamura's taped knee. It was an intense match which is really setting the path for their future pre match and ultimately title showdowns, with Inamura launching Kiyomiya across the ring with his GEKITOYZ, and the flying shoulder tackle from the top turnbuckle.

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with Tiger Suplex (13 minutes, 14 seconds)

MATCH FIVE
STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa, Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Kotoge) vs RATELS (Daisuke Harada, Tadasuke & HAYATA)

YO-HEY came out to second RATELS, and although he was not in the match, he joined in with the traditional Tadasuke entry. In typical YO-HEY style, he was also the one caught staring at the camera in fan pictures.

HAYATA has had a rough and painful few months - Chris Ridgeway winding him up and torturing him, Yoshinari Ogawa torturing him, rib injury and STINGER torturing him. YO-HEY looked on, as did Daisuke Harada with cold eyes, as STINGER attacked HAYATA en masse, and then drove back Harada and Tadasuke when they tried to pull them away. However, the tide turned today and HAYATA was able to pull out some defensive moves (such as a moonsault), and he got the sneak pin on Kotaro Suzuki following a Tadasuke lariat. 

WINNER: HAYATA with the roll up (17 minutes, 51 seconds)

Yoshinari Ogawa (with his endless capacity for denial) insisted that it was only a 2 count and that STINGER got cheated. So as RATELS (including YO-HEY) celebrated, somewhat in STINGERS faces (Tadasuke with a big grin), a fight broke out with ended with Kotaro being double kicked by HAYATA & YO-HEY, while Ogawa and Harada squared up and Kotoge watching from outside the ring.

MATCH SIX
AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima) vs Naomichi Marufuji & Minoru Tanaka

AXIZ were not wearing their feathered crow jackets today (although their ring wear was matching), they came out in their new black branded AXIZ t-shirts (Shiozaki gold, Nakajima silver) and on entry turned their back to the crowd and pointed thumbs to see the text on the back.

The chop war between Naomichi Marufuji and Go Shiozaki was immediate, the crowd were fired up by it, and the venue acoustics amplified it making it sound like a firing range. Marufuji and Shiozaki would chop each other throughout the match, with Marufuji commenting afterwards "as usual, Shiozaki's chops hurt". The pictures of the sunburn left behind showed how different their styles were,  Shiozaki flat hand, Marufuji more like a whip with his fingers splaying could be seen.

With Marufuji and Shiozaki facing off, this left Tanaka vs Nakajima and in the melee fight outside the ring, Nakajima knocking Tanaka into the crowd, where he fell on someone's soft drinks can. Later in the match Tanaka got Nakajima's rope choke "Shutter Chance", which Tanaka managed to back to him, and with the "Click click" motion as well. Tanaka's woes were not over as Shiozaki finished the match by taking his head off with a massive Gowan lariat.

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan lariat on Minoru Tanaka (21 minutes 4 seconds)

Go Shiozaki gave the traditional GHC Heavyweight champion speech, thanking everyone for coming today and telling them all to stay safe in light of the Coronavirus pandemic because he would be back to see them, he finished by touching on the match with Kazuyuki Fujita saying he would win and ending with "I am Noah", as both the crowd and Nakajima applauded. On their way backstage they stopped at the curtain and did the famous lean.

ATTENDANCE: Not announced
WITH THANKS TO: Sekidon, Kei, Shinya, Sachan, Hori, Chairman Chikuwa, Chanmi
PICTURE CREDIT: Noah sales team, Noah GHC, PKDX
GIF CREDIT: Naomichi Marufuji, 
NOAH'S NEXT SHOW: 27th March, Yokohama Radiant Halls

Noah returned today after a month's hiatus due to the Coronavirus pandemic. However, while the show was going to go ahead they had some very strict rules which are necessary to keep both fans, roster and staff safe. Fans who came had to have their temperature taken, and anyone who had one raised over 37.5was not allowed in. After that everyone who was admitted had to wear a hygiene mask, and have their hands sanitized by a member of staff as they filed into the hall. Additionally, they were handed sterile hand wipes.
Noah have also instituted a kind of "No touch" policy, and while this means that there can be no slapping of hands, handshakes, belt touching, gift giving or streamers or Fan club pictures, it also meant that the autograph session with Go Shiozaki had to be conducted behind a barrier, with the fans lining up, handing the item to a member of staff, who would hand it to Shiozaki and then hand it back again.

Despite all of this, Noah were glad to be back, and the fans were glad to have them back. The show itself might have only attracted 206 people, but given the circumstances and the fact that Noah are holding it outside of Tokyo, is a good number. The hall itself was hung with banners, and the notorious low ceiling in Maebashi bought some comedy to the show when the taller members of the roster (Yoshiki Inamura, Kaito Kiyomiya) couldn't stand up straight on the top turnbuckle. For the fans watching at home, Noah had a special surprise as unannounced they streamed three matches live through Periscope, the links are included below, although I don't know for how long Noah will keep them up for.

MATCH ONE
Tokyo Gurentai (NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA) Vs Kongoh (Haoh & Nioh)

It was 5'4 and 70kg Haoh who was the star of the opening match, who took down 5'6 87kg MAZADA today. Although on paper the weight and height difference doesn't sound much, in this case it does when you saw it. Haoh knows that if he cannot rely on size, then he can rely on speed and this is something he took out both Tokyo Gurentai with.

WINNER: Haoh with the Tornado Clutch on NOSAWA Rongai (10 minutes, 28 seconds)

Naomichi Marufuji was photographed sitting cross legged watching the match, with Masa Kitamiya watching nearby half hidden by a screen.

MATCH TWO
Tadasuke & Mohammed Yone vs The Anti Wrestlers Alliance (Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue)

Usual torment of Masao Inoue at the hands of Mohammed Yone. Crazy Tadasuke returned and flew off the top rope at Inoue. Tadasuke later posted that it was good to be back wrestling. 

WINNER: Mohammed Yone with the Kiniku Meat Buster on Masao Inoue (12 minutes, 11 seconds)

MATCH THREE
Kaito Kiyomiya vs Kinya Okada
Watch this match here (Periscope)

Kinya Okada put up a good fight and lasted longer than expected against someone, who although much younger, is his senior and is a former GHC Heavyweight champion. Although the outcome was going to be obvious, this was in no way a squash match, although Kiyomiya did no sell some of his punches. Okada managed to dominate some parts of the match, and was seen to throw a couple of kicks at Kiyomiya. He also came very close to winning, but fell to Kiyomiya after two Tiger Suplexes after Kiyomiya decided it was too close, and he had had enough.

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Tiger Suplex (9 minutes, 49 seconds)

Kenoh in bright yellow t-shirt seen watching, as was Takashi Sugiura (not in the same place though). Kenoh has this habit of standing with his hands in his pockets, while SDF soldier Sugiura, has them behind his back.

MATCH FOUR
The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura & Hajime Ohara) vs Naomichi Marufuji & Minoru Tanaka
Watch this here (Periscope)

Originally there was to be no pre-match between Takashi Sugiura and Minoru Tanaka, but since shows were cancelled and the title match had to be rearranged, we have been given some. It has to be said this is a very rare championship match and pre-match.

The match was very focused on Sugiura vs Tanaka (who has a heavily taped shoulder), with Ohara and Naomichi Marufuji (in new silver chrome and black ringwear) as bit players in the drama. Sugiura battered Tanaka, at one point knocking him halfway across the ring, which was usually followed by his hitching up his pants and looking irritated. Tanaka truly learned what an enraged Sugiura is, especially after he knocked him off the apron, the fight went outside the ring and Sugi was seen standing with his foot on Tanaka's neck. It should also be noted that this fight was between two men who are in their late 40s, but can move like athletes a decade younger than them, and Tanaka is doing somersaults.
Tanaka also seems to have found Sugiura's Achilles Heel as he came very close to making him tap with an arm submission, which Sugiura was saved from by Ohara. Sugiura, however, then relied on his knees as Tanaka went to work on his arm.

The juniors put up a spirited fight against the heavyweights, with Ohara getting mauled by Marufuji at points in the match, and it ended with a junior pin, not a junior pinning a heavyweight, or the challenger pinning the champion, but with Minoru Tanaka defeating Hajime Ohara. 

WINNER: Minoru Tanaka with the Heat Clutch on Hajime Ohara (16 minutes, 48 seconds)

After the match Sugiura stood outside the ring with the belt, while Tanaka, who was inside of it, glared at each other. Sugiura pointed to the belt in the "you want this" motion that is worldwide, and Tanaka pointing to it and making belt wearing motions. Tanaka showed his frustration on the way out when he kicked the barrier. It's unusual for Tanaka to do this as he doesn't really throw tantrums.

Backstage Tanaka said he didn't care about the weight difference, and took a shot at those who did by saying "I don't write articles with the assumption that I will lose".

MATCH FIVE
STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa, Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Kotoge) vs RATELS (Daisuke Harada, HAYATA & YO-HEY)

HAYATA is still taped, and like sharks to blood, STINGER were immediately attracted to it and as they had said, they worked on it until the match went to a referee stop with YO-HEY & Daisuke Harada kept outside of the ring.

Daisuke Harada had his serious face on, fans at the arena were commenting on the glare in his eyes (even whilst in the ring YO-HEY was acting like a lunatic), which was directed towards Ogawa. Harada has a "shark smells blood" face, and then he has this face which is somewhat cold and expressionless, and usually means he's going to mess you up.

WINNER: Kotaro Suzuki following elbow to the body on HAYATA (referee stop, 18 minutes, 51 seconds)

Backstage YO-HEY said that he was going to make STINGER pay for what they did to his "important precious Wife".

MATCH SIX
AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima) & Shuhei Taniguchi vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura)
Watch the match here (Periscope)

Go Shiozaki came to the ring wearing his green, and the match started with Katsuhiko Nakajima kicking Masa Kitamiya around. He then decided he had had enough when Kitamiya tagged in Yoshiki Inamura (who has had a big couple of days, having won his first major singles match against Ryuichi Kawakami in Big Japan's Strong Climb tournament), and so he flash tagged in Taniguchi. To be honest, there isn't much of a size difference between Inamura and Taniguchi, and they had a knock down competition. Whilst he might have won a singles league match, Inamura is still the most junior man in the ring, and that means that he not only got the machine gun chops from Shiozaki, he was also the one who had to take the "Endless love" kick\chop combo. However, Inamura was not totally defenseless against them, he took them both out at one point, and he sent Shiozaki flying halfway across the ring with the GEKITOTZ (his charge and throw, which he has named after something in a manga he reads), and that is when Shiozaki started to realise something that would gain more momentum as the match went on, Yoshiki Inamura is becoming a threat to him.

Kenoh was his usual acidic self, yelling into the crowd for booing him, knocking Shiozaki about with those annoying small kicks to the head, and standing with his arms stretched out in his "come on" gesture.

Kongoh beat down on the GHC Heavyweight champion, but were halted in their tracks by Taniguchi, who threw them around the ring and on top of each other. Nakajima also took the chance to humiliate them further, by doing his Shutter Chance" on Kitamiya,  and when the ref told him to quit it, Nakajima stuck in his boots for good measure. He even looked at the camera and made the "click click motion".

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with Gowan Lariat on Yoshiki Inamura (19 minutes, 18 seconds)

Shiozaki sensing Inamura is rapidly becoming a threat, pointed at him and Kongoh and told them to watch it. He waited until they had left the ring before he took the belt. There was a tense standoff with Taniguchi, Taniguchi did not stay, they briefly squared up and he left. 
Shiozaki stood with his arms outstretched, and held up the belt before he spoke, thanking everyone for coming out today under less than ideal circumstances. Then Nakajima got the camera and started filming, Shiozaki managed to keep it together without giggling too much as he spoke.

The show was closed out with AXIZ doing the famous lean.

ATTENDANCE: 206
PICTURE CREDIT: Noah GHC
GIF CREDIT: Noah GHC
WITH THANKS TO: Kei, Maki-MK2,
NOAH'S NEXT SHOW: March 22nd, Fujisan Messe ​

After a long hiatus and cancelled shows due to the Coronavirus, Pro Wrestling Noah return on the 21st March. Doors will open at 16:45, with the event starting at 17:30. There has been no announcement that this will be broadcast live on either Noah's YouTube or DDT Universe, so Battlemen may be the best we can hope for (although Noah may post the show afterwards on the streaming service).

If you are planning to visit the event please do not attend if you are suffering a sore throat, temperature, dry cough or any flu symptoms. Please read Noah's guidance (translated into English here).

For the safety of both roster, fans and Noah crew, the Noah's Ark Fanclub pictures have been suspended for the time being. Go Shiozaki will be on merchandise but there will be no pictures with him allowed, no gift giving, and all those who wants autographs need to either wear a hygiene mask or else cover their mouth and nose when attending.

Please read Noah's guidance about this (in English) here.

MATCH ONE
Tokyo Gurentai* (NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA) Vs Kongoh (Haoh & Nioh)

*Literally Tokyo Hoodlums

MATCH TWO
Tadasuke & Mohammed Yone vs The Anti Wrestlers Alliance (Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue)

MATCH THREE
Kaito Kiyomiya vs Kinya Okada

Very rare match in which Okada can practice the kicks that Katsuhiko Nakajima taught him, on someone who is used to being kicked by Kenoh.

MATCH FOUR
STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa, Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Kotoge) vs RATELS (Daisuke Harada, HAYATA & YO-HEY)

Yoshinari Ogawa is not pleased with Daisuke Harada over the whole IPW belt withdrawal, and neither is his mood going to be improved by Harada's impudence in calling him "Ogawa-kun". Expect these two to tear into each other.
HAYATA is back from rib injury and now fully healed after a prolonged period of rest, but this is still something that STINGER will exploit.

MATCH FIVE
The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura & Hajime Ohara) vs Naomichi Marufuji & Minoru Tanaka
Rare match up between Hajime Ohara & Naomichi Marufuji, and Minoru Tanaka vs Takashi Sugiura

Minoru Tanaka is challenging for the GHC National, so now due to the Coronavirus and the shows being cancelled because of it, we now get some pre matches, which we didn't have before.
Marufuji says it has been a while since he and Sugiura faced off (funniest time was the trading of insults during chops and elbows, with Sugiura calling Marufuji a little girl because of his ponytail, and Marufuji calling Sugiura an "Octopus"(i.e. a man who has many hands over women).

MATCH SIX
AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima) & Shuhei Taniguchi vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura)

No Kazuyuki Fujita, but Go Shiozaki considers every match a title match, and every opponent he visualises as Fujita. This will be Yoshiki Inamura's first match in Noah since his Big Japan singles victory.
Hopefully Shuhei Taniguchi won't try and intimidate Kongoh with his dancing.

Picture credit: Noah.co.jp

Due to the Coronavirus, the Japanese Ministry of Health have recommended that sporting and public events in Japan be cancelled. While the question of the Olympics is still up in the air, all boxing and MMA has been cancelled for now, and Sumo holding shows with no audience, with the athletes testing their temperature up to three times a day before they can compete. 

Both DDT and Stardom have done empty arena shows, DragonGate have cancelled their events (the GHC Tag Title defence by Naomichi Marufuji and Masaaki Mochizuki will be rearranged), and W-1 have also cancelled events. Big Japan remain defiant, however, and so Yoshiki Inamura will still compete in the "Strong Climb" tournament. In addition, NOSAWA Rongai has cancelled his produce.

Noah have taken the decision to cancel their big Yokohama 8th March event, which would have been the last time they came to the Yokohama Bunka Gym before the renovations, and all shows and fan events until the 21st March.  They will hold all four championship matches - GHC Heavyweight, junior, junior tag and GHC National at a small show at Korakuen Hall on the 29th March. 

​"Impact Wrestling 3/3/2020 Livestream | Impact Mar. 3, 2020"...


Published Mar 3 2020 By Andre Corbeil of wrestlingwithwrestling.com  

March 3rd  2020 Impact Wrestling live stream with Andre Corbeil.
The most trusted name in Impact Wrestling opinion-based reporting in the world Andre Corbeil brings you all the live reactions and updates from every episode of Impact Wrestling. Join the founder of wrestlingwithwrestling.com Each week or your Impact Wrestling livestream. 


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