​"Mubien time begins"

Noah have been running Kultz Kawasaki since 2018, and it has become their big end of the summer show before the autumn N-1 Victory starts, as Noah start heading towards the end of their twenty-first year with a show announced today at the Yokohama Budokan on 22nd November.

I am unsure of today's attendance but the arena looked pretty much sold out, and added to the fact that Hajime Ohara is a local boy and did tireless promotion around the city, transportation is very good for getting to the venue with a bus stop outside, no too far a walk from the station, and a car park nearby.

Due to the Coronavirus the event has changed slightly from the last two years; Hajime Ohara has been unable to organise any of the pre-event entertainments that he had arranged beforehand (such as the traditional Japanese dancers, and the orchestra), and the layout of the seating had changed with the barriers keeping fans away from the wrestlers entrances and exits to the ring. Aside from that, Noah set up the merchandise stall as usual (local boy Hajime Ohara's muffler towel sold out quickly), and they also sold Seiki Yoshioka's merchandise for him although Yoshioka is a freelancer. Kotaro Suzuki (a Noah born and a freelancer) sold his own and as Japan is in the grip of very hot weather, enterprising Kotaro also sold hand fans. Naomichi Marufuji and Kaito Kiyomiya were on autographs, with Kiyomiya showing a genuinely wonderful touch by remembering the names of fans he had met before. 

Today's event will be shown on G+ on September 4th. Kenta Kobashi is the special guest commentator. 

MATCH ONE
Mohammed Yone vs Yuko Miyamoto

Mohammed Yone has fought both Yuko Miyamoto and his teacher, Mr. Gannosuke; Gannosuke in 1999 when he was in FMW, and Miyamoto mainly in Noah. They have fought five times in total, and this has been their only singles match to date. 

It was a fun match to open the show with. There was some light comedy with Miyamoto pulling the Disco Fever pose when he squared up to Yone and biting his hand when he went for the chinlock (I bet Masao Inoue wishes he thought of that), but taking the former out, it was a somewhat technical match with Yone's kicks resounding and fans commenting on the impact of his kicks and elbows.  

WINNER: Neither; time limit draw of 15 minutes

MATCH TWO
Daisuke Harada, YO-HEY & Kinya Okada vs Kongoh (Tadasuke, Haoh and Nioh)

"Red Tadasuke"

Tadasuke said that when he joined Kongoh he wasn't going to change his name, but he did change his ringwear, and entered Kawasaki today dressed in red and with new theme music. Even the leather jacket was red, and I've had "Thriller" stuck in my head since seeing him. 

The start of the match was surprisingly civil. Harada kept his temper under control enough to not attack Tadasuke on sight, and he let YO-HEY start against him. However, once they were in the ring he had a big score to settle, and took down Nioh as well with a elbow and knee combo with Haoh following his partner. Fans described Harada as being "on fire", and the combo he used as being incredible. 

The three Kongoh juniors unveiled their own tandem move. I am afraid I don't have the full details but it involves a top turnbuckle hurracanrunna by Haoh and a moonsault from Tadasuke. I don't know what Haoh's contribution is, but I would imagine it's his Lionsault. 

WINNER: Tadasuke with the Land Dumping Lariat on Kinya Okada (11 minutes, 33 seconds)

Tadasuke rolled away from Kinya Okada and he and Harada stared at each other, Tadasuke kneeling. Tadasuke sarcastically apologised, and then a fight broke out as Haoh and Nioh attacked. YO-HEY was powerbombed onto Harada, and Kongoh posed with their feet on them. 

MATCH THREE
Kaito Kiyomiya, Daiki Inaba & Seiya Morohashi vs Hideki Suzuki, Kaz Hayashi & NOSAWA Rongai

Shuhei Taniguchi has been removed from today's event due to symptoms of fever. Fortunately tests showed that it was not Coronavirus, and so Seiya Morohashi has taken his place. Fans were not the only people looking forward to seeing Hideki Suzuki vs Shuhei Taniguchi, Suzuki was too. Nevermind, it couldn't be helped he said, so he would turn his focus back to Kiyomiya, who he started the match off against. The general opinion about Suzuki vs Kiyomiya was that Kiyomiya has grown, and fans want to see a singles match between them. Inaba was not as lucky as Kiyomiya though, Suzuki tended to no sell him. 

WINNER: Hideki Suzuki with the Double Arm Suplex on Seiya Morohashi (11 minutes, 4 seconds)

There was some comedy at the end of the match as Suzuki in the ring looked down on NOSAWA Rongai and Kaz Hayashi, who didn't seem too pleased with his win. It looked as if he was negotiating the terms of his staying in the unit!

MATCH FOUR
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Championship
STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA) vs FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara)

"Emotional hometown battle"

Tadasuke was not the only one to have a new theme, HAYATA also had one too, although I don't think anyone is going to succeed in ever getting him to change his ringwear.

Although there is a ban on cheering, I don't think the crowd could help themselves when Hajime Ohara appeared, especially since he was specifically announced to be from Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki. After that there was a thunder of applause for him throughout the match. FULL THROTTLE might not have won, but they certainly came very very close at several points. 

This was an extremely fast paced, emotional and at times gruelling match to watch as hell hath no fury like an Ogawa made to submit, but it wasn't Hajime Ohara he took it out on, it was the wired Atsushi Kotoge whose legs were attacked repeatedly. STINGER were at their most sadistic, which in Ogawa's case is frightening. A master at using his environment to his advantage where everything has its use, Ogawa fooled the ref by pretending to tie one of his bootlaces by lifting his leg onto the ring apron, and then dragging Kotoge out of the ring when the chance presented itself. As a spectator commented, "Kotoge didn't know what was happening" by the end, and he held on for as long as he could after going for a moonsault which Ogawa reversed into a submission.

WINNER: Yoshinari Ogawa via submission hold on Atsushi Kotoge (25 minutes, 39 seconds)

MATCH FIVE
GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship
Kotaro Suzuki vs Seiki Yoshioka

Like master like pupil, in the true style of Yoshinari Ogawa, Kotaro Suzuki had injured Seiki Yoshioka's knee during a pre-match, and was now coming back to finish the job. This was not an easy match to describe unless you see it, so I don't really have too much information on it. However, Kotaro used his veteran experience to outmanoeuvre Yoshioka throughout the match, and although his leg had been attacked repeatedly, Yoshioka did manage to kick Kotaro. He also bought out the new technique he said he would,which he reversed the "Endless Waltz" with, but it only got him the two count. 
Kotaro decided that enough was enough when the "Blue Destiny" was kicked out at two, and he deployed the Rolling Elbow and the Mass Driver for the pin.  

WINNER: Kotaro Suzuki with the Mass Driver (17 minutes, 5 seconds)

​A champion is seldom without challengers, and Kotaro knows this well. Barely had he had time to celebrate his win, when Kongoh's three juniors stormed the ring (Kongoh seldom just go anywhere, they always have to be storming in somewhere), and beat up Kotaro. Haoh then challenged him for the title.

MATCH SIX
The M's Alliance (Keiji Mutoh, Naomichi Marufuji, Masaaki Mochizuki and ???) vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya, Yoshiki Inamura & Manabu Soya)

Noah had asked fans to guess on the identity of the new member of The M's Alliance, and guesses ranged from Junta Miyawaki (still out with a shoulder injury and gone dark on social media) to Masato Tanaka (a favorite, but I think it's more likely he would have joined The Sugiura Army) and MAZADA (possible, as he is one of NOSAWA'S friends), but the mystery man turned out to be Masakatsu Funaki. Kongoh naturally looked unimpressed, and Funaki started the match against Kenoh. Naomichi Marufuji later commented that he wanted to see a singles match between them. To fans watching at the time, there was a strong feeling of tension. Funaki may have been the object of much of Kenoh's hatred today, but Marufuji got the usual slice having to take the Kongoh elbows and then the stamping which was led by Kenoh.   

​The heavyweights are all gearing up for the N-1, so matches are now becoming personal, especially against those who are in the same block. Two of Kongoh's monsters were particularly dominant, with Manabu Soya knocking down Masaaki Mochizuki, and Yoshiki Inamura practically steamrolling over Keiji Mutoh. Mutoh had to sit on the apron to get his breath, with one fan taking a picture of that moment and captioning it "Papa resting on the verandah". 

WINNER: Masakatsu Funaki with The Hybrid Blaster on Yoshiki Inamura (19 minutes, 13 seconds)

MATCH SEVEN
GHC Heavyweight Tag Championship 
AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima) vs The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura & Kazushi Sakuraba)

“You are too naïve if you do believe life is innocent laughter and fun” ~ The Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland

Following the Street Fight he had against Atsushi Onita earlier in the week, Takashi Sugiura came to the ring with his head bandaged as he had to have five stitches in his ear. AXIZ came to the ring in new golden and black latticed ringwear which went well with Shiozaki. Fans were sure that this would be a sign that AXIZ would win the titles, which led some to be annoyed at Noah for making it so blatant.

Kazushi Sakuraba and Katsuhiko Nakajima started the match with their MMA fighting style, with Takashi Sugiura attacking Go Shiozaki's notoriously bad arms when they squared up. Shiozaki was able to fight back, but the after affects it had on him were painful. The flow of the match went backwards and forwards; the Golden Era fight between Shiozaki and Sugiura, Nakajima really sticking his boots into Sugiura for the Shutter Chance, Nakajima vs Sugiura's elbow vs kick fight, and both Sakura and Sugiura receiving "The Endless Love". 

There were about two double submissions in the match, but the crux came at the end when Shiozaki went for the moonsault, Sugiura moved and turned into the Front Neck Choke which caused the referee to stop the match.

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura via referee stop on Go Shiozaki (33 minutes, 16 seconds)

As Nakajima saw to Shiozaki, and Sakuraba and Sugiura celebrated their win, Kongoh (led by Kenoh) came storming to the ring for the second time that evening, and Kenoh challenged them for the GHC Heavyweight tag belts on behalf of Masa Kitamiya and Manabu Soya.
Then Kenoh turned to AXIZ

Kenoh: Shiozaki, what is this pathetic appearance? Is this "I AM NOAH?"
Nakajima stood up, and looked for a second like he and Kenoh were going to fight. 
Nakajima (taking the microphone): Hey, Kenoh, let me...

​Nakajima went to help Shiozaki up, but in a lightning quick moment he threw Shiozaki down with a brainbuster, and then said "You don't need me, and I don't need you either. From today, I'm with Kongoh"

Nakajima then did a fist bump with Kenoh and left with Kongoh, as Kaito Kiyomiya came to Go Shiozaki's rescue (Shiozaki has rescued Kiyomiya twice from Kenoh). Backstage Kiyomiya said he was confused by what had happened, and had no words. 

When everyone had left the ring, the new GHC Heavyweight tag champions imitated the Kongoh pose as Fortune's Wheel in Noah turned once again.

Noah's next show will be on Sunday, September 6th at Fujisan Messe.

GIFS taken from Noah GHC Twitter
PICTURE CREDITS: PKDX, Tadasuke
WITH THANKS TO: Metal Noah, Abeshin, Pu, Anemone Mournian (Animo), Ba-ninguk, Pukepoko
TACK, FUJIMAL ☺︎ Shun Go, Naoki, Fuji Error, Shishikazu, Kei, Fujiwara Armbar

​Pro Wrestling Noah ran two shows at ShinKiba 1st RING today; they held an afternoon event at 11.30 and then an evening event at 18.00. Both events were broadcast live on WRESTLE-UNIVERSE. 

It was 34 degrees in Tokyo when fans came to the hot arena, and there was something evocative about the fans clapping wildly and then settling into silence, with only the hum of the ambient sound in the air. There is no screen in spartan ShinKina, so there were no special announcements made, with the ring announcer reading out the cards only. 

Due to Coronavirus, Noah naturally want to limit the amount of contact between fans and wrestlers, so no autograph session took place, but in lieu of that they sold autographed goods and Yuko Miyamoto's products. 

"The Afternoon Event"

Match One
FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara) vs KONGOH (Haoh and Nioh)

The staid humorless Kongoh made a big contrast to the somewhat hyper Atsushi Kotoge (who the handlebar revving up "brum brum" on Hajime Ohara's back). Nioh attempted to distract Kotoge from "revving up" the crowd by slapping him on the back, but Kotoge made a mild protest to the referee and continued. More vocal than Kongoh, Kotoge continued being the one to make the most noise during the match at silent hot ShinKiba, and even did a one man version of Kongoh's elbow drops at rapid speed, and naturally he threw a headbutt at Nioh. 

Haoh was the star of this match, performing great wrestling against Hajime Ohara, who he worked very well with. 

The two teams wore each other, neither could get the win, and when it seemed that something was going to change the time ran out as Ohara was being held back by Nioh as Kotoge and Haoh fought inside the ring. However, this match was just a skirmish, both teams had bigger fish to catch later in the day.  

WINNER: Neither, time out draw

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

Masao Inoue has had a rough day, and it started with being tormented by Mohammed Yone who kept making lunging motions towards him, so much so after only a few seconds Inoue wanted to tag Akitoshi Saito in. Inoue, however, couldn't stay out of the ring for too long and sneaking in he knocked Taniguchi off the apron. Saito thought that by this time he had softened Yone up for Inoue, he was mistaken as as soon as he tagged Inoue in, Yone kicked him in the face and then tagged in Taniguchi who had clambered back up. 

Sometimes I wonder if there is anyone in Noah who doesn't cause Inoue some kind of harm, even his own senior, Toshiaki Kawada threatened him with divine punishment for signing his autograph over his face, and his tag partner, Akitoshi Saito, is no different. Telling Taniguchi to scoop slam Inoue onto him after a succession of the move that Inoue had been doing to both of them, he then moved, yelled "STUPID" and then left the ring. Inoue is not totally without resource however, and as Taniguchi is a fellow gout sufferer, he stamped on his toes. 

WINNER: Mohammed Yone with the Kinniku Buster on Masao Inoue (11 minutes, 28 seconds)

Match Three
AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima) & Kinya Okada vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura)

The crows came out to their sinister music, and a few moments were spent afterwards trying to help the ref flatten part of the ring down as one of the boards may have warped and were causing a bump in the canvas. In the end the ref dispatched one of the trainees under the ring to fix the problem.

Yoshiki Inamura was looking very toned today. Kenta Kobashi once said that the way to work out your ideal weight in wrestling is to keep adjusting it until you find something you can work with, which I think Inamura has done. The crowd were behind him in the hope he was going to get his first big win. He took the soccer ball kicks from a smirking Nakajima, and there was an intense punch war with him. There was a tremendous applause each time Inamura kicked out. Nakajima was nearly also launched through the roof of the venue when Inamura charged him and threw him with the "GEKITOTZ". 

Naturally, as the rookie, Kinya Okada got it the worse from his opponents; the Kongoh elbow drops (the proper ones, not the crazy person version seen earlier), although Kenoh was a little more kind to him, but only because he forgot about Okada temporarily and took a break from kicking him to walk over and swear at AXIZ. 

The match was mainly carried out by Kongoh, Nakajima and Okada, Shiozaki did not much get involved, although he gave Kenoh a short version of the Machine Gun chops and he and Kenoh got into a chop\kick war. Masa Kitamiya was dominant against the champion, even going for a bearhug at one point. 

WINNER: Katsuhiko Nakajima with a kick to the head on Yoshiki Inamura (14 minutes, 20 seconds)

After a kick to the head and a pin which was naturally cocky, Nakajima nonchalantly went to sit in the corner, as Kenoh helped roll Inamura out of the ring by nudging him with his foot. On the ramp, AXIZ did the famous lean. 

​Match Four
Daisuke Harada vs Tadasuke

"Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods."
Aristotle

Tadasuke had cheerfully stated earlier that he was done with YO-HEY, it was now time for Harada. Unlike YO-HEY, Harada has that heavyweight strength and so when he came out to the ring, he paused on the ramp, looked at Tadasuke, got in the ring and they immediately attacked each other, not even waiting for the bell. A sad looking YO-HEY came out to second Harada. 

Like most time he has fought an angry Harada, Tadasuke at one point begged for mercy, but it never serves anyone to trust Tadasuke, as he was just luring in him. At ringside he caught Harada who did a dive, and slammed him against the ring apron. Not caring about the count, Tadasuke strolled around ringside, before rolling Harada back under the ropes and getting in the ring himself. 

Knowing each other well after years of working together and fighting each other in both Noah and on the indies, Harada reversed Tadasuke's massive lariat, but after using the rolling elbow, he did not capitalize on the pin when he should have, falling into that trap that the opponent is weaker than he looks and as stated above and many times before, we know you should never trust Tadasuke. Harada went up to the turnbuckle, and Haoh suddenly appeared and clung on to him as Nioh got into the ring and the ref was shoved down. The match was abandoned in Daisuke Harada's favor, and a melee fight broke out with Harada and YO-HEY attacked by Kongoh. Kongoh, who Tadasuke had now joined. 

WINNER: Daisuke Harada thanks to Nioh and Haoh invading the ring (15 minutes, 59 seconds)

Daisuke Harada had made the comment that all Tadasuke had ever been in RATELS was the 4th person. Tadasuke told Harada today that he was aware that Harada had always looked down on him, but not now. Not anymore. 

Match Five
The M'S Alliance (Naomichi Marufuji & Yuko Miyamoto) vs Kaito Kiyomiya & Daiki Inaba

If you are a new wrestler in the Noah ring, then Naomichi Marufuji (who described himself once as a "bundle of curiosity"), will probably be interested in fighting you. Usually he does this by jumping into the ring and squaring up to you. Daiki Inaba was no different, and he and Marufuji started off and Inaba did very well. Ironically, Inaba had been trained by Emile Dupree (Rene Dupree's father), and Keiji Mutoh (the M'S Alliance senior), and like Marufuji has an All Japan background. 

It was a good technical match to round off the show, which highlighted how well Inaba has fitted into Noah and into the Noah style. 

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Tiger Suplex Hold on Yuko Miyamoto (17 minutes, 13 seconds)

It was young twenty-four year old Kaito Kiyomiya who broke the M'S Alliance streak, and smiling smugly he held up three fingers to the veterans, and he even got on the apron to have an argument them. You would never have seen Kiyomiya do this with anyone other than Kenoh a few months ago. 

Kiyomiya (who had forgotten to take his mouthguard out) spoke on the microphone, and basically told the other units in the heavyweights - Kongoh, The M's Alliance and The Sugiura Army, that they were the new kids in town, and he was looking forward to his first participation in the N-1 Victory. 

"The Evening Event"

With the "S" Seats sold out, it was estimated that there were about the same number of attendees as there had been in the afternoon. 

Match One
Kinya Okada vs Manabu Soya

This was a technical beast fight (not a Hoss fight, Okada is not at that level yet), with a Showa era overtone as Manabu Soya chose to do a long headlock on Okada. Okada, much to his credit, refused to give up, and when he did it was because Soya applied a vicious looking submission to him that looked like it was going to twist his neck and crush his chest. The crowd were behind the Noah born "Okakin", who seems to have developed a new move  to his repertoire, which is a kind of kick and chop combo and looks really good. Okada always said he wanted to develop his own style, and he is well on the way to doing it.

WINNER: Manabu Soya with a neck lock (10 minutes, 41 seconds)

Match Two
The M'S Alliance (Naomichi Marufuji & Yuko Miyamoto) vs The Anti Wrestlers Alliance (Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue)

Inoue came limping out. The poor old man with gout has had to wrestle twice in one day, and this second match was going to be even worse than the first.

The match started with what was kind of like W*NG vs FMW, Akitoshi Saito being in W*NG, and Yuko Miyamoto being trained by Mr. Gannosuke of FMW. You also got a sense of this from the style of wrestling. 

Then Marufuji got into the ring, pointed at Inoue and said "You!". 
So, Inoue's dear friend, Akitoshi Saito, tagged Inoue in. Inoue refused to get into the ring as Marufuji kept lunging motions at him. When Inoue did get into the ring, Saito was very helpful by hooking Inoue's arm under the rope so Marufuji could chop him. Not that at that point that Marufuji could chop him, Inoue was being so loud that in the end, Marufuji just gave up and made the rope break clean. The crowd were giggling, and even Miyamoto was joining in. Inoue could not escape Marufuji forever, and he got a chop that sounded like a whip cracking, and later when he snuck up on him and hit him with a hook kick, it sounded like a gunshot in the quiet of ShinKiba. It was hard for the crowd to remain totally silent however, especially when Inoue managed to duck Marufuji's sequence of kicks and they made a gasping noise, which was followed by a loud applause. 

WINNER: Yuko Miyamoto with Jack-knife on Masao Inoue (10 minutes, 54 seconds)

Afterwards, Saito held the rope open for Inoue who was sprawled on the mat, but he rolled under it, and Saito stepped on his face to get off the apron.
Masao Inoue has had a very rough day. 

Match Three
Kaito Kiyomiya, Shuhei Taniguchi, Mohammed Yone, Daisuke Harada & YO-HEY vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya, Yoshiki Inamura, Haoh and Nioh

Tadasuke made his first appearance with Kongoh wearing a red Kongoh t-shirt, and took his place in the pre match pose, making a pistol motion in between Haoh and Nioh and standing in front of Manabu Soya and just behind Kenoh. 

YO-HEY & Daisuke Harada came out the first on their team. They both took a long glare at Tadasuke, with Harada whispering to YO-HEY "look at this!"and motioning towards Tadasuke. The ref had to tell Harada to back off from him. Kaito Kiyomiya (team leader) had come bouncing to the ring shedding white feathers everywhere, and he didn't want an already volatile situation to explode. When the bell rang however, it was YO-HEY who was the first to go after Tadasuke, but the ref called him back into the ring, trying to keep the situation under control. It was a valiant but futile effort, Harada was distracted by Tadasuke at ringside, which gave Haoh the upper hand, which put himself and Nioh higher on the Harada\YO-HEY hit list. 

Tadasuke caused the melee that the referee had been dreading by pulling Harada's legs, and then taking part in the elbow drop chain, before making a quick exit from the ring. Tadasuke seems to have given Kongoh that much needed irritating heel edge that they needed; being angry and raging against authority is one thing, but none of them seemed to have known until Tadasuke joined, how to be smarmy, and how to be crafty. This was accelerated as the hatred simmered between Kenoh and Harada, who was being pinned down through the ropes by Kenoh, so that Tadasuke could taunt him. 

WINNER: Kenoh with the PFS on Mohammed Yone (18 minutes, 51 seconds)

After the match, Kenoh started yelling at Harada and YO-HEY. Harada lost his temper, stormed the ring and a fight broke out as he attacked Tadasuke. Tadasuke tried to throw Harada out, as Inamura attacked YO-HEY with shoulder charges, but Harada got back in. When he did eventually throw him out, Tadasuke made hand dusting motions. Harada (and I assume this is Harada as he is known do to this, YO-HEY is not) threw a tantrum, and threw his athletic tape into the ring where it landed at Masa Kitamiya's feet. 

Kenoh, loving every moment of this victory over Harada, introduced Tadasuke as the new member of KONGOH, and said that he had joined because he wanted his own freedom to do what he wanted, and in Kongoh he would make the Noah ring shine like a diamond and never "in fourth place". Backstage, Harada said sarcastically that he was happy that Tadasuke had found "new friends", but the fact would always remain; he would always be "fourth place". The war between Harada, YO-HEY and Kongoh (Haoh, Nioh and Tadasuke) will continue in Kawasaki on the 30th. Fans are predicting another twist to the story. 

Match Four
STINGER (Kotaro Suzuki, Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA) vs FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara & Seiki Yoshioka)

STINGER came saunting to the ring looking unconcerned, with an unintentionally funny moment of Yoshinari Ogawa looking unimpressed as Atsushi Kotoge spoke to him. Kotoge was full of energy again, which Ohara seemed to match (but in a less insane way), especially when the ref bought to an end HAYATA being trapped on the ropes, with Ohara enthusiastically getting the crowd to clap along with his shouts of "ENGINE OPEN...ENGINE OPEN". Ohara didn't hear the ref at first until he was practically tapped on the shoulder. 

With Kotaro and Yoshioka beginning to know each other somewhat well, the match was divided into Kotoge and Ohara concentrating on HAYATA and Ogawa, leaving Yoshioka mainly to Kotaro. Then Hell froze over, as probably the only person who could make it happen, made it happen. Hajime Ohara practically bent Ogawa's spine, neck and knee into a position that only a jointed doll could achieve, and made him tap out. 

WINNER: Hajime Ohara with the Mui Bien on Yoshinari Ogawa (17 minutes, 53 seconds)

Kotaro Suzuki once gave sound advice when it comes to challenging Yoshinari Ogawa; be serious and make a statement so he understands you are serious. Kotaro didn't mean simply say it, he said you have to do it, and that is what FULL THROTTLE did today and Kotoge made a verbal challenge. Not in any position to deny them now, Ogawa has accepted the challenge and it has been arranged for the 30th August in Kawasaki. 

As for the GHC Junior Championship, Yoshioka was limping badly and had to be helped from the ring, at the time of writing Noah have not announced anything, but fans were concerned. 

Match Five
AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima) vs The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura & Kaz Hayashi)

The Sugiura Army had one target in mind today, which was to sink their canines into Go Shiozaki's arm and tear it like a dog gnawing on a bone, and that is exactly what they did. Shiozaki was slowed down by it and when he went for the machine gun chops, Sugiura reversed this into his corner attack with heavy blows to the face, and kicks to his arm. AXIZ were going to do anything to even the score with The Sugiura Army in the pre-matches, Nakajima even cheating when he kicked Sugiura's foot away from the rope during a Shiozaki submission hold. He was told off by the ref who caught him when he did it a second time. 

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan Lariat on Takashi Sugiura (22 minutes, 18 seconds)

​Katsuhiko Nakajima sat and watched in a sinister way, crouching as he watching Sugi being rolled out of the ring, never taking his eyes off of him like a cat watching a mouse. Shiozaki spoke on the microphone about the title challenge saying that on the 30th they would take the belts, and thanking everyone for coming out in the heat of Tokyo that day and saying that in Kawasaki, he hoped to see more smiles. He ended with "WE ARE NOAH", and AXIZ doing the famous lean.

Noah's next show: Sunday August 30th, Kultz Kawasaki
With thanks to: ABESHIN

​"Clapping in my heart"

Noah's senior referee, Shu Nishinaga, celebrated thirty years in wrestling today. Twenty of those years have been spent with Noah, after he walked out of All Japan with Mitsuharu Misawa in 2000. Additionally, Mohammed Yone also celebrated twenty five years in wrestling and there were flowers in the lobby which had been sent to him. Naomichi Marufuji also presented him with flowers before his match. 

Noah did not have an autograph booth, which is a staple of Korakuen Hall usually, but they compensated for this by selling autographed goods, namely that of STINGER, and Kotaro Suzuki (not a contracted member of Noah) was signing autographs at his own stall, while inside the hall itself Yoshinari Ogawa was holding a class in the ring. Unfortunately I don't know who he was teaching today. Noah had also opened up the north side of the hall. The crowd was very responsive, despite being not at full capacity and not being allowed to cheer. There was a good atmosphere today with the roster looking happy and the venue had a sense of light. 

As the trainees disinfected the ring, a hot Korakuen was rocking out to Black Sabbath. Now I don't know what song was being played, but if it was "Paranoid", then it was going to be apt for what was to happen later. 

Today's show was not streamed live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE, but fortunately these are not the old days when not so long ago, all we saw was a few precious crumbs from BATTLEMEN, as the event will be broadcast on 27th August on Samurai TV. 

MATCH ONE
Mohammed Yone vs Kinya Okada

​After the presentation of flowers by Naomichi Marufuji, it was down to business. Kinya Okada later said that Yone kicked him harder in a singles match than he ever did before, and he was determined to train harder and become tougher. 
For all his somewhat kind personality and Disco gimmick, Mohammed Yone can be ruthless when he wants to be, and Okada ate a few elbows outside the ring when he was draped against the iron barriers. 
WINNER: Mohammed Yone with the Kinniku Buster (11 minutes, 14 seconds)

MATCH TWO
YO-HEY vs Tadasuke

YO-HEY went on the attack quickly with a top rope somersault. He was accompanied to the ring by Daisuke Harada, who could only stand and stare as Tadasuke made full use of his heavyweight strength to slam YO-HEY into the apron when they were outside of the ring. Tadasuke smiled somewhat crazily, and stepped back to watch YO-HEY nonchalantly leaning on the side of the ring. 

YO-HEY did manage to get some technique in against Tadasuke, but it wasn't enough. At the end of the match Tadasuke used the ref as shield, and when he wasn't looking because he had been thrown aside, Tadasuke aimed a punch to the back of YO-HEY'S head before hitting his finisher. 

WINNER: Tadasuke with the 2PAC (10 minutes, 18 seconds)

There was no way that YO-HEY could compete with Tadasuke's strength (unsurprisingly fans are expecting him to go into the heavyweights), and as he lay on the mat with Tadasuke's foot on his face, Harada got into the ring to protest to the referee. There was no progression between the three, and we are no closer to knowinging anything more about why Tadasuke has done what he did. Tadasuke himself offered no further clues as he posted black and white photos of his beating up YO-HEY on social media, and saying that he was done with YO-HEY. Next was Harada. 

YO-HEY made the sad comment that there was nothing he could do. 
MATCH THREE
M'S Alliance (Naomichi Marufuji, Masaaki Mochizuki & Yuko Miyamoto) vs Kongoh (Manabu Soya, Haoh and Nioh)

Always liking to experience new wrestlers, Naomichi Marufuji and Manabu Soya started the match in what Noah called "Technique vs Power", and Power knocked Technique down, then Technique picked on poor little Haoh. 

This was a fast paced match with many different styles of power, technique, backgrounds, and then there were the two juniors.  
​
WINNER: Yuko Miyamoto with a moonsault press* on Nio (12 minutes and 41 seconds)

After the match, Manabu Soya and Naomichi Marufuji squared up to each other. 

MATCH FOUR
Kaito Kiyomiya, Daiki Inaba & Shuhei Taniguchi vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura) 

Shuhei Taniguchi strolled out wearing blue pants. Which was far more than he was wearing a few hours earlier. Let's just say that the balloon was left at the party. 

Yoshiki Inamura was the star of the match, concentrating not only on Taniguchi (who he heaved up and on to his shoulder like he weighed nothing), his other target was his other rival, Kaito Kiyomiya.
​ 
WINNER: Kenoh with the PFS on Daiki Inaba (18 minutes, 49 seconds)

After the match, Noah's most angry (and paranoid) man, Kenoh, "The Red Champion" got on the microphone and started his usual rant (prior to it he had yelled at Kiyomiya and co as they left ringside). Kenoh has decided that CyberFight are a shadowy comgolorant who have formed only to inflict their evil dictatorship upon him, after all they are made up of people he doesn't trust Marufuji and Noah's President Sanshiro Takagi to name a few. Kenoh started growling that he was going to stop them from thinking that they could do what they wanted. Additionally, backstage Kenoh went on an angry rant about AXIZ vs Takashi Sugiura and Kazushi Sakuraba for the GHC Heavyweight tag belts, and as he has never forgiven Sakuraba being given a fan made National Championship belt, he wanted to know why Sakuraba had no interest in his belt. 

MATCH FIVE
STINGER (Kotaro Suzuki, Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA) vs FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara & Seiki Yoshioka)

Naturally after throwing it in the trash, HAYATA did not appear with the IPW belt, and fortunately no one (not even Atsushi Kotoge, a crazy person with a taped shoulder because he keeps waving his arms around rapidly), had fished it out. 

Yoshioka's moonsaults over the barrier and into either the crowd or Kuniko Yamada's broadcast table, have become infamous, and today he went over the barrier and kind of bounced off it. This earned him an applause from Kotoge. 

Each of FULL THROTTLE had something to gain in this match, and so they knew they really needed to win; Yoshioka because this was a pre-match with Kotaro Suzuki before the GHC Junior Heavyweight title challenge, and Hajime Ohara and Atsushi Kotoge because they want to make a title challenge. Sadly, this was not meant to be. 
WINNER: Kotaro Suzuki with the Tiger Driver on Seiki Yoshioka (17 minutes, 32 seconds)

As HAYATA and Yoshinari Ogawa ran off quickly before Kotoge could say anything, although FULL THROTTLE hadn't won the match and therefore couldn't challenge, (i.e. they just don't want to be bothered with them), Kotaro Suzuki bent down and shoved the belt right in Seiki Yoshioka's face. The only way Kotoge and Ohara are going to get their challenge, is to defeat one of STINGER, grab their hair and shout it in their face.  
MATCH SIX
AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima) & Daisuke Harada vs The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba & Kaz Hayashi)

There were a lot of firsts in this match; the first time the two wrestlers with an MMA background would meet in the ring (Nakajima vs Sakuraba), the first time Daisuke Harada would fight Sakuraba, and the first time since 2012 in All Japan, that Harada and Kaz Hayashi would clash. No wonder the main event was described as "insanely interesting". 

There was the usual Sugiura vs Shiozaki power struggle, and Sugiura getting kicked around by Nakajima, but the highlight of the match was said to the fight between Nakajima and Sakuraba, which came down to mat wrestling, and was described by fans as "amazing." (Noah said there was lots of grunting), and Sakuraba, who hates being chopped, later took the dreaded "ENDLESS LOVE", but he got his revenge as Sugiura stopped Nakajima from trying to get into the ring to help his teammate who has heavily taped shoulders and arms. 

WINNER: Kazushi Sakuraba with an arm lock on Go Shiozaki (25 minutes, 21 seconds)
​

​After the match, Sugiura addressed Shiozaki;

"What is this "I AM NOAH?" Asshole, I've been doing this for 20 years."

AXIZ looked on as after adding, "I am Chono", Sugiura threw down the microphone and struck a pose with Hayashi and Sakuraba. 

With thanks to: Gong Ex, Fujiwara Armbar, Kei, Abeshin, Shishikazu, Hassy, Naoki Slam

Picture credit: YO-HEY, PKDX
GIF taken from Noah GHC Official Twitter

*Marufuji would later brand Miyamoto's moonsault as "World Level".

​Pro Wrestling Noah have been coming to the Yokohama Bunka Gym since it was four months old, and now with all the memories packed inside, they came here one last time and said goodbye. The old venue, opened in 1962, is now going to be torn down completely and replaced with a new venue called the Yokohama United Arena, which is due to open in 2024. 

Fans came to see Noah's final event here (buying the Noah crepes on the way), while others watched in the new innovation Noah made, by having them watch on ZOOM. For the rest of us, we watched on ABEMA (available to view for seven days from the date of the event, afterwards it will be put on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. ABEMA is free to view, WRESTLE UNIVERSE is not). At the venue, merchandise stalls had been set up, and after the fans had gone through the usual temperature checks, they found that Noah's longterm sponsors, THE LEAVE, had left hand-fans on the seats for them. An additional treat was Yoshinari Ogawa holding one of his famous classes in the ring before the event began, with HAYATA, Katsuhiko Nakajima and Kinya Okada in attendance. 

Attendance was good, although Noah are not currently announcing just how many attended, whilst on ABEMA 243K people worldwide tuned in. 

At ringside was the celebrity commentators Jurina Matsui (who is so far the youngest and only girl member of M'S Alliance) who proudly showed off her gold membership card, and Kuniko Yamada, who was wearing a tank top reading "KAITO" over her kimono, and who looked like she would really like to be a member too, but sadly for Kuniko, she has no M in her initials. 

MATCH ONE
Tadasuke & YO-HEY vs Kongoh (Haoh & Nioh)

Fans have often whispered that for RATELS, Yokohama is cursed - it was where YO-HEY turned on them to join STINGER, it was where YO-HEY had his collapsed lung, it was where HAYATA sustained a rib injury, and for tonight for what was left of RATELS, the curse was about to get worse. 

All started as normal, Crazy Tadasuke and colorful YO-HEY came to the ring. YO-HEY with the crazy lock up on Nioh, he even pulled the thunderbolt pose to mock him with. Tadasuke looking every bit the heavyweight as he threw Haoh and Nioh around, and things even got a bit GinGin Boys (I'm not going to explain. Look it up if you dare, but the GIF should go some way to explaining things). Then as YO-HEY and Tadasuke went to bounce Haoh off the ropes, Tadasuke lariated YO-HEY and almost took his head off. The tragic thing was that for YO-HEY, was that he was almost getting some normality back, HAYATA had gone, but he thought he still had Tadasuke and Harada, right? Wrong. 
Tadasuke stood there celebrating, a manically wild grin on his face as Haoh got the pin. 

WINNER: Haoh with the Jackknife pin on YO-HEY (8 minutes, 13 seconds)

​Tadasuke had not done this for Kongoh, they were just as surprised as everyone else, and left quickly. Tadasuke, however walked over to YO-HEY, bent down to look at him for a few seconds, and then walked off. Backstage he said that he had his reasons, he hated Daisuke Harada who he repeatedly said was "selfish" for thinking of nothing but HAYATA, and he never ever wanted to hear the word "RATELS" ever again. On his Instagram account, against a black background with white writing, he said that for now he would not be doing anymore Instagram lives (he gets drunk and passes out). 

MATCH TWO
STINGER (Kotaro Suzuki & Yoshinari Ogawa) & Kinya Okada vs FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara, Seiki Yoshioka)

You could tell from the beginning of this match that something was up with FULL THROTTLE, especially as Seiki Yoshioka right from the start wanted Kotaro Suzuki. Kotaro won Kuniko's heart, by stopping Yoshioka from going into the table again by pulling him off the apron, and getting a thumbs up from her. Yoshioka would later do his flip, but he went into the crowd. Kotaro, who used to wind KENTA up during their junior days, wasn't going to take being kicked by Yoshioka, but much to his horror, Yoshioka managed to reverse the rolling elbow.

Atsushi Kotoge was his usual hyper self (he was twitchy and couldn't stand still), which caused Yoshinari Ogawa to do what is the standard response in Noah to this; ignore him. 

Kinya Okada showed further growth, by using his kicks to do more than just kick people.  I think Ogawa has probably taught him to use what is around him, as Ogawa draped an arm of his opponent over the ropes and kicked it. 

WINNER: Seiki Yoshioka with a Reverse Cross on Kotaro Suzuki (11 minutes, 1 seconds)

Yoshinari Ogawa couldn't believe it, and for that matter neither could Kotaro. With a big grin, Yoshioka when challenged Kotaro for the GHC Junior Heavyweight. Unlike Ogawa, Kotaro will accept all comers, and so accepted the challenge which will be held in Kawasaki on the 30th August. 

Then Noah's nutcase, Atsushi Kotoge, got on the microphone and challenged for the GHC Junior Tag on behalf of himself and Hajime Ohara. However, the mic wasn't on, so he did it again, but by that time Ogawa had already left. No date for the tag challenge has been announced, so expect Ogawa make them jump through a few more hoops before he says yes. 

FULL THROTTLE left the ring with Hajime Ohara, the leader, left giving Yoshioka a pep talk as Kotoge followed on behind. 

MATCH THREE
M'S Alliance (Naomichi Marufuji, Masaaki Mochizuki & Yuko Miyamoto) vs Katsuhiko Nakajima, Shuhei Taniguchi & Mohammed Yone

The M'S Alliance are veterans, who generally have easy matches (aside from the occasional title match or singles match), and who have more than deserved an easy payday. This was one of those times. They are colorful like their rivals (but not enemies) The Sugiura Army, although less chaotic and Naomichi Marufuji has no wilful juniors to control.  

Katsuhiko Nakajima came to the ring looking his usual sinister self, and in the ring was his usual cocky self. Enjoying kicking around Miyamoto. For someone who loves the camera as much as Nakajima, Shutter Chance is a great move, and from ringside Kuniko even took a picture. Miyamoto eventually escaped this hold by sinking his teeth into his foot, and then he did his own version which Masaaki Mochizuki joined in with. Marufuji got a few kicks in, and was told off by the ref. Nakajima and Mochi also got into a kick war.

​Shuhei Taniguchi and Naomichi Marufuji decided to square up to each other before their N-1 league match. Taniguchi was as ever expressionless, and looked like he was yawning when he entered the ring, although he looked a little more animated when Marufuji's rope break involved him doing his hair, and looking over Taniguchi's shoulder as if he were looking in a mirror. Taniguchi even turned to look to see if there was one there. Later they got into a punch\chop war and Monster Taniguchi showed his dominance by piling M'S Alliance on top of each other.

As for Mohammed Yone, The Disco King. Masaaki Mochizuki was not impressed by his Disco Fever rope breaks or move stops. No one is impressed by it, Marufuji once chopped him for it, Nakajima has giggled at it, RATELS were terrified by it, I have no idea what Tsuyochi Kikuchi thought it was, and the look on the face of Yone's former tag partner, Quiet Storm, was probably the funniest reaction to it ever. However, as fans were expecting he might, Yone did not join the M'S Alliance

WINNER: Naomichi Marufuji with the True Tiger King on Mohammed Yone (15 minutes, 40 seconds)

Although this happened after the match with Kaito Kiyomiya, I am going to post it here as I won't get a chance to mention it later, Keiji Mutoh said that he would be bringing a mystery M to Kawasaki on the 30th August. 

MATCH FOUR
IPW Junior Heavyweight Championship Match
Daisuke Harada vs HAYATA
(Made my "Match of The Year list 2020")

HAYATA as the challenger came to the ring first, and was joined at ringside by Kotaro Suzuki and a tired looking Ogawa, Kotaro and Ogawa stayed out of the match and did not attempt to interfere. Tadasuke did not appear either, dispelling the notion (for now, we may discover more later), that he had joined STINGER. 

Daisuke Harada came to the ring and got in very slowly as he suspected that HAYATA would attack him before the bell even went, and as HAYATA knows him very well, he knew that Harada would be expecting this and so he made no move.

It was a very bitter fight, and they knew each other so so well so at times they ended up circling each other trying to figure each other out and guessing what each other would do next, with Harada able to block HAYATA'S kicks, and reverse The Headache, but only a few times. It won out in the end.  

WINNER: HAYATA with The Headache (15 minutes, 6 minutes)

With HAYATA gone, and Tadasuke turned rogue and saying he never wants to hear about RATELS ever again, all that was left of RATELS now was Harada and YO-HEY. Harada, the victim of every betrayal of his friends, and YO-HEY the one who had started all of this in Yokohama in 2018. It was very sad to see YO-HEY come to ringside, take one look at HAYATA (who took no notice of them, and left dragging the belt behind him), and help Harada up and to the back. 

​HAYATA dealt with the IPW belt by saying "Belt. Return", before throwing it in a bin and walking off.

MATCH FIVE
The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba & Kendo Kashin) vs Kongoh (Masa Kitamiya, Manabu Soya & Yoshiki Inamura)

This was a lighthearted match which I think the fans needed, which served as a buffer between what had just happened and what was going to come. Kendo Kashin managed to behave himself, not knocking the trainee off the apron, or waving iron barriers around when he comes to the ring. However, NOSAWA was at ringside to keep an eye on things. So while the Sugiura Army are dysfunctional in some respects, they are united in others. 

Despite Sugiura having two smaller and slimmer wrestlers, to face Kongoh's monsters (Inamura is managing to even dwarf Sugiura in size), the match was very much a heavyweight one. Sakuraba mat wrestled Manabu Soya, the building shook when Sugiura and Kitamiya shoulder tackled each other, which Kitamiya won by knocking Sugi down, and a confused NOSAWA looked on as Sugiura took out Kongoh and imitated Mutoh's pose. You could tell that Kitamiya & Sugiura were building up to something. 

WINNER: Kazushi Sakuraba with the Rolling Arm Lock on Manabu Soya (15 minutes, 18 seconds)

Noah then made a couple of announcements; the long awaited N-1 participants for the heavyweight league were announced (understandably there are no gaijin this year, and very few outside Japanese talent with Yoshiki Inamura making his first N-1 appearance), and the relinquishment of the GHC Heavyweight tag belts by Rene Dupree and El Hijo De Dr Wagner Jnr. Via video, Dupree announced that due to the difficulties of travel caused by the Coronavirus, the belts were being vacated. Symbolically he laid them in the ring and said that he and El Hijo De Dr Wagner Jnr would be back for them. It was announced the next day by Narihiro Takeda (Noah's CEO) that Dupree requested that AXIZ face Takashi Sugiura and Kazushi Sakuraba. Match has been set for the 30th in Kawasaki. 

MATCH SIX
Special Single Match
Keiji Mutoh vs Kaito Kiyomiya

It must be said that Kaito Kiyomiya been studying Mutoh, able to reverse some moves, and do some of Mutoh's own moves on him, but this is an older style of wrestling for Kiyomiya, although he has at an advantage as Noah trainees are taught to wrestle the ethics of King's Road, this is an older style to what he is used to. Kenta Kobashi was watching on ZOOM, and held up the "Fist of Youth". 

Despite this being Mutoh's first singles match since his knee operation (he had two artificial knee joints put in), he is still very powerful, working on Kiyomiya's knees constantly. The veteran dominated the first part of the match, with Kiyomiya getting the wind back in his sails for the second half, but the constant wear down on Kiyomiya's knees proved too much and Kiyomiya grabbed the ref, and almost begged him to make Mutoh stop. The day will come when it will be a much older Kiyomiya, a veteran, who is challenged by a young ace. 

WINNER: Keiji Mutoh via submission with the Figure 4 Leglock (27 minutes, 7 seconds)

MATCH SEVEN
GHC Heavyweight & GHC National Double Championship Match
Go Shiozaki vs Kenoh
(Made my "Match of The Year list 2020")

"This is Noah. This is the GHC"

Noah have had a belt vs belt match before, most notably Naomichi Marufuji putting the AJPW Junior on the line against KENTA who was holding the GHC Junior in 2008. As great as their match was, Marufuji had to admit that in his opinion this was better. This is the first time that the GHC Heavyweight (and the GHC National for that matter) has ever been defended in this way. This match turned into a sixty minute ironman match, as neither would give up or give in. 

Kenoh "The Red Champion" as fans are now calling him, had a suitably angry red entry, still looking bruised from the Nakajima match. Go Shiozaki's entry was green, which was made under the watchful eye of Kenta Kobashi high on the screen above on ZOOM, with Katsuhiko Nakajima seconding him. He took off his jacket to reveal his arm and shoulder where heavily taped, with his arms looking stuffed under the athletic supports. Two referees (Nishinaga and Nakayama) did the honors with the belts, showing them to the opponents in turn, and moving like clockwork presenting them to the four corners of the arena. 

This was a fast paced match of kicks and chops, with Shiozaki and Kenoh working to take out each others weapons, for Kenoh it was Shiozaki attacking his knees, while for Shiozaki it was Kenoh attacking his arms. Both kept up this pace for an hour, it picking up pace towards the end as things grew more desperate. Kenoh returning chops for kicks, even the machine gun chops he returned as "machine gun kicks". Earlier, Shiozaki had no sold Kenoh's attack, even brushing one kick off like dust, but he couldn't so easily brush of the multiple PFS he took, and the devastating one that he took outside the ring with Kenoh balancing on the top of the ring post. Marufuji, Kenoh's mortal enemy, was amazed by this. They had promised a match that went beyond, and they more than delivered it. But there could only be one outcome, and it was the right one, the match came to a time out draw.

WINNER: Neither, time out draw.

Shiozaki and Kenoh stared at each other, until Kenoh staggered to his feet, and semi fainted and was helped from the ring by Kongoh. Shiozaki managed to stand and addressed the crowd. He thanked everyone for coming, and promised that Noah would go above and beyond. He finished with "I am NOAH! WE are NOAH!" 

With thanks to: Metal Noah, Abeshin, Kei, Gong-Ex
GIF taken from ABEMATV & Noah GHC Official YouTube
Noah's next show: Thursday August 20th, Korakuen Hall

​Twenty years ago today Pro Wrestling Noah held their very first show at Differ Ariake, so many people had turned up to buy tickets (this was 2000, people couldn't buy tickets electronically, so they sold them at the door or purchased via a phone call to the box office), that monitors had to be put up in the parking lot for them to watch the show. Noah have had a turbulent twenty years; the Golden Era of stadiums was all but destroyed when Misawa died, then came scandal, talent walkout, business troubles, and almost constant changes in ownership as Noah drifted on seas that were either rough or else just flat and featureless, with no safe harbor in sight. Thankfully, over the past few years things while rough, have gradually gotten better, and Noah have arrived today at this point. Korakuen should have been packed out with people today, but sadly due to the Coronavirus, audience capacity has to be limited through necessity, but that doesn't matter - people have come, and Noah is still here and looking to the future. Their long term sponsors, THE LEAVE, sent them flowers which were placed in the lobby. 

Noah was not the only one to be celebrating an anniversary today, Daisuke Harada was celebrating his 14th anniversary in wrestling. 

MATCH ONE
Katsuhiko Nakajima, Mohammed Yone & Kinya Okada vs The Anti Wrestlers Alliance (Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue) & Seiya Morohashi

It's been a while since we have seen Seiya Morohashi, but he still looks the same. Still in great condition, and making Kinya Okada inspired to emulate him. Speaking of Okada, comedic as they often are, The Anti Wrestlers Alliance, with Akitoshi Saito's style of wrestling (plus the Showa Era flag waving), is a good team for him to be on. 

​Katsuhiko Nakajima came out looking a little subdued since the loss of the championship, but this is wrestling, you win a title, you lose a title, the only way forward is to put it behind you and look ahead to the next one, and he got back to normal with the evil smile, by stamping on Masao Inoue's gouty toes, kicking him around (both in and outside of the ring) and goading him into attacking him. Who can blame the crowd for laughing, especially when Yone joined in in trying to scare him? 

A strong opener and very apt for Noah's "Golden Era". 

WINNER: Mohammed Yone with Kinniku Buster on Seiya Morohashi (12 minutes, 51 seconds)

MATCH TWO
Kaito Kiyomiya, Shuhei Taniguchi & Daiki Inaba vs FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara & Seiki Yoshioka)

Although Atsushi Kotoge was seemingly a little calmer today, he was still herded into the corner (he forgot to take his hat off), by his teammates, so Hajime Ohara could start off against Shuhei Taniguchi, which surprisingly works well despite the size and weight difference. 

The team of Kaito Kiyomiya, Daiki Inaba and Shuhei Taniguchi came out to Kiyomiya's music, which was a little to "young boy" for Shuhei Taniguchi, whose music they should have been coming out to as he is the senior. Daiki Inaba was not interested in Kotoge making bike firing up motions and going "Brum Brum" (note, in Japanese it's "Bun Bun", but this means something different in English as its Japanese onomatopoeic for a bike revving up). Ohara got into the spirit, and made the motions when he had Inaba in a hold, and Kotoge was bouncing off the ropes. While we are on the subject of FULL THROTTLE, Seiki Yoshika is still going into the crowd and over the barrier when he moonsaults, he probably got ticked off about this yesterday, so he got away from the crowd pretty quick

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Tiger Suplex Hold on Hajime Ohara (13 minutes, 33 seconds)

While Atsushi Kotoge had dramatics, acting like a mourner on an Egyptian tomb relief over the fallen Ohara as their opponents celebrated, fans wanted to see what Taniguchi was going to do, but Taniguchi seemed to have no problems with Kiyomiya or Inaba, and so it is thought that they will make a three man unit. However, as fans have warned Kiyomiya about Taniguchi, be careful - he has betrayed pretty much every partner he has ever had, so it may be that he is only biding his time. 

MATCH THREE
STINGER (Kotaro Suzuki, Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA) vs Daisuke Harada, Tadasuke & YO-HEY.

There were two stories to this match, one main and one secondary; the main story is that this is the final pre-match between HAYATA and Daisuke Harada before their IPW Junior Heavyweight match on the 10th August in Yokohama, and YO-HEY'S to defeat Kotaro, he is more focused on this than fighting HAYATA at the moment. So, Harada and HAYATA started, and the usual STINGER vs RATELS melee fight broke out when Harada went for the Katayama German in the opening few minutes, when order was restored, Ogawa outside the ring decided to start cheating, and pulled Harada's legs. 

Harada made a foolish mistake for him, by falling into the trap of wanting to punish someone more when they were vulnerable, rather than just go for the pin while STINGER were fighting outside the ring with Tadasuke and YO-HEY, and HAYATA was flat out on the mat. Predictably, HAYATA reversed the move and took the three directly from Harada. 

WINNER: HAYATA with the Samsung Clutch (12 minutes, 29 seconds)

MATCH FOUR
The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazuyashi Sakuraba, Kendo Kashin, Hideki Suzuki, NOSAWA Rongai & Kaz Hayashi) vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya, Manabu Soya, Yoshiki Inamura, Haoh and Nioh)

There was some concern caused by Yoshiki Inamura not coming out yesterday with the rest of Kongoh to second him for his title match, but he seemed fine today. Kenoh made his first appearance as champion, and didn't even react when one fan with a very enterprising sign, a cardboard replica of the GHC National Belt, had it stolen by Kendo Kashin and put over the shoulder of Kazuyashi Sakuraba. 

Kashin, however, was not as dignified, he came out waving a steel barrier around, Hideki Suzuki told him to put it down, and then the ref wouldn't let him bring it into the ring. Takashi Sakura made his own entry, and Kashin almost fell over himself to hold the ropes open by pushing one of the  trainees off the apron to hold the ropes open for The Boss. Sugiura was not impressed by this, and neither was he at the Noah t-shirt that Kashin was wearing, tapping him on the back and telling him that next time he expected him to be wearing a Sugiura Army company dog t-shirt.  

After Kenoh and Sakuraba had done with mat wrestling, it was time for Hideki Suzuki vs Manabu Soya. A test of strength started with the immovable meets the immovable, and neither could get an advantage, it then went backwards and forwards and went to the corner. Nishinaga went to seperate them, and he got pushed away. Control was retained when Kitamiya tagged in. 
Sugiura-Gun nominated Sugiura to face Kitamiya, Sugi protesting as he had told the younger guys previously to go and do the shoulder tackles after they had told him that it didn't look so hard, so NOSAWA (the prime leader in this) was thrown in. Sugiura wasn't going to let him tag out and no one dared disobey him. Naturally, it didn't go well and so NOSAWA tried to escape, so Sugi did what he did to him, and threw him back in. NOSAWA was saved when it ended in a melee brawl, at the end of which which Sugi took out all of Kongoh, and Sakuraba finally got to do his top rope dive. 

After the Sugiura and Kenoh punch war, and Kitamiya's display of his bear like strength in which he lifted and slammed Suzuki, Yoshiki Inamura hit the ring roaring loudly to face Hideki Suzuki (Inamura had drawn on his sumo background earlier, by using a slap attack to drive Kashin back), he refused to give in to Suzuki until Kongoh were able to storm the ring and rescue him, but it was to be the veteran and not the junior, who got the win. 

WINNER: Hideki Suzuki with Double Arm Suplex on Yoshiki Inamura (19 minutes, 58 seconds)

Before leaving the ring, The Sugiura Army did the LIDET pose. 

MATCH FIVE
GHC Heavyweight Championship
Naomichi Marufuji vs Go Shiozaki

There was a highly charged atmosphere at Korakuen for the main event. It must have taken superhuman will for the crowd to remain silent during the match, although right at the end they did let out a kind of muted cheer. 

This was everything that is expected of a GHC Heavyweight title match, and Misaws would have been proud. It started slowly to build up the emotion, the story behind it (i.e. the growth of the junior and the senior who wants to make his mark in Noah's 20th year), it had psychology, endurance, and overall it was a pure fight, and truly represented the Noah aesthetics. There were even some old school elements too, which Marufuji pulling out an old move combo, and a nasty looking piledriver from the apron to the floor, - Shiozaki just crawled back in the ring at the count of 19, a few seconds more and it would have been 20.

Naturally, the last few days have been rough on Shiozaki, today his shoulder was taped which extended down his arms, athletic supports on both elbows, and a speckled chest from being chopped, which Marufuji took advantage of when hitting the Tiger King Knee at Shiozaki's taped arm, capitalizing on the side of Shiozaki's head to prepare for his newest nastiest move, and then eventually locking in the "Perfect Key Lock". The crowd were frantically clapping as Shiozaki was trying to get out of it and reach the ropes, sadistically, Marufuji rolled him away from them. Shiozaki dragged himself back, Marufuji clung on, while outside the ring Nakajima was pounding the mat, the clapping and stamping from the crowd were rising to a crescendo, and Shiozaki made it to the ropes. 

When the Shiranui didn't work, it was time for Tiger Driver. Unfortunately, Shiozaki is bigger and stronger, and lifting him, he put Marufuji on the turnbuckles. Marufuji turned this into Kai Shiranui.
Shiozaki kicked out. 
Marufuji then went for a volley of kicks,  and the crowd could not stop their exclamation when Shiozaki kicked out.
Then Korakuen started holding its breath, as Marufuji stalked Shiozaki and hit a trus kick. 
Shiozaki kicked out. 
The True Tiger King...Shiozaki kicked out, and then in true Kobashi style, he had just about all he could take, and started fighting back 

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Moonsault Press (30 minutes, 56 seconds)

After the match, Naomichi Marufuji motioned for the belt, the ref bought it over and he took it and in a symbolic passing of the torch from one generation of Noah, from one heir of Noah to another, from one symbol of Noah to the next, he handed it to Go Shiozaki. They shook hands, and he left the ring. Later he wrote on Twitter that Shiozaki was strong, and thanked him for the match.

A champion is rarely without challengers, especially if that champion is a GHC Heavyweight Champion, as Kenoh was ready and waiting to challenge. Kenoh came to the ring and congratulated Shiozaki on his title defense, and basically said that there was only room in Noah for one strong guy, and challenged him to belt vs belt, the GHC National would be on the line as would the GHC Heavyweight. Shiozaki accepted and telling Kenoh to, "bring your belt to Yokohama", he set the match for the event there on the 10th August. When Kenoh had gone, Shiozaki addressed the crowd, saying that he didn't really like belt vs belt title matches, but he will do it, and prove he is the strongest. He ended with "I AM NOAH!! WE ARE NOAH!!"   

With thanks to: Abeshin, Metal Noah
GIFS taken from G+

"Boarding The Ark"

There was a birthday party atmosphere at Korakuen Hall today as fans came to the venue for the first night of the two day Noah 20th anniversary events (Noah actually will celebrate the 20 years since its first show on the 5th August); the Noah shop was running and had new products on sale (Kotaro Suzuki also set up shop). 

Fans were seated one seat apart instead of two, as Noah wanted to get in as many people as possible, but in the safest way possible. The hall itself was hot, and it was about to get hotter...not least because for the female fans, as HAYATA was in the ring with Ogawa who was teaching a class (it's also his 33rd birthday), which caused something of a stampede as soon as word got around. 

MATCH ONE
Akitoshi Saito vs Masa Kitamiya

This was a half a classic style match from the Showa era which was when Akitoshi Saito trained, and which is Masa Kitamiya's general style, and half a beast fight as the match got going with shoulder tackles, in which Kitamiya knocked Saito down with. Outside the ring, one of the trainees also went flying when Saito threw Kitamiya into the railings. You could tell by the cold smile on his face, just how much Saito was loving this match.

This being Noah's 20th anniversary, Saito had a small tribute of his own to the man who was a big part of Noah's early days, until his sudden death in November 2011 in Puerto Rico. This man of course, was Bison Smith, who Saito paid tribute to by using the Iron Claw Slam. 

WINNER: Masa Kitamiya with a Spear (9 minutes, 14 seconds)

MATCH TWO
HAYATA & Kinya Okada vs Kongoh (Haoh and Nioh)

This was a match that no one really knew what to expect from, and they didn't really get much from it, being probably the weakest card on the show; to be honest I think it was put together because without Ogawa with HAYATA, it doesn't really make any sense for Haoh and Nioh to challenge for the titles (which is what everyone was expecting them to do), and Kinya Okada didn't really have any reason to be in the ring with any of the Noah juniors. That being said, he completely dwarfed HAYATA and Haoh with his size (but not really Nioh), and it's not until you see him with the juniors, that you realise just how big he has become.  

Haoh vs HAYATA showed potential though, Haoh managing to out wrestle him at times. HAYATA had his sadistic smile on. Aside from this, there isn't really much to say about it. 

WINNER: HAYATA with the Crossfix on Nioh (10 minutes, 32 seconds)

MATCH THREE
Shuhei Taniguchi vs Mohammed Yone vs Kongoh (Manabu Soya & Yoshiki Inamura)

This was the first tag ever between Manabu Soya and Yoshiki Inamura, and had this match gone on for any longer than it did, the roof probably would have caved in at Korakuen. 

Mohammed Yone and Shuhei Taniguchi came out to Taniguchi's music, which isn't disco, but this didn't stop Yone from striking a disco pose. Taniguchi (wearing new blue trunks) immediately had a stare down square up with Manabu Soya. They started the match to loud applause from the fans, with the traditional Hoss fight shoulder tackles going into a rapid punch battle after both failed to knock each other down. Soya kept true to his Kongoh roots by yelling that Yone was a "stupid bastard" before knocking him down. 

With the ban on cheering at Korakuen due to the possibility of transmission of airborne fluids, sounds are amplified, and you could hear the announcers (probably not Kobashi though), cringing at the sound of Yone hitting Inamura. The crowd were on fire for Inamura, with big expectations or him in this match, and he came very close to it. The fans are desperate for an Inamura big win, and so the atmosphere and the sound that they were generating by clapping, was at fever pitch. You could almost hear everyone's hearts beating in anticipation each time he went for a pin. 
Sadly, today it was not meant to be. 

WINNER: Shuhei Taniguchi with the facial kicks on Yoshiki Inamura (13 minutes, 30 seconds. Note: Taniguchi had do this three times or so before Inamura was knocked down)
​

MATCH FOUR
FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara & Seiki Yoshioka) vs Daisuke Harada, Tadasuke & YO-HEY

"Brum brum!"

Well, every unbirthday needs either a mad March Hare (it's not March) or a Mad Hatter (apt), and Atsushi Kotoge filled that role today (if you think about it this match had three insane people in it, and three who had to keep order). With Hajime Ohara and Seiki Yoshioka following sedately on behind, Kotoge raced into the hall wearing a pink t-shirt that proclaimed to the audience, "THE LEADER". He then almost trampled a couple of the photographers to get to the ring. His spirits were slightly dampened later in the match, when Yoshioka tagged in Ohara instead of himself. 

After the usual beauty which is Hajime Ohara vs Daisuke Harada, there was the usual crazy lock up between YO-HEY and Kotoge, which Kotoge went along with until YO-HEY kicked him. YO-HEY is loving having the crowd back for a big event, especially as everyone saw him making fun of Kotoge's "FULL THROTTLE" motion, that was until FULL THROTTLE got their revenge and then YO-HEY didn't find it so funny. 

Crazy Tadasuke was back, storming the ring, knocking FULL THROTTLE DOWN. He and YO-HEY teased the Coronavirus restrictions, with YO-HEY telling Kotoge he slid out of the ring due to "social distancing" and Tadasuke putting his hand over his mouth when he went for his Kodo Fuyuki lariat. 

Seiki Yoshioka hasn't yet got the hang of judging the distance between the ropes and the steel barrier. Today there was no announcers to scare at ringside (they were up in the balcony, which would probably have gotten him chopped by Kenta Kobashi had it happened to him), so he went flying into the crowd and almost ended up falling on some people. Fast paced junior match, in which everyone pretty much knew that RATELS somehow, aren't over yet.   

WINNER: Daisuke Harada with small package on Atsushi Kotoge (14 minutes, 55 seconds)

MATCH FIVE
Pro Wrestling Noah 20th anniversary match
Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura & Yoshinari Ogawa vs Go Shiozaki, Kaito Kiyomiya & Kotaro Suzuki

This match was half a pre match and a half an anniversary match as it not only set Naomichi Marufuji against Go Shiozaki for the last time until the GHC Heavyweight title match on the 5th August, it also set the last three remaining in Noah, and who have been with Noah for twenty years, who walked out of All Japan in 2000 with Mitsuharu Misawa, against three Noah born; Kotaro Suzuki (Noah's first born), Go Shiozaki (Noah's symbol and the current GHC Heavyweight champion) and Kaito Kiyomiya (Noah's Ace). 

Yoshinari Ogawa, the most senior man in Noah and in this match, came out first. He bought up the three Noah born, if not exactly Marufuji and Sugiura, who still go to him for advice despite being veterans. Takashi Sugiura (who Kenta Kobashi said was from All Japan, but is in a grey area as he trained in All Japan but debuted in Noah), came out next, with Noah's vice president, GHC Heavyweight challenger and Heir to The Ark, Naomichi Marufuji coming out last. He and Kotaro Suzuki entered the ring in the same way, just as Misawa had used to, by jumping over the ropes. 

Kotaro had Yoshinari Ogawa square up to him, hands on hips, to basically say that although they were in the same unit (STINGER), he wasn't going to go easy on him (he didn't, he beat the hell out of him  despite a taped shoulder which made him look as if he was moving stiffly at times), and naturally Marufuji and Go Shiozaki faced off as the crowd went into a frenzy. 

The chop battle between Shiozaki and Marufuji was intense as expected; Shiozaki at first no selling Marufuji, and managing to bring him to his knees, Marufuji chopping Shiozaki so hard it was like the sound of a whip cracking, Shiozaki with a shorter version of the machine gun chops (I think Shiozaki, for the sake of his arms, is saving this for the title match), and the one arm chop with the left hands held, Marufuji refused to let go when Shiozaki pulled a little, but it was he who fell in the end. 

Kotaro really got it in this match from his seniors. Ogawa knew him well, but as ever, Kotaro found it hard to sometimes predict what Ogawa is going to do, and Sugiura almost broke him in half with a spear. 

As for Kaito Kiyomiya, he knew that he would have his time in the sun in Yokohama, so he took a quieter role, letting Shiozaki and Marufuji fight, and then Kotaro as the eldest Noah born, fight against those he has been since he debuted. Kiyomiya himself got a taste of his seniors, who took him down. 

WINNER: Naomichi Marufuji with the Perfect Key Lock submission on Go Shiozaki (27 minutes, 45 seconds)

​With an evil grin, Marufuji took the belt and laid it over Shiozaki's lap. Breathing heavily he got on the microphone and thanked his partners. Addressing Shiozaki he said "WE are REAL Noah" and bet Shiozaki's confidence against his pride to win the match tomorrow. Shiozaki left with a very Kobashi mannerism. 

MATCH SIX
GHC National Championship
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Kenoh 

"The kick fight FROM HELL"

Kenoh came out seconded by ALL of Kongoh, except Yoshiki Inamura. Katsuhiko Nakajima came sauntering out, in usual fashion, part Velociraptor, part Cheshire Cat, reaching new heights of cockiness as he got on the apron near to Kenoh's corner to do his pose, Kenoh stared straight ahead angrily ignoring him. 

After the bell rang in the tense silence of Korakuen, Kenoh and Nakajima circled each other. It was a very tense atmosphere which the intense Kenoh and the cocksure Nakajima had created skillfully between them, and it was going to serve them well for the title match. 

Although the crowd had to remain silent, they could not help quietly groaning at the kicks that went on between Nakajima and Kenoh, which ranged a full spectrum from dull thuds to whip cracks to rifle shots. The Soccer Ball kicks volley, sounded even worse, as did the periodic slap war which sounded like lightning strikes. 

If Katsuhiko Nakajima has a failing when it comes to title matches, it is that sooner or later he gets cocky, and it costs him. It also cost him today. Going for the cocky pin, it gave Kenoh time to get the wind in his sails back. Kenoh, half dazed, refused to be pinned that way, and rallied, fighting back with a top rope Dragon Suplex (I am of the belief that if Kiyomiya has the Tiger Suplex, then Kenoh will have the Dragon Suplex), and a massive PSF which Nakajima kicked out of.

Kicks from hell, lightning strike slaps, this match was only ever going to end one way...

WINNER: Kenoh via a referee stop due to a TKO following a high kick (24 minutes and 45 seconds)

Ever gracious in victory or defeat, Kenoh decided to go over to Nakajima, pull his head up and yell at him while he lay on the mat. After Nakajima was rolled out and taken backstage, Kenoh then spoke on the microphone telling everyone that at last he had a belt which he had bought home to Kongoh, and for all you assholes to follow him and follow Kongoh as they made Noah's ring shine like a diamond.

WITH THANKS TO: Gong Ex, Shū, Abeshin, Metal-Noah  
GIF'S taken from G+

​With the rainy season passed in Japan, the heat has come in today as fans came to ShinKiba 1st Ring for Noah. ShinKiba is not somewhere that Noah generally use often for regular shows, although it has been a popular place for produce shows. They last came here as a promotion in 2016. Mitsuharu Misawa never bought Noah here. 

The venue was hot, but tolerable. The fans had to go through the usual checks against the Coronavirus before they could enter, and this was doubly vital today as there were no barriers between the crowd and the ring. Merchandise was sold, but there was no autograph signing or pictures today. The new pamphlet NOAH THE STYLE was on sale. 

The event was broadcast live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. Not a free stream, you will need a subscription to view (900 yen per calendar month, the first month of membership is free). 

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

The Anti Wrestlers Alliance came out with the flag, this being their first return as a team since Noah started opening shows to audiences again. Ironically, although Noah never ran ShinKiba during the Golden Era, it had the feel of an old era opener with all four competitors being exactly what you would have seen in an opener in those days; a mixture of Noah veterans, and old men. It was a fun opener.

While there wasn't very much MASAOWORLD antics (bar his yelling "It's over now!" and Yone pointing out it really wasn't), the comedy came from Akitoshi Saito's indignant reaction to Mohammed Yone's disco fever rope breaks. Yone did this twice, both times Saito was not impressed. Then Inoue was tagged in, and hitching up his pants and getting down to business, he found himself against Noah's Veteran Monster, Shuhei Taniguchi. Inoue (unusually focused), managed to bring Taniguchi down with an armbar, which he kept on despite Taniguchi repeatedly punching him in the face, in the end Taniguchi (who at times seemed alarmingly unable to outsmart Inoue), got the upper hand. Saito and Taniguchi were brutal. 

WINNER: Shuhei Taniguchi with the face kick on Masao Inoue (10 minutes, 43 seconds)

​MATCH TWO
Tadasuke vs Seiki Yoshioka

Tadasuke jumped off the walkway to do his normal ring entry, walking round the ring and then headbanging on the apron. He spied a new and therefore not experienced referee in the ring, and decided he was going to try and get away with doing things he would get busted for by the others, starting with only removing his jacket and not his glasses, and making out he was surprised to be asked. You could tell by looking at Tadasuke that Crazy Tadasuke had arrived the moment he walked into the ring. 

As ever, with a new opponent, Tadasuke offered a handshake. Yoshioka knew better than to take it, and so played him at his own game, by slapping his hand. Tadasuke couldn't quite believe it. 

Fast paced match which illustrated how well Yoshioka has fitted into the Noah Juniors. Tadasuke wrestled manically with a big grin, this was snapped off when Yoshioka started using sharp kicks to him, and he used his immense strength  immense strength to powerbomb Yoshioka violently to get out of the arm hold that was being constantly applied to his arm, so much so it started to dangle, and he did his Kodo Fuyuki lariat with only one arm held up when he geared up for it. Tadasuke has evidently been working on his lariats, as he was using variants today, and attempted to get the pin via short range ones. However, Yoshioka kicked out of  the first and then the second, Tadasuke went mad as the match went full time before he could attempt a third and backed the ref into the corner, before angrily walking off and refusing to have his arm raised. Their first singles match had ended in a time out draw. 

WINNER: Neither, 20 minute time out draw. 

MATCH THREE
Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kinya Okada vs Kongoh (Kenoh & Yoshiki Inamura)

Kenoh has two ways of showing how angry he is; either he starts screaming, or he will stand very still and just glare. He did both today, with Katsuhiko Nakajima getting the angry silent stare as he sauntered to the ring, and despite Yoshiki Inamura and Kinya Okada squaring up, Nakajima was more interested in starting the match against Kenoh and got the crowd to clap their approval for this, and so the juniors let their seniors get the kick fight from hell started, with Nakajima catching Kenoh in the face once when it got going.

​Nakajima started by trying outsmart Kenoh, but this didn't always work as Kenoh kept watching him like a hawk. Nakajima then did the Misawa thing with a flash tag to Okada (Misawa used to do this when he couldn't be bothered and it became legendary), which Kenoh got in his face for until Okada and Inamura intervened by gently separating them. After this the match pretty much settled into Nakajima and Kenoh not having any interest in anyone other than each other, with Kenoh keeping Nakajima on the outside of the ring while Okada and Inamura fought inside of it, and they both tended to only be in the ring when the other was, legally or not. That said Okada did try and kick Kenoh and struck a beautiful drop kick on him, and Inamura got Shutter Chance, Nakajima was told off by the ref, didn't care, did it again. The big grin that Nakajima has which the mouthguard enhances, was wiped off when Inamura took advantage of his power and used it against him. It was commented that Inamura was about to bring ShinKiba down, as he was making the building shake, especially with the front suplex.

The match ended when the referee declared a KO after Kenoh used continuous palm strikes on Kinya Okada. He was bending over him checking on him while Kenoh and Nakajima fought in the background, by the time he turned round Kenoh had knocked Nakajima down, and Inamura had rolled outside the ring somewhere. 

WINNER: Kenoh due to referee stop following palm strikes on Kinya Okada (16 minutes, 20 seconds)

Kenoh started growling on the microphone, which led to a high pitched shriek. Speaking to both the belt and Nakajima, he said that he would stop the belt from crying, and end Nakajima's selfishness towards it and on August 4th he would make the belt smile again. Nakajima sarcastically replied that in Kongoh all he ever does is talk, and he nominated him as he wants to see if he could do anything more than that. He wanted to see more than just what Kenoh could say on the 4th. Nakajima left then, and staring into the camera, Kenoh vowed he would win and lead Noah to the top. 

MATCH FOUR
Kaito Kiyomiya vs Kaz Hayashi

This was a good match to bridge the two highly charged pre-matches, as there wasn't really any emotion behind it and the crowd were tired from Kenoh vs Nakajima. This is the first time Kaito Kiyomiya and Kaz Hayashi have faced each other, and Hayashi bought a veteran style of wrestling (turned the first lock up into the arm bar, used a lot of headlocks) from a different generation that Kiyomiya has not really experienced before, but as he wants to see the whole world of wrestling, this has been good for him, and being a fast learner he picked it up quickly. 

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Tiger Suplex (12 minutes, 33 seconds)

Kiyomiya later commented that this win over Kaz, gave him a great momentum towards the match against Keiji Mutoh in Yokohama as Hayashi is the closest to Mutoh. However, Kiyomiya is displaying his youth here as beating Hayashi is one thing, and beating Mutoh is quite another. 

MATCH FIVE
Go Shiozaki, Daisuke Harada & YO-HEY vs Naomichi Marufuji & FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara)

Atsushi Kotoge, "The Leader" came to the ring telling everyone who would listen that he was the leader, right up until the point he yelled it at Go Shiozaki, who lariated him. He told Naomichi Marufuji that he was "The Leader", made FULL THROTTLE motions, and had to be removed by Hajime Ohara (who even held the ropes open for him). 

The big story of this match was the pre-match fight between Go Shiozaki and Naomichi Marufuji, who squared up over the belt, as Shiozaki got in the ring, unstrapped it and held it in Marufuji's face. The juniors on both sides let them start, and they did what they could to stay out of their way unless it was unavoidable (i.e. Kotoge and Ohara fled when Shiozaki went to knock them off the apron, and the ref had to tell Daisuke Harada and YO-HEY when it was safe to get in the ring), only Kotoge was crazy enough to take Shiozaki on. Shiozaki and Marufuji started off the match, Shiozaki with a clean rope break, which ended with Marufuji threatening his knee. A chop war broke out, with Shiozaki no selling Marufuji's chops and Marufuji blocking his, although Marufuji later got a short version of the Machine Gun Chops. It got to the point where Shiozaki stood with his arms spread in the "Fight Me" pose.

On the junior side, YO-HEY seems to be getting back to his old self as Kotoge came bouncing into the ring, telling everyone who would listen that he was the leader. YO-HEY sarcastically imitated his "FULL THROTTLE" and drummed up support for him by clapping to the crowd. Usual crazy YO-HEY lock up, Kotoge went along with it and they looked like two cats batting at each other. YO-HEY even turned GETZ into FULL THROTTLE. Later, there was a Marufuji vs YO-HEY chop battle, Marufuji folded YO-HEY'S bandanna over his face and chopped him, looking pointedly at Shiozaki when he struck. 

The match ended when Kotoge decided to try and headbutt Shiozaki repeatedly, and was given the Gowan Lariat for his troubles. 

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan Lariat on Atsushi Kotoge (20 minutes, 10 seconds)

After the match, Shiozaki held the belt up to Marufuji, pointing at it and then with a thumb to his chest and saying "ME!". Marufuji attempted to use the knee again, but Shiozaki moved. Marufuji then stalked off, and RATELS came out from the badger sett they had hidden themselves in until he had gone to pose in the ring with Shiozaki for the win. 

Shiozaki made a speech to the crowd thanking them for coming out and ending with, "I am NOAH!"

With thanks to: Metal Noah, Abeshin
GIFS taken from WRESTLE UNIVERSE

 ​This small event was held on the suggestion of the long suffering Hajime Ohara in an attempt to end the endless squabbling between Seiki Yoshioka and Atsushi Kotoge, over who the leader of their unit "FULL THROTTLE" is. Ohara suggested that they held three matches, with the winner being the toughest person, who would win the most matches. It sounded simple, but it didn't quite end up being so simple. It was also the first time that the three of them had singles matches with each other. 

Noah held the event at the "Noah Special Arena" (which is the name they give to Club Citta when they held shows there without an audience during the Coronavirus quarantine period), and it was streamed live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. The event will still be there if you click on the link as the videos will remain in perpetuity, but you must be a paid subscriber. 

Seiki Yoshioka and Atsushi Kotoge started (Hajime Ohara waited outside the ring) and had a somewhat desperate match, in which Atsushi Kotoge went for the quick pin at the beginning, Yoshioka did the same later as both where determined to get the pin quickly on each other. In the end after 7 minutes and 40 seconds, Kotoge stole the win with the Kid Clutch. Yoshioka threw a tantrum, and left the ring, slapping the mat as he went. 
No sooner had Yoshioka gone, then Ohara, who had been waiting at ringside, attacked. Ohara went old school on Kotoge using a choke, which he repeatedly combined into a pin. He also bought out his array of nasty moves which tied Kotoge up in knots, and unusually for Ohara even resorting to hair pulling and almost cheat tactics like pulling Kotoge's hand off the rope to stop him breaking the hold. The referee had to warn him repeatedly of this. Kotoge however, struck back with lightning speed and got the upperhand, even using a rare rop rope somersault. Ohara won in seven minutes and eleven seconds with the Mui Bien clutch. 

​Kotoge protested the loss, and went complaining to the referee saying that it was no way a loss, he had his foot on the ropes. The referee refused to budge, and Kotoge sulked, even telling the waiting Yoshioka to go away and refusing to leave the ring. 
The well rested Yoshioka immediately went on the attack, however the MMA experienced Ohara was not going to give into kicks, so Yoshioka tried submission moves, but Ohara got to the ropes. Yoshioka eventually got the win in seven minutes and thirteen seconds with the Oklahoma roll. 

So now here they were, nothing solved as everyone had now one win. Atsushi Kotoge got into the ring as they sat down to sort it out with everyone looking to Ohara to come up with a solution. After all, this event had been his idea and as he was the one who had suggested this show, he should be the one to sort it out. Ohara discussed with the referee that they would hold an elimination match, over the top rope, pin or submission.

Ohara started the match watching Kotoge and Yoshioka slug it out, although he did get involved from time to time. He went for a quick elimination by shoving Kotoge of the top turnbuckle, but Kotoge hung on and grabbed on to the rope. Yoshioka tried also to push him out of the ring, but the ref said to let Kotoge back in. 
Yoshioka was the first to be eliminated during a melee on the apron, when Kotoge knocked him off and to the floor, which left Ohara vs Kotoge, and while Ohara met crazy, Kotoge used The Killswitch to crown himself as the leader after eleven minutes and fourteen seconds. 

Kotoge then gave a kind of pep talk to his teammates, Yoshioka looked grim in realising he would now have to obey a crazy person who was rambling on about being the leader and pointing to the mat, but he was game enough (or sane enough) to admit defeat and accept Kotoge's hand when offered. Looking wild eyed, Kotoge gave a speech

"This is the perfect result! I am the leader! I think Ohara and Yoshioka are encouraging as teammates, so trust me and follow me! Lets make this the strongest unit in the Noah Jnrs! With the engine at full throttle, please enjoy watching us!"

Then supporting each other, Noah's new unit left to give an interview backstage. Kotoge said that next he wanted to aim for a belt. He didn't say which, but there are two junior belts (GHC Junior Heavyweight and the GHC Junior Tag belts), which are without challengers. 

GIFS taken from WRESTLE UNIVERSE
Picture credit: Seiki Yoshioka