Pro Wrestling Noah held two shows today at Korakuen Hall, an afternoon show and an evening show. The evening show was by far the most explosive, but I will get to that in due course. 

The two events had completely different atmospheres; the afternoon one (which attracted more people than Noah had expected and someone had travelled all the way from Kagoshima) had what was described as a "unique" atmosphere, the evening had more of a sense of excitement. 

The event was broadcast over three channels with FITE TV (Had time differences not been such an issue between Japan and the USA, then FITE probably would have broadcast the evening and not the morning, but sadly this was not the case), WRESTLE UNIVERSE also broadcast the afternoon, with ABEMA streaming the evening. WRESTLE UNIVERSE you will need to be a subscriber to watch, and ABEMA will have the show available only for six days before it gets put up on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. I am afraid I don't know about the availability of the broadcast on FITE TV. 

The Afternoon Show 
​

​MATCH ONE
Daisuke Harada, YO-HEY & Kinya Okada vs FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara & Seiki Yoshioka)

Atsushi Kotoge came bouncing out with his new toy, making Seiki Yoshioka gave him a puzzled look. This is normal. It's the way most people look at Kotoge, who was particularly hyper today with an endless lariat attack on YO-HEY. Despite the rivalry between Harada and Kotoge, it was Harada and Yoshioka who seemed to have the most issues today. 

YO-HEY (who had a black tongue today) decided to make fun of Kotoge's "Brum Brum", this wasn't appreciated by Kotoge, although Yoshioka probably thought it was funny though. Kotoge later had to warn YO-HEY of the consequences of making fun of him. 

Kinya Okada put up a brave fight against FULL THROTTLE, being tied into knots by Ohara and then holding on long enough when locked into the Mui Bien to be rescued by Harada and YO-HEY, who had been outside the ring fighting with Kotoge and Yoshioka. 

The match ended in a time out draw, with YO-HEY going for a series of typically crazy pins on Hajime Ohara. He was convinced he had the three, but was overruled by the referee and both teams left frustrated. 

WINNER: Neither. Time out draw (20 minutes)

MATCH TWO
N-1 VICTORY
Kenoh vs Yoshiki Inamura

There was no handshake beforehand between the two members of Kongoh. It doesn't appear to be the Kongoh way. You could sense that any unit camaraderie had been set aside for the league, as both were focused on winning for their own purposes; Inamura to take the all important next step in his career, and Kenoh who is driven by his complex relationship with Kaito Kiyomiya, and his desire to win the league and make history. 

Throughout the whole match, Inamura refused to be cowed by Kenoh, who challenged him each time he staggered to his feet, even when used those irritating small kicks and the "hit me" pose. Inamura was not helpless however, as Kenoh went to use a submission to take Inamura down, but found himself shaken off by being squashed against the ringpost, and then later he was launched into the air by the GEKITOTZ, but the match and the points belonged ultimately to Kenoh when the match went to referee stop thanks to Kenoh's palm strikes. 

WINNER: Kenoh via referee stop (10 minutes, 26 seconds)

True to the Spartan Kongoh way, Kenoh walked off leaving Inamura beached in the ring.  

MATCH THREE
N-1 VICTORY
Masa Kitamiya vs Kazushi Sakuraba

Kazushi Sakuraba went straight into mat wrestling to keep Masa Kitamiya down, it didn't take long for him to practically wrench Kitamiya's knee from its socket, so much so, Kitamiya appeared with a limp that afternoon.  

WINNER: Kazushi Sakuraba with the Knee Cross Lock (2 minutes, 29 seconds)

MATCH FOUR
N-1 VICTORY
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Shuhei Taniguchi

So far Katsuhiko Nakajima has taken the league seriously, and not done any of the terrible things that he has threatened to do which would ruin it for everyone else, but that hasn't stopped him from winding his opponents up, which today began with Shuhei Taniguchi as he backed out of the first lock up and then went straight in with the kicks. Later, Nakajima kicked Taniguchi around outside the ring and then as the count went on, sat and waited for him to get back in. Taniguchi didn't, and after lying on his back and waiting, Nakajima got up and threw him back in. Then there was the usual irritance from Nakajima, grinding his boot into Taniguchi's face. 

The bigger Nakajima's grin, the more cocky he gets, until it ends up costing him in some way, which it did because Taniguchi got the upper hand. However, Nakajima eventually decided he had had enough, but Taniguchi was playing him at his own game, and roaring in anger as he went to kick Nakajima in the head, but Nakajima kept moving. However, it wasn't enough to give Nakajima the win. 

WINNER: Shuhei Taniguchi with the Face Kick (14 minutes, 42 seconds)

MATCH FIVE
N-1 VICTORY
Kaito Kiyomiya vs Manabu Soya

Kaito Kiyomiya came out to the ring looking thoughtful, he knew what was at stake here, and seemingly taking inspiration from Naomichi Marufuji, he used a similar hand and wrist submission, which cleverly keeps Soya away from the ropes and makes it more difficult afterwards for him to do any kind of power moves, although this did not stop Soya peeling his arms away during a headlock, only for Kiyomiya to take him back down to the mat for the win. 

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Tiger Suplex (21 minutes, 55 seconds)

Kiyomiya spoke on the microphone and said that he didn't have much left, but he managed to get out of the funk he had been in and beat Soya. He then spoke in English and thanked FITE for the broadcast, and all the Noah fans who were watching all over the world. 

The evening show
Storm clouds

Fans returned to Korakuen, to find Yoshinari Ogawa in the ring holding a class where he was teaching one of the trainees, and using HAYATA to demonstrate moves while he explained things, often sitting on his knees next to them. 

MATCH ONE
Shuhei Taniguchi & Mohammed Yone vs THE TOUGH (Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura)

Shuhei Taniguchi came out looking somewhat bruised from the match with Katsuhiko Nakajima from earlier in the day, while Yoshiki Inamura focused on him. Having lost to Takashi Sugiura, Naomichi Marufuji and Kenoh, Inamura has two matches left to prove himself in the league, and since Taniguchi is one of those opponents (the other is Katsuhiko Nakajima), this was kind of their pre-match. Kitamiya told Inamura to save himself, he would start against Yone. 

Noah's monsters (both the same height at 182cms which gets overlooked) did eventually clash however, with Inamura winning the shoulder tackle fight which got him a huge applause from the crowd, but once again Inamura's first big win would have to wait. 

WINNER: Shuhei Taniguchi with the Face Kick on Yoshiki Inamura (8 minutes, 8 seconds)

​MATCH TWO
N-1 VICTORY
Naomichi Marufuji vs Kenoh

Naomichi Marufuji came out smirking at Kenoh. Kenoh, who has very little sense of humor when it comes to Marufuji and what Kenoh imagines to be his endless backstage plots against him. Marufuji decided to wind Kenoh up, and knowing that he would attack on the rope break dodged his kick and rolled out of the ring, and then refused to get back in it as Kenoh was lurking outside. When he did get back in, Kenoh naturally couldn't wait to attack, and Marufuji couldn't wait to put him in one of his nasty submission holds. However, even after a hook kick which semi knocked him out, and with Marufuji shoving the ref out of the way who was checking on him, Kenoh was not going to give in to his mortal enemy for the sake of his "strong beliefs". 

WINNER: Kenoh with the rear naked choke sleeper hold (referee stop, 15 minutes, 5 seconds)

Naomichi Marufuji couldn't believe that he had lost to Kenoh in a second singles match, and complained to the referee who told him that the decision stood. He had a rare tantrum where he kicked the ropes as he left the ring, and threw the ice pack down as he walked off. 
 
MATCH THREE
N-1 VICTORY
Kaito Kiyomiya vs Kazushi Sakuraba

This was a new style of match for Kaito Kiyomiya, who has only met Kazushi Sakuraba in a ring outside of Noah, and that was when Sakuraba gave him some training in MMA ahead of Kiyomiya's title match when he was GHC Heavyweight Champion, against Naomichi Marufuji. Sakuraba may have left bruises where he kicked, but it was Kiyomiya's youthful frenetic and at times impulsive wrestling that worked, which was probably combined with the prior training he had been given, and Sakuraba tapped.

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Figure Four (9 minutes, 47 seconds)

MATCH FOUR
STINGER (Kotaro Suzuki, Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA) vs Daisuke Harada, YO-HEY & Kinya Okada

Demon Tag

STINGER came out to the match with their own particular quirky way of wearing the junior championship belts; Yoshinari Ogawa is the only person who wears it like you are meant to, Kotaro Suzuki drapes his around his neck and shoulder under his ring robes, and HAYATA drags his on the ground. 

Yoshinari Ogawa's classroom continued in the ring with Kinya Okada, who discovered that with Ogawa, you never truly escape his web, he likes you to think you have, only to pull you back in, and naturally being the most junior in the match he got it the worst from his opponents. HAYATA, however, took the most pleasure when fighting Harada as he had his sadistic smile on. This would become ironic later on as we will see. The junior pride here was at steak as no one wanted to be overshadowed by anything the heavyweights were doing, and the juniors managed to eclipse them, but not by anything that happened in the match, more what was going to happen after it. 

WINNER: YO-HEY with the sneak pin on Yoshinari Ogawa (15 minutes, 47 seconds)

Daisuke Harada, who was lying on the ring apron, turned to the camera and held up three fingers to signify the win over the hated STINGER. He got up and joined his team in having their arms raised, when YO-HEY kicked him in the face. For a split second before YO-HEY left the ring, he seemed to look at STINGER as if he was waiting for them to do something, but nothing happened and he left. STINGER then turned and attacked Harada, and this turned into a brawl as Kongoh (Tadasuke, Haoh and Nioh) came out to fight STINGER, and then The Sugiura Army (NOSAWA Rongai and Kaz Hayashi) joined in, with FULL THROTTLE'S Hajime Ohara and Seiki Yoshioka at ringside, with Atsushi Kotoge getting in the ring to help Harada.
Once things had cooled, there was a tense face off with Kotoge and Harada staring at each other. The former friends, turned bitter enemies again turned friends, with Harada offering his hand, which Kotoge shook. Yoshioka and Ohara did not take kindly to this and demanded to know what was going on. YO-HEY got back into the mix, and more fights broke out which ended with YO-HEY aligning with Yoshioka and Ohara as the new FULL THROTTLE (YO-HEY said this wasn't quite his plan, but he would take it), and the newly reformed Momo no Seishun ("The Peaches of Youth" which was their tag team that Kotoge had broken to go to the heavyweights, leading Harada to form RATELS), challenged STINGER (HAYATA & Yoshinari Ogawa) for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Titles. Ogawa has seemingly made no argument of this and granted them their match which will take place in Osaka on the 11th October.

​There will still be a mystery man joining Harada (and now Kotoge) in Niigata at the end of the month. When asked why he came out to rescue his erstwhile enemy, Kotoge said he was compelled to. It was not something he had planned. 

With this junior tornado just passed through Korakuen, fans found it hard to concentrate on the next match. 

MATCH FIVE
N-1 VICTORY
Takashi Sugiura vs Katsuhiko Nakajima 

Takashi Sugiura knows all to well from bitter experience, just what Katsuhiko Nakajima can be like, and so he tried to stop him from messing him around too much, but ultimately couldn't prevent it. Nakajima threw him round outside the ring, the grin on his face growing bigger as he planned worse to come, and again Nakajima's cockiness cost him as Sugi locked in the ankle lock. Nakajima managed to get to the ropes and this served as a wake up call, and the smile snapped off. It was time to end this. 

WINNER: Katsuhiko Nakajima with the Vertical Spike (17 minutes, 42 seconds)

MATCH SIX
N-1 VICTORY
Go Shiozaki vs Masaaki Mochizuki

Masaaki Mochizuki offered Katsuhiko Nakajima a handshake before the match. He's probably one of the few in Noah that you can trust to do this. Despite this show of sportsmanship, Shiozaki's arms suffered even more damage when Mochi targeted them, even at one point luring Shiozaki into a chop war, Shiozaki went for it, but Mochi knocked him aside, and met the machine gun chops with a punch. After being knocked outside the ring, Shiozaki decided he had had enough and went very Kobashi with Kobashi mannerisms, but Mochizuki's plan which didn't work against Sakuraba, certainly worked against the increasingly battered Shiozaki. 

WINNER: Masaaki Mochizuki with the Dragon Suplex Hold (16 minutes, 21 seconds)

Shiozaki couldn't believe what had happened, and complained to the referee (they must dread leagues as they have such a rough time), and when he had gone Mochi spoke on the microphone. Acknowledging that it was not a member of Noah, or even the champion, closing out the show, he had just beaten the GHC Heavyweight champion and he would go on like this, wrestling in his own style until the end of the league, and to support him while he was here in Noah from another promotion. In a kind of cheeky by the way, he added that DragonGate would be holding a show on the 7th October. 

WITH THANKS TO: Abeshin, Fujiwara Armbar, Metal Noah
PICTURE CREDIT: PKDX
GIF TAKEN FROM WRESTLE UNIVERSE
NOAH'S NEXT SHOW: Saturday 26th, Niigata 

After today's event, Kaito Kiyomiya leads Block A with 5 points (Go Shiozaki and Kazushi Sakuraba are second with 4), Kenoh leads Block B with 6 points, with Takashi Sugiura in second with 5.

​Noah kicked off the first night of their three shows in a row at Korakuen Hall today. While the merchandise stable was stocked (and no doubt Kenoh's notorious paranoia will start whispering to him as soon as he sees how the pillows were stocked and start imagining the evil CyberFight were behind it), and Kotaro Suzuki was selling his new product at his own booth, Yoshinari Ogawa (with HAYATA) was in the ring teaching one of the new trainees. Usually Ogawa is teaching members of the roster, so it was a treat for fans to see this. 

The event was streamed free, live and worldwide on ABEMA. You will be able to watch the event for seven days after the date of broadcast. After that it will be placed on WRESTLE UNIVERSE, which you will need to subscribe to to view. 

MATCH ONE
Mohammed Yone & Kinya Okada vs Kongoh (Manabu Soya & Yoshiki Inamura)

Yoshiki Inamura and rival, Kinya Okada, started the match with the woolly mammoth sized Inamura trapping Okada in a submission between his thighs. Okada later faced the other member of Kongoh's monster team, Manabu Soya, who no sold his attacks and then later threw him to Inamura. 

Good opening match, which demonstrated both the growth of Yoshiki Inamua and Kinya Okada's potential as a monster (even if he never reaches Inamura like proportions)

WINNER: Manabu Soya with the Ballistic on Kinya Okada (9 minutes and 29 seconds)

MATCH TWO
N-1 VICTORY
Kenoh vs Shuhei Taniguchi

Having faced Shuhei Taniguchi last year in the N-1 VICTORY and won, Kenoh knew that he would have to bring out something special to defeat him this year. It was Taniguchi, however, who struck first aiming a kick to Kenoh's face. Erupting early on, Taniguchi was able to evade the much smaller Kenoh at times, and Kenoh was able to pull a few tricks of his own, such as his acrobatics which he pulls out for big matches, although rather than a somersault PFS or a moonsault PFS, he did a cartwheel evasion move on the apron. Both had done their homework on each other since their last league match, but Kenoh was the one who had seemingly done more by luring Taniguchi in and then locking in a submission, which is rare for Kenoh to use. Kenoh hung on, his arm wrapped around Taniguchi's throat and squeezed, you could see how tight he was the ref attempted to move him. Kenoh refused to let go, Taniguchi's tongue was practically coming out of his mouth. Kenoh only let go when the referee called a stop.
Short but very different and very clever match showing how versatile Kenoh is. 

WINNER: Kenoh with the rear naked sleeper hold (referee stop after 14 minutes, 32 seconds)

MATCH THREE
N-1 VICTORY
Kaito Kiyomiya vs Masa Kitamiya

Kaito Kiyomiya's N-1 woes continued against the dominant Masa Kitamiya today in a fast paced match, but Masa Kitamiya's sudden blooming cost Kiyomiya another precious point in the league as speed met experience and power, and experience and power won. 

WINNER: Masa Kitamiya with the Saito Suplex (14 minutes, 32 seconds)

MATCH FOUR
STINGER (Kotaro Suzuki, Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA) vs Kongoh Jnrs (Haoh, Nioh & Tadasuke)

Noah's heel group, Kongoh Jnrs, met the ultra heel group, STINGER. As he got into the ring, Yoshinari Ogawa took a moment to survey his opponents, but no matter how much he hates Tadasuke, and is indifferent to Nioh, the person with the bullseye painted on him was Haoh. A challenge to any member of STINGER marks you as a target, and their attack was relentless. Haoh was very eager to prove himself against Kotaro, and this was sometimes on the verge of desperation. Kotaro however, had nothing but contempt for him and resorted at the end of the match to use the technique of breaking the pin to torture the opponent more. Usually this backfires, but not in this case. 

WINNER: Kotaro Suzuki with the Javelin (referee stop after 21 minutes, 2 seconds)

Kotaro then spoke on the microphone and gave Haoh a vicious character assessment, telling him that not only should he start over as a wrestler, but that he was the "weakest GHC challenger ever". 

MATCH FIVE
N-1 VICTORY 2020
Go Shiozaki vs Kazushi Sakuraba

Give the impression that he was just warming up, in reality Go Shiozaki was not going to forgive Kazushi Sakuraba for making him tap in the pre-match with The Sugiura Army just before the GHC Heavyweight tag battle. Like everyone else in the league, Sakuraba targeted Shiozaki's arms in a far worse away than Katsuhiko Nakajima's kicks, wrapping them round the barriers in ways they were not meant to bend, before kicking them. This caused Shiozaki to loose power in his arms, and Sakuraba thought that he was going to avoid the chops he so much hates. Sakuraba took to taunting Shiozaki, and even pulling the front of his shirt out to look down his top, but a long fuse he might have, it's never a good idea to wind him up and Sakuraba not only got the Machine Gun Chops but also chops to the head in a flurry. 

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan Lariat (8 minutes, 35 seconds)

Shiozaki then spoke on the microphone and said that he would show a match that was second to none, and finished with "I AM NOAH". 

MATCH SIX
N-1 VICTORY 2020
Naomichi Marufuji vs Takashi Sugiura

Two most senior people in Noah (after Yoshinari Ogawa who is the most senior), hold twenty years of fighting both side by side and against each other, and no matter what it has been for, (except when Sugiura joined The Suzuki Army), it has always been for Noah. Partners, rivals, today they were united in one thing, to put on a match that would not lose out to any other league happening in wrestling at that time. 

There was shades of Baba's All Japan and the wars between Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada in the pacing of the match, with both pulling out desperation moves as time went on, with Sugiura using a rare suplex and Marufuji using his new move, which involves crushing the hand and wrist (which he used against Inamura), it's inventive as most people attack the arm. They fought until the time ran out, Marufuji being saved as the bell signalled full time as Sugiura locked in the dreaded choke. 

WINNER: Time limit draw (30 minutes)

After the match they both shook hands, with Marufuji commenting backstage that he would like to do another singles with Sugiura, but for now he had the league to concentrate on. 

WITH THANKS TO: Abeshin
PICTURE CREDIT: PKDX, Noah GHC 
GIFS taken from ABEMA
NOAH'S NEXT SHOW: 23rd September 2020 (double bill at Korakuen Hall)

​Noah travelled up to Takasaki in Gunma Prefecture today to hold the second night of The N-1 Victory 2020. The venue (which I think can be used as a rink), although pretty, light and airy was described as "slightly old" and had a glass panelled ceiling, which while this lets in the sunlight, for both the wrestlers and the fans it became like a greenhouse. The event was streamed live on WRESTLE-UNIVERSE (the show will be there when you click the link, but you must be a subscriber to view). 

Naomichi Marufuji and Go Shiozaki were on autograph duty. 

MATCH ONE
Kinya Okada vs Nioh

Nioh came out in an unsmiling manner that befitted Kongoh, and did a rare solo pose, which was just him raising his head (you can read about the symbology of Kongoh here). 

It was an opener like the old days of Noah between a veteran and a rookie. The match worked well as while they aren't level in terms of experience, Kinya Okada was able to get in a good offense against Nioh as they are roughly the same size and weight. Throughout the match Okada worked on Nioh's arm, and wouldn't let up. The veteran struck back and after a few close calls, decided enough was enough and locked in a nasty submission

WINNER: Nioh with the Camel Clutch (11 minutes, 6 seconds)

​MATCH TWO
N-1 VICTORY
Naomichi Marufuji vs Yoshiki Inamura

Naomichi Marufuji had said on Twitter yesterday that he wouldn't be letting down his guard against Yoshiki Inamura and he wasn't going to give him an inch either. Marufuji was right to be precautious, as while he has the experience that Inamura does not, Inamura has the size and the strength that Marufuji doesn't, true he's a heavyweight but he's not one of the larger ones, and Inamura managed to knock him down flat to the mat on several occasions. 

Marufuji worked out that to take Inamura down, he needed to work on his hands. Inamura's main attacks centre on lifting (Oklahoma Slam which almost got him the win today) and the Splash Mountain, so Marufuji invented a nasty move whereby he stood on Inamura's hand, crushing it while he kicked his chest. However, despite these attacks on his hands, Inamura's power could not be kept down, and he still slammed Marufuji like he weighed nothing. He also screamed at his kicks, and refused to take them. 

Inamura has also learned how to play dead, as Marufuji seemingly knocked him out with a knee at one point. Slumped in the corner and motionless, the referee was checking on him until Marufuji shoved him out of the way (the referees on the whole had a very rough evening), hauled Inamura to his feet and went for the Shiranui. Inamura however, had been luring him in...but sadly, despite the very close pins and the ring psychology, it was Marufuji picking up the points. 

WINNER: Naomichi Marufuji with the True Tiger King (12 minutes, 23 seconds)

MATCH THREE
Go Shiozaki, Kaito Kiyomiya, Daisuke Harada & YO-HEY vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Haoh and Tadasuke)

Rockstar Tadasuke led Kongoh out, but only he, Kenoh and Haoh posed in the ring, Katsuhiko Nakajima sat on the turnbuckle looking sinister. This was a chaotic match with melee fights breaking out

You could tell how humid the venue was getting by that point as Daisuke Harada was wiping his head as he started off against Tadasuke. A few seconds later, Haoh decided to storm the ring, and this was even before they had locked up. Tadasuke paid for it as YO-HEY helped Harada pay him back in kind. YO-HEY has speed and incredible natural agility, but he does not have the strength that Tadasuke and Harada do. 

​The former AXIZ faced off. Katsuhiko Nakajima with a big evil Cheshire Cat grin as he wound up Go Shiozaki. Sliding out of the ring and wandering around, made Shiozaki (who has witnessed this behavior countless times), chase him back in. Go Shiozaki has two bullseyes painted on him at the moment, the GHC Heavyweight title and his notoriously damaged arms which Nakajima attacked relentlessly, wrapping them around the steel barriers, and aiming his kicks at them. Kongoh joined in while Shiozaki was in their corner by pressing their boots into his shoulders. Throughout the match Kongoh worked to wear Shiozaki down, with Kenoh returning the machine gun chops with machine gun kicks. Shiozaki also got the Kongoh version of "Endless Love". 
Shiozaki has been described as "more docile than Kenoh or Nakajima" by Takashi Sugiura, which he didn't take well to. But it must be said that while this is true to a point, he does have a long fuse, and when he gets wound up too much he goes go mad, the start of this was giving Nakajima a rare headbutt when he was on the turnbuckle, and then dropkicking him off of it. 

Another person who gets wound up slowly, is Kaito Kiyomiya, who Kenoh (who looked slightly bruised from Friday's match with Nakajima), kept provoking to storm into the ring and then throwing him out each time he did, and then walking off nonchalantly (Kenoh probably never forgave being drop kicked out of the ring earlier in the match). 

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan Lariat on Katsuhiko Nakajima (20 minutes, 19 seconds)

Shiozaki lost his temper, and with a wild look in his eyes, he screamed on the microphone to the motionless spreadeagled Nakajima, that if he thought the league was so crap, he would be the one to make it interesting. Kenoh said that they would finish what they didn't in Yokohama in the N-1. Kiyomiya then chimed in and said that he would break through his block to the finals, his enemies were not the only ones to be standing before him, and to Kenoh he told to make sure he was in the finals. 

MATCH FOUR
N-1 VICTORY
Masa Kitamiya vs Manabu Soya

A block A Kongoh HOSS FIGHT.

Fast paced match between two big heavyweights, who both threw each other around like they weighed nothing. Punch war, top rope slam, Kitamiya catching Soya in a headlock as he charged towards him, headbutts, backdrops, elbows, it was all there, and then Manabu Soya went for his nasty submission and Masa Kitamiya did something he rarely does, and tapped.

WINNER: Manabu Soya with the neck lock (12 minutes, 56 seconds)

Manabu Soya, usually so staid, celebrated in an enthusiastic way. 

MATCH FIVE
N-1 VICTORY
Masaaki Mochizuki vs Kazushi Sakuraba

Karate met MMA today, and while this is a non Noah match (i.e. both are freelancers appearing in Noah), it went over well with the crowd although the match was short. It was a harsh match of kicks and holds, which ended with a miscalculation by Masaaki Mochizuki, which cost him the win. 

WINNER: Kazushi Sakuraba with 39 Locks (8 minutes, 28 seconds)

After the match Mochizuki offered a bow and a handshake to Sakuraba, and they both bowed to each other on their knees. 

MATCH SIX
N-1 VICTORY
Takashi Sugiura vs Shuhei Taniguchi

Takashi Sugiura came out with his weary face on (the one he usually uses when dealing with upstarts on the roster who are younger), and Shuhei Taniguchi came out looking like Shuhei Taniguchi. Which is to say expressionless. Taniguchi gets teased a lot by the roster (mainly Sugiura, Marufuji and at times Shiozaki), for being so unanimated, and in order to prove that he wasn't Taniguchi once created a drinking club which met after practice to unwind, talk, drink, and tell jokes etc. 

Sugiura had said on Friday at the beginning of the league that as it was Taniguchi, he could safely stay in 3rd gear, there was no reason to accelerate to the top one. He was mistaken in this as during this hoss fight, Taniguchi erupted as they both tried to wear each other down, even at one point brushing the ref away. 

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with the Frankensteiner (21 minutes, 57 seconds)

Shuhei Taniguchi was furious with the win (Sugiura pulls using the Frankensteiner out of nowhere, and it works) and shoved the ref around, but no it was a three, and rearranging his features, he stalked off angrily. Takashi Sugiura recovered from the headbutt that he had been given earlier, ("Goddamn"), and thanked everyone for coming, acknowledging how difficult it must have been for people in masks in the hothouse atmosphere of the venue. Sugi reiterated that he didn't want to lose out to any other groups who were holding their own leagues at the same time, and for people to watch to the end. 

With thanks to: Abeshin, Naoki_Slam
Noah's next show: Tuesday September 22nd, Korakuen Hall
Picture Credit: Noah GHC ​

​Noah kicked off the first night of the N-1 with a big match feel in Nagoya today. The event was streamed over WRESTLE UNIVERSE (which had technical problems for some viewers, although I luckily had no problem except for some slight lag and minor screen freezes) and Samurai TV, where Mohammed Yone was the guest commentator. Some fans travelled outside of Tokyo to see the opening night, and even some Jurina Matsui fans turned up. Noah later made the stream free for all to view. 

The opening ceremony when the wrestlers come to the ring for the official presentation, was drama free; Katsuhiko Nakajima (who came sauntering out) and Go Shiozaki stayed apart, Kenoh prevented himself from yelling at Naomichi Marufuji or Kaito Kiyomiya.

MATCH ONE
Shuhei Taniguchi, Mohammed Yone & Kinya Okada vs The Anti Wrestlers Alliance (Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue) & Masashi Aoyagi

Although it was Mohammed Yone and Masashi Aoyagi pointing at each other, it was Yone and Masao Inoue who started the match. Yone pumped up the fro before starting the match, in which we discovered that Inoue is also not a disco lover. 

Kinya Okada (young enough to be Aoyagi's grandson) did well against the old veteran, and in true Heisei style, the veterans did not let up on him in any way. Akitoshi Saito in particular sent a punch that was audible around the arena. Okada though, was able to take him down later. 

Shuhei Taniguchi, however, is not a veteran and had Masao Inoue begging for mercy. At this point Saito and Aoyagi scattered, leaving Inoue to scream "bastard!" at Taniguchi. Inoue got his revenge, however, by attacking Taniguchi's gouty toes with stamps. 

WINNER: Akitoshi Saito pinned Kinya Okada with a Boston Crab type pin (13 minutes, 13 seconds)

MATCH TWO
N-1 VICTORY (BLOCK B)
Takashi Sugiura vs Yoshiki Inamura

This is the second singles match between Takashi Sugiura and Yoshiki Inamura, and although he won, Sugiura left the match looking back at Inamura as if he was aware that he was now becoming more of a threat. 

Although Sugiura, the veteran, used Inamura's experience and momentum to throw him from the ring,  Inamura was able to throw him heavily into the barriers outside, and he won the punch war, knocking Sugi to the mat. But the veteran was not going to go down that easily, and after a last minute kick out from Inamura, Sugiura went for the choke. Inamura went to get out of that via a reversal, but Sugiura reversed and Inamura tapped. 

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with the front neck lock (9 minutes, 11 seconds)

Takashi Sugiura said the match with Yoshiki Inamura was a "good test run", but since his next match is with Shuhei Taniguchi, he will only need to be in "3rd gear" for it. 

MATCH THREE
N-1 VICTORY (BLOCK A)
Kaito Kiyomiya vs Masaaki Mochizuki

Fast paced match, with the crowd clapping enthusiastically from the start. Mochi found Inamura a little too much, so he requested a time out. While Mochi threw his kicks, and Kiyomiya his punches, Kiyomiya had the chance to discover just how inventive Mochi can be. Mochi didn't just work on Kiyomiya's knee, he like Ogawa is not scared to be resourceful and to use what is around him, such as using kicks to get out of the Tiger Suplex, yelling and pointing at someone at ringside and then striking Kiyomiya when the ref was distracted, and so as Mochi lured him in, Kiyomiya found himself meeting both experience and mind games. But as fond as the crowd were of Mochi, they were behind the Noah born.

WINNER: Neither. Time out draw (30 minutes)

With this draw they only get one point each (2 points for a win, 0 for a loss)

MATCH FOUR
Naomichi Marufuji & Atsushi Kotoge vs The Sugiura Army (NOSAWA Rongai & Kaz Hayashi)

Mostly because he's insane, and partly because FULL THROTTLE used them for a show they will be appearing on filmed in Hajima Ohara's Kawasaki, Noah's resident nutcase, Atsushi Kotoge, came zipping out of the curtain clutching the handlebars and light of a motorcycle. Naomichi Marufuji loved it, but NOSAWA Rongai and Kaz Hayashi were not so impressed. Kotoge wasn't either when the referee told him that such things were not allowed in the ring. The match was very much junior heavy, and you could tell how much Marufuji enjoyed working with the division. 

Marufuji had said on Twitter that he was very much looking forward to chopping NOSAWA, but after a great exchange with Kaz Hayashi, Marufuji wanted NOSAWA, and then tagged Kotoge in. Who started bouncing all over and yelling "Brum Brum". NOSAWA thought he was crazy enough to accept a handshake (and who can blame him), Kotoge accepted the offer, but he's crazy not stupid, and caught the kick that NOSAWA went for. If NOSAWA didn't get chopped (Hayashi did), he had to endure Marufuji holding his mouth open so Kotoge Kotoge could rev up and kick it when bouncing the ropes. Unfortunately, this meant that Kotoge kicked Marufuji's fingers. Always one who is game to join in with anything, Marufuji did his own version of the rope bounce. 

WINNER: ATSUSHI KOTOGE with a moonsault on NOSAWA Rongai (11 minutes, 59 seconds)

Then after the match there was this...

​And Kotoge rode an invisible motorcycle backstage

​Noah held a short interval in which they announced that on the 19th December they would be heading up to Nagoya. It wouldn't surprise me if Noah's last big show of the year was combined with Takashi Sugiura's 20th anniversary (he debuted in December 2000 in Noah). Sugiura is from Aichi, Nagoya and was featured on the picture. Further details are to be announced. 

MATCH FIVE
N-1 VICTORY BLOCK A
Go Shiozaki vs Manabu Soya

Brutal power match. 
Go Shiozaki might not have been much affected by Soya's chops, but due to taping his arms and shoulders were vulnerable and Soya worked on these areas heavily, even at one point making it so he couldn't chop, but it couldn't stop him getting the machine gun chops. 

There was nothing technical in this match, as it was brutal and full of punches, kicks, chops and elbows. Soya could not ultimately overcome the GHC Heavyweight champion, but he came very close. 

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan Lariat (16 minutes, 54 seconds)

MATCH SIX
N-1 VICTORY BLOCK B
Kenoh vs Katsuhiko Nakajima

Despite his threats to wreck everything for everyone, Nakajima's act of rebellion was when the ref told him to get down from the turnbuckle, and then take off his jacket, not just his mask. The match started with Nakajima offering Kenoh a handshake. Kenoh (a man with a lot of enemies, both real but mainly imagined), was hesitant and ultimately refused. 

There was more of an emphasis on wrestling and martial arts ability initially, the kick fight came later (when Nakajima dared Kenoh), and compared to their championship match there was no feeling of hatred between them. This time you got more of a sense of Kenoh being a little unsure of Nakajima and what Nakajima was going to do, and Nakajima luring Kenoh into some sense of security. 

The match ended when Nakajima kicked Kenoh in the head, and then punched him repeatedly just to make sure that he was knocked out. He had a huge sinister grin on his face. 

WINNER: Katsuhiko Nakajima with the Diamond Bomb (17 minutes, 19 seconds)

After the match Nakajima bent over Kenoh. Kenoh slowly offered his hand, which Nakajima took and pulled him to his feet. Something seemed to be building as Nakajima pulled Kenoh up and they stared at each other, but Nakajima let him go and Kenoh rolled out of the ring. Nakajima went to speak on the microphone, but took his time. When he spoke, he said that this league was "rotten", and the matches before were "sluggish" (rough translation), but he would make it interesting, and for "everyone to watch me". 

WITH THANKS TO: Metal Noah
PICTURE CREDIT: Shu Nishinaga
GIFS taken from WRESTLE UNIVERSE
Noah's next event: September 20th (bell sounds at 16:00) ​

​Shu Nishinaga returned to his home prefecture of Kanazawa today, both for his 30th anniversary in wrestling (he started off a part timer in All Japan, was taken on full time by Giant Baba and has spent twenty years in Noah since walking out with Mitsuharu Misawa 2000), and for Noah's event. Flowers were sent by Kenta Kobashi, CyberFight & THE LEAVE which were displayed in the lobby.  Today would be the last event before the N-1 Victory starts on Friday.

There was a sense of a big event which was shared between the fans watching at home (event was streamed live on WRESTLE-UNIVERSE via static cam) and those who attended the event, and for those who were lucky enough to go to the arena, Naomichi Marufuji and Go Shiozaki were signing autographs, with Yoshinari Ogawa holding class in the ring with HAYATA and Kaito Kiyomiya. 

Noah's special guest today was Hiroshi Hase (former wrestler now a politician, who looks a million miles from both the picture Noah used on the poster, and his shoulder length hair and moustache from his days in the ring), who gave a speech before the event began. He evidently could not stay for long as he was not seen again, and Mutoh kind of alluded to the fact that he couldn't stick around for the whole thing when he spoke on the microphone at the end of the match. Hase was not the only notable person in attendance as Kuniko Yamada was also at ringside. 

MATCH ONE
Daisuke Harada & YO-HEY vs FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara)

FULL THROTTLE made "Brum Brum" motions to a little girl sitting at ringside as they came to the ring, and YO-HEY made good his promise to dye his hair at 3.30am as he couldn't sleep and was up playing computer games. Speaking of hair, one fan described Kotoge's hair (despite it being freshly pink) as being cut like "a little child in a school entrance ceremony"

​This was a fun opener between two crazy people and two sane people. Fans gave a big applause for that rare precious treat of Hajime Ohara vs Daisuke Harada which started the match, then they tagged in their insane tag partners, and YO-HEY spent a few seconds bouncing around with Kotoge. Fast paced match (which Takashi Sugiura and Kenoh were seen watching from the balcony, although not at the same time), which included one of YO-HEY'S most beautiful dropkicks on Ohara, Kotoge really catching Harada in the face with a kick and Harada vs Ohara being as beautiful and brilliant as ever.

WINNER: Time out draw (20 minutes) 

The fight went on even after the bell and ended with YO-HEY throwing Kotoge off of the turnbuckle, and then falling off it himself to the floor. Both teams left in frustration that neither could get the win over the other, and so their positions in the Noah Juniors were still stagnant. Backstage, YO-HEY & Daisuke Harada announced that they would be introducing a new member of their team on the 26th in Niigata (fans are speculating that this could be the returning Junta Miyawaki, Hitoshi Kumano which I think is unlikely, or a member of Dove). 

MATCH TWO
Mohammed Yone & Alexander Otsuka vs Seiya Morohashi & Kinya Okada

Alexander Otsuka (who took his time on entry) was Mohammed Yone's debut opponent 25 years ago. Ironically, he was also the one that Kenoh debuted against too in Michinoku Pro. In a touching sign of respect, he even held the ropes open so that Yone could get into the ring. 

Semi squash match but really for the more experienced Seiya Morohashi and ironically not the less experienced Kinya Okada, who managed to hold his own against the two veterans than Morohashi did, although Okada is still too junior in Noah to react in too much rage to Yone's Disco Rope break or try and get into the ring to break the hold when Yone held him back as Otsuka tortured Morohashi, Morohashi was completely dwarfed by Yone and thrown around by Otsuka

WINNER: Alexander Otsuka with the Alex Buster on Seiya Morohashi (10 minutes, 49 seconds)

MATCH THREE
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Seiki Yoshioka

Katsuhiko Nakajima came out to the ring using a new entry song, which he not only inspired, but was in the video for. Yoshioka had come out before him and instantly noticed Kuniko Yamada; Yamada made a joke of the incident when Yoshioka had come crashing through the announce table, by when he did moonsault and land near (not on) her during the match, by telling him to go away and get back in the ring. 

Seiki Yoshioka's sports background is in Taekwondo, and as Katsuhiko Nakajima's is in Karate, fans were looking forward to the inevitable kickfight between them. It was definitely not as brutal as the one between Nakajima and Kenoh, and while Nakajima as the heavyweight was naturally stronger, Yoshioka attacked in a flurry and managed to knock him across the ring. He also won the kickfight as Nakajima was kicked out of the ring. Yoshioka kicking out of the Soccer Ball kicks was too much for Nakajima, and his cocky smile snapped off and his eyes started to glow as they grew cold, and he pinned him with the Vertical Spike while staring into the photographers lens as the flash lit up his face.

WINNER: Katsuhiko Nakajima with the Vertical Spike (10 minutes, 50 seconds)

Shu Nishinaga was presented with flowers by fellow referee, Nakayama, for his 30th anniversary in wrestling. He was originally working part time in All Japan, when Giant Baba noticed his merit and asked him if he wanted to be a referee, after that he became full time and trained under Joe Higuchi and Kyohei Wada. He left All Japan in 2000 when Mitsuharu Misawa formed Noah, and has stayed ever since. 

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

Kongoh filed out first looking militaristic, and Kenoh lurked in the corner for his enemies to come out. Kaito Kiyomiya came out with white feathers floating everywhere from his coat, Go Shiozaki looking still sad (his arms looked better though on the surface with only one elbow support, but he is still heavily taped around the shoulders which became a target for Kongoh), and Shuhei Taniguchi, being Shuhei Taniguchi. Taniguchi is probably the only person who is low on Kenoh's list (although he is probably on it). 

Noah built up Kiyomiya vs Kenoh (which as we will see was brief), with Kiyomiya and Kitamiya starting off the match. Kitamiya has suddenly bloomed over the last few months into the powerhouse he was always meant to be, with Shiozaki not quite believing how Kitamiya stood up to him, especially the machine gun chops which he refused to take and the repeated brainbusters which he stood up from. If anything, tonight's MVP was Kitamiya. 

​Kenoh and Kiyomiya finally faced off after Kenoh provoked him, Kiyomiya even shoving the ref away to get to Kenoh. They had a brief punch war, which ended with Kenoh throwing Kiyomiya outside the ring and sauntering off. I wonder as this exchange was so short (and given Kenoh's fury this week about Kiyomiya being on the cover of "Weekly Pro", so much so he went to the offices to complain about it), if Noah are saving something for N-1 Victory. 

Yoshiki Inamura came very very close to pinning Go Shiozaki, and the venue were behind him, but Shiozaki kicked out what can't even be described as the last split second, Inamura came that close to having a very very big win.

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan Lariat on Yoshiki Inamura (19 minutes, 44 seconds) 

Go Shiozaki spoke on the microphone, and thanked everyone for coming and thanked Nishinaga for his 30 years service to wrestling.  

MATCH FIVE
STINGER (Kotaro Suzuki, Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA) vs Kongoh (Haoh, Nioh & Tadasuke)

While Kongoh with Red Tadasuke might have kept it clean, STINGER did not and while their music was still playing and even before the bell had sounded, Yoshinari Ogawa decided to attack Tadasuke. Tadasuke remained the subject of his focus throughout the match, although it's hard to know exactly what Tadasuke has done recently to Ogawa, but then again it could just be a combination of them both being the leaders of their group and their past history. 

Haoh was out to prove himself today, and Kotaro wanted him to do this too. Easier than Ogawa when it comes to title matches, all Kotaro asks is that you prove yourself and you challenge, and he was determined to keep Haoh in the ring, STINGER naturally came in from time to time, but Kongoh had to be kept out. The crowd were very much behind Haoh, who got the win with a combination of speed, luck and sheer desperation. 

WINNER: Haoh pinned Kotaro Suzuki (16 minutes, 24 seconds)

Haoh rolled about the ring in almost the same frenzied manner that Kaito Kiyomiya did when he won the GHC Heavyweight, STINGER, however found nothing to celebrate and contested it to the referee. Tadasuke got in the ring clapping, practically in HAYATA'S face. Kotaro cannot say no now (although he probably will) as Haoh addressed him afterwards as he was leaving, basically saying he couldn't deny that he was the next belt challenger. 

MATCH SIX
The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba & NOSAWA Rongai) vs The M'S Alliance (Naomichi Marufuji, Keiji Mutoh & Yuko Miyamoto)

As Kazushi Sakuraba made his entrance (he and Keiji Mutoh made separate entrances to their teammates), Naomichi Marufuji decided to annoy Takashi Sugiura and NOSAWA Rongai, by pointing at NOSAWA and complaining to Sugiura, and even making lunging motions at him. He was making such a nuisance of himself hanging around in the opposite corner, that in the end Sugiura told him to go away.

Kazushi Sakuraba and Keiji Mutoh started the match with Sakuraba mat wrestling him. Unfortunately this kind of looked a little clumsy on Mutoh's part; it might have worked a few years ago, but it just looked awkward. A better point of the match was their exchange later on, when Sakuraba decided to use submission moves with Sugiura and NOSAWA daring Naomichi Marufuji and Yuko Miyamoto to get in the ring. 

NOSAWA tried chopping Marufuji, it didn't work. They had a chop war which Marufuji no sold, and ended up knocking NOSAWA down. NOSAWA however had another target in mind, mainly Keiji Mutoh which he did the Shining Wizard on in usual twitchy fashion (and teasing Mutoh about his bad knees in the process), but Mutoh had his revenge and NOSAWA found himself on the receiving end as Marufuji sat imitating him, while sitting on the apron to keep Sugiura out of the ring. The next time Marufuji and Sugiura will meet, will be the N-1 Victory. 

WINNER: Keiji Mutoh with the Shining Wizard on NOSAWA Rongai (17 minutes, 54 seconds)

After posing with a sponsors sign (Nihonkai Club which sounds nice as they advertised they serve steak and beer), Keiji Mutoh spoke on the microphone. Hase evidently couldn't stay to address the crowd, so it fell to Mutoh to say that he was happy to be here, and he wanted to do his best to energize those watching pro wrestling.

WITH THANKS TO: Kei, Metal Noah, Asuka, Kosen, Abeshin 
GIF'S taken from WRESTLE-UNIVERSE
Noah's next show: Friday 18th September (N-1 Victory opening night)

​It's been six months since Noah have been able to leave Tokyo to hold events outside the city, and today they came to the beautiful Fujisan Messe. Mount Fuji was not very visible, when Noah arrived it was swathed in clouds, but for the fans although the clouds remained the skies seemed to have cleared with a beautiful late summer cornflower blue, despite the typhoon rolling in soon. The venue seems to be affected by the color of the mountain and was a mixture of greys, whites and silvers, but as ever with an atmosphere of fresh air and light. Fans were excited to go, and for those travelling from Tokyo it's only an hour by bullet train. 

Due to a combination of the venues outside of the big cities being smaller (for example, although Noah tried to keep fans and roster apart as much as they could, they were sharing one bathroom as there were no facilities backstage), and the roster having to travel by bus, the company did not want too many people crammed into too small a space due to the threat of infection. The show might have been small and rural, but it had a very good turnout (although I am unsure of the number as Noah did not publish it and one fan joked that as Masao Inoue was not on the card it might be affected), but it was intense. 

Event was not broadcast live today, but will be available to view on WRESTLE UNIVERSE on the 9th September. You will need to subscribe to the service to be able to watch it (900 yen per calendar month, with the first month free).  

MATCH ONE
Daisuke Harada vs Kinya Okada

Strong opener with Kinya Okada "raging" against Harada in a strong fight with arm attacks and kicks, Harada took all of this, but fought back with vicious elbows. Fans have noticed that as well as the Rolling Elbow that Harada seems to have incorporated into his moveset, he has worked on other attacks too.

WINNER: Daisuke Harada with the Diving Elbow Drop (10 minutes, 13 seconds)

MATCH TWO
Mohammed Yone vs Masa Kitamiya

Aside from Masa Kitamiya being not impressed by the "Disco Fever" pose that Yone did on entry, and pressing himself and glaring into the corner of the ring, I don't have too much information on this match, but it was said that despite it being billed as just an ordinary singles match, it was at the level of a N-1 match, despite the fact that Mohammed Yone is not in the league. 
 
WINNER: Masa Kitamiya with the Saito Suplex (9 minutes, 50 seconds)

​MATCH THREE
The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura & NOSAWA Rongai) vs Naomichi Marufuji & YO-HEY

Marufuji: Rongai! Come out!
NOSAWA: I don't want to die!
Marufuji nominating a reluctant NOSAWA at the beginning of the match

The main focus here was meant to be the N-1 Victory pre match between the Noah veterans, Naomichi Marufuji and Takashi Sugiura, and while that was true to a certain extent the ultra rare card also saw Marufuji punish a reluctant NOSAWA Rongai and YO-HEY vs Takashi Sugiura, and although someone the size of YO-HEY has very little defence against someone made in SKYNET like Sugiura, they actually kind of worked well together. Despite this, YO-HEY seemed a lot happier today, although I do hope that he was sensible enough not to take a CyberFight t-shirt clad NOSAWA'S hand when he offered. 

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with the Olympic Slam on YO-HEY (14 minutes, 44 seconds)

MATCH FOUR
FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara & Seiki Yoshioka) vs The Kongoh Juniors (Tadasuke, Haoh & Nioh)

"Excellent and spectacular!"

It must be said that when Tadasuke was in RATELS he was the sneaky villain, in Kongoh he is a heel and he is loving every single second of it, and it is what the unit needed, especially the juniors. Nioh even went as far as to tell someone in the audience off for clapping for FULL THROTTLE. 

FULL THROTTLE were all smiles; Atsushi Kotoge acting the usual crazy person, and Seiki Yoshioka giggling at something (probably Kotoge) in a chaotic match. 

WINNER: Haoh with the Jack Knife on Seiki Yoshioka (21 minutes, 37 seconds)

Haoh said in the post match interview that as he pinned Yoshioka, Kotoge better take note, he was coming for his belt, "asshole!". Haoh sadly does not seem to realize that he needs to pin Kotoge in order to convince him to give him a title shot, he is not going to care he has pinned Yoshioka. 

MATCH FIVE
Go Shiozaki, Kaito Kiyomiya & Shuhei Taniguchi vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Yoshiki Inamura)

"Darkside Nakajima"

Katsuhiko Nakajima made his Kongoh debut wearing a maroon coat (not really red) with the hood up, with chains and studs. His part in the Kongoh pose is to sit on the ringpost and watch them pose. The overall effect is sinister. 

Go Shiozaki, Nakajima's former tag partner, came out looking tired, sad and unshaven. He took a long hard sorrowful look at the new Nakajima. Kayfabe the betrayal has been hard on Shiozaki mentally, while physically and in reality the GHC Heavyweight title reign has been hard on him too as he took his jacket off today to reveal that his athletic supports were on both arms and stretched from almost his taped shoulders to nearly his wrists. He faced off with Nakajima in the opening of the match, with Nakajima kicking him around and Shiozaki responding with chops that sounded over the quiet arena like gunshots. Later Nakajima teamed with Kenoh to rub Shiozaki's face in it further, by doing their version of "Endless Love", which saw Kenoh and Nakajima kick Shiozaki between them.

Aside from Nakajima and Shiozaki, the other fight was between Kenoh and Kaito Kiyomiya, with Kiyomiya slapping Yoshiki Inamura who was squaring up to him, without taking his eyes off of Kenoh. 

In the midst of all this emotion of hatred, jealousy, sibling rivalry, betrayal and heartbreak, Monster Taniguchi emerged and took out Kongoh, but the win was not his. 

WINNER: Katsuhiko Nakajima with the Vertical Spike on Shuhei Taniguchi (25 minutes, 52 seconds)

This win before their N-1 match, was a huge upset between Nakajima and Taniguchi, but Nakajima's attention was focused on Shiozaki as he told him "Are you really "I am Noah?" Ha ha ha ha ha! I laugh at you! AXIZ bond? There never was such a thing. That is emotionally messed up thinking, you need to bring it to the ring. Where should I aim next? I'll break you, I'll break you, bit by bit..."

Shiozaki said nothing, but quietly left. 

Kenoh, however, was going to have his say and typically the object his vitriol was Kaito Kiyomiya who he yelled as Kiyomiya was leaving, "When you were GHC Heavyweight Champion, you didn't want to participate, but this time you aim to win in your first appearance?" Kenoh then deliberately spoke the last sentence to Kiyomiya very slowly, "Don't underestimate the N-1". Once Kiyomiya had gone, Kenoh started yelling that he was going to win the N-1 and would change everything about what Noah is. 
The last (and most telling word given what fans are predicting is going to happen in Kongoh) came from Katsuhiko Nakajima who said that from now on, fans should "keep an eye on himself and Kongoh". After that Kongoh did their pose, with Nakajima sitting quietly on the ringpost, watching them...

With thanks to: Ya, Metal Noah, Pyu, Fujieda Mirko, Rembrandt, Juan Casado Barton
Picture credit: Noah GHC 
Noah's next show, "THE REVIVAL" will be on Sunday 13th in Ishikawa. ​

​"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