(NOAH) Event recap - October 4th 2018, Korakuen Hall (Global Junior League Final Night)

"The match order, the cards, the intensity of the wrestlers, the excitement of the venue. Today's Noah at Korakuen has atmosphere. Each match raises the voltage of the tournament, each match has personality and excitement. As I thought, I love NOAH".

Noah held the Global Junior League 2018 finals on a weekday, many people dashed to Korakuen from work, and others took advantage of Noah's discounted ticket scheme, and arrived for the main event only, either way, Noah got a very good turn out for a rainy Thursday night with another typhoon striking parts of the country (Okinawa).

Due to an injury to TAMURA (lumbar disc herniation)  the card was changed, and Hiroshi Yamato (from Wrestle-1) took his place. Noah almost had to change the card again as Minoru Tanaka had to undergo emergency surgery due to an infection in his thumb, but was cleared to work, and it was bandaged up.
Another (minor, non medical) emergency was caused by Atsushi Kotoge who said he forgot to buy a parking ticket for Korakuen Hall.

Junta Miyawaki had a banner hanging up today which read "Orange Riot...I want to riot, orange riot, a riot of my own"
It's taken from the lyrics to "White Riot" which is his theme, The Clash being his favorite band (Miyawaki loves punk music, in particular 70s punk. I don't think he's too into cookie cutter skater punk)

Naomichi Marufuji was on autograph duty today (he did a kind of grumpy post earlier which was a long the lines of, "Tomorrow's opponents are the bald octopus and his two good for nothings, and I haven't had enough sleep, but I will be signing autographs and will be looking forward to seeing you"; Kikutaro was also there.

Noah sold these key-rings (500 yen) - they look to me to be like pictures they don't really have any use for and need to get rid of, which are just the right size for (cheap) looking key-rings.

Samurai TV will broadcast today's event on October 11th at 23.00 (JST)

MATCH ONE
Hajime Ohara, Ikuto Hidaka & Takuya Sugawara vs Masao Inoue, Seiya Morohashi and Hiroshi Yamato

Hiroshi Yamato came out singing his theme song while walking through the crowd like a lounge singer.

Fun opening match with MASAO WORLD on top form.

WINNER: Ikuto Hidaka with the roll up pin on Masao Inoue (10 minutes and 39 seconds)

MATCH TWO
Atsushi Kotoge vs Kikutaro
"It was too funny!! I'm dying."

Atsushi Kotoge and Kikutaro (then known as Ebessan) have history in Osaka Pro, but as far as Noah is concerned their last singles match was in June 2012 for a Misawa memorial night in which Kotoge got the win.

Kotoge running through the crowd like a maniac, crowd chanting "REVOLUTION! REVOLUTION!" along with his fistpumps.
As for Kikutaro, well, he proclaimed himself "The Ace of SEM". SEM was disbanded in 2015.

Even referee Shu Nishinaga was pulled into the action, and got accidentally back kicked in the nuts by Kikutaro (Kotoge was also caught in the junk while wearing his cape).

At the end of what was said to be an extremely funny match between one of Japan's greatest comedy wrestlers (Kikutaro) and a man who does genuinely like to seem to do comedy wrestling (Atsushi Kotoge), they stood together doing the "Revolutionary Pose" at the end.

WINNER: Atsushi Kotoge with the Revolutionary Cape Splash (9 minutes and 12 seconds)

MATCH THREE
GoKai (Go Shiozaki & Kaito Kiyomiya) & Masa Kitamiya vs Hitoshi Kumano, Junta Miyawaki & Yoshiki Inamura

Aside from the RATELS produce, which they met in a singles, and the three Battle Royals in Noah, this will be the first time that Junta Miyawaki and Kaito Kiyomiya will have met in a tag match as opponents, and aside from Masa Kitamiya, everyone in this match is Noah born.

Yoshiki Inamura, Junta Miyawaki and Hitoshi Kumano were called by fans "The New Generation Quartet" or "The Young Trio" (although being junior heavyweights, Kumano an Miyawaki are not part of the "Generational War", and Inamura too new to fit in anywhere really, it doesn't mean that they aren't a big part of Noah's future, anyway, it is likely that all three will become heavyweights in the future).

Yoshiki Inamura started off against Go Shiozaki, and touchingly Miyawaki stepped in to protect him against Kitamiya when the time came (and they double teamed him). Korakuen Hall was on fire for Miyawaki, especially when in Shiozaki's crab hold as he does have a tendency to quit. However, it was the rookie Inamura (who received a lot of praise today), who tapped out, Kitamiya being particularly nasty by pulling Inamura back from the rope at the last moment.

Intense match, a very good (but rare) one seeing heavyweights face junior heavyweights and one rookie (probable due to his physique) heavyweight.

WINNER: Masa Kitamiya with the Scorpion Deathlock on Yoshiki Inamura (11 minutes and 58 seconds)

MATCH FOUR
Kenoh vs Kouki Iwasaki
"Kick violence"

This is the first time they have met, and Kenoh said he is looking forward to it (and it is rare to see Kenoh in a singles match).
Naturally it turned into a hard kick battle, and there was a square up between them when Kenoh realized that he was up against someone who could kick as hard as he could.

Crowd were very enthusiastic to see Iwasaki again (he also had a banner hanging up).

WINNER: Kenoh with a violent kick (6 minutes and 20 seconds)

MATCH FIVE
RATELS (Daisuke Harada, HAYATA & Tadasuke) vs Special4 (HI69, Minoru Tanaka, Yoshinari Ogawa)

Special4 come out today to "Ultra Soul" with Hi69 wearing a "Flight" t-shirt.
The crowd were a little tired for this match, and expectant of the announcement about the Global League 2018 participants that were to follow. RATELS formed a strong unit today, despite the fact that their minds were on another thing.

WINNER: Daisuke Harada with the Katayama German Suplex on Hi69 (12 minutes and 37 seconds)

After the fifth match, Noah announced the blocks for Global League 2018

BLOCK A
Naomichi Marufuji
Akitoshi Saito
Quiet Storm
Katsuhiko Nakajima
Kenoh
Masa Kitamiya
Mitsuya Nagai
Kohei Sato

BLOCK B
Takashi Sugiura
Mohammed Yone
Go Shiozaki
Atsushi Kotoge
Kaito Kiyomiya
Maybach Taniguchi
Cody Hall
Kazusada Higuchi

As excited as people are about Global League 2018, there is some disappointment as fans did hope to see Jay Bradley or Masato Tanaka.

MATCH SIX
Naomichi Marufuji, Akitoshi Saito, Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm vs The Hooligans (Cody Hall, Mitsuya Nagai, KAZMA SAKAMOTO & Cody Hall)

In true Hooligan style, the brawl went into the crowd, with Nagai battering Marufuji (Nagai wasn't wearing a wig sadly), and when back in the ring Marufuji made the situation worse with the bald jibes at Cody Hall when in the ring with Nagai (something like "Hey! Stand up baldie!)

For "running his mouth", Marufuji got the worst today from the Hooligans, afterwards they unveiled a flag and Cody & Maybach held up the belts up over the fallen tag champions.

Marufuji has had to stop being stubborn (or waiting for Nagai to either wear a wig or grow hair to his shoulders) and Cody Hall and Maybach Taniguchi will face himself and Akitoshi Saito for the tag titles on the 14th October in Kobe.

WINNER: Maybach Taniguchi (with assist by Cody Hall) with The Hooligans Bomb on Naomichi Marufuji (12 minutes and three seconds)

MATCH SEVEN
GLOBAL JUNIOR LEAGUE FINAL
Kotaro Suzuki vs YO-HEY

AFRICA blared out for YO-HEY'S entrance (he seemed to be wearing some kind of mask for want a better word) and was met with a blizzard of streamers when announced. The crowd was mainly behind YO-HEY and it was a very tense and emotional match. YO-HEY is not Noah born, but yet it seen as somehow more Noah than Kotaro Suzuki, who is Noah born, but yet walked out of the promotion.

Suzuki hit YO-HEY with vicious elbows (a fan commented on the thudding sounds), and the match was emotional and full of near falls, but ultimately, it was Kotaro Suzuki with the win, and therefore the winner of Noah's Global Junior League 2018.

Kotaro Suzuki is the heel that the Noah division needs (you could say that Ogawa is arguably a heel, but at Ogawa's age, and although he can go with the youngsters like he would have years ago, his role primarily these days is as a teacher for the dojo graduates, and he is held in too high respect by both the roster and the crowd to ever be truly hated like a heel).

Kotaro Suzuki squared up with Daisuke Harada after the match:

Suzuki: Noah Juniors have collapsed, like I have said today's Noah juniors were weak...
Harada (snatches the mic away): Fight me again!
Suzuki: You are asking for defeat!?

Crank this up to NUCLEAR HEAT

WINNER: Kotaro Suzuki with the Requiem (17 minutes) 

MATCH EIGHT
GHC HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Takashi Sugiura (c) vs Katsuhiko Nakajima

"An awesome hard-hit match,it's to die for"
"I got goose bumps many times"

Despite what happened on the 30th September when Sugiura annihilated him, Nakajima came out in a new ring coat looking like some kind of sinister faux Wolfskin, with the usual smirk. He removed his coat to reveal a new costume of sinister black.

As soon as the ring bell rang, Nakajima lay down on the mat, one arm to support his head, like he was posing for a suncream, pool or speedos commercial.
Sugi. Not. Impressed.
The match went to a brawl in the crowd, with Nakajima using chairs and smirking. When jt got back in the ring and the advantage swung back to Sugiura, he held the turnbuckle brainbuster for 20 seconds. Match was brutal with Nakajima battered by elbows in the corner.

It should not be forgotten that "The Aggression" are heels, and are perfectly happy to cheat, so Masa Kitamiya got involved at one point as Nakajima choked Sugi with a weapon (they got booed for it).
Sugiura fought back however, and kicked out of the vertical spike. Nakajima got cocky, took his foot off Sugi while doing the cocky pin.

Slap war, kick war, elbow war; a brutal beyond tough as burning hell match.

Afterwards, The Super New Generation Army & The Hooligans have got into the ring and the two teams yelled and pointed fingers at each other as the microphone got snatched between them.

TAKASHI SUGIURA: both of you two teams will start the league matches, so I will polish the belt and wait!
MITSUYA NAGAI: The Hooligans will aim for the GHC Heavyweight too!
KAITO KIYOMIYA: I'm telling you, you guys will not (rough translation)
TAKASHI SUGIURA: Global League begins on the 30th October, the number one contender will be decided then, so all you young people, you had better practice.

Takashi Sugiura's win works; most of the Super New Generation Army have already challenged (aside from Kiyomiya, who isn't ready, and really shouldn't), and the Hooligans are newcomers, none of them having ever challenged before. This way new life is breathed into Global League as now everything has been reset, everyone starts again.

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura via ankle lock submission (29 minutes and 37 seconds)

ATTENDANCE: 1, 314

WITH THANKS TO: Masked de Baum, Noah GHC, SHINYA, Metal Noah, Shishido, Eiko, Nacky, Kei, Jojo, DazeyFunk Jnr, Abeshin, Noah GHC, PDX