(NOAH CHRONOLOGY) GHC NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP: TAKASHI SUGIURA


Won: 2nd November 2019, Sumo Hall
Number of title reigns: 0
Number of defenses: 5
Lost: Sugiura vs Nakajima, 9th May 2020
Total number of days held: 190 days 

History of belt
Riki Choshu announced on 3rd October 2019 at Korakuen Hall (via video monitor) that he was creating a new belt in Noah in his capacity as the President of LIDET. This new championship would be called the "GHC National Belt". The belt has been created for a couple of reasons; the first being to entice foreigners\outside talent to Noah to win a belt that is more accessible than the elusive GHC Heavyweight (an exclusive club), and for the veterans to fight over leaving the younger heavyweights to chase the GHC Heavyweight. It has not been announced whether or not the belt will be openweight and that the Noah Juniors can compete for it, although Takashi Sugiura did hint that they could, but what is known is that the belt will be challenged for and defended only in Japan.

Takashi Sugiura became the first ever holder of the belt, when he defeated Michael Elgin in a number one contenders match at Sumo Hall on the 2nd November. The belt was handed to him by Riki Choshu.

Challengers
1. Shuhei Taniguchi
2. Masa Kitamiya
3. Kaito Kiyomiya
4. Minoru Tanaka 
5. Katsuhiko Nakajima 

vs Shuhei Taniguchi
Shuhei Taniguchi had been bloodied from his match against Kazuyuki Fujita on the 2nd November at Sumo Hall, and his wound burst open again in the tag match against The Sugiura Army. Taniguchi won the match via submission from Takashi Sugiura by using The Wyvern Catch, and later challenged for the belt. The title match will take place in Niigata on the 26th November.
Sugiura has "encouraged" Taniguchi by telling him to bring the ferocity he displayed in Osaka to the title match, and called it his "last chance to bloom". On a more comedic note, Sugiura felt that he needed to shove the belt in Masao Inoue's face on November 10th at Texport Imabari.

Shuhei Taniguchi continued his winning streak in the build up to the title match in Niigata (sometimes he was bloody, the wound on his head bursting open periodically), by pinning Takashi Sugiura following a diving body press at the main event at Korakuen Hall on the 16th November. Afterwards he gave a short (and rare) speech on the microphone, to that in Niigata, he would make "large flowers bloom". Later he said to Tokyo Sports that his ambition was to present both the belt, and a smile, to President Choshu.

The first ever title match for the GHC National set the tone for the belt (it has even been given its own music, which is an honor it shares with every other Noah belt), when Sugiura and Taniguchi got into a match so stiff that the camera audio picked up the impact of the punches that Sugiura and Taniguchi doled out to each other. Don't be looking for any technical wrestling in this match, this was a straight up hoss fight, and they beat the hell out of each other, culminating in Takashi Sugiura winning with the Olympic Slam after 23 minutes and 59 seconds.
Sadly for Taniguchi, he wasn't able to carry out his dream just yet, but Sugiura did have some sympathetic words for him, pointing out to his SDF colleague that the flowers might not have bloomed, but in no way were the petals either scattered or faded.


vs Masa Kitamiya
While Sugiura was recovering from the match, Masa Kitamiya snuck up behind him and gave him the Saito Suplex. Sugiura rolled on the mat clutching the back of his head as Kitamiya spoke on the microphone and made his challenge for the belt, telling Sugiura that this was his chance to get out of the rut he was in. Kitamiya later posted on Twitter that it was precisely because Sugiura was the champion that he had challenged, as he was a wall he needed to break down.
Sugiura's in ring response to Kitamiya in essence was, "Hey! Asshole! Come and have a go if you think your hard enough! You want it, come and try and take it!"

Sugiura was not appreciative of Kitamiya's actions (he usually explains away everything in Noah the younger heavyweights do down to their being young), and warned him that what he did was not acceptable. He would see him at Korakuen for their first pre-match.

Now recovered from being jumped in Niigata, Takashi Sugiura unleashed all his rage on Masa Kitamiya at Korakuen, at one point when the fight went outside of the ring, kicking him in the head when he was sprawled out on some chairs that the audience had fled from as the fight approached. Sugiura got the win with the dreaded front neck chokehold via referee stop. After the match he told Kitamiya that he, like Kongoh was weak, and he needed to go away and practise.

Over the seven days of the Tohoku tour, Sugiura and Kitamiya would face off in pre-matches several times, but they never actually got the pin over each other again, and Kitamiya never directly pinned Sugiura in any case. They also had a mini face off when Kitamiya got in the ring after seconding Kongoh and they squared up. Sugiura's words for Kitamiya following this was that he wanted to see something more than a "scary face" from him.

Takashi Sugiura finally got his wish to see something more than a "scary face" from Masa Kitamiya on 22nd December at Kiramesse Numazu, when Kitamiya headbutted him during the match and drew blood. Kitamiya also scored his only pinfall over Sugiura during the pre-matches they had over the past tour via the Saito Suplex after 14 minutes and 27 seconds. After the match, Kitamiya took the belt and put it over his shoulder, he put one foot on Sugiura's chest and posed for the cameras at ringside.

Masa Kitamiya, however, was not done with Sugiura, and he (and Kongoh, but we shall concentrate on only Kitamiya vs Sugiura here), stormed the ring at the Sugiura Army produce, "All Dogs Gather! Bark at Korakuen!" on the 27th December, which was Noah's last show of 2019.
Masa Kitamiya had been on the card earlier, and put second on (after Kenoh, who after being promised by Sugiura a "superstar" at the produce, and a place high on the card, and who it should also be noted was naive enough to believe Sugiura), teaming with Yoshiki Inamura against The Sugiura Army's KAZMA SAKAMOTO & Kinya Okada. The main event was Takashi Sugiura & Kazushi Sakuraba vs Hideki Suzuki & Kazuyuki Fujita. Sugiura and Sakuraba had a double submission going, when Kitamiya ran into the ring, and hit Sugiura with the GHC National belt, causing him to bleed and the referee to call for the bell to abandon the match. Thereafter a three on three was arranged with Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura vs Takashi Sugiura, Kazuyuki Fujita and Hideki Suzuki, which ended in Sugiura pinning Inamura via The Olympic Slam. This match brought to an end the pe-matches between the two. Now all that remained was the title match.

The title match was typically stiff as you would expect with their pair of them slamming into each other. Nothing technical - just two guys going to war with suplexes off the apron and turnbuckles, elbows to the face, punches that are not all together pulled, and stiff stiff shots all together, at one point almost knocking each other out. During the match, Masa Kitamiya tried to pin Sugiura with the Olympic Slam, and Sugiura paid him back in kind using the Saito Suplex. Sugiura prevailed after 20 minutes and 32 seconds.


vs Kaito Kiyomiya

Takashi Sugiura was challenged for the GHC National by Kaito Kiyomiya at the final night of Global Junior League on the 30th January 2020. After his challenge, Sugiura responded to Kiyomiya's "new view" by telling him that he had been in Noah for twenty years, and during that time he had seen many things, "good things, bad things, and things that you never want to see". He granted Kiyomiya his title challenge, and said that it would be in his hometown of Nagoya on the 24th February 2020.

Takashi Sugiura said that he had been waiting for Kiyomiya to challenge, he was after all really the only one who would, but he gave him a warning what he had seen in Noah, and following on from what he had said in the ring -about seeing the good, the bad, and the nightmare things, would not be so easily wrapped up and absorbed into "a new scenery", and neither would "the old man".

The first pre-match between Kaito Kiyomiya and Takashi Sugiura in the build up to the title challenge, took place on the "HIGHER GROUND 2020" tour on the first night in Yokohama. They tore into each other with vicious elbows and punches, at one point Kiyomiya managed to knock Sugiura down during a brawl outside the ring. Although neither got the win over the other, after the match Sugiura threw Kiyomiya out of the ring and told him, "Fucking kid! You can't change any era or scenery". Kiyomiya responded by posting on Twitter (under a NOAH GHC post as Sugiura's Twitter has been hacked), that he wasn't kidding!

The two tore into each other whenever they met in pre-matches, even at times running across the ring when they were not tagged in to knock each other off the apron. They didn't get the direct pin over each other though, that was usually done by one of them on the others tag partner.
Kaito Kiyomiya remained young and enthusiastic throughout the build up to title match, saying that he was going to make a new Noah with the belt, and that everyone who got in his way, he would simply absorb. Sugiura (whom Kiyomiya had once called "a stubborn old man"), refused and said with the wisdom of years time and time again, that Noah could not be wrapped up and changed so easily, and that he wasn't planning on changing.

The title match on 24th February, between a young idealistic man in his early twenties, and a seasoned grizzled old vet who had seen everything the last twenty years in Noah had to offer, was heart in mouth. Sugiura very dominated it, but Kiyomiya stuck to his dreams, which he saw rapidly slipping away with each chokehold, each elbow, each slam, each kick out by Sugiura. The end came after twenty-nine minutes and forty-seven seconds with an Olympic Slam. Sugiura commented afterwards that Kiyomiya may not have taken a step towards his dream, but he had grown up.


vs Minoru Tanaka

Takashi Sugiura was challenged for the GHC National Championship, not by a heavyweight as had been the case with the last three challengers, but by a junior.
Minoru Tanaka (much to Sugiura's surprise) challenged him during his post match interview in Nagoya by saying that as the belt was openweight, he would like to put his name forward. Sugiura said that if Minoru wanted to then he was happy to accept his challenge. A junior would be something different for him. Challenge has been set for 8th March at the Yokohama Bunka Gym. However, as there are no Noah shows between the 24th February and 8th March, there will be no pre-matches.
Naomichi Marufuji commented on hearing about the challenge that he wasn't surprised, they called Minoru Tanaka "the belt collector".

Originally there was not going to be a pre-match for the belt, had the Coronavirus not caused the cancellation of Yokohama on the 8th March, Tanaka and Sugiura would have gone straight into the title match, as it happened Noah returned on the 21st March and put on a couple of pre-matches before title match on the 29th at Korakuen.
The first pre-match (and it must be said that this has been a very rare match up and title challenge), took place on the 21st in Maebashi; Takashi Sugiura knocked Minoru Tanaka half way across the ring practically on several occasions, but Tanaka being Tanaka found a chink in the Endoskeleton armor of Noah's resident cyborg, and came very close to making him tap out with an armbar. Sugiura was saved by Hajime Ohara. Neither got the win over each other, and after the match they had a stare off with Sugiura outside the ring with the belt over his shoulder, making the "you want this belt?" motion. Tanaka responded with the belt wearing gesture, but he showed his frustration when he left the ring by kicking one of the iron barriers, which is unusual for him. Also unusual was his acidic comments backstage when he said that he didn't see weight as an issue, and he also was not someone who "wrote articles" discounting him because of it.

The match was held at Korakuen Hall in what is known in Japanese as a "no spectators", but in English we would call it "empty arena". This was a first for Noah and they had to hold it like this due to the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020. Minoru Tanaka attacked with a submission straight off, and although he worked on Takashi Sugiura's arm like this periodically throughout the match, he was no match for Noah's resident Terminator, and despite a finish of reversed submission holds, tapped out to the dreaded ankle lock in 14 minutes and 35 seconds. Tanaka had made history by being the first junior challenger for the GHC National, but sadly he had not come away with the belt.


VS Katsuhiko Nakajima

 Minoru Tanaka was not out the door when Katsuhiko Nakajima (complete with huge Cheshire Cat grin), appeared to challenge for the GHC National title.
Nakajima got into the ring, picked up the microphone and said, "That red belt, it looks tasty...I would like to try it."
Sugiura, who could also be as sarcastic as Nakajima, picked up the microphone and asked the non existent audience what they thought, "Everyone? All of you? Yes? No?"
Despite the fact that Nakajima can wind him up like no other (and will wind him up in the coming weeks), Sugiura has never backed away from a title fight, simply because he doesn't like someone and he agreed to Nakajima's challenge.

Katsuhiko Nakajima came out with the usual smirk, and started winding Sugiura up right from the start. Nakajima got his comeuppance after "The Shutter Chance" when Sugiura took out Nakajima's biggest and main weapons, his legs, attacking his knee and wrapping them round the steel barrier and working on his knee throughout the match, Nakajima sold this well, limping and often smacking it to try and get the feeling back into it. Match was announced for the 9th May 2020 at an event known as "Sugiura vs Nakajima".

Stiff match as was expected, and although Nakajima's cockiness caught up with him at times, it did not cost him the match as it has done in the past. This is something Nakajima seems to have realised now, but in any case he and Sugiura know each other very well due to past title matches and Sugiura watching Nakajima grow up partially in Noah.

As part of his taking Nakajima down, Sugiura locked in the dreaded ankle lock twice, with Nakajima managing to make it to the ropes the first time. The second time, Sugi dragged him back so Nakajima had to resort to punches until he let him go, despite Sugiura tightening the hold. Nakajima even grabbed hold of the ref at one point.

The end came in sequence; Nakajima with a massive kick on Sugiura when he went for the Olympic slam, and I mean massive, Sugiura crumpled to the mat. When he revived he was groggy, so Nakajima followed this up with further stiff kicks and the terrible soccer ball kicks which echoed around the arena.
Not enough for the pin, Sugi kicked out and went for the neck choke when Nakajima went for the Vertical Spike. Nakajima locked it in, but Sugi still kicked out.
Second ankle lock, followed by a slap war. Nakajima got the upper hand, and with a big Cheshire Cat grin hit the Vertical Spike with a long hang time.

 NEXT CHAMPION: Katsuhiko Nakajima

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