(NOAH) EVENT RECAP ~ NOAH “GO FORWARD” DAY 2 (21st June 2020)

Tonight marks the end of Noah's empty arena shows for the time being, naturally if there is a flare up of the Coronavirus they will go back to them, but for now they have cancelled all their events outside of Tokyo and will be holding shows with limited capacity and social distancing from July 18th. Tonight Noah attracted 100.3K views. 

"Go Forward" Day 2 was broadcast live on ABEMA. The show will be available to watch free of charge and without the region lock for seven days only, after that you need to be a subscriber and have either a working VPN or else live in Japan. I am afraid that I don't know when it will be put up on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. 

MATCH ONE

Shuhei Taniguchi vs Akitoshi Saito

AKA "The Hoss fight opening match". 

No yawning today from Shuhei Taniguchi when he came to the ring, he knows from experience what his senior, Akitoshi Saito would do to him if he did that. Seiya Morohashi is one thing, Akitoshi Saito is quite another, and even though he didn't yawn when he came to the ring, he felt Saito's wrath and how merciless he can be when angered. As for Saito, he still has the slightly speckled chest from his match with Go Shiozaki. 

It was a good match to open the show with, especially if you like your wrestling raw; elbows to the face, Taniguchi screaming in an empty arena after a scoop slam on Saito, Saito rolling outside the ring when he was caught in the throat, and soon returning the favor to Taniguchi with a big merciless smile on his face.

Both had power, but Taniguchi has the height and after they both attempted to knock each other down, Taniguchi used one of his lariats, these look a lot more rough that Go Shiozaki's, but they do the trick just as well. 

WINNER: Neither, time limit draw at 15 minutes. 

Frustrated at not winning, Saito and Taniguchi brawled after the time out bell went. The long suffering referee attempted to break it up, but it stopped when Taniguchi knocked Saito outside of the ring. Saito was furious, and then the fight broke out again. Taniguchi settled matters by throwing Saito into the ringpost, and both walked off angry.  

 

MATCH TWO

Rene Dupree vs Mohammed Yone

Mohammed Yone was grooving as he came to the ring to face a man who plays air guitar to rock music on the GHC Heavyweight Tag belt when he wins, and who as we will discover, doesn't appreciate Disco music or disco dancing either when he grabbed Yone by the ear for pulling the "Disco Fever" rope break which enrages pretty much everyone in Noah on sight. 

I think Rene Dupree must have been teased about both wearing his belt upside down and then holding it upside down, as Mohammed Yone was seen to smile and point to it and have a quick word with Dupree about it. After the match he even checked that he had the belt the right way up. 

The match started off with some comedy with Dupree telling the ref to check Yone's afro (which has flecks of grey in it). Yone said if his hair was going to be checked, then so should Dupree's! The referee took no notice of either and started the match. Despite its comedy start, the match itself was tough, Yone took a lot of punishment from Dupree, including a chop war between them. 

WINNER: RENE DUPREE (Diving Elbow Drop, 9 minutes, 24 seconds)

MATCH THREE

FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara & Seiki Yoshioka) vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Hao and Nio)

The unit with very little sense of humor came out first, and struck their usual pose. In this match Kenoh was the only heavyweight in a primarily junior match. FULL THROTTLE came out with Ohara looking as if he had to stop Yoshioka and Kotoge from arguing again about who is the leader (it's obvious that Ohara is), and Kotoge took it as a personal insult when Ohara tagged in Yoshioka instead of him. Ohara took no notice. Kotoge of course was hyper, and more so than usual today. 

Fast paced match which was predominantly junior, with Kenoh only really getting involved at the end when he fought Kotoge, who even took the Kongoh stamp down manically. Seiki Yoshioka vs Kenoh was interesting, but sadly we didn't get to see much of their martial arts background, although he did get some moves in, and Kenoh kicked him around yelling. 

WINNER: Kenoh with the PFS on Atsushi Kotoge (16 minutes, 5 seconds)

Kongoh did their pose while Kotoge was being scraped up off the mat and rolled out of the ring by people he says he needs a belt to make him respect him as their leader.

MATCH FOUR

STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA) & Kinya Okada vs Daisuke Harada, Tadasuke & YO-HEY

Yoshinari Ogawa came strolling out to the ring looking like a rock star wearing shades and drinking a bottle of water which he flung aside after taking a gulp from. They paused at the bottom of the stairs before they got into the ring and he had a quick chat with HAYATA, and then they refused to get in the ring for the longest time. Daisuke Harada started making a fuss, so everyone ganged up on Kinya Okada menacingly until they got in the ring with HAYATA holding his belt in Harada's face.

This only made Harada even more furious, as did HAYATA smirking as he motioned that he wanted him first, but no Ogawa, the most senior (and the architect of most miseries) decided to go first. Ogawa started messing around, and after a few seconds decided to tag in Okada. Harada didn't want this, and told him to get lost. Okada did not move at this command from one of his trainers, so Harada tagged in Tadasuke who will beat anyone up. Okada did well, but afterwards tagged HAYATA in. Harada not impressed charged the ring, and HAYATA fled to the outside. 

There were many layers to this match, and like the brawls that kept breaking out, there was a lot going on; Kinya Okada is looking for his first win, which meant that he attacked Harada, which is not a good idea while Harada is in this kind of mood as what Harada cannot take out on HAYATA he will take out on Okada, HAYATA with his cold sadistic smile (and using Ogawa's tactic of eye rakes), beating up on Harada, and at one point leaning down to speak with him while he trod on his face, subdued YO-HEY and the fact that there still seems to somehow be a shred of affection left between himself and HAYATA, and Ogawa and Harada laying into each other. YO-HEY also beat up on Okada, yelling to STINGER beforehand (to be honest, I don't think they care.)

Like classmate Yoshiki Inamura, Kinya Okada is approaching that all important first win and is hungry for it, and came very close to it. It was not the rookie who was pinned by Harada, but HAYATA. 

WINNER: Daisuke Harada with a Frankensteiner on HAYATA (24 minutes, 48 seconds) 

Harada won, but beat the hell out of HAYATA until everyone stormed the ring and a melee fight broke out. The fight between them continued as chaos reigned in the ring, as Harada threw him into the barrier and Tadasuke and YO-HEY dealt with Okada and Ogawa. When the dust had settled, Harada spoke on the microphone and made a challenge for the GHC Junior Heavyweight tag belts on behalf of himself and Tadasuke. Their challenge was accepted. The match will take place on the 19th July at Korakuen Hall.

MATCH FIVE

GHC Junior Heavyweight tag match

Kotaro Suzuki vs Kaz Hayashi

Kotaro Suzuki and Kaz Hayashi have a long history which started in 2005 when Kaz Hayashi came to Noah for the first time, in the following years they have fought in All Japan and W-1, even holding the tag belts together at one point. While this match was technical, full of lock ups, submission moves, armbars...and Hayashi treading on Kotaro's hand, and while it was almost an old style Noah match, you would have seen in 2005, many fans felt that Hayashi was puffed early on in the match and may not have the stamina needed to compete in the Noah juniors. 

WINNER: Kotaro Suzuki with The Tiger Driver (20 minutes, 23 seconds)

As STINGER were celebrating, the former RATELS appeared, and YO-HEY challenged Kotaro Suzuki for the GHC Junior Heavyweight while Harada looked on with an expression like a watchdog. Suzuki made a comment to the affect that he knew that this would happen, with YO-HEY telling him that he was the last one left. Then in true fashion, a fight broke out as Kotaro held the belt up to YO-HEY, and YO-HEY grabbed Kotaro's face, and then they entered the fray fighting each other. Kotaro attempting to hit YO-HEY with the belt, with YO-HEY dodging him. The GHC Junior Heavyweight will be defended on the 19th July at Korakuen Hall. Personally, I think that should STINGER lose the tag belts then Ogawa's use of HAYATA ends and he gets thrown out of STINGER and to the wolves. I don't think anything will change should Kotaro lose the belt, the bond between himself and Ogawa is too strong, and apart from Chris Ridgeway, they don't really seem to have the need for anyone else in STINGER. 

MATCH SIX

Go Shiozaki & Kaito Kiyomiya vs THE TOUGH (Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura)

Once the team known as "Go-Kai" in 2018 when Kiyomiya came back to Noah, today Kiyomiya and Shiozaki made separate entries, Kiyomiya not his usual bouncy self. Although there was not a massive or noticable falling out between the two there was an air of tension which was natural as Shiozaki did take the belt from Kiyomiya. I thought he might challenge for the title, but he didn't. When the rivals Yoshiki Inamura and Kaito Kiyomiya started the match off, Shiozaki did not speaking to Kiyomiya to ask him. He just left the ring and stood on the apron to watch him. 

Yoshiki Inamura threw Kiyomiya around the ring as if he weighed nothing, later he would do the same to Shiozaki (his GEKITOTZ launched him into the air). Kiyomiya, however, decided that he wasn't going to take this from both his junior and his rapidly growing rival and fought back, the fight going outside the ring where there was a white feather floating around from Kiyomiya's coat (I swear these things get everywhere). 

Kiyomiya displayed more character progression today, which is something that Toshiaki Kawada advised him to do, as when THE TOUGH where double teaming Shiozaki, he shoved the ref to alert him to it when the ref told him to get out of the ring. He was told to watch it, and respect the shirt. To act in this way, especially towards the referee,  is a big thing for the formerly over polite Kiyomiya. 

The match finished with a fight between Shiozaki and Inamura (Noah like to save Kiyomiya vs Inamura), with Inamura getting the dreaded dreaded machinegun chops. Inamura then made the ultimate mistake in Shiozaki's eyes by kicking out of the Go Flasher, and then the armband came off and the Gowan lariat did the job for the three. 

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan Lariat (19 minutes, 13 seconds)

MATCH SEVEN

The M Alliance (Naomichi Marufuji, Keiji Mutoh, Masaaki Mochizuki & Unknown M) vs The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kendo Kashin & NOSAWA Rongai)

Takashi Sugiura refused to enter with Kendo Kashin, and so The Sugiura Army made four separate entrances. Kashin (who had already knocked the trainee off of the ring apron) almost fell over himself to do it for Kazushi Sakuraba, and then when he came out in a purple hygiene mask, Sugiura too.# Sugiura took the gesture instead of walking round to the other side of the ring, but got in very slowly and far away from him. He then stayed away from him as much as he could. 

In real life there is a strained relationship between Keiji Mutoh and Kendo Kashin, which goes back to an issue surrounding a belt in All Japan that Kashin was holding, which resulted in legal action. Mutoh was the President at the time, and they haven't spoken much since and this is the first time they have been in the ring together. Mutoh implied that they exchanged a few polite words backstage, but it was awkward. 

As announced earlier a mystery M would be joining "The M Alliance" today, and it turned out to be Yuko Miyamoto, who hasn't been in Noah since he challenged Kenoh for the GHC Heavyweight in early 2018, and is responsible for the scar on his arm after he put him through a table. 

Kashin soon got up to his usual tricks, and it was like what Daisuke Harada had experienced earlier with HAYATA. Marufuji decided that he wanted to face off against Kashin, Sugiura went to tag him in, but Kashin tried to slide away from it, and Sakuraba had to force him into it. Then Kashin tagged NOSAWA in, NOSAWA tagged Sakuraba in, and then Sakuraba then tagged Kashin in after a skirmish, and so Marufuji finally got his own way (they should just have given it to him initially, it's easier). They ended up with Marufuji looking irritated, backing Kashin into the corner. Kashin, however, hadn't finished with Marufuji and he moved the bottom rope away with his foot when Marufuji reached for it to break a hold.

The route The Sugiura Army took to work against Mutoh was to attack his arm, Sakuraba started it and Sugi carried it on afterwards. Mutoh fought back against Sugi in an impressive way for a man of his age by a kind of roll\flip from the bottom room. Sakuraba and Marufuji faced off in one of the numerous melee's that broke out, with Marufuji chopping him. Sakuraba later posted the results on Twitter, in which a handprint was clearly visible. 

WINNER: Keiji Mutoh with The Shining Wizard on NOSAWA Rongai (20 minutes, 16 seconds)

After the match out of concern for Mutoh's arm, Mochi came running in with an ice pack and M pulled their new pose, which is basically them standing making M on their fingers. 

MATCH EIGHT

GHC National Championship

Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Manabu Soya

Kongoh, dressed in angry red and black, came out in force to support Manabu Soya who stood staring as Katsuhiko Nakajima came out smirking to the ring, his black eye from the tournament visible on the side of his face. 

Although Manabu fought five matches over three days, he had the advantage over Nakajima in terms of power, but Nakajima had the advantage of being a lot more fresh and rested. Manabu used his strength to knock Nakajima down and making him roll out of the ring after an early shot and hold the side of his face, and then being evasive about getting back in the ring. However, Manabu refused to be wound up by him, and the fight became desperate with Nakajima forgetting all about winding him up as it became a matter of survival. As Kenoh yelled frantically at ringside, Nakajima got cocky and thought he would retain with a huge kick to the head, and with a huge grin he went for the pin, but this came with a huge kick out. Soya countered and went for The Ballistic, but Nakajima kicked out at two. Nakajima was not prepared to lie down that easily, and lured Soya into believing that he was dazed, which resulted in the terrible soccer ball kicks, which didn't win the match, and then the Vertical Spike which did. 

WINNER: Katsuhiko Nakajima with The Vertical Spike (28 minutes, 20 seconds) 

After the match Nakajima laid the belt in the ring, and then spoke on the microphone in the usual sinister manner as he sat behind it, and thanked Soya for the match tonight and all the wrestlers who entered the tournament. He said that the belt was packed with stimuli, and to keep watching as he would fight anyone at all for it.

Noah's next event: 18th July at Korakuen Hall

With thanks to: Abeshin, Metal Noah

GIF'S taken from ABEMA TV