(NOAH) CARD: GRAND SQUARE 2021 in OSAKA (10th October, EDION Arena Osaka 1st Stadium)

Noah bring a huge show to Osaka today to usher in the culmination of the N-1 (and to tie up loose ends from it) and the start of the climb towards the Nippon Budokan in the New Year. It's going to be an exciting evening and I get the impression that there is going to be new alliances made, old ones broken and once again the tide of power turned over and changed, not just in the volatile Junior division who feel like a pan full of boiling water about to spill over. 

The event itself will start at 16:00 JST. For those lucky enough to be going to the event, the doors will open at 3pm, and you will be admitted to the lobby from 2.30. Takashi Sugiura will also be signing autographs. For the rest of us who are not fortunate enough to go, the event will be streamed live on WrestleUniverse (English commentary available) and ABEMA, which should hopefully be free and worldwide. I do not recommend that if you cannot see the show live that you watch it through ABEMA. You can only watch replays if you are in Japan and if you are outside of it, with a working VPN. ABEMA periodically change their firewalls and so I don't recommend that you shop around for a VPN that works as it can be frustrating and time consuming, a subscription to WrestleUniverse would be much better. 

MATCH ONE

Daiki Inaba & Kai Fujimura vs Kinya Okada & Yasutaka Yano

Daiki Inaba teams with fellow W-1 wrestler to take on two Noah born to open the show. Kinya Okada is an Osaka boy. 

MATCH TWO

Funky Express (King Tany, Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito) vs Kongoh Juniors (Tadasuke, Haoh and Nioh)

After a hiatus due to Akitoshi Saito appearing in the N-1, Funky Express team together again to take on the team who most definitely do not approve of the lighthearted funky ways of Funky Express. Tadasuke has the advantage on this team due to his heavyweight strength, and he loves testing how far he can go against them, Haoh and Nioh (particularly Nioh) however are going to have to rely on speed.

MATCH THREE

Masa Kitamiya & Junta Miyawaki vs Kongoh (Manabu Soya & Aleja)

With the rest of his team tied up in title matches, Junta Miyawaki teams up with Masa Kitamiya to take on Kongoh's Manabu Soya (fans had once hoped that while in Kongoh, Soya and Kitamiya would team up) and Aleja. It's a balanced match in the respect that Kitamiya and Soya will have a heavyweight hoss fight and Miyawaki and Aleja's styles will clash - Miyawaki's ground attack and Aleja's high flying. 

MATCH FOUR

STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & Seiki Yoshioka) vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (YO-HEY & Kotaro Suzuki)

Two unresolved issues are at work here; YO-HEY and Seiki Yoshioka and Yoshinari Ogawa and Kotaro Suzuki. Both teams are former partners of the other, and Ogawa in particular seems to be gravitating away from the rest of STINGER due to their shared background which he does not share. Ogawa is the only original member left, and it should not be overlooked that he has a rare singles match with Kotaro Suzuki coming up. This match may set the tone for either the rest of the evening in the Noah Juniors, or else what we can expect over the next few weeks. 

MATCH FIVE

The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazuyuki Fujita & Kendo Kashin) vs The M's alliance (Masakatsu Funaki, Masato Tanaka & Masaaki Mochizuki)

Teaming with the troublesome Kendo Kashin, has led Takashi Sugiura to say that he and Kazuyuki Fujita will be fighting this match as if it were a three on two match. 

MATCH SIX

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Championship Match

Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (NOSAWA Rongai & Eita)

The GHC Junior Tag kicks off the latter part of the evening as we start to head towards the main event. Local boy Atsushi Kotoge and Hajime Ohara defend both the tag titles and the honor of both the Noah Juniors and the Noah fans (who Eita said were "less than garbage"), against their challengers NOSAWA Rongai and Eita. Eita of course destroyed Kotoge during the pre-match, fought dirty throughout and then finally poured water on him. Kotoge has the chance to defend both his honor, the belts and the fans honor tonight, but perhaps this from the match signing should be kept in mind;

KOTOGE: You might think I am really stupid to say this, but even if the opponent uses fouls and attacks that ignore such things as a rules, I want to win with honor without breaking my appearance. I want to win with my own beliefs. I think it's just a matter of preparing for it. 

OHARA: Honestly, I think that the relationship of trust here is extremely strong, so we will not give up no matter what dirty tricks or fouls, no matter how painful. Rather than just us trusting each other and fighting alone, the two of us will fight with everyone who supports us.

MATCH SEVEN

GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship Match

HAYATA vs Daisuke Harada

Daisuke Harada has labelled Noah's most reclusive champion as becoming an "absolute one". This HAYATA is tougher than any other HAYATA that Harada has ever known, and he has known him for ten years or more now. The pre-matches have been inconclusive - a time out draw, a double pin and HAYATA walking off and abandoning the match, but tonight there can only be one winner and one loser. I get the feeling that both outcomes will have consequences. 

MATCH EIGHT

Special Tag in Osaka N-1 LIMITED

Keiji Mutoh & Kazushi Sakuraba vs Kenoh & Kaito Kiyomiya

Keiji Mutoh and Kazushi Sakuraba (both from different units) team with Kenoh and Kaito Kiyomiya, who despite their constant ongoing issues (i.e. they hate each other, Kenoh knocked Kiyomiya out of the N-1, they have a complex love/hate relationship, which on Kenoh's part is usually filled with both bitterness and worry over Kiyomiya), they seem to have come to an understanding that the young of Noah need to beat these two old men, and for Kiyomiya in particular, Keiji Mutoh is the wall that he cannot get past. Keiji Mutoh has suggested to Kazushi Sakuraba that they do the Legion of Doom/Road Warriors technique "Double Impact", but I think we are going to see Kenoh and Kiyomiya do this instead.

MATCH NINE

GHC Heavyweight Championship Match

Naomichi Marufuji vs Katsuhiko Nakajima

Katsuhiko Nakajima, the winner of the N-1 VICTORY 2021, gets his right tonight to challenge the GHC Heavyweight Champion. Nakajima has never beaten Marufuji for the title, and Marufuji did not challenge Nakajima when Nakajima was the champion. A win tonight for Nakajima will change the power balance in Noah (not to mention Kongoh), but whoever is going to win, the floodgates are going to be opened with the challengers waiting in the wings for the outcome. 

Picture credit: Noah.co.jp