(NOAH) CARD: Sunny Voyage 2023 - Sunday July 9th (Tokyo Tama Mirai Messe)

Today's show comes to Hachioji, which is about an hour outside of Tokyo. The venue tonight will play host to a GHC National match, Adam Brooks making his Noah debut before the N-1 VICTORY, Noah Junior chaos, the Kongoh split fall out, Kaito Kiyomiya's farewell before he takes a leave of absence to appear in New Japan's G1, and of course, the resurrection of the Kiyomiya-Kenoh tag team, "Kaioh". 

Doors open at 15:00 JST, with the event starting at 16:00 JST, and will be live on WrestleUniverse. Atsushi Kotoge (fever) and Takashi Sugiura (eye surgery, who, much to his chagrin, when one of the nurses washed his hair, that was all she washed) will be absent. Kaito Kiyomiya will be on autographs, which will give fans an opportunity to wish him good look for his upcoming New Japan participation. 

You can read everything that has happened leading up to this show, here. 

Current Champions

GHC Heavyweight Champion: Jake Lee

Challenger: TBA

GHC Junior Champion: HAYATA

Challenger: TBA

GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions: REAL (Saxon Huxley & Timothy Thatcher)

Challengers: TBA

GHC Junior Tag Champions: STINGER (Chris Ridgeway & Daga)

Challengers: TBA

GHC National Champion: El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr 

Challenger: AMAKUSA

Title match: SUNNY VOYAGE 2023 (July 9th, Tokyo Tama Mirai Messe)

Card

MATCH ONE

HI69 vs Taishi Ozawa

HI69 opens what looks to be an interesting and explosive show against the rookie, Taishi Ozawa. 

MATCH TWO

Yoshinari Ogawa & LEONA vs Super Crazy & Kai Fujimura

LEONA returns to Noah following his friction with Eita. I do wonder whether or not Eita will take the chance to attack, or else LEONA will lie in wait until later. 

MATCH THREE

Shuji Kondo & Seiki Yoshioka vs Hajime Ohara & Alejandro

This match has been changed as Atsushi Kotoge is ill, but it means that the two former members of Kongoh face each other post unit break up.  

MATCH FOUR

REAL (Saxon Huxley, Kazuyuki Fujita, Hideki Suzuki & Shuhei Taniguchi) vs Naomichi Marufuji, Mohammed Yone & THE TOUGH (Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura)

This is going to get wild. Timothy Thatcher might not be here tonight, but Kazuyuki Fujita and his Red Viper tonic is. I wonder if Hideki Suzuki is going to join in with the huddle, as normally he just stands and watches with a sigh as his uncontrollable unit runs wild. I also wonder if Yoshiki Inamura (or THE TOUGH) are going to try for the GHC Heavyweight Tag again should they be victorious, or if we are going to see any kind of fallout from Yoshiki Inamura surpassing Masa Kitamiya.  

MATCH FIVE

Adam Brooks & Ninja Mack vs Stallion Rogers & Dante Leon

Adam Brooks, who will be making his N-1 debut in August, makes his Noah debut today. Ninja Mack and Dante Leon are Noah Juniors, so they won't be in the N-1, and Stallion Rogers isn't in the league, so this is both an introduction and a showcase. 

MATCH SIX

Good Looking Guys (Jake Lee, Jack Morris, YO-HEY & Tadasuke) vs AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima), HAYATA & Eita

Fans have been joking about the Good Looking Guys vs the other Good Looking Guys in Noah in this match, but aside from that we have two titles that have not been challenged for on both sides. With the N-1 so near, I am not sure if anyone is going to challenge Jake Lee (although it is possible), but HAYATA remains unchallenged for the GHC Junior Heavyweight. YO-HEY it seems has given indications that he may...

MATCH SEVEN

GHC National Championship Match

El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr vs AMAKUSA

AMAKUSA is only the third Noah Junior to challenge for the GHC National, which has since 2019 when it was inaugurated by Riki Choshu, been held purely by the heavyweights. Minoru Tanaka was the first to challenge (Takashi Sugiura) and Daiskuke Harada challenged Kenoh. El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr has the advantage of height, weight and strength, but as we have seen when AMAKUSA gets the bit between his teeth, he doesn't give up. Could we see the GHC National finally come to the Noah Junior division?

Kaito Kiyomiya and Kenoh form their tag team "Kaioh" (2019)

MATCH EIGHT

Kaioh (Kaito Kiyomiya & Kenoh) vs Manabu Soya & Daiki Inaba

Kaioh reunite! To give a brief backstory for fans, Kaioh (an amalgamation of "Kaito" and "Kenoh", which literally means "Sea King") formed when Kenoh was being punished by LIDET (who owned Noah back in 2019) and Kiyomiya, who was the GHC Heavyweight Champion at that time, called him out to the ring and proposed that they tag to make Noah better. The team took part in Global Tag League, but fell apart when Kenoh erupted in fury when Kiyomiya lost to Akitoshi Saito and Masao Inoue, and then formed Kongoh. Like AXIZ, they appear to have picked up where they have left off. However, this is also Kiyomiya's farewell match before he leaves to take part in the G1 Climax, which leaves Kenoh behind to take part in the N-1 Victory, so I do wonder if they are going to make some kind of pact (and during the match bring back their tandem finisher). Added to this is the Kongoh fallout, Manabu Soya was Kenoh's longstanding and most faithful member of the unit, tonight he faces not only his former unit leader, but the person that Kenoh has reunited with, Kiyomiya, who was one of Kongoh's enemies. 

Picture credit: WrestleUniverse