Event recap ~ Premium Prelude, Korakuen Hall (Night 1, 3rd October 2019)

Noah started off the build up to Sumo Hall on November 2nd with a chaotic show at Korakuen Hall. I am afraid that I don't know today's attendance, but I know that a lot of people came to swell the excellent looking turnout for a Thursday evening by coming at a run from work, and some bought people with them who had never seen professional wrestling before. There were even small children in the crowd (Noah understand how important it is that parents bring their children, and the promotion has always been very conscious of its young fans).

Getting to an event early can be rewarding because you can sit and watch the Noah's Ark Fan club session going on, the wrestlers who will sometimes be training in the ring before the event starts, and if you are very lucky, you can sit and watch Yoshinari Ogawa holding one of his classes for the roster in technique. Today, however, only Fujita was seen.

At the interval for today's show, Noah announced there would be a major announcement on the monitors...

MATCH ONE
The Return of The Dark Agents (Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue) vs Junta Miyawaki & Sonico

Very sadly, Junta Miyawaki did not fulfill his ambition today to defeat one of his seniors. He was also given an out of ring piledriver by Akitoshi Saito.

WINNER: Akitoshi Saito with the Sickle Death on Junta Miyawaki (10 minutes, 24 seconds)

Akitoshi Saito pranked Masao Inoue after the match by making him pose, Inoue rumbled him when he didn't join in, and pointed at a laughing Saito.

MATCH TWO
The Sugiura Army (KAZMA SAKAMOTO, Hajime Ohara & Kinya Okada) vs 50 Funky Powers (Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm) & Rocky Kawamura
WINNER: Quiet Storm with the 50cm lariat on Kinya Okada (8 minutes, 39 seconds)

MATCH THREE
STINGER (Atsushi Kotoge & Chris Rigdeway) vs HAYATA & YO-HEY.

YO-HEY with purple and peroxide blonde hair today (who looked happy to have "Wife" back), HAYATA returned from influenza but was looking a little washed out and tired.

Fans bought special streamers that they had made for Chris Ridgeway, and Atsushi Kotoge was looking slightly manic (and singing along to theme music, or else talking to himself) when he made his entry. Fans want to see a happier Kotoge (not necessarily a manic one).

WINNER: YO-HEY with the Facial G on Chris Ridgeway (10 minutes, 17 seconds)

"The Married Couple" managed to get on well after the match, and YO-HEY didn't try to wind HAYATA up. Instead there was the usual hug, and HAYATA holding the belt up to YO-HEY as they shook hands.

MATCH FOUR
Naomichi Marufuji & Masaaki Mochizuki vs Hi69 & Minoru Tanaka

Naomichi Marufuji was somewhat sadistic in this match. According to one fan he slammed Hi69's head in the iron gate of the barriers, and then kicked it. Hi69 was also chopped to shreds by him by having his t-shirt pulled over his head first, (no wonder he went out and got drunk afterwards).

WINNER: Masaaki Mochizuki with the Mochizuki Twister on Hi69 (14 minutes, 36 seconds)

After the match, Minoru Tanaka was presented with a bouquet of flowers in honor of this being the 25th year of his debut (his debut is actually in January, but he had two events to mark it this year). Naomichi Marufuji thanked him for coming to Noah, and said that the Noah Juniors were the strongest.

Then came the big announcements as the screen flashed into life and LIDET'S chairman, Riki Choshu appeared. Choshu announced that LIDET were creating a new heavyweight belt, this one (red) would be called the "National Championship" and would be inaugurated at Sumo Hall by a championship match between Takashi Sugiura and Michael Elgin.
The fans are divided over the new belt however, and I have no doubt that with the heavyweights getting both a new GHC Heavyweight belt and a new championship belt, the juniors will start to cause a fuss.

Noah also announced that they would be holding three produce shows:
The Sugiura Army would run theirs on 27th December at Korakuen Hall
RATELS would run their second one on 24th November at Shinkiba First Ring (fans hope that they will do one in Osaka, it is after all their spiritual home, if only one of them comes from the city itself).
Kongoh would run theirs on 14th December at Shinkiba First Ring, BUT unlike the others Kongoh's come with a stipulation; if they don't sell out Shinkiba First Ring, then Kongoh split up, and Kenoh leaves the company. If however Kenoh does fill out the venue, then they will book you-know-where. Kenoh reacted in fury telling LIDET that he "super ultra hated them", he would fill out the venue and then LIDET should book "that place".

Noah also announced the participation for Sumo Hall, which includes Eddie Edwards making a return to Noah (alongside Super Crazy, Monster Inoue, Mitsuo Momota and Tamon Honda). Fans hope Edwards will stay on into December in Noah and come to some of the more rural shows

MATCH FIVE
GHC JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TITLE MATCH
STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki) vs Daisuke Harada & Tadasuke.
WINNER: Double count out (14 minutes, 1 seconds)

Ogawa pulled on Harada's pants so much to keep him out of the ring, that lets just say, a quarter moon appeared. Tadasuke got on the mic and said it couldn't be finished like this, and asked for a rematch. Suzuki told him sorry, but no, a draw was a defense and they weren't going to do it again as "it is a champions privilege". YO-HEY (who was at ringside with HAYATA) protested to the referee on behalf of RATELS, and oddly, he and HAYATA remained with the ref in the empty ring once everyone else had gone.
However, despite the reluctance of STINGER (and the punch up which followed), RATELS went to LIDET who overruled them and gave them a match for Sumo Hall.

MATCH SIX
The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura & Kazuyuki Fujita) vs Shuhei Taniguchi & Hitoshi Kumano.

"Very old school classic"

Fujita said to be strong and unrelenting, and he and Sugiura seemed to communicate just by looking at each other.

NOSAWA came out to second his kennel friends in "The Sugiura Army", and made a nuisance of himself as he dangled about at ringside, especially to Shuhei Taniguchi. When challenged about his misbehavior, he claimed he did nothing wrong.

WINNER: Kazuyuji Fujita referee stop on Hitoshi Kumano (17 minutes, 17 seconds) after a power bomb and three kicks to the head and then a sleeper hold. 

Afterwards Hitoshi Kumano commented that everything had been "intense", and this was something he was going to run with.

MATCH SEVEN
Kaito Kiyomiya & AXIZ (Katsuhiko Nakajima & Go Shiozaki) vs KONGOH (Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura)

"The hall was trembling due heavy bass stomping"

At the start of the match (after he had done his pose while being announced which he aimed the object of his love\hate relationship), Kenoh squared up to Kaito Kiyomiya. Kiyomiya, (who seems to work best with Kenoh), and for probably the first time ever, scowled back at him. After the bell rang their fight went into the crowd, with Kenoh battering Kiyomiya with kicks, and then doing the double foot stomp off of the wooden bleachers onto him.
Yoshiki Inamura (who is fast becoming Noah's tank, crushing all in his path) was said to be amazing, especially for someone who only debuted little more than a year ago. At one point, Nakajima came racing towards him, but was speared into the corner so hard he bounced off the turnbuckles.
Kiyomiya tried his new submission move on Kenoh, but failed to make him tap with it (I'm not sure if he even managed to lock it on properly). Korakuen went nuts as Kitamiya and Nakajima gave each other hell, and Kenoh added to this by doing a knee-drop moonsault.

WINNER: Masa Kitamiya with the Saito Slam on Katsuhiko Nakajima (22 minutes, 57 seconds)

With Nakajima spread out face down on the mat, Kitamiya told his older brother, "From the time I entered Kensuke Office eight years ago, Katsuhiko Nakajima, I have always hated you."
Kitamiya was very keen to point out that it was THE TOUGH and not KONGOH who were challenging for the belts. Their title match against AXIZ for the GHC Heavyweight tag titles, will take place at Sumo Hall on November 2nd.

Go Shiozaki helped Nakajima out of the ring afterwards, Nakajima passed out and lay on the floor for a few seconds before being helped up.

WITH THANKS TO: Metal Noah, Abeshin, Metapokocatch, Yoshiro Yatake, Pinkie Pie, Koichiro Takeda, Remmbrant, Naoki,      
PICTURE CREDIT: Noah GHC, PKDX
NOAH'S NEXT SHOW: Wednesday, October 9th