NOAH WEEKLY NEWSLETTER VOL.58 ~ 20TH NOVEMBER 2019

I am sorry that there has been almost a months gap between the last two newsletters, as I have since been and gone to Japan. I thought it would be better to write a summary when I returned, especially after Noah's big Sumo Hall show. I thought it would be best when I returned to tackle the mammoth task of working through my Noah backlog, (and sleeping off my jetlag), before I wrote it so I had pretty much the complete picture.

NOAH the BEST (SUMO HALL, 2ND NOVEMBER 2019)
The atmosphere at the start of the event when the crowd were filing in and milling around, could be described as somewhat tense, especially compared to the Big Japan event. For Noah it cannot be stated just how important this night was to everybody, both fans and wrestlers alike. This was the second time in many years that they had run a stadium, and they had all put everything into it.
It had to work.

If I have one regret about this show, then it was the due to the fact that I was jetlagged, had two hours sleep after a long flight and standing in a queue for three hours (thanks to the people coming to Japan for the Rugby, who like me had gone to get their JR Rail Pass sorted out), I completely forgot to put the zoom lens on the camera (and I couldn't even work it out), even though I was sitting second row and had a good view. I also did not put the new sim in my phone, so I couldn't live tweet...but maybe on that night, that was for the best.
I am going to discuss the highlights of the evening here, as well as the big matches.

Kenta Kobashi appeared to open the show, he also came out in the interval, and during the main event to officially retire the old GHC Heavyweight belt (I will get to that), but he for some reason decided that he was only going to use the ladder into the ring provided by the ring attendants one, all the other times he preferred to haul himself into the ring like the old days by climbing on the apron. Lets just say that Kobashi is not as agile as he used to be, and he came dangerously close to falling off a couple of times.

Traditional Noah ran what fans called "old man matches" during the Golden Era of stadiums, and in Misawa's day they featured old veterans, and rookies. There were no rookies in this match, but there were four old vets, plus the referee, Mighty Inoue. Mighty Inoue came from Noah as part of the exodus from All Japan, always acutely aware of how hard it was for older athletes to make a living after they could no longer wrestle, Mitsuharu Misawa took care of him as there was a problem with his pension being paid. Inoue refereed the comedy match between Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue vs Tamon Honda and Mitsuo Momota. Inoue (usually the one who gets bullied in Noah, in various ways), decided he was going to pick on Momota. Momota said that the audience saw it as an old man getting roughed up by a younger one. The most comical moments were when Mighty looked into the crowd and shook his head at Inoue's antics (which involved eye raking), and when Momota pinned Inoue, and Saito stepped on him while he was still on the floor.

The crowd cheered loudly to see Noah born Eddie Edwards (and the former GHC Heavyweight Champion) back home. In the backstage interview, Atsushi Kotoge said he was "very happy" in English to be teaming with Edwards and Chris Ridgeway. After tonight, however, Kotoge was going to have other more serious things on his mind (or what is left of it).

Kazuyuki Fujita and Shuhei Taniguchi finished their rivalry, the match went only seven brutal minutes, with the kicks that Fujita gave to Taniguchi's head echoing around the arena, before the referee stopped the bout as Fujita applied a sleeper hold. Bust open, Taniguchi was going to use this to his advantage.

Daisuke Harada & Tadasuke faced off with Kotaro Suzuki & Yoshinari Ogawa for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag titles in an electric match. So many near falls both from sides, and Tadasuke in particular fighting to the bitter end, and refusing to give up. In the end, Tadasuke took the win over Kotaro Suzuki with the Outcast after 10 minutes 58 seconds, and the tag belts came back to RATELS. Daisuke Harada strapped Tadasuke's first Noah championship on him, and it was hard to say who looked happier, Tadasuke or Harada for Tadasuke. Harada's comment was "this is Tadasuke's belt, try and take it assholes".

HAYATA & YO-HEY clashed in the next match for the GHC Junior Heavyweight championship. There was never any ill feeling between them, but tonight they were both all business, and they put on a stellar match (which has made my 2019 MOTY List). Most memorable was the repeated Headaches that YO-HEY took, at one point knocking him outside of the ring until the count almost ran out. HAYATA prevailed after fourteen minutes and eleven seconds to retain the title.
Stinger appeared towards the end of the match, but rather than cause trouble with RATELS (or cause any of them to turn on them), they had come to let Tadasuke & Harada know that they would be coming for the belts again. So while Tadasuke and Harada squared up to them, HAYATA'S concern was in helping YO-HEY up.
RATELS quickly returned to normal. After joining the great sea of people exiting Sumo Hall at the end of the evening, I glanced over at the merchandise stands. One thing I remember (other than Go Shiozaki's floating head), was RATELS with YO-HEY standing in front of HAYATA, and HAYATA pinning himself against the back wall.

THE TOUGH (Yoshiki Inamura & Masa Kitamiya) faced AXIZ (Go Shiozaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima) for the GHC Heavyweight tag titles. Kitamiya very much put over his young protegee by spending a lot of time outside of the ring, and letting Inamura battle the much more experienced AXIZ, and on a couple of occasions (like the massive heave to Nakajima, throwing him into the corner after charging at him), he came very very close to winning the gold for THE TOUGH. Sadly, despite his best efforts it was not to be so, but significantly it wasn't Inamura who was pinned, but Kitamiya following the Vertical Spike from Nakajima.

Naomichi Marufuji (who had special body art done for the match, and did not appear thankfully as anything approaching Tokyo Sports "The Great Maru" or in his former mecha phase), faced The Great Muta for both the first time in his career and in the Noah ring. This match went a long way to lighten the tension after what had been, and what was to come, with Great Muta unfamiliar with objects not commonly found in the underworld such as fire extinguishers (which Marufuji sprayed him with), and television cameras (which he shoved a cameraman down to get), doing what Marufuji had told him not to, which was to make him bleed. By far the most spectacular moment of this match was when Muta spat fire. I just remember hearing a clicking sound, and seeing flames erupt from his mouth. Marufuji ended the match a mixture of red, green and smudged into an ashy look after his body paint was smeared.

Noah's new belt, inaugurated by Riki Choshu, the GHC National, was fought for between Takashi Sugiura and Michael Elgin, with Riki Choshu handing the belt to Sugiura, the victor with the Olympic Slam after 21 minutes and 35 seconds.
The GHC National (a belt created really for the veterans to fight over leaving the younger roster to chase the GHC HEAVYWEIGHT, and gaijin and those outside the company to challenge for), has been said to be openweight, which means that the Noah Juniors (and those elsewhere) can also challenge.

Kenoh and Kaito Kiyomiya reached the latest pinnacle of their volatile love-hate relationship, with Kenoh swinging mercurially between his concern for, hatred and jealousy of Kiyomiya (who he refused to believe was no longer the innocent teenager who looked up to him) and Kiyomiya's wavering admiration for Kenoh making him who he is, his frustration with Kenoh's clucking over him, and his final admittance that they hate each other.
Kenta Kobashi, in an emotional moment, retired the old GHC Heavyweight belt. All I remember about the moment is the fact that the arena suddenly seemed so quiet as an emotional Kobashi took the belt, and looked down at it, you could see the memories rushing to his eyes as he looked tearful; the memories of Misawa, the memories of his own championship reign, the memories of Noah's summertime, Differ, his beloved but now absent KENTA, the creation of the belt, it would have been impossible to name just one memory. Kobashi hurriedly exited the ring holding the belt to him, and sat down quickly. If Misawa was anywhere that night, it would have been next to him.
While not receiving good reviews from those who watched the broadcast, no one at Sumo Hall that evening had anything bad to say about the main event and title match that evening. Kenoh was determined to save Kiyomiya from something Kiyomiya did not believe he needed saving from, and Kiyomiya was determined that he would once again defeat Kenoh, and prove to him and everyone else just how much he had grown. The match went 31 minutes and 10 seconds, but it seemed to go by in a flash, and ended with Kiyomiya getting the win with the Tiger Suplex hold. Kenoh slunk away to lick his wounds, as Kiyomiya stood with the new belt in a Noah ring as the champion of a promotion that had just taken a major step up.

To Osaka and beyond
Noah aside, comparing Osaka to Tokyo is like watching the beginning of "Animal House", when after walking through the pristine Faber College, Bluto opens the door to the Delta Tau Chi house...

The show in Osaka on the 9th had a completely different atmosphere. The wrestlers were more visible and more accessible, and the ambiance was far more relaxed. You could also tell how much of a morale boost that Sumo Hall had given both the fans and the roster.

Junta Miyawaki scored a singles win over Kinya Okada. Miyawaki might not have gotten his first win over a seniors in a single, but people were full of praise for him, especially as he has started adding new techniques into his repertoire, and is taking kick lessons with Katsuhiko Nakajima. There also seems to be a small rivalry budding between himself and Okada.

STINGER & RATELS faced off in a typically chaotic match (Osaka after all is the spiritual home of RATELS, even if one of them is native, two of them live there, and all four of them speak Osaka dialect when together), which ended with Atsushi Kotoge getting the win over Daisuke Harada, and three title challenges made.
First of all, Kotaro Suzuki challenged with Atsushi Kotoge for the GHC Junior Tag Titles (Yoshinari Ogawa is currently working through a shoulder injury, and Suzuki does not feel he is up to another title challenge or title run currently), Daisuke Harada told them that they could have the match, but, he had a challenge of his own, namely that Kotoge let him challenge him for the IPW Junior Heavyweight.
STINGER were not done, and Chris Ridgeway challenged HAYATA for the GHC Junior. HAYATA'S response was "You....next".

KUMAXIZ (so called when they team with Hitoshi Kumano) teamed with Shuhei Taniguchi against The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazuyuki Fujita, Hideki Suzuki and Hajime Ohara). Poor Ohara got the worst of this match when Nakajima sent him flying to the mat after kicking him in the head, and as I said earlier, Taniguchi used the wound given to him by Fujita at Sumo Hall by Sugiura busting it open and blood running down his face making him look as if an eye socket had come out. Taniguchi made the new GHC National Champion tap out, and afterwards challenged him for the belt. Sugiura had to grudgingly admit that this was Taniguchi awake.
On the side of the GHC Heavyweight Tag champions, Katsuhiko Nakajima took the opportunity to sarcastically introduce himself and Go Shiozaki to Fujita. Fujita didn't take well to it and attacked him. Afterwards, he and Suzuki stole the tag belts. However, at the time of writing there has been no official challenge.

The main event was Kenoh and Kiyomiya on opposing teams, with Kiyomiya holding the belt in Kenoh's face, but Kenoh had a very different target in mind other than his usual two obsessions of Marufuji and Kiyomiya (although naturally Kiyomiya did get sworn at), when after the match he got on the microphone and started growling at Kiyoshi Tamura. I am unsure of the exact comment Tamura made, but I know enough that a lot of Noah fans are angry at his assertion that Noah's wrestling is not interesting (or something to that degree), and Kenoh in particular has taken exception to it. He was calling Tamura out, finishing with "if you have a problem, come to the ring.".

Before I move on to Noah after Osaka, afterwards fans had gathered in the lobby to catch the wrestlers as they left, when there was a loud crashing noise coming from the lift, and Naomichi Marufuji and Mohammed Yone (plus two heavy wheeled suitcases),practically fell out of a too small space. Mohammed Yone said "Masao Inoue!", which made everyone laugh, as Inoue is the spirit invoked whenever anything comedic happens.

Due to a mixture of travelling back from Japan, jetlag, a backlog, returning to work, I resumed writing event reports from 13th November onwards. Noah had held a show on the 11th (the day I flew back) in Hiroshima where HAYATA (a native of the city) was defeated in front of friends (and highly photogenic family) by Chris Ridgeway. Things carried on much the same way between the two teams in the run up to the big Korakuen Hall event.

In Aizu Wakamatsu, Naomichi Marufuji attempted to shake hands with Kenoh. Kenoh naturally glared, swore and went to kick him away. Marufuji says that he feels neglected since Kenoh started venting his anger at Kiyoshi Tamura.

Korakuen Hall
(Event was livestreamed via Noah's official YouTube channel, click here for full show)

After defeating 50 Funky Powers, Akitoshi Saito called a press conference backstage, and announced to the journalists that he would be bringing back something of the ferocity of the unit he was in once, which he announced was called "The Anti Wrestlers Alliance" (the name is misleading, it doesn't mean that they are "anti-wrestler", it basically means that they will be another dissident group, but different to Kongoh).
Despite Saito's seriousness, there have already been two comedy elements. The first intentionally came from Saito himself when he announced that since Masao Inoue's piggy bank was overflowing with change, he would be funding the new group. The second came from Naomichi Marufuji, who asked that since this group was such rebels, did it mean that they would liberally help themselves to both the water and the medipacks left backstage and purchased by the company?

YO-HEY, HAYATA & Tadasuke took on Chris Ridgeway, Yoshinari Ogawa and Kotaro Suzuki, with a massive brawl breaking out (or rather several brawls breaking out) afterwards, when HAYATA got the sneak pin on Chris Ridgeway, and Ridgeway going berserk and trapping him in an armbar. YO-HEY & Ogawa had to take charge (helped by the referee) in separating both HAYATA and Ridgeway,  and then Tadasuke and Kotaro, although they themselves got into a fight with each other.  In the end YO-HEY managed to calm down HAYATA and Tadasuke, and get them backstage. Telling them to calm down and talking about flammable drinks from Okinawa and children's Mah-Jong games did no good, as both Tadasuke and HAYATA gave him the slip and raced off.
It is rare for HAYATA to become so irate, normally he doesn't react, and it is really YO-HEY who can get under his skin, although not to this level. Even Kotaro Suzuki (skilled in causing trouble) was a little intimidated by him, so much so he even turned up to a match signing, and it is a hallmark STINGER tactic that they claim they have better things to do, and so often don't.
Ridgeway, however, seems to have the knack in winding RATELS up, not only is HAYATA unusually ruffled, but when fighting with Daisuke Harada over the IPW Junior Heavyweight, Harada started speaking in Osaka dialect in promos, which is a sure sign he is really annoyed.

After a match where Yoshiki Inamura threw his opponents around like they weighed nothing, Kenoh ignored Marufuji, Kiyomiya was demonstrated to have grown further in confidence since Sumo Hall, and Hi69 got the brunt of Kongoh, Kenoh once again verbally attacked Kiyoshi Tamura, asking the fans if they wanted to hear the UWF theme in Noah.
Kenoh's mood has not been improved by Tamura's only comment, which is "No Comment".

The title match between Daisuke Harada and Atsushi Kotoge for the IPW Junior Heavyweight championship could have been ruined by the fact that sadly IPW had announced the night before that in 2020 the promotion will no longer be holding live events, and that their heavyweight title will be defended one last time in December. They haven't announced what will become of the IPW Junior Heavyweight or the six man to decide the number one contender for the title either, and so while Kotoge and Harada were fighting over what could turn out to be nothing, this match was saved by the emotion and drama behind it of the two former friends and tag partners. Kotoge, sad over the loss of their friendship, Harada unforgiving about Kotoge ditching himself, the juniors and the titles for the hated heavyweights, and the lingering hatred between Stinger and RATELS all served to overshadow the issues surrounding the belt. In a true showcase of the Noah juniors, the Osaka boys put on a match of the year, with the ending going viral as Daisuke Harada used an Avalanche Katayama German Suplex for the win. Empty title or not, challenged for or not, RATELS now hold all the junior belts in Noah.

In the main event, Shuhei Taniguchi was not going to wait to get in the ring with Takashi Sugiura, and attacked him as soon as the bell rang, outside the ring, leaving both AXIZ and the others in The Sugiura Army watching. When they did get in the ring together, vicious elbows and headbutts flew between them, with Taniguchi using the kicks to the head he had been given by Fujita. Taniguchi got the win with the diving body press after 23 minutes and 13 seconds. Addressing the crowd afterwards with blood running down his face, he promised to make big flowers bloom in Niigata. Although this phrase is not well understood in English, (and does not point to horticulture), basically it means, Taniguchi is awake.

CURRENT CHAMPIONS & SCHEDULED TITLE MATCHES
GHC Heavyweight Champion: Kaito Kiyomiya
(No challenger at the time of writing)

GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion: HAYATA
(vs Chris Ridgeway, December 3rd,  Korakuen Hall)

GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions: AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima)
(No challengers at the time of writing)

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Champions: RATELS (Daisuke Harada & Tadasuke)
(vs STINGER (Atsushi Kotoge & Kotaro Suzuki), November 26th, Niigata)

GHC National Champion: Takashi Sugiura
(vs Shuhei Taniguchi, November 26th, Niigata)

IPW Junior Heavyweight: Daisuke Harada
(Unknown whether or not there will be a challenger, or whether the belt will simply cease to exist).

NEWS

AXIZ ANNIVERSARY
Go Shiozaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima celebrate their 15th anniversary in wrestling in November\December. Katsuhiko Nakajima debuted on the 5th January 2004, with Go Shiozaki making his in late July. Rather than have their own produce show, they have elected to have a series of matches, which will culminate when they face each other on December 3rd at Korakuen Hall. The other matches they have arranged to mark their debut are tag matches, and usually feature Hitoshi Kumano.

NOAH'S 20TH ANNIVERSARY
Despite all the odds, the ups and the downs, the bad times, the good times, the worse times, death, scandal, walk out, money issues, Pro Wrestling Noah has survived to celebrate its 20th anniversary next year. A huge landmark year for Noah, they will hold big events leading up to the big day in August.

PRODUCE SHOW NEWS

RATELS "SHOWTIME"
RATELS will hold their second produce at ShinKiba 1st Ring on the 24th November. Noah knew that the RATELS produce was the one that they would have no problems with, but sadly the card is nowhere as interesting as it was last time, although it does have some quirks as a tug of war between RATELS & STINGER, and then an elimination match between them for the main event.
Kotaro Suzuki, however, has hinted that STINGER may not even turn up!

KONGOH "DIAMOND"
At the time of writing, Kongo have announced only one match for their produce, which will be Yoshiki Inamura vs Daisuke Sekimoto in a singles match. The event has also been sold out, which means that Kenoh will not be leaving the company, and Kongoh will not have to disband.

Kenoh has announced that PETA from The Garlic Boys (who do his theme music) will be performing it live. Naomichi Marufuji said that he wishes he bought a ticket, Kenoh told him firmly that he wasn't getting in, and to next time, make sure he bought one in time.

SUGIURA ARMY "ALL DOGS GATHER! BARK AT KORAKUEN"
Hajime Ohara is another person celebrating a fifteen year debut in 2019, and therefore a special match has been arranged for the produce, which will be Noah's last event of the year. Ohara will team with Shiro Koshinaka, and teacher Ultimo Dragon (who was last in Noah in 2003 in the Differ Cup), to take on NOSAWA and NOSAWA'S friends, MAZADA and FUJITA.

THIS WEEK IN NOAH
Friday 22nd November: Hitoshi Kumano (28)
Sunday 24th November: RATELS "Showtime"
Tuesday 26th November: Niigata City Gymnasium event
Friday 29th November: Minoru Tanaka (47)

Picture credits: GIFS (Noah GHC), all other pictures are mine.