NOAH WEEKLY NEWSLETTER VOL.63 ~ 29th DECEMBER 2019

EVENT RECAP
The Sugiura Army Produce ~ "All Dogs Gather! Bark at Korakuen"

Noah held their last show of the year at Korakuen Hall to 1,139 fans on Friday 27th December 2019.

Kenoh entered the ring looking embarrassed, and then proceeded to destroy Chikara in 6 minutes and 24 seconds. Chikara might not have had the "Kobashi vs Sasaki" match that he had wanted, but it was a start, and he said he was going to come back to Noah again.
As for Kenoh, he stood for a moment looking like he was planning something, then stalked off looking cross. Naturally giving no indication of his supreme heel move later, he growled that Chikara was less than a new trainee.

The humiliation of Kongoh\THE TOUGH continued in the next match when Masa Kitamiya and Yoshiki Inamura faced off against KAZMA SAKAMOTO & Kinya Okada of The Sugiura Army. There was good interaction between Okada and Inamura, with Inamura dominating, but Okada not giving up. The match went two minutes longer than Kenoh and Chikara, ending after 8 minutes and 19 seconds, via Saito Slam on Kinya Okada by Masa Kitamiya.

Go Shiozaki and Kaito Kiyomiya had their final pre-match in a tag match which pit AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima) vs Kaito Kiyomiya and Shuhei Taniguchi. Taniguchi and Nakajima's main role were to keep each other out of and away from the ring while Kiyomiya and Shiozaki fought, with Shiozaki landing intense chops on Kiyomiya, and finishing the match by taking his head off almost with the Shiozaki Lariat.Afterwards, with Kiyomiya lying prostrate in the ring, Shiozaki bent down, did his finger pose, and touched his chest lightly.

RATELS had their traditional end of year squabble when the four of them fought like kids in a playground in the four on four survival match. No one wanted to trust Tadasuke, Tadasuke went insane (and showed a new side to his insanity), Daisuke Harada imitated HAYATA (who didn't appreciate it), and YO-HEY sulked when HAYATA beat him. After this crazy typically RATELS match, YO-HEY, Tadasuke and Harada all left the ring leaving HAYATA behind. HAYATA naturally made no comment, only smiling when he passed through the interview area.

Hajime Ohara celebrated his 15th anniversary in wrestling by teaming with his teacher, Ultimo Dragon, and friend, Shiro Koshinaka. Their opponents were Tokyo Gurentai (lit Tokyo Thugs) of NOSAWA Rongai, MAZADA and FUJITA. Tokyo Gurentai started fighting among themselves at two points, but then made it up. Ultimo Dragon got the win after 10 minutes and 50 seconds, using the La Mistral on NOSAWA. Ohara made a speech afterwards, saying that his goals for 2020 were to graduate High School and continue to college (he is an adult student), and also to chase the GHC Junior belts.

Dr Marufuji Jnr (Naomichi Marufuji) and El Hijo de Dr Wagner Jnr had a comedy match, with El Hijo de Dr Wagner Jnr unmasking Dr Marufuji Jnr, and Marufuji doing the same back to him (fortunately, he did not succeed). Dr Marufuji Jnr won (via cheating) in 8 minutes and 42 seconds.

The main event was meant to be Takashi Sugiura, Kazuyashi Sakuraba, Kazuyuki Fujita and Hideki Suzuki fighting to see which one of them was the toughest in The Sugiura Army. For those of you who love technical, mat based, shoot style, Judo or MMA, I would advise that you check out this

match as it has a mixture of all. However, Masa Kitamiya decided to get in the ring when Sugiura and Sakuraba had a double headlock, and hit Sugiura with the GHC National Title. Sugiura's forehead busted open, and the referee rang for the bell.
To a chorus of boos, Kenoh (loving being a heel), got in the ring in the midst of his teammates fighting with The Sugiura Army (Nio spat red mist into Sakuraba's face, something which NOSAWA says he will not forgive), and as Kitamiya held the belt up, and got on the microphone, and after sarcastically talking about a "happy ending" for The Sugiura Army, challenged for a three on three.
Sugiura said he was going to take you idiots down. The match went 16 minutes, and 9 seconds, with Takashi Sugiura pinning Yoshiki Inamura (after Inamura had made an impressive display in an already impressive 2019 for him) with The Olympic Slam.

Kongoh slunk off to lick their wounds, as The Sugiura Army posed for the commemorative photo in the ring. Although earlier in the year Sugiura had told Kinya Okada that he couldn't be an official member yet, he called him into the ring to be with the others.
Meanwhile, backstage Kenoh gave a promo, saying that "a jumbled group like yours, is going to be crushed".

Noah's 2019 has ended on a high and exciting note. 

Event recaps & post match promos
Post match promos: Kiramesse Numazu ~ 22nd December 2019
Event recap: "All Dogs Gather! Bark at Korakuen" ~ 27th December 2019
Post match promos: "All Dogs Gather! Bark at Korakuen" ~ 27th December 2019

ELSEWHERE IN NOAH
~ Noah will be selling LIDET T-shirts at Riki Choshu's autograph session at Korakuen Hall on 4th January 2020. Kenoh said that no-one will want one.
~ Speaking of T-SHIRTS, NOSAWA Rongai joked that only one person came to buy his dog t-shirt.
~ Mohammed Yone says he will go "full afro" in 2020.
~ Takashi Sugiura said that in 2020 he wants The Sugiura Army to appear in different promotions.
~ Yoshiki Inamura pointed out that 2019 both started and finished with him facing Takashi Sugiura.
~ Chikara says that his goals in Noah are to defeat Kenoh, and have a match with Go Shiozaki.

NEWS

AKITOSHI SAITO'S 30TH ANNIVERSARY
Akitoshi Saito will celebrate 30 years in wrestling in 2020, which will take place in Nagoya, Japan (his adopted hometown). Further details are to be announced.

AXIZ PHOTOBOOK
Noah's official photographer, Wakako Miyaki, has announced that an AXIZ photobook will be released. There looks to be three cover versions in black, silver and gold. I don't know whether there will contain different sets of pictures, or just different covers. The release date looks to be early January.

CURRENT CHAMPIONS

GHC Heavyweight Champion: Kaito Kiyomiya
Challenger: Go Shiozaki (4th January 2020, Korakuen Hall)

GHC Junior Champion: HAYATA
Challenger: Yoshinari Ogawa (4th January 2020, Korakuen Hall)

GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions: AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima)
No challengers as of yet

GHC Junior Tag Champions: STINGER (Kotaro Suzuki & Yoshinari Ogawa)
Challengers: Haō & Niō (Kongoh) (4th January 2020, Korakuen Hall)

GHC National Champion: Takashi Sugiura
Challenger: Masa Kitamiya (4th January 2020, Korakuen Hall)

IPW Junior Heavyweight Champion: Daisuke Harada
No challenger as of yet, and it is not known if there will be one, but Harada has hinted in a post match promo that he will do something about it.

BROADCASTS
4th January 2020 show will be broadcast on 13th January at 11.59pm JST on G+
5th January 2020 show will be broadcast live on Samurai at 11.30am JST.

Noah have not announced any further broadcast dates or upcoming live streams

THIS WEEK IN NOAH
Monday 30th December: Eddie Edwards turns 36
Tuesday 31st December: Kaito Kiyomiya & Katsuhiko Nakajima participate in W-1 "WONDER CARNIVAL"
Wednesday 1st January: Kenoh turns 35 ("I was born on January 1st 1985 at 2am, when my father who worked for the Post Office, was fucking busy")
Thursday 2nd January: Naomichi Marufuji appears at Jean-Jean (aka "The Purple Dinosaur")
Saturday 4th January: "Day 1, A New Sunrise" ~ Noah at Korakuen Hall (18:30 JST)
Sunday 5th January: "Day 2, Reboot" ~ Noah at Korakuen Hall (11:30 JST)
Sunday 5th January: Katsuhiko Nakajima's debut anniversary (2004)

LINKS
Muy Bien large gathering! Hajime Ohara's 15th anniversary match special feature!
Who is the strongest guy in The Sugiura Army?
Sugiura Army: Although unannounced home visit was a failure, finally a communication as Takashi Sugiura and The Beast Kazuyuki Fujita, crash in the main event.

GIF CREDIT: Noah GHC