(NOAH) EVENT RECAP ~ Global Junior League 2020. ACROS Fukuoka, Fukuoka, January 21st

"Noah was the best"

Noah held their first night of their three day tour during Global Junior League 2020 in rainy Fukuoka today. After the event Noah held a fan meet and greet ("FAN FES IN FUKOKA") where fans could get autographs, and pictures.

Go Shiozaki turned 38 years old today, and he and Katsuhiko Nakajima were on autograph duty. A fan asked to see Shiozaki's pectoral muscles, and he obliged. As Noah have changed the rules of the autograph sessions, meaning that fans can now bring their own personal items to be signed, one fan bought a scrapbook with them which they said they want to fill with Noah signatures. Noah GHC hailed this as a nice idea.

A lot of new fans came to Noah today (along with some old fans who hadn't been for almost four or five years) with many saying that they wanted to come back again. Kaito Kiyomiya had his picture taken with one such fan, a little girl, whose parents had bought her to show.

MATCH ONE
Hitoshi Kumano & Junta Miyawaki vs The Sugiura Army (Hajime Ohara & Kinya Okada)

The former Backbreakers started off the match, with Hitoshi Kumano putting to good use all the things he had learned at Hajime Ohara's side to get the win.

WINNER: Hitoshi Kumano with the Boston Crab on Kinya Okada (10 minutes, 58 seconds)

MATCH TWO
50 Funky Powers (Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm) & Minoru Tanaka vs The Anti-Wrestlers Alliance (Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue) & Junji Tanaka

Many fans were emotional at seeing 50 Funky Powers today as Quiet Storm is leaving Noah at the end of the month, and this will be the last time they will get to see them (they are not teaming tomorrow on the second night in Fukoka.) Fans would like to give Quiet Storm the proper send off, and have contacted LIDET to ask if they will lift the streamer ban for his final match.
Minoru Tanaka also joined in with the 50 Funky Powers disco pose (during the semi main event he was seen talking to a little child).

Junji's ass was a feature of this match (alongside the antics of Masao Inoue, who found himself squished by Minoru Tanaka doing a plancha over the top rope on him), and it found its way into Yone's face, when Akitoshi Saito and Masao Inoue picked him up*

WINNER: Mohammed Yone with the Funky Buster Bomb on Junti Tanaka (11 minutes, 38 seconds)

MATCH THREE
Global Junior League (Block B)
Kotaro Suzuki vs Tadasuke
WINNER: Kotaro Suzuki with the reversal of 2PAC (7 minutes, 39 seconds)

MATCH FOUR
Kaito Kiyomiya & HAYATA vs STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & Chris Ridgeway)
WINNER: Yoshinari Ogawa with a leg\foot lock on HAYATA (15 minutes, 1 second)

MATCH FIVE
The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, El Hijo de Dr Wagner Jr, Dick Togo & NOSAWA Rongai) vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya, Yoshiki Inamura & Haoh)

Kenoh growled on Twitter prior to this match that Dick Togo used to be worth something, but not now, not since he chose to enter The Sugiura Army.

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with the Olympic Slam on Yoshiki Inamura (13 minutes, 42 seconds)

MATCH SIX
Global Junior League 2020 (Block C)
Atsushi Kotoge vs YO-HEY

To the surprise of many fans, Atsushi Kotoge pulled out a move used in Noah's Golden Era, that was used by the late Bison Smith (one of the "Golden Era" gaijin of the era of Eddie Edwards, Doug Williams and Nigel McGuinness, of which now only Edwards remains in Noah), "The Bisontennial". Fans are of the opinion that he used this move as it targets the sternum, and as we all know YO-HEY (who appears to have been told at the hospital that he smoked too much), has had an injury there. With this win, Kotoge remains dominant in Block C. 

WINNER: Atsushi Kotoge with the Killswitch (15 minutes, 41 seconds)

MATCH SEVEN
Global Junior League 2020 (Block D)
Daisuke Harada vs Nioh

Described as a "chaotic" match as neither would give up or give in, nothing they threw at each other worked, nothing they pulled out of the bag worked, no combinations used worked, nothing worked and the match went to a frustrating time out draw.

Nioh is yet to make a comment, but Daisuke Harada reflected that he drew with Minoru Tanaka, he drew with Nioh, his last opponent, Chris Ridgeway, he is going to go all out on.

WINNER: Neither - time out draw (30 minutes) 

MATCH EIGHT
AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima) vs Naomichi Marufuji & Shuhei Taniguchi

Naomichi Marufuji got Nakajima's rope\photo op choke (the referees despair of him as he takes no notice when told to break the hold, walks to another side of the ring and does it again), and Shuhei Taniguchi the dreaded kick\chop sandwich.

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Strong Arm Lariat on Shuhei Taniguchi (18 minutes, 41 seconds)

Go Shiozaki (not interrupted by any hometown heroes today) spoke on the microphone to thank everyone for coming. He said that in Noah's 20th anniversary year, he would show its strength with the belt.

ATTENDANCE: 325
WITH THANKS TO: Nanohaimas, Phantomkid, Cafe_Hiroyuki, Eastern Defence, Koji Shimada, Nokori-Fu
PICTURE CREDITS: Noah GHC, PKDX
NOAH'S NEXT SHOW: 22nd January 2020, ACROS Fukuoka

* I was taking notes on the train...God knows what the woman sitting next to me thought when I wrote "Junji's ass in Yone's face".