(NOAH) EVENT REPORT ~ "Korakuen Hall Day2 REBOOT" (5th January 2020)

Samurai TV broadcast the Noah show live today from Korakuen Hall. None of the matches had been announced in advance, and so you only would know who was going to be in the match by the theme music. There were some match surprises, and one very big shock surprise at the end, which could well change the landscape of the tag scene in Noah.
Once again, it was a sold out crowd with standing room tickets only (1, 528 people which is a little less than yesterday, but not by much). The atmosphere among both the wrestlers and crowd was a more relaxed one, which I think is because today they were not competing directly with New Japan (who start their show in the evening, a few hours after Noah finish).

Noah made a couple of announcements on the monitors during the interval (Go Shiozaki with two belts gave an interview), which informed the audience that Dragon Bane and brother El Hijo de Canis Lupus, would be returning to Noah in February, and there was also some big matches coming up.

Kaito Kiyomiya was on autographs (the Noah Twitter account indicated that they felt sorry for him, and said for people to give him their support). It was also announced that Junta Miyawaki would be returning from shoulder injury next week at Global Junior League.

MATCH ONE
Quiet Storm vs Mohammed Yone

Quiet Storm came out to the music he used as a singles wrestler, which isn't something that is heard much. Mohammed Yone of course came out in full disco kit (complete with flashing glasses) to "Boogie Wonderland".

It seems that deep down, Quiet Storm does not appreciate disco, and he had Yone smoothing out the 'fro. Tag partners they may be - but they were not going to go easy on each other, especially with their stiff punch exchange. Clever wrestling from Quiet Storm, he knew how to take Yone down, but then again, you could say the same for Yone.

WINNER: Mohammed Yone with Kinniku Meat Buster (6 minutes, 23 seconds)

MATCH TWO
Kongoh (Hao and Nio) vs The Sugiura Army (Hajime Ohara and Kinya Okada)

The match started with a Kongoh beatdown from The Sugiura Army, with Nio moving with cold mercilessness, with never an expression on his face.
Short but fast moving with Hajime Ohara tying Hao into knots, but easily won by Kongoh ultimately.

Winner: Nio via Cancun Tornado on Kinya Okada (3 minutes, 56 seconds)

Then two masked men entered the ring, both wearing red masks and black jumpsuits.
Fans wondered who they were - could they be a lucha team entering from IWRG? These masked men offered Kongoh a handshake, before beating them up and throwing them out of the ring. They then unzipped their jackets to reveal they were members of The Sugiura Army (and wearing NOSAWA'S dog t-shirts), removing the masks fans discovered that one was NOSAWA, and the other was Dick Togo, who announced he would enter both Global Junior League, and The Sugiura Army.

That now leaves one junior to be announced to take Yoshinari Ogawa's place.

MATCH THREE
Masao Inoue vs Michael Elgin

Inoue didn't seem to know Elgin's music and looked puzzled when it played. He didn't have long to wonder, as Elgin won in a few seconds

WINNER: Michael Elgin (8 seconds)

MATCH FOUR
Minoru Tanaka, Hitoshi Kumano & Shuhei Taniguchi vs The Sugiura Army (Hideki Suzuki, Kazushi Sakuraba & Takashi Sugiura)

A smiling and half protesting, Kazushi Sakuraba was dragged in for a commemorative picture, and on the whole the Sugiura Army were enjoying themselves, playing the Japanese equivalent rock, paper scissors to see who started against their opponents, it turned out to be Tanaka and Sakuraba who put on a display of technical wrestling.
Sakuraba asked Sugiura to help him slam Taniguchi, Sugi messed him around twice by walking off at the last moment, Sakuraba was not impressed, although Sugi thought it was funny. 

This is the third match that Shuhei Taniguchi and Hideki Suzuki have had, and they always seem to hit it off well, both being similar in terms of size. Fans would like to see a singles match.

Hitoshi Kumano was destroyed by Sugiura, then Suzuki, and then Sugiura again, but despite this heavyweight beatdown, Kumano can match them in strength, if not size and he showed his great strength by lifting Sugiura, and then later lifting Suzuki, he was not successful at first, but managed a brainbuster

WINNER: Hideki Suzuki with the double arm suplex on Hitoshi Kumano (8 minutes, 53 seconds)

MATCH FIVE
Kongoh vs AKIRA, Saito & Koshinaka (Heisei Ishingun)

Kongoh came stamping to the ring, seconded by Hao and Nio.
Heisei Ishingun were a faction from New Japan in the 1990s, which was led by Shiro Koshinaka - all three members of today's team were part of it at one point or another and naturally all the vets wanted a bit of Kenoh, and he found himself ganged up on.
Takashi Sugiura was on commentary from this point onwards.

When their opponents arrived, Kitamiya and Koshinaka got in each others faces, which ended with Kitamiya shoving him. They started off bouncing off each other, not even off the ropes, just off each other.
Naturally, the fight went outside the ring with Kenoh vs Saito, Koshinaka vs Kitamiya, and Inamura and AKIRA. AKIRA kind of looked like a twig compared to Inamura.

Back in the ring, Saito vs Inamura was a total HOSS fight, even if Inamura did come out of it the loser.

WINNER: Kenoh with the diving foot stamp on Akitoshi Saito (8 minutes, 51 seconds)

MATCH SIX
El Hijo de Dr Wagner Jnr vs Kaito Kiyomiya

Kaito Kiyomiya came out looking tired (he said he was in too much pain to sleep, and his chest still bore the marks from yesterday) and looking a little sad, it is odd to see him without the belt and I think he was worried that the fans would forget him now he wasn't champion, but he was given a warm reception though with fans chanting for him, and he seemed to cheer up.

Rare but good and fast paced singles match which ended when Kiyomiya messed up the Tiger Suplex.

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with The Tiger Suplex (8 minutes, 26 seconds)

MATCH SEVEN
RATELS & Keiji Mutoh vs STINGER & Doug Williams

Keiji Mutoh is HAYATA'S hero, so much so he paints his face for title matches like his, and he uses the moonsault out of tribute. Too shy to ask for a picture, HAYATA kind of got his wish today when RATELS teamed with Mutoh, and at the end had a picture taken, although it was not just the two of them. Backstage, during the post match interview, HAYATA pulled YO-HEY between himself and Mutoh, his shyness getting the better of him again.
YO-HEY had more interaction with Mutoh than HAYATA, went to do the Shining Wizard on Ogawa, but wasted time doing mental about it (you could see Tadasuke in the background saying "please don't let him"), that when he had finished, Ogawa had moved and so the tide swung back to STINGER.

Doug Williams faced off against Keiji Mutoh early on in the match (he was a good fit for STINGER, rather than the crazy RATELS), with Daisuke Harada and Chris Ridgeway tearing into each other next. Harada had his cold sadistic smile on when he was beating up Kotaro. 

There was the usual crazy YO-HEY lock up, with another crazy person, Atsushi Kotoge (who was actually quite sedate in this match), who kicked him and knocked him outside the ring when YO-HEY made the lock up impossible, and Kotaro for good measure, kicked at him from the apron.

If YO-HEY was crazy, then Tadasuke was a whole different level of crazy. He went to offer Kotaro Suzuki a handshake..now most people know not to take it as either Tadasuke will withdraw his hand at the last moment (which he did here), attack you, or flick sweat at you if you refuse. Kotaro, for whatever reason, decided to take it, and when Tadasuke slicked his hair back after withdrawing his hand, he tried to shake hands with the ref.
Rampaging Tadasuke was back, knocking everyone off the apron twice, Kotoge found himself trying to get him to stop marching round the ring, and got Tadasuke glare for interrupting him, the slow turn and the "YOU" finger point, so Kotoge just kicked him. Whilst Tadasuke was being a lunatic, RATELS stood back and watched him, Harada looked like he was going to tell Mutoh, to just ignore him and he would tire himself out.

There was no handshake or hug between Yoshinari Ogawa (who got in the ring and glared at Mutoh) and HAYATA today, but HAYATA seemed to be more relaxed and happier without the belt. I think he enjoyed having championship level matches, but not everything else that came with it.

There was a mass brawl towards the end of the match, crowd chanting for Mutoh (who was being beaten up on by STINGER), but RATELS got the save, and all was well.

WINNER: Keiji Mutoh with the Shining Wizard on Kotaro Suzuki (18 minutes, 18 seconds)

MATCH EIGHT
GHC HEAVYWEIGHT TAG MATCH
AXIZ vs Naomichi Marufuji and Masaaki Mochizuki

The card was said to be a mystery, but this was a huge surprise as no one at all had any idea that the belt had even been challenged for, especially not by Naomichi Marufuji and Masaaki Mochizuki.
As Naomichi Marufuji had announced that he was going to be chasing tags with HARASHIMA from DDT (having joined the "Disaster Box" stable), it was assumed me would team with him. No one had any idea it would be Mochi.

Now that he is GHC Heavyweight champion, Shiozaki (who seems to be developing somewhat of an ego), were competing for the crowds favor. I can't imagine that Marufuji is too impressed by Shiozaki's statement, "I am Noah".

Marufuji warned Shiozaki not to chop him on rope break, Shiozaki didn't. However when that did happen (it's inevitable), Shiozaki no sold him - they did the same, except when Shiozaki got him the second time and floored him. The referee had to check that Marufuji was okay as Shiozaki had hit him so hard. Nakajima also kicked him, and with a huge evil smile.

From various kicks and chops, everyone ended up with sunburn on them; Nakajima and Mochi kicking each other brutally (Nakajima also threw him into the ring post at one point), Mochi got the machine gun chops and then the soccer ball kicks. 

Then came something that no one expected, and which could have far reaching consequences for AXIZ. Nakajima went to pin Mochizuki, and while Shiozaki had his back turned keeping Marufuji out of the ring, Mochiz reverse the pin and AXIZ lost the tag titles.

WINNER: Masaaki Mochizuki with the reverse pin on Katsuhiko Nakajima (24 minutes, 58 seconds)

Go Shiozaki couldn't believe it! He even menaced the ref about it, but no, it was a three count, and AXIZ had lost the titles.
Backstage, Shiozaki told Nakajima that they needed to accept they had lost the titles and move on. Nakajima, however, probably will not see it that way, as its okay for Shiozaki to say that, he has the GHC Heavyweight championship. I can see a rough few weeks ahead for AXIZ, especially if Nakajima challenges for the title, which many think he will do...

ATTENDANCE: 1, 528
PICTURE CREDIT: Noah GHC
GIF CREDIT: Noah GHC
NOAH'S NEXT EVENT: Global Junior League begins - Friday 10th January, Yokohama