(NOAH) EVENT RECAP "HIGHER GROUND 2020" Night 4 ~ Korakuen Hall, Tokyo ~ Sunday February 16th.

Naomichi Marufuji made his first appearance since his right knee operation today, although he didn't wrestle he signed autographs, and then did commentary. He looked very happy to be back, and said that sitting at ringside throughout the event gave him a new perspective into what is a rapidly changing Noah. Fans bought him get well soon gifts.

CyberAgent streamed the event live through Abema, which is both a blessing and a curse. Abema is only available in Japan, and they have since upgraded their servers which blocks out some VPN. Some work, some don't. It is likely that the show will be eventually transferred to DDT Universe, with select matches being put on YouTube. The people out of Tokyo in the provinces were very appreciative of this, and Noah drew a solid crowd of 1,197.

The mat had undergone a change today with three sponsorship logos in it - THE LEAVE, LIDET and a new one OSG (who I think are an advertising agency). Otherwise the mat was the same with the yellow border. In the hall, Kazuyuki Fujita (tonight's badguy as we will see) was selling his own merchandise, President Takagi was in the venue, and Noah were advertising the upcoming Naomichi Marufuji vs Jun Akiyama Talk Battle.

MATCH ONE
The Sugiura Army (Hajime Ohara & Kinya Okada) vs Hitoshi Kumano & Seiya Morohashi

Fast paced opener, in which Kinya Okada showed how far he had come. Not quite ready to catch up to the level that Yoshiki Inamura is at, he is getting there.

Hitoshi Kumano in blue, in the blue corner and teaming with Seiya Morihashi who was wearing blue and white, said that he enjoyed teaming with him and would like to more in the future. I sense a Global Junior Tag League team here.

WINNER: Hajime Ohara with the Mui Bien on Seiya Morohashi (7 minutes, 5 seconds)

MATCH TWO
Mohammed Yone & Tadasuke vs The Anti Wrestlers Alliance (Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue)

Masao Inoue came limping out, followed by Akitoshi Saito who was waving a flag which said on it, "Don't Tread On Me", which is taken from The Gasden Flag used in the American Revolution.

Tadasuke, a junior heavyweight with the strength of a heavyweight, found himself in a very heavyweight match but more than held his own against his opponents with his ox like strength, although naturally he did go mad.

There was the usual Yone and Inoue interaction, with Yone scaring Inoue with the "Disco Fever pose".

WINNER: Mohammed Yone with the Kinniku Buster on Masao Inoue (8 minutes, 1 second) 

MATCH THREE
THE TOUGH (Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura) vs Daisuke Sekimoto & Ryūichi Kawakami

As Yoshiki Inamura will be appearing in Big Japan's "Strong Climb" league, this was very much a pre-match with Ryūichi Kawakami (who ironically was wearing very Kenoh like gear), who will be his first opponent in the league on the 3rd March. They started the match off and exchanged stiff chops. The match was very much dominated by Inamura and Kawakami, with Kitamiya and Sekimoto concentrating more on each other, although Sekimoto is Inamura's rival. Fans commented that not only was Inamura the MVP of this match, he also displayed what was termed as "stunning timing".

WINNER: Ryūichi Kawakami with the Hurricane Driver (12 minutes, 20 seconds)

After the match, Inamura heaved himself to his knees, and held up his index finger to Kawakami to indicate that it was the first and last win he would get over him.

MATCH FOUR
Dragon Bain vs El Hijo de Canis Lupus

The high flying lucha brothers returned to Noah, and put on a match of high flying moves that defied description, which even the slightly botched ending when Dragon Bain slightly overshot his brother, couldn't ruin.

WINNER: Dragon Bain with Solidify (11 minutes, 19 seconds)

Interval
As per Korakuen Hall tradition, announcements were made on the monitor.

On the 8th March, All Japan will be coming to Noah in the form Evolution when SUWAMA, Shuji Ishikawa and Yusuke Okada come to Yokohama to take on the team of Katsuhiko Nakajima, Shuhei Taniguchi and Junta Miyawaki.

The Great Muta will be teaming with a form of Naomichi Marufuji (who is billed as "魔流不死", which is pronounced Ma-ryū-fushi" ~ "Marufuji". The name means "Magical Immortality", and uses the kanji for demon), against Marufuji's tag partner, Masaaki Mochizuki and AKIRA. Match will take place on 8th March.

Also on the 8th March in an elimination match, Kongoh (Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya, Yoshiki Inamura, Haoh and Nioh) will take on The Sugiura Army (NOSAWA Rongai, Hideki Suzuki, Kazushi Sakuraba, Hajime Ohara and Kinya Okada) in an elimination match. This will also be the first time that Kenoh and Sakuraba will be in the ring together.

Michael Elgin will also be returning to Noah.

MATCH FIVE
Shuhei Taniguchi, Minoru Tanaka & Junta Miyawaki vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Haoh and Nioh)

Yoshiki Inamura (looking a little crumpled) came out to second his Kongoh teammates, as did Masa Kitamiya. Kenoh looked sulky, but didn't start screaming on the microphone, although at one point it looked like he was going to.

Nioh has dyed his ponytail blonde, and it kind of opened like a fan at one point because it was sticking up, and it looked like he had a plume at the top of his head. Miyawaki and Nioh worked really well together. Miyawaki's shoulder is still taped, and a lot of fans have commented on how many people in Noah at the moment are taped. Miyawaki stood up to Kenoh very well.

Short but typically brutal Kongoh match.

WINNER: Kenoh with PFS on Junta Miyawaki (8 minutes, 46 seconds)

There was an unintentionally funny Taniguchi moment at the end when he was leaving the ring, a fan reached out to slap hands, to which Taniguchi (who was walking with his hands on his hips), kind of moved towards them so they could touch his elbow.

MATCH SIX
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Hideki Suzuki

This match could be said to have split into two halves; the first was mat based wrestling, which compelled Katsuhiko Nakajima to fall back onto a background he rarely uses (MMA). This kind of wrestling is not one that you often see in Noah, unless of course Suzuki and Sakuraba are appearing. So there was a lot of submissions, locks and holds. Nakajima managed to kick Suzuki in the face a couple of times, and he grinned. He wasn't grinning the second time it happened. Suzuki used his size and weight to his advantage during this half.

The match then went into the crowd and a brawl broke out. Nakajima lost his temper and stole an umbrella from a fan in order to choke Suzuki with, which was taken off him by the referee.

The second half of the match was more Noah\Puro in style with Suzuki being kicked to almost all four corners of the ring, and of course the infamous "Shutter Chance". The match picked up rapid pace in the closing stages, with both desperately trying to get the win as the clock counted down, and the match came to a draw with Nakajima punching Suzuki before the ref pulled them apart.

WINNER: Neither, time limit draw. 30 minutes. 

This wasn't over with the bell, as both squared up to each other. The ref tried to seperate them, but Suzuki headbutted Nakajima, who stalked off. Suzuki left the ring, and signalled to Kinya Okada after a while, who had to take him on his back.

MATCH SEVEN
STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa, Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Kotoge) vs RATELS (Daisuke Harada, HAYATA & YO-HEY)

YO-HEY appeared with bright orange hair and what looked like faded purple on the other side. HAYATA, however, appeared without the taping to his shoulder, but still the taping to his side. He looked still to be a in a lot of pain and after being attacked by STINGER in his ribs, he again could not finish the match and Tadasuke had to take him backstage, which left YO-HEY & Daisuke Harada facing a three on two match. Not idea circumstances, as if they wanted a title match, then RATELS (specifically, YO-HEY & HAYATA) had to win.

Despite Harada taking out STINGER, he and YO-HEY where overwhelmed, and HAYATA, who had now both ribs taped, came limping out from the back (chased by a somewhat frantic looking Tadasuke), he got in the ring and got the sneak pin on Kotaro Suzuki.
YO-HEY & HAYATA now have a right to a title match, but significantly, Noah have not announced it yet.

WINNER: HAYATA with the sideways pin on Kotaro Suzuki (13 minutes)

After the match, furious Ogawa hauled HAYATA up while Suzuki attacked his ribs, then to a chorus of boos, Kotoge did a splash on him from the top turnbuckle. The others in RATELS came to the rescue as STINGER stalked backstage cradling their belts. RATELS saw to HAYATA (who looked to be in pain), with YO-HEY taking the lead in gently getting him out of the ring.

Backstage, Daisuke Harada said that RATELS would take all of STINGERS belts, and in true fashion when he was asked about being attacked by Harada, Ogawa said "I don't remember that".

Noah announced later in the day that due to technically what is either bruised or fractured ribs, HAYATA will miss tomorrow's Club Citta event, and two further dates (the 19th and 22nd). Cards have been changed accordingly.

MATCH EIGHT
Go Shiozaki & Kaito Kiyomiya vs The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura & Kazuyuki Fujita)

Kaito Kiyomiya might not be a rookie anymore, and a former GHC Heavyweight Champion, but he still had a kind of young boy entry when he came racing out of the entry, stopped and then was kind of excitable in the ring. He also had to move aside because Kazuyuki Fujita was rolling around in it, and almost rolled into him. He also wore a different style of jacket (which probably still sheds as much feathers), and matched with Go Shiozaki who was wearing almost identical ring wear, but in green.

As this was a pre-match for both the upcoming GHC Heavyweight title match (Shiozaki vs Fujita) & the GHC National (Sugiura vs Kiyomiya), the match was very much the champions and their challenger's facing off. Shiozaki and Fujita started off with a vicious chop and slap war, after that came Sugiura and Kiyomiya, with Sugita throwing Kiyomiya about (and out) the ring, and into the crowd, where they tore into each other in what was described as a "dog fight". Despite the brutality of their kicks and elbows, there was a lot of smoothness to Sugiura and Kiyomiya, especially when Sugiura caught Kiyomiya in midair as he was doing a twisting move, and turned it into a suplex.

The Sugiura Army seem to have their own version of "Endless Love", which is to punch the opponent between them; Kiyomiya got it, and then Shiozaki (who by this time was wearing his Kobashi face), got it next, he fought back with massive lariats, knocking them down. He then went to heave up Fujita, but given Fujita's bulk, almost didn't.

WINNER: Kazuyuki Fujita via referee stop with chokehold on Go Shiozaki (20 minutes, 29 seconds)

Kazuyuki Fujita took a bottle of water after the match, and poured it onto Shiozaki's face. When Shiozaki sat up, Fujita took a gulp and spat the water at him. He finished up by throwing the bottle (and the bottle cap) at him.

Sugiura then cut a promo, referring to himself and Fujita as both "classmates" and "the old men", who would both have belts by the end of Nagoya event.

ATTENDANCE: 1,197 at Korakuen (over 56,000 watching live via Abema) 
WITH THANKS TO: Gong EX, Shishikazu, Tack, Metal Noah, Abeshin, Jojo, Shishikazu
PICTURE CREDIT:  Yoshiki Inamura, Noah GHC 
GIF CREDIT: Noah GHC\ABEMA
NOAH'S NEXT EVENT: February 19th, Kanagawa