(NOAH) Event Recap "HIGHER GROUND 2020" Night 1 ~ Yokohama Radiant Hall, Friday February 7th.

Noah held the first day of the first tour today in Yokohama after Global Junior League 2020 wrapped up, and the winner (Daisuke Harada), was on hand with winners trophy to do the fan club pictures.  AXIZ (Go Shiozaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima, wearing matching AXIZ tracksuits and woolly hats) were on autographs.

After being hit in the eye during Global Junior League during Daisuke Harada vs Hajime Ohara, and  requiring surgery to the tear duct, Referee Shu Nishinaga returned to Noah today. Naomichi Marufuji is absent due to having a right knee operation, he will return on 24th February, and be at venues before that to do autograph signings. He is somewhat more mobile today than he has been, going out for something to eat. Speaking of Marufuji, a challenge was made for the GHC Heavyweight tag titles today in DragonGate. Masaaki Mochizuki said he had permission from both Marufuji and Noah to make an open challenge, which was taken up by Takashi Yoshida (formerly CyberKong) and Diamante. Title defense has been set for DragonGate's Korakuen Hall show on the 5th March.

Despite the cold weather outside, Noah managed a full house today, with one fan saying that they came for the first time ever. The Leave (Noah's longterm sponsors) were also at the venue, they handed out hand-wipes as usual, and supplied the candy handed out at the end. 

Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, Noah have asked their customers to not come if they feel feverish, aches, or have flu like symptoms and to seek immediate medical help. They also advised that people observe hygienic precautions such as handwashing, sterilizing gel, and the use of gargles and sterile masks.

MATCH ONE
Kinya Okada vs Shuhei Taniguchi

It has to be said that since he has shed the Maybach Taniguchi gimmick, Shuhei Taniguchi is looking a lot happier just being himself, and himself dug his knee into Okada's right hip when applying the Wyvern Catch.

Kinya Okada continues his blooming, and is said to have thrown some very promising powerful elbows today, he also used a top turnbuckle missile dropkick and a side suplex.

WINNER: Shuhei Taniguchi via Wyvern Catch submission (6 minutes, 36 seconds)

MATCH TWO
The Anti Wrestlers Alliance (Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue) vs Kongoh (Haoh and Nioh)

A very rare match up, even more rare due to Haoh being in the match. Noah went all "Golden Era" at the beginning when they showed Saito and Inoue backstage before walking out to the ring. They had also shown Kinya Okada earlier, and unlike the veterans, his entry was still very young boy - if anything the opening the door and running to the ring, made him look like a kid on Christmas. 

Saito and Nioh (Nioh is roughly more the size of Saito, and while this is not much, he's more of it than Haoh) had a knock down battle with Saito, bouncing off the ropes and into him. Saito didn't look as if he was bothered by it, and ended up knocking Nioh down.
Haoh, however, knew that his size was no match for Saito, so he had to rely on speed and cunning.

WINNER: Nioh with the Stuka Splash on Masao Inoue (11 minutes,10 seconds)

MATCH THREE
YO-HEY vs Junta Miyawaki

Junta Miyawaki is still heavily taped on one shoulder, but this didn't stop him from bringing the fight to YO-HEY today. 
Junta might not have won, but he bought to the fight chops, plancha dives from the top rope to outside the ring, a missile dropkick and even a reversal of the Gamen G. He came very close to winning. 

WINNER: YO-HEY with the Face G (10 minutes, 8 seconds)

Fortunately, YO-HEY'S Yokohama curse did not come into effect today (he suffered a torn lung here last year, and then last time an injury to his sternum). He came out later to second RATELS, and at the break (which was early, being only 40 minutes into the show) he signed autographs. 
YO-HEY naturally put his run of bad luck at this venue into his usual fashion, saying that he wasn't clutching his chest, he was trying to find his left nipple (which apparently took a while, please don't ask) as it's a little confused due to the mess with Kotoge and Kotaro. 

Moving on.

MATCH FOUR
STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa, Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Kotoge) vs RATELS (Daisuke Harada, Tadasuke & HAYATA)

The match started with Daisuke Harada with a face like a thundercloud, provoking Yoshinari Ogawa, and as we shall see, Harada was going to erupt into a full blown storm. Time has not lessened the friction between HAYATA & Ogawa, but fans have said they feel like they are waiting for something to happen. 

This was a typically fast paced RATELS vs STINGER match, with both Tadasuke and HAYATA doing top rope somersaults. In HAYATA'S case, YO-HEY helped clear ringside for him, and then was seen to check on him as he seemed to have slid under chairs. As YO-HEY checked on HAYATA, there was a melee brawl going on around him as Kotaro Suzuki prevented Harada from getting in the ring after he had originally thrown him out of it, Tadasuke threw off Atsushi Kotoge and came to help, Harada got in just as the referee counted 19...and Yoshinari Ogawa sneak pinned him.

WINNER: Yoshinari Ogawa with a pin that held Harada upside down (19 minutes, 46 seconds)

Harada, in fury, stormed over to Ogawa who was slouched in the corner, but no title challenge has been made just yet.

After the match Kotaro said that he wasn't going to give a title match to YO-HEY & HAYATA, it would devalue the worth of the belts too much.

MATCH FIVE
The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Hajime Ohara & NOSAWA) vs Kaito Kiyomiya, Minoru Tanaka & Hitoshi Kumano

Takashi Sugiura has two ways of dealing with the younger generation of heavyweights; either they are "the younger ones" (means he's in a good mood) or he calls them "brats" (means he's in a bad mood, it gets worse if he calls them "yelping brats").
Kaito Kiyomiya was definitely in the "brat" category today, with Sugiura glaring across the ring at him, battering him with elbows, at one point he managed to knock him into a corner, and then stood there staring at him. However, Kiyomiya fought back and twice managed to knock Sugi down. The second time, outside the ring, Nishinaga could be seen leaning through the ropes trying to get them back onto the apron.

Despite the attention being on Kiyomiya and Sugiura today, Kumano was said to be outstanding.

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with the Olympic Slam on Hitoshi Kumano (13 minutes,40 seconds)

After the match, Sugiura got on the microphone and addressed Kaito Kiyomiya with "Fucking Kid!* I am not giving the scenery and the era up to you!"
(Note, Noah changed this to "Hey, boy!")
Kaito Kiyomiya responded to Noah GHC'S footage of this with "I'm not kidding!!!"

MATCH SIX

AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima) & Mohammed Yone vs The Sugiura Army (Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura)

The two stars of the match were said to be Go Shiozaki and Yoshiki Inamura (fans MVP today), which is going to be a massive feud somewhere down the line one day, with the ever growing Inamura (both in terms of experience, and in terms of size), coming very close to pinning Shiozaki. Yokohama was on fire for Inamura, and after the match, it was noted that thanks to Inamura, Shiozaki wasn't standing easily.

Kenoh came in for his own interaction with the GHC Heavyweight champion, reversing the machine gun chops and kicking Shiozaki. There was also the obligatory kick war with Katsuhiko Nakajima. 

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan Lariat on Yoshiki Inamura (19 minutes, 1 second)

After the main event had finished (and Kongoh slunk off, Yone also went to leave but Shiozaki called him back), Shiozaki addressed the crowd. He said that he would not let Noah become a "mud boat" as Fujita calls it, and he asked the fans to believe in both himself and in Noah until the end.

ATTENDANCE: 246 (full house - people were really packed in today apparently) 
WITH THANKS TO: Kei, Abeshin, Shishikazu
PICTURE CREDIT: Noah GHC, YO-HEY, Tadasuke, PKDX
NOAH'S NEXT EVENT: Saturday 8th February 2020, Aore, Nagaoka Arena, Niigata