(NOAH) EVENT RECAP "HIGHER GROUND 2020" Night 2 ~ Aore Nagaoka Arena, Niigata, Saturday February 8th.

There was heavy snow in Niigata today when Noah arrived after a journey through a frosty countryside, and the temperature was freezing. While this may sound like it would deter people from leaving their homes, Niigata has this type of weather (biting winds, snow, rain, grey skies), and as the local people are used to it (plus Hitoshi Kumano who is a local bear), Noah managed to attract far more people than they did last year (although I am afraid this is word of mouth, as I don't have an attendance yet). One fan even took the bullet train on a whim, and travelled up to buy a ticket on the day. If the fans had any complaints about the show today, it was only that the venue seemed too dark.

I am afraid that the report today is a bit of a mixture. I have more information on some matches than others.

MATCH ONE
Junta Miyawaki vs Kinya Okada

Okada said to be growing larger, he's now bigger than he looks on camera apparently.
Junta Miyawaki chalked up another win, but it's not over a senior.

WINNER: Junta Miyawaki with an Arm cross (9 minutes, 52 seconds)

MATCH TWO
Shuhei Taniguchi & Mohammed Yone vs The Anti Wrestlers Alliance (Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue)
WINNER: Mohammed Yone with the KinMeat Buster on Masao Inoue (11 minutes, 39 seconds)

MATCH THREE
The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura & Hajime Ohara) vs Kongoh (Yoshiki Inamura & Haoh)

This is the first time Yoshiki Inamura and Haoh have ever teamed together like this, and as you can probably tell from the picture, there is a notable size difference. Inamura went one on one with his hero, but sadly fell to him.

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with Boston Crab submission on Yoshiki Inamura (14 minutes, 45 seconds)

MATCH FOUR
Kaito Kiyomiya vs Hitoshi Kumano

And as one fan put it, "to think, there was once a time when Kumano defeated Kiyomiya with the Boston Crab" - they are referring to Kiyomiya's debut, which he made when he was nineteen (and the first teenager to debut in Noah), against Hitoshi Kumano, who is one of the dojo trainers. Kiyomiya called this match "Origin".

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Tiger Suplex Hold (13 minutes, 26 seconds)

MATCH FIVE
STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa, Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Kotoge) vs RATELS (Tadasuke, HAYATA & YO-HEY)

HAYATA appeared taped up today on one side of his flank and on his shoulder, this is probably from his crash landing yesterday, and he looked to be in pain at times.

In his post match promo at Yokohama, Kotaro Suzuki said he regretted saying that they would put the belts up against anyone who challenged, and changed the rules to they would only now be challenged by anyone who pinned them.

WINNER:  Atsushi Kotoge pins YO-HEY via schoolboy (17 minutes, 14 seconds)

After the match, Kotoge and Kotaro made an X with their arms to tell YO-HEY & HAYATA that they were unsuccessful in their challenge, but YO-HEY was not going to take "no" for an answer. Backstage YO-HEY said his "Miso brain" had made a suggestion to him. YO-HEY proposed swapping "Mother" (Tadasuke) with "Wife" (HAYATA), meaning that "Mother" would now face Haoh in a singles match instead of "Wife", with "Wife" teaming with YO-HEY and "Boss" (Daisuke Harada) against STINGER.  

MATCH SIX
AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima) & Daisuke Harada vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya & Nioh)

Daisuke Harada managed to take out Kongoh, and the hatred between himself and Kenoh from Kenoh's Noah junior days, has not lessened. Fans have said it is refreshing to see Harada versus them, as its usually Harada vs STINGER.

Katsuhiko Nakajima and Kenoh were fighting outside the ring (Nakajima had him in a choke, with a huge grin as fans took pictures). Kenoh was probably not amused that he got Nakajima's famous "Take a picture" rope choke either. Naturally there was the usual stiff-as-hell kick war between them.

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan on Nioh (19 minutes, 31 seconds)

After the match, Go Shiozaki thanked everyone for coming, said that he "would dye the GHC my color in Noah's 20th anniversary year" and then declared, "I am Noah!" and that as "the centre of Noah", he would continue to hold the belt.

ATTENDANCE: Not announced, but said to be more than 289 which was July 2019's attendance. 
WITH THANKS TO: Harvest, Maguru, Saku, Yoneicchi  
PICTURE CREDIT: Noah GHC, PKDX, Junta Miyawaki
NOAH'S NEXT SHOW: Sunday 9th February 2020