(NOAH) The sound and the swelling are not uncommon...Kazuyuki Fujita and Noah Champion Shiozaki's chop beaten in title pre-match

18th February 2020
AbemaTIMES\Yahoo Japan

The fighting style of Pro Wrestling Noah's GHC Heavyweight champion, Go Shiozaki, is a so called "straight ball game"* No tricks for any opponent. His is a fight to beat the chop and the lariat of Kenta Kobashi, who he once served as a second.

In particular, the chops are the base weapon of the match. Although perhaps not a great technique, the sound that the blow makes as it bites into the opponent's chest, rings around the venue to the sharp sound of "bachin*"
The sound of the chop itself is a great attraction to Shiozaki's match. The opponent will most certainly be bruised after the match, and it is the horror of the basic technique that causes internal bruising, and sometimes tears the skin. One of the best users is Shiozaki.

On the 16th February at Korakuen Hall, Shiozaki participated in the main event. Also in the match where the new generation ace, Kaito Kiyomiya, Takashi Sugiura and Kazuyuki Fujita. Sugiura and Kiyomiya will fight for the National Championship at the 24th February Nagoya event. Shiozaki has named Fujita a challenger in the defensive battle at the 8th March Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium. In other words, it was a double fight.

Even in this match, Shiozaki's chop was raging. Looking at the pictures, the flesh on Fujita's chest was rippling, and the impact of the chop reached the bone. Although Fujita is a wrestler who has played an active part in Mixed Martial Arts, it can be said that Shiozaki's unique approach to such opponents is to use simple "wrestling techniques".
At the beginning of his war in Noah, Fujita hated Shiozaki's chops uttering "it hurts". The technique is powerful, but winning the title match requires overcoming Shiozaki's chop's and lariats.

In this pre-match, Fujita received a chop from Shiozaki, but fought back by grabbing his arm, and hit him with a headbutt. He counterattacked with chops and elbows, and the match developed into violent beating. In the brawl outside the ring, he beat Shiozaki with the championship belt where head office were sitting.
Lastly, Fujita took down Shiozaki with a sleeper, and won the pre-match. The point of the victory is of course overcoming the chops.
After the match Sugiura appealed to the fans for them to realize the double championship with Fujita. Both will be fifty years old this year, but are still as powerful and energetic as young wrestlers.

The champion, Shiozaki, needs to retake Fujita, who has become used to the "chop" in the matches so far. Does Shiozaki do damage with another technique, or just punch and chop?
Shiozaki's "strong arm" and the ability to demonstrate its true value is the key to his first defensive match.

Translated from an article from AbemaTIMES by Munehiro Hashimoto
Picture credit: AbemaTIMES\Yahoo Japan

*Straight forward approach
*Sound of impact, the term is usually used in anime comics to indicate the sound of a blow.