(NOAH) EVENT RECAP ~ GLOBAL TAG LEAGUE, EPISODE 4 (13TH APRIL 2020)

Atsushi Kotoge was today's special guest commentator. As he doesn't do commentary that much he started off a little shy, but soon warmed up to it, even laughing when Katsuhiko Nakajima did his "Shutter Chance" at the camera. Naturally, this being Kotoge, there was a bit of static sound every now and again from the microphones as it well known that he can't keep still for long.

Noah Global League 2020, Episode 4: Night of The Monsters


BLOCK A
Unchains vs The Sugiura Army International 
(Kaito Kiyomiya & Shuhei Taniguchi vs El Hijo De Dr Wagner Jnr & Rene Dupre)

Right from the start of the match, both Kaito Kiyomiya and Rene Dupre had marked each other out as targets, and stared each other out even before Kiyomiya got in the ring. Kiyomiya was on the turnbuckle when The Sugiura Army attacked, and the two fights went outside the ring.

The two teams were well matched today in physique and height; both Kiyomiya and Dupre are tall and wiry (even if Kiyomiya does miss out on experience), with Taniguchi and El Hijo De Dr Wagner Jnr being thicker set. Kiyomiya and Dupre's exchanges were hard and fast, and Dupre later put those sharp elbows and quick fists to use taking down Taniguchi. He also threw a few sharp chops Kiyomiya's way too. El Hijo De Dr Wagner Jnr was heard audibly telling Kiyomiya "Mexican Wrestling" when he had him trapped in a surfboard type submission. Kinya Okada was on hand to cheer on his fellow Noah born.

Towards the end of the match Taniguchi and El Hijo De Dr Wagner Jnr flew into the steps following a dive by El Hijo de Dr Wagner Jnr, he seemed to be limping but managed to walk it off, Taniguchi stayed down for a little longer however. When they got back in the ring, Kiyomiya took out Dupre via a kind of top rope crossbody dive, and they both tumbled to the floor as the match entered its final moments in which even Kotoge (of all people) made an "Oooh" sound at Taniguchi's headbutt.

WINNER: Shuhei Taniguchi with a diving body press on El Hijo De Dr Wagner Jnr (12 minutes, 1 second)

Taniguchi then spoke on the microphone (which is rare), to scream that he and "Kaito-kun" of Unchained would win the victory. They did a small celebration on the ramp, with Kiyomiya pulling a grimace.

BLOCK B
AXIZ vs The Sugiura Army
(Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Takashi Sugiura & Hideki "Shrek" Sekine) 

As this is a tag league, neither champions bought the belt to the ring with them, but it could be said that this match doubled as a kind of pre-match between Nakajima and Sugiura, as Nakajima is challenging him for the GHC National.

The match started off quickly with Go Shiozaki and Takashi Sugiura clashing with each other in a flurry of punches, Sugiura rolled out of the ring in a rage as Shiozaki had knocked him down with chops, he then stood in the ring waiting for him to get in.

Katsuhiko Nakajima faced off against Hideki "Shrek" Sekine, and in true Nakajima style, wound him up over the lock up. Sekine, however, seemed to have done his homework on Nakajima, so he sat down on the mat like he does. This was only briefly, and after this Sekine began throwing Nakajima about the ring. He then got him in a chokehold, with the ref doing a good job if keeping Sugiura and Shiozaki outside of the ring, but Nakajima refused to quit. Sekine eventually broke the hold, slapped him around, gave him a few kicks and then tagged Sugiura in. Nakajima managed to tag Shiozaki in after Sugiura had managed to wind him up, and then rolled out of the ring into the protection of Kinya Okada.

Between Shiozaki and Sugiura we had the machine gun chops (Shiozaki seemed to have lost an athletic support on one of his elbows by this point), which were reversed by Sugiura into stiff corner punches. The match which had been desperate before now entered even more into this stage, Sugiura holding the avalanche brainbuster for the longest time on Shiozaki, Sugiura blocking Shiozaki's lariat by hitting him in the elbow, and then Nakajima did the Shutter Chance on Shrek, throwing him across the ring was like sliding a large barrell. Nakajima pointing at the photographers, and on commentary, Kotoge loved it. Shrek was also the victim of the "Endless Love".

Nakajima was the MVP of this match, felling Shrek with kicks, giving Sugiura really stiff kick to the face on the turnbuckle, and giving Shrek the dreaded soccer ball kicks. In true Nakajima style he paused before the final run up kick, pointed at Sugiura as if to say "this is for you", before knocking Shrek flat. Then for the finisher, Katsuhiko Nakajima lifted the 113kg Shrek into the Vertical Spike.

WINNER: Katsuhiko Nakajima with the Vertical Spike on Hideki "Shrek" Sekine (20 minutes, 56 seconds)


After the match, Nakajima spoke on the microphone and thanked everyone for watching, and said AXIZ would win the league championship, and asked whether this would be "Yes or No"? He then handed the microphone to Shiozaki;

Shiozaki: I am Noah!
Nakajima: Noah!

They then did the famous lean

Gif credit: DDT Universe 

Episode 4 of Global Tag League was streamed live on DDT Universe. You need a subscription to watch the event, first month is free and then it will be 900 yen per month. 

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