(NOAH) EVENT RECAP ~ "NOAH IN THE SPOTLIGHT", 11TH JUNE 2020 (DAY 2)

Noah held their explosive second night of this three night junior show, which was broadcast on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. The event was not a free stream, but if you are a subscriber to the service (which I advise that you do if you can), you can view it here. As ever, the middle show of the three nights, bridges the gap between the two and sets the scene for what is going to be an exciting (and most likely full of swerves) final night. 

MATCH ONE

Black Spider VII & SUSHI vs Kongoh (Hao and Nio)

SUSHI danced on entry, while Kongoh remained unimpressed (and I remember the last time someone danced at Kongoh). Somewhat of a clumsy opener to the evening in terms of match style in parts, and 

SUSHI with an intentional comedy spot where he fell off the ropes and claimed to hurt his knee. Aside from Hao being the star of this match, sadly I don't have much more to say about it. 

WINNER: Hao with the Firebird Splash on SUSHI (13 minutes)

Kongoh have now had two wins on two consecutive nights, can they make a three tomorrow? 

FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara & Yoshika Seiki) vs The Sugiura Army (Kendo Kashin, Kaz Hayashi and NOSAWA Rongai)

Unlike Atsushi Kotoge, there was no bouncy entry from The Sugiura Army, they were all business, they came marching to the ring looking menacing with Kendo Kashin again knocking the trainee off of the apron for good measure. Atsushi Kotoge objected to this, and a melee fight broke out which went to ringside

The friction between Hayashi and Yoshioka was building from the early stages of the match, a punch war turned to kick vs chop war as the others looked on, it was almost as if they were being seconded in a singles match. Hayashi even used something like Kawada kicks.

Hajime Ohara and Kendo Kashin is a match that fans want to see and a match that needs to happen, and there is a rivalry budding between them. Very fast and very technical (they both have an MMA background), with Ohara being smart enough (naturally) not to trust Kashin's handshake. Kashin apparently remembered this as he was later busted by the ref for pulling the rope away from Ohara who was trying to reach it with his foot when being tortured by NOSAWA. Kashin's behavior got even worse, when he pulled the ref out of the ring, looked around for someone to blame. 

Fast paced match with Kotoge bouncing off the ropes at high speed, and Yoshioka picking up the first win for FULL THROTTLE 

WINNER: Seiki Yoshioka with the Crash Driver on Kaz Hayashi (13 minutes, 38 seconds)

Yoshioka and Hayashi squared up after the match, with Yoshioka pulling Hayashi's hair and shoving his head away. As The Sugiura Army slunk off to lick their wounds, there were some difficulties in "leadership" that seemed to emerge between FULL THROTTLE, with Yoshioka taking exception to Kotoge's somewhat manic celebration for the win, almost as if he was taking it for himself. It took Ohara the peacemaker to diffuse the situation. 

STINGER (Kotaro Suzuki, Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA) & Kinya Okada vs Kaito Kiyomiya, Daisuke Harada, Tadasuke & YO-HEY.

Daisuke Harada came out looking tired and angry, trailing his belt at his side, while YO-HEY was slightly more animated, although somewhat sad looking. Kaito Kiyomiya, completely removed from what was going on between the juniors and with his own agenda that evening, was somewhat removed from it all. Funny thing was that the juniors were much the same with him, which shows the cavern which has split open between the two divisions. The juniors cared as much for his rainmaker pose at the end, as he did for their unit war. This was an insane match with bodies rushing everywhere and action going on everywhere you looked, the ref needed to have eyes in the back and side of his head as there was so much going on.

This match had two storylines running through it, STINGER vs Harada, Tadasuke & YO-HEY and Kaito Kiyomiya vs Kinya Okada which is the old timeless story, a junior wants to overcome his senior. Additionally, the match also gave Ogawa a chance to assess the latest generation of Noah, and Kiyomiya came out of it (with an elbow and arm that was attacked by Kotaro and Ogawa in particular), saying that there were things to learn that could only be learned in this match. 

The match started (and would periodically erupt into) melee fights, with STINGER fighting their opponents outside the ring, while the two Noah born (Kiyomiya and Okada) fought in it. Okada gave good and swift offense against Kiyomiya, but Kiyomiya, the senior got the upper hand. You almost feel like telling Okada that kicking Kiyomiya is no good, he's used to it. 

This was a rare match up for Kiyomiya, to face Kotaro Suzuki (I think for the first time) and Yoshinari Ogawa. However, it was kind of forgotten for some of the match that he was even there, Harada and Ogawa being fixated on each other (Ogawa was not interested in YO-HEY, told him to tag Harada in at one point), however that being said Ogawa's other focus of the evening, was Kiyomiya. 

HAYATA was the main target, with Tadasuke out for revenge since being kicked in the groin yesterday

and later punching HAYATA repeatedly on the mat, to be warned by the ref. HAYATA is loving being sadistic in a heel unit, and in true Ogawa style, he struck a rear crotch kick on Harada, but ultimately he and his former friends know each other very well, and HAYATA was going to remember it when he was tandem kicked. 

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Stretch Plum Face Lock on Kinya Okada (27 minutes and 24 seconds)

Kaito Kiyomiya may have won for the team, but this was not the result that the former RATELS wanted. They wanted the win over HAYATA in particular. Harada spoke on the microphone after the match and told HAYATA that he wanted a singles match with him to settle this, and it would be just them, no STINGER, no Tadasuke, no YO-HEY, no one but them. Although HAYATA made no comment, he and Harada will be in a singles match on the 12th June. But before all of that, another fight broke out, in which STINGER got rid of the former RATELS, and HAYATA tandem kicked Harada as STINGER held him. YO-HEY made the save, STINGER left, and Tadasuke and YO-HEY saw to Harada.

Harada then threw a tantrum by shaking the barrier in anger on the way out.

The final night of "NOAH THE SPOTLIGHT" will be broadcast on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at 19.00 JST. 

GIF credit: WRESTLE UNIVERSE