(NOAH) Card ~ "NOAH the CHRONICLE vol.3", Yokohama Bunka Gym, 10th August 2020

Noah make one final return to the old Yokohama Bunka Gym, which has been a place of memories for them over the past twenty years, before it undergoes renovations to make it more modern (among fans it has a reputation that despite being beloved, it is old fashioned, can be uncomfortable and has a tendency to be bitterly cold in the winter). For this era of Noah which doesn't have the stadiums like it once had, the old Yokohama Bunka Gym has become their stadium and (like Osaka) is seen as big event territory. 

Tonight's card is not going to disappoint. 

The event will be streamed live on ABEMA, and will be free to view worldwide. It will only be available to view for seven days after the event finishes, after that it will be placed on WRESTLE UNIVERSE, and you will need a subscription to view. 

Gong sounds at 4pm JST. 

MATCH ONE
Tadasuke & YO-HEY vs Kongoh (Haoh & Nioh)

Opening match which pits the former RATELS against Kongoh, as their bosses (or indeed, former boss in the case of Tadasuke and YO-HEY), have important matches tonight. 

MATCH TWO
STINGER (Kotaro Suzuki & Yoshinari Ogawa) & Kinya Okada vs FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara, Seiki Yoshioka)

Atsushi Kotoge said in one of his more sane moments, that next on the FULL THROTTLE agenda was to get some championship belts, and to do that, they have got to go through STINGER who hold the GHC Junior Tag and the GHC Junior Heavyweight. There are three of FULL THROTTLE, and three of STINGER, and providing that FULL THROTTLE can agree on who is challenging for what, we may see both championships challenged for.  

MATCH THREE
M'S Alliance (Naomichi Marufuji, Masaaki Mochizuki & Yuko Miyamoto) vs Katsuhiko Nakajima, Shuhei Taniguchi & Mohammed Yone

There may be another "M" in this match that joins the M'S alliance, after all, Mohammed Yone has been floating around with not really much to do since 50 Funky Powers broke up. 

MATCH FOUR
IPW Junior Heavyweight Championship Match
Daisuke Harada vs HAYATA

This is an empty title match, as the promotion the belt belongs to no longer exists and won't ever again probably. HAYATA wants the belt out of spite; not only did he break up RATELS when he turned on them, and took the GHC Junior Tag Title away from YO-HEY, but now he wants to take the final thing that Daisuke Harada has, which is somewhat sadly a title which is nothing but a symbol of the memory of Noah's "Golden Era". HAYATA pinned Daisuke Harada directly in the pre-matches, has made Harada vow that not only will he defend, he will also be out for revenge. 

Noah once stated that they wondered if this would be the end, or would it? Somehow, I think that we are going to see another twist in the story tonight.    

MATCH FIVE
The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba & Kendo Kashin) vs Kongoh (Masa Kitamiya, Manabu Soya & Yoshiki Inamura)

Kongoh's three heavyweights team together to take on Kongoh's mortal enemies, The Sugiura Army. All eyes are going to be on Yoshiki Inamura, who is coming very close to getting his first big win. If he gets it here on a main stage like Yokohama, there is going to be no stopping him. 

MATCH SIX
Special Single Match
Keiji Mutoh vs Kaito Kiyomiya

Kaito Kiyomiya has gotten his wish to face Keiji Mutoh in a singles match. For Kiyomiya this will be a chance to overcome a senior of a generation he does not come across much (i.e. the most senior wrestlers of the Showa Era of All Japan & New Japan), and in the case of Mutoh who was one of the "Three Musketeers", this will be the closest he will ever come to wrestling one of the "The Four Pillars". Kiyomiya says he must overcome him in order to be able to progress (it's become an obsession), but for Mutoh, whether he wins or whether he loses, he's looking ahead of Kiyomiya with a challenge for the GHC Heavyweight in mind. 

MATCH SEVEN
GHC Heavyweight & GHC National Double Championship Match
Go Shiozaki vs Kenoh

For the first time ever the GHC Heavyweight title will be put on the line in a belt vs belt challenge. To be quite clear, neither Kenoh or Go Shiozaki have any intention of unifying the titles, and this is not a title unification match; the winner will become a double champion, and the belts will be challenged for separately should either Shiozaki or Kenoh become double champion. For Shiozaki this is a chance to exceed any other GHC Heavyweight title match he has had before (Kenta Kobashi also wants to see this), but for Kenoh the challenge (and if he gets the win) will mean he can take Noah to the next step. 

Picture credit: Noah.co.jp