(NOAH CHRONOLOGY) GHC HEAVYWEIGHT TAG CHAMPIONSHIP: THE SUGIURA ARMY (TAKASHI SUGIURA & KAZUSHI SAKURABA)
Won: 30th August 2020, "Kawasaki! Go!" Kultz Kawasaki, Kawasaki
Number of title reigns: Kazushi Sakuraba (0), Takashi Sugiura (5)
Number of defenses: 4
Lost: "Great Voyage in Yokohama", 7th March 2021
Total number of days held: 190
Challengers
1. Kongoh (Masa Kitamiya & Manabu Soya)
2. The M'S Alliance (Naomichi Marufuji & Masakatsu Funaki)
3. Yoshiki Inamura & Kaito Kiyomiya
4. The Aggression (Katsuhiko Nakajima & Masa Kitamiya)
Vs Kongoh (Masa Kitamiya & Manabu Soya)
The challenge was made by Kenoh when Kongoh came stamping angrily down to the ring after Sugiura and Sakuraba had won the vacant titles, and saying that before the company could decide who challenged for the tag titles (Kenoh is a legendary paranoid), he knew of two guys who really wanted the belts; Manabu Soya and Masa Kitamiya. I think the original plan was probably to have THE TOUGH (Masa Kitamiya and Yoshiki Inamura) challenge, but due to the fact that Inamura had taken a lot of damage in the match earlier in the evening (plus the Hybrid Blaster finisher), and he did not come out with the rest of Kongoh, plans had to be changed.
The first pre-match (of sorts as it involved Takashi Sugiura) took place, not with Kazushi Sakuraba (who was absent from Noah that day) but against Takashi Sugiura and the much smaller and less powerful junior wrestler, NOSAWA Rongai, on the 24th October in Niigata. The bell rang, Kongoh immediately went on the attack, with Kitamiya knocking Sugiura out of the ring, and Soya felling NOSAWA with a giant lariat. The match only lasted 1 minute and 33 seconds. In the post match interview Kitamiya expressed deep disgust for The Sugiura Army, calling them "trained dogs who live to please" and likening themselves to "Mongrels who stand on two feet".
The tag champions took the opportunity to debut their new belts. Not the GHC Heavyweight Tag Championships by the way, but rather a set of custom made tag belts with "Sugi" and "Saku" written on them. They were apparently gifts from someone Sakuraba called "a junior". No doubt, the humorless Spartan Kongoh disapproved of such fun.
In the match itself, Kongoh started dominant, but Kazushi Sakuraba had identified Soya as being the least resilient of the two; Sugiura would take care of Kitamiya, and he would take care of Soya just like he did during the N-1 VICTORY, and true to his word he trapped Soya in a modified keylock, making him tap in 20 minutes and 10 seconds.
Vs The M'S Alliance (Naomichi Marufuji & Masakatsu Funaki)
As Masakatsu Funaki was not at Noah that day, Naomichi Marufuji came out to challenge for the titles. Takashi Sugiura, naturally thought that Marufuji meant the custom made titles, until Sakuraba jokingly put him right. There was other intentional comedy when Marufuji almost dropped the microphone, but aside from that they were all business.
The M'S Alliance have long been talking about challenging for titles; most famously, Keiji Mutoh keeping the rumor alive that he's going to be challenging for the GHC Heavyweight one day, but Marufuji's reasons were not only to get a belt, but because he was curious to see what Funaki vs Sakuraba was going to be like. The challenge was received amicably, with handshakes, and set for 22nd November at the Yokohama Budokan.
Masakatsu Funaki was only able to be at one pre-match, which took place on the 14th November in Hamamatsu. NOSAWA Rongai filled in for him, and usually got the worst of Naomichi Marufuji in the process. Naomichi Marufuji had said that he was interested to see what happened when Funaki took on Sugiura, and what happened was that the match finished with Takashi Sugiura going for the front neck lock, Funaki somehow reversed it and locked in his own choke and the referee stopped the match. Funaki had choked Takashi Sugiura out.
No one had ever done this to Sugiura, and Marufuji was confident of the win because of it.
The match started with the two MMA rivals taking each other to the mat, but Takashi Sugiura had a different approach and struck a massive slap on Masakatsu Funaki for choking him out in the pre-match, and then locked in his own.
Twenty years of fighting together and against each other has not changed the intensity of Naomichi Marufuji vs Takashi Sugiura, and they tore into each other, with Marufuji using an apron brainbuster on Sugiura at one point in the match. You couldn't hear the crowd screaming, but it's somehow there in memory. Later they had an exchange, which ended with Marufuji hitting the mat.
Kazushi Sakuraba doesn't like being chopped (no one does, Go Shiozaki said a chopping contest sounded like a nightmare to him), but from being in Noah he has gradually gotten more and more used to it. Marufuji told him that he wanted to chop him bare chested, and so far that hasn't happened, until today in the middle of their chop war, Marufuji pulled Sakuraba's top off. Then they had a kick war.
Marufuji was confident that The M's Alliance would be the winners today, even at one point counting a pin followed by a knee on Sakuraba, on his fingers, but overconfidence often comes with a price.
WINNER: Kazushi Sakuraba with a Modified Achilles tendon on Naomichi Marufuji (21 minutes, 25 seconds)
Vs Yoshiki Inamura & Kaito Kiyomiya
Yoshiki Inamura and Kaito Kiyomiya discussed challenging for the GHC Heavyweight tag titles on the 1st December, following their match (not against The Sugiura Army) backstage. Their challenger was never done publicly, and Noah announced it was a fact on the 2nd December. The title match will take place on the 19th December in Nagoya. This will mean that as there are no shows between the 2nd December and the 6th December (Yoyogi) and then Yoyogi and Nagoya, there will be no pre-matches, and they will go straight into the title match.
If this match belonged to anyone, it was Yoshiki Inamura. Fans came away full of praise, mentioning the stiff elbows he threw at Takashi Sugiura and how much they wanted to see him in next years N-1 VICTORY.
The Sugiura Army came out in their custom made tag belts, the GHC tag belts, their Chono glasses and their black and white company dog shirts. There was a lot to look at, and when he removed the glasses, Sugiura had a stern gaze for the young team of the shaved head simplistic Yoshiki Inamura and the more flashy Kaito Kiyomiya. The veterans had tricks up their sleeves that their opponents fell for, such as distracting the ref by making it look as if Kiyomiya was going to come into the ring, so they could double team Inamura. Kiyomiya had his moments, especially the mat wrestling with Sakuraba, and the elbow flurry with Sugiura.
As stated, the match was very much focused on Inamura, especially the last ten minutes or so when he fought one one with Takashi Sugiura, he had done so before in the match, but up until now no match against his idol had been more important. The crowd were behind Inamura, clapping away. Sugiura went for the choke, but Kiyomiya managed to get in to break it. Splash Mountain worked, but Sugi kicked out, Sugi turned the Musou into a front neck lock, but he himself broke the hold to pin Inamura. Inamura fought until there was no light left, but he got his second wind when Sugi's elbows seemed to fire him up and not knock him down, but despite his loss to the Olympic Slam, fans said that this is the start of Inamura's blooming.
WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with the Olympic Slam on Yoshiki Inamura (23 minutes, 59 seconds)
Vs The Aggression (Katsuhiko Nakajima & Masa Kitamiya)
Kazushi Sakuraba was not present at Korakuen Hall on 31st January 2021, when Masa Saito defeated Takashi Sugiura via Saito Slam, and then did what fans had been hoping for; challenge for the tag belts. Saito (in-calculated with the Kenoh doctrine of "old men getting drunk in an Izakaya under the Railway tracks") said,
"No Sakuraba today? I can't let the stupid old men of The Sugiura Army have the belt forever! We will challenge for the tag! Sugiura, remember! Kongoh will not leave beaten!"
Backstage, Katsuhiko Nakajima said "The only thing I want to say is that The Aggression has restarted."
Title match has been set for the 7th March 2021 at The Yokohama Budokan. Noah are giving a long build for this one.
The first pre-match took place on the 12th February at The Nippon Budokan, and although it pit The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kazuyuki Fujita, Kazunari Murakami, Kendo Kashin & NOSAWA Rongai vs Kongoh (Katsuhiko Nakajima, Masa Kitamiya, Manabu Soya, Haoh, Nioh & Tadasuke), it was inconclusive with Takashi Sugiura getting the win over Nioh via Olympic Slam, rather than Nakajima or Kitamiya.
With Kazushi Sakuraba not in Sendai on the 21st February, and Katsuhiko Nakajima in the main event, Masa Kitamiya teamed with Tadasuke to take on Takashi Sugiura and NOSAWA Rongai on the 23rd. Takashi Sugiura won the match with the Olympic Slam on Kitamiya. Later, Katsuhiko Nakajima said that it didn't matter that Kitamiya had lost (interestingly he also called them "THE AGGRESSION", with no mention of Kongoh), as he didn't consider it a pre-match, as Kazushi Sakuraba wasn't there. In his usual butter-wouldn't-melt way, Nakajima asked if the champions had something to hide by not doing them?
Nakajima was to find that someone indeed did have something to hide, and it was going to be used against him, when he finally got his wish to fight both Takashi Sugiura and Kazuyuki Fujita in a pre-match at Korakuen Hall on the 24th February. Luring Nakajima into thinking he was just a playful old man who didn't take wrestling seriously, Sakuraba had joked lightly on Twitter to Nakajima, that the move he was practicing the "Calf Kick" was merely a "Scarf kick", because his neck was cold. In the match, Nakajima discovered just how devastating this move was when he was felled with an ankle kick and then had the move locked in, and humiliatingly, he tapped. After the match, Sugiura told a grimacing Kitamiya and an aghast Nakajima, that they weren't just two old men who liked to joke around, they had fun doing pro wrestling.
The Aggression were on form when they came to the ring in Yokohama, even Katsuhiko Nakajima looked serious, and the irritating smile was only ever seen once. For months now (and probably well over a year), Noah have been building up Masa Kitamiya vs Takashi Sugiura, not as a singles match, but more a way for Kitamiya to overcome Sugiura. The two started the match with Kitamiya besting Sugiura in the shoulder tackles, and then the test of strength. Kitamiya was very much the star of this match, having to come to Nakajima's rescue and wriggle his way out of Sugiura's keeping him back, from helping Nakajima. He also locked in two prison locks, the second one being the one where he attacked one of Sugiura's knees to make it worse.
Katsuhiko Nakajima (aside from one moment where his ego almost cost them the match), had his knee\leg targeted by Sakuraba, which drove him into a fury, but his role was supportive, as by the end of the match it was Nakajima keeping Sakuraba out of the ring and yelling to Kitamiya to finish it. Kitamiya went for the Saito Suplex, but Sugiura kicked out, vicious punches were used and Sugiura fell to which Kitamiya slammed him on his knee and locked in the Prison Lock. Time was ticking, and knowing that Sugiura was not going to quit, Kitamiya grabbed him by the hair and a sicking thud echoed through the arena. Dazed, and with blood dripping down his face, Kitamiya took the pin and won THE AGGRESSION the titles.
Next champions: THE AGGRESSION
Links
Kazushi Sakuraba continues to evolve, victory following submission from calf kick
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