(NOAH) EVENT RECAP "DEPARTURE 2020 Day 2" (5th August 2020, Korakuen Hall)

Twenty years ago today Pro Wrestling Noah held their very first show at Differ Ariake, so many people had turned up to buy tickets (this was 2000, people couldn't buy tickets electronically, so they sold them at the door or purchased via a phone call to the box office), that monitors had to be put up in the parking lot for them to watch the show. Noah have had a turbulent twenty years; the Golden Era of stadiums was all but destroyed when Misawa died, then came scandal, talent walkout, business troubles, and almost constant changes in ownership as Noah drifted on seas that were either rough or else just flat and featureless, with no safe harbor in sight. Thankfully, over the past few years things while rough, have gradually gotten better, and Noah have arrived today at this point. Korakuen should have been packed out with people today, but sadly due to the Coronavirus, audience capacity has to be limited through necessity, but that doesn't matter - people have come, and Noah is still here and looking to the future. Their long term sponsors, THE LEAVE, sent them flowers which were placed in the lobby. 

Noah was not the only one to be celebrating an anniversary today, Daisuke Harada was celebrating his 14th anniversary in wrestling. 

MATCH ONE

Katsuhiko Nakajima, Mohammed Yone & Kinya Okada vs The Anti Wrestlers Alliance (Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue) & Seiya Morohashi

It's been a while since we have seen Seiya Morohashi, but he still looks the same. Still in great condition, and making Kinya Okada inspired to emulate him. Speaking of Okada, comedic as they often are, The Anti Wrestlers Alliance, with Akitoshi Saito's style of wrestling (plus the Showa Era flag waving), is a good team for him to face for his style.

Katsuhiko Nakajima came out looking a little subdued since the loss of the championship, but this is wrestling, you win a title, you lose a title, the only way forward is to put it behind you and look ahead to the next one, and he got back to normal with the evil smile, by stamping on Masao Inoue's gouty toes, kicking him around (both in and outside of the ring) and goading him into attacking him. Who can blame the crowd for laughing, especially when Yone joined in in trying to scare him? 

A strong opener and very apt for Noah's "Golden Era". 

WINNER: Mohammed Yone with Kinniku Buster on Seiya Morohashi (12 minutes, 51 seconds)

MATCH TWO

Kaito Kiyomiya, Shuhei Taniguchi & Daiki Inaba vs FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara & Seiki Yoshioka)

Although Atsushi Kotoge was seemingly a little calmer today, he was still herded into the corner (he forgot to take his hat off), by his teammates, so Hajime Ohara could start off against Shuhei Taniguchi, which surprisingly works well despite the size and weight difference. 

The team of Kaito Kiyomiya, Daiki Inaba and Shuhei Taniguchi came out to Kiyomiya's music, which was a little to "young boy" for Shuhei Taniguchi, whose music they should have been coming out to as he is the senior. Daiki Inaba was not interested in Kotoge making bike firing up motions and going "Brum Brum" (note, in Japanese it's "Bun Bun", but this means something different in English as its Japanese onomatopoeic for a bike revving up). Ohara got into the spirit, and made the motions when he had Inaba in a hold, and Kotoge was bouncing off the ropes. While we are on the subject of FULL THROTTLE, Seiki Yoshika is still going into the crowd and over the barrier when he moonsaults, he probably got ticked off about this yesterday, so he got away from the crowd pretty quick

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Tiger Suplex Hold on Hajime Ohara (13 minutes, 33 seconds)

While Atsushi Kotoge had dramatics, acting like a mourner on an Egyptian tomb relief over the fallen Ohara as their opponents celebrated, fans wanted to see what Taniguchi was going to do, but Taniguchi seemed to have no problems with Kiyomiya or Inaba, and so it is thought that they will make a three man unit. However, as fans have warned Kiyomiya about Taniguchi, be careful - he has betrayed pretty much every partner he has ever had, so it may be that he is only biding his time. 

MATCH THREE

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

There were two stories to this match, one main and one secondary; the main story is that this is the final pre-match between HAYATA and Daisuke Harada before their IPW Junior Heavyweight match on the 10th August in Yokohama, and YO-HEY'S to defeat Kotaro, he is more focused on this than fighting HAYATA at the moment. So, Harada and HAYATA started, and the usual STINGER vs RATELS melee fight broke out when Harada went for the Katayama German in the opening few minutes, when order was restored, Ogawa outside the ring decided to start cheating, and pulled Harada's legs. 

Harada made a foolish mistake for him, by falling into the trap of wanting to punish someone more when they were vulnerable, rather than just go for the pin while STINGER were fighting outside the ring with Tadasuke and YO-HEY, and HAYATA was flat out on the mat. Predictably, HAYATA reversed the move and took the three directly from Harada. 

WINNER: HAYATA with the Samsung Clutch (12 minutes, 29 seconds)

MATCH FOUR

The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazuyashi Sakuraba, Kendo Kashin, Hideki Suzuki, NOSAWA Rongai & Kaz Hayashi) vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya, Manabu Soya, Yoshiki Inamura, Haoh and Nioh)

There was some concern caused by Yoshiki Inamura not coming out yesterday with the rest of Kongoh to second him for his title match, but he seemed fine today. Kenoh made his first appearance as champion, and didn't even react when one fan with a very enterprising sign, a cardboard replica of the GHC National Belt, had it stolen by Kendo Kashin and put over the shoulder of Kazuyashi Sakuraba. 

Kashin, however, was not as dignified, he came out waving a steel barrier around, Hideki Suzuki told him to put it down, and then the ref wouldn't let him bring it into the ring. Takashi Sakura made his own entry, and Kashin almost fell over himself to hold the ropes open by pushing one of the  trainees off the apron to hold the ropes open for The Boss. Sugiura was not impressed by this, and neither was he at the Noah t-shirt that Kashin was wearing, tapping him on the back and telling him that next time he expected him to be wearing a Sugiura Army company dog t-shirt.  

After Kenoh and Sakuraba had done with mat wrestling, it was time for Hideki Suzuki vs Manabu Soya. A test of strength started with the immovable meets the immovable, and neither could get an advantage, it then went backwards and forwards and went to the corner. Nishinaga went to seperate them, and he got pushed away. Control was retained when Kitamiya tagged in. 

Sugiura-Gun nominated Sugiura to face Kitamiya, Sugi protesting as he had told the younger guys previously to go and do the shoulder tackles after they had told him that it didn't look so hard, so NOSAWA (the prime leader in this) was thrown in. Sugiura wasn't going to let him tag out and no one dared disobey him. Naturally, it didn't go well and so NOSAWA tried to escape, so Sugi did what he did to him, and threw him back in. NOSAWA was saved when it ended in a melee brawl, at the end of which which Sugi took out all of Kongoh, and Sakuraba finally got to do his top rope dive. 

After the Sugiura and Kenoh punch war, and Kitamiya's display of his bear like strength in which he lifted and slammed Suzuki, Yoshiki Inamura hit the ring roaring loudly to face Hideki Suzuki (Inamura had drawn on his sumo background earlier, by using a slap attack to drive Kashin back), he refused to give in to Suzuki until Kongoh were able to storm the ring and rescue him, but it was to be the veteran and not the junior, who got the win. 

WINNER: Hideki Suzuki with Double Arm Suplex on Yoshiki Inamura (19 minutes, 58 seconds)

Before leaving the ring, The Sugiura Army did the LIDET pose. 

MATCH FIVE

GHC Heavyweight Championship

Naomichi Marufuji vs Go Shiozaki

There was a highly charged atmosphere at Korakuen for the main event. It must have taken superhuman will for the crowd to remain silent during the match, although right at the end they did let out a kind of muted cheer. 

This was everything that is expected of a GHC Heavyweight title match, and Misaws would have been proud. It started slowly to build up the emotion, the story behind it (i.e. the growth of the junior and the senior who wants to make his mark in Noah's 20th year), it had psychology, endurance, and overall it was a pure fight, and truly represented the Noah aesthetics. There were even some old school elements too, which Marufuji pulling out an old move combo, and a nasty looking piledriver from the apron to the floor, - Shiozaki just crawled back in the ring at the count of 19, a few seconds more and it would have been 20.

Naturally, the last few days have been rough on Shiozaki, today his shoulder was taped which extended down his arms, athletic supports on both elbows, and a speckled chest from being chopped, which Marufuji took advantage of when hitting the Tiger King Knee at Shiozaki's taped arm, capitalizing on the side of Shiozaki's head to prepare for his newest nastiest move, and then eventually locking in the "Perfect Key Lock". The crowd were frantically clapping as Shiozaki was trying to get out of it and reach the ropes, sadistically, Marufuji rolled him away from them. Shiozaki dragged himself back, Marufuji clung on, while outside the ring Nakajima was pounding the mat, the clapping and stamping from the crowd were rising to a crescendo, and Shiozaki made it to the ropes. 

When the Shiranui didn't work, it was time for Tiger Driver. Unfortunately, Shiozaki is bigger and stronger, and lifting him, he put Marufuji on the turnbuckles. Marufuji turned this into Kai Shiranui.

Shiozaki kicked out. 

Marufuji then went for a volley of kicks,  and the crowd could not stop their exclamation when Shiozaki kicked out.

Then Korakuen started holding its breath, as Marufuji stalked Shiozaki and hit a trus kick. 

Shiozaki kicked out. 

The True Tiger King...Shiozaki kicked out, and then in true Kobashi style, he had just about all he could take, and started fighting back 

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Moonsault Press (30 minutes, 56 seconds)

After the match, Naomichi Marufuji motioned for the belt, the ref bought it over and he took it and in a symbolic passing of the torch from one generation of Noah, from one heir of Noah to another, from one symbol of Noah to the next, he handed it to Go Shiozaki. They shook hands, and he left the ring. Later he wrote on Twitter that Shiozaki was strong, and thanked him for the match.

A champion is rarely without challengers, especially if that champion is a GHC Heavyweight Champion, as Kenoh was ready and waiting to challenge. Kenoh came to the ring and congratulated Shiozaki on his title defense, and basically said that there was only room in Noah for one strong guy, and challenged him to belt vs belt, the GHC National would be on the line as would the GHC Heavyweight. Shiozaki accepted and telling Kenoh to, "bring your belt to Yokohama", he set the match for the event there on the 10th August. When Kenoh had gone, Shiozaki addressed the crowd, saying that he didn't really like belt vs belt title matches, but he will do it, and prove he is the strongest. He ended with "I AM NOAH!! WE ARE NOAH!!"   

With thanks to: Abeshin, Metal Noah

GIFS taken from G+