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

Pro Wrestling Noah have been coming to the Yokohama Bunka Gym since they were four months old, and now with all the memories packed inside, they came here one last time and said goodbye. The old venue, opened in 1962, is now going to be torn down completely and replaced with a new venue called the Yokohama United Arena, which is due to open in 2024. 

Fans came to see Noah's final event here (buying the Noah crepes on the way), while others watched in the new innovation Noah made, by having them watch on ZOOM. For the rest of us, we watched on ABEMA (available to view for seven days from the date of the event, afterwards it will be put on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. ABEMA is free to view, WRESTLE UNIVERSE is not). At the venue merchandise stalls had been set up, and after the fans had gone through the usual temperature checks, they found that Noah's longterm sponsors, THE LEAVE, had left hand-fans on the seats for them. An additional treat was Yoshinari Ogawa holding one of his famous classes in the ring before the event began, with HAYATA, Katsuhiko Nakajima and Kinya Okada in attendance. 

Attendance was good, although Noah are not currently announcing just how many attended, whilst on ABEMA 243K people worldwide tuned in. 

At ringside where the celebrity commentators Jurina Matsui (who is so far the youngest and only girl member of M'S Alliance) who proudly showed off her gold membership card, and Kuniko Yamada, who was wearing a tank top reading "KAITO" over her kimono, and who looked like she would really like to be a member too, but sadly for Kuniko, she has no M in her initials. 

MATCH ONE

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

Fans have often whispered that for RATELS, Yokohama is cursed - it was where YO-HEY turned on them to join STINGER, it was where YO-HEY had his collapsed lung, it was where HAYATA sustained a rib injury, and for tonight for what was left of RATELS, the curse was about to get worse. 

All started as normal, Crazy Tadasuke and colorful YO-HEY came to the ring. YO-HEY with the crazy lock up on Nioh, he even pulled the thunderbolt pose to mock him with. Tadasuke looking every bit the heavyweight as he threw Haoh and Nioh around, and things even got a bit GinGin Boys (I'm not going to explain. Look it up if you dare). Then as YO-HEY and Tadasuke went to bounce Haoh off the ropes, Tadasuke lariated YO-HEY and almost took his head off. The tragic thing was that for YO-HEY, was that he was almost getting some normality back, HAYATA had gone, but he thought he still had Tadasuke and Harada, right? Wrong. 

Tadasuke stood there celebrating, a manically wild grin on his face as Haoh got the pin. 

WINNER: Haoh with the Jackknife pin on YO-HEY (8 minutes, 13 seconds)

Tadasuke had not done this for Kongoh, they were just as surprised as everyone else, and left quickly. Tadasuke, however walked over to YO-HEY, bent down to look at him for a few seconds, and then walked off. Backstage he said that he had his reasons, he hated Daisuke Harada who he repeatedly said was "selfish" for thinking of nothing but HAYATA, and he never ever wanted to hear the word "RATELS" ever again. On his Instagram account, against a black background with white writing, he said that for now he would not be doing anymore Instagram lives (he gets drunk and passes out). 

MATCH TWO

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

You could tell from the beginning of this match that something was up with FULL THROTTLE, especially as Seiki Yoshioka right from the start wanted Kotaro Suzuki. Kotaro won Kuniko's heart, by stopping Yoshioka from going into the table again by pulling him off the apron, and getting a thumbs up from her. Yoshioka would later do his flip, but he went into the crowd. Kotaro, who used to wind KENTA up during their junior days, wasn't going to take being kicked by Yoshioka, but much to his horror, Yoshioka managed to reverse the rolling elbow.

Atsushi Kotoge was his usual hyper self (he was twitchy and couldn't stand still), which caused Yoshinari Ogawa to do what is the standard response in Noah to this; ignore him. 

Kinya Okada showed further growth, by using his kicks to do more than just kick people.  I think Ogawa has probably taught him to use what is around him, as Ogawa draped an arm of his opponent over the ropes and kicked it. 

WINNER: Seiki Yoshioka with a Reverse Cross on Kotaro Suzuki (11 minutes, 1 seconds)

Yoshinari Ogawa couldn't believe it, and for that matter neither could Kotaro. With a big grin, Yoshioka when challenged Kotaro for the GHC Junior Heavyweight. Unlike Ogawa, Kotaro will accept all comers, and so accepted the challenge which will be held in Kawasaki on the 30th August. 

Then Noah's nutcase, Atsushi Kotoge, got on the microphone and challenged for the GHC Junior Tag on behalf of himself and Hajime Ohara. However, the mic wasn't on, so he did it again, but by that time Ogawa had already left. No date for the tag challenge has been announced, so expect Ogawa make them jump through a few more hoops before he says yes. 

FULL THROTTLE left the ring with Hajime Ohara, the leader, left giving Yoshioka a pep talk as Kotoge followed on behind. 

MATCH THREE

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

The M'S Alliance are veterans, who generally have easy matches (aside from the occasional title match or singles match), and who have more than deserved an easy payday. This was one of those times. They are colorful like their rivals (but not enemies) The Sugiura Army, although less chaotic and Naomichi Marufuji has no wilful juniors to control.  

Katsuhiko Nakajima came to the ring looking his usual sinister self, and in the ring was his usual cocky self. Enjoying kicking around Miyamoto. For someone who loves the camera as much as Nakajima, Shutter Chance is a great move, and from ringside Kuniko even took a picture. Miyamoto eventually escaped this hold by sinking his teeth into his foot, and then he did his own version which Masaaki Mochizuki joined in with. Marufuji got a few kicks in, and was told off by the ref. Nakajima and Mochi also got into a kick war.

Shuhei Taniguchi and Naomichi Marufuji decided to square up to each other before their N-1 league match. Taniguchi was as ever expressionless, and looked like he was yawning when he entered the ring, although he looked a little more animated when Marufuji's rope break involved him doing his hair, and looking over Taniguchi's shoulder as if he were looking in a mirror. Taniguchi even turned to look to see if there was one there. Later they got into a punch\chop war and Monster Taniguchi showed his dominance by piling M'S Alliance on top of each other.

As for Mohammed Yone, The Disco King. Masaaki Mochizuki was not impressed by his Disco Fever rope breaks or move stops. No one is impressed by it, Marufuji once chopped him for it, Nakajima has giggled at it, RATELS were terrified by it, I have no idea what Tsuyochi Kikuchi thought it was, and the look on the face of Yone's former tag partner, Quiet Storm, was probably the funniest reaction to it ever. However, as fans were expecting he might, Yone did not join the M'S Alliance

WINNER: Naomichi Marufuji with the True Tiger King on Mohammed Yone (15 minutes, 40 seconds)

Although this happened after the match with Kaito Kiyomiya, I am going to post it here as I won't get a chance to mention it later, Keiji Mutoh said that he would be bringing a mystery M to Kawasaki on the 30th August. 

MATCH FOUR

IPW Junior Heavyweight Championship Match

Daisuke Harada vs HAYATA

(Made my "Match of The Year list 2020")

HAYATA as the challenger came to the ring first, and was joined at ringside by Kotaro Suzuki and a tired looking Ogawa, Kotaro and Ogawa stayed out of the match and did not attempt to interfere. Tadasuke did not appear either, dispelling the notion (for now, we may discover more later), that he had joined STINGER. 

Daisuke Harada came to the ring and got in very slowly as he suspected that HAYATA would attack him before the bell even went, and as HAYATA knows him very well, he knew that Harada would be expecting this and so he made no move.

It was a very bitter fight, and they knew each other so so well so at times they ended up circling each other trying to figure each other out and guessing what each other would do next, with Harada able to block HAYATA'S kicks, and reverse The Headache, but only a few times. It won out in the end.  

WINNER: HAYATA with The Headache (15 minutes, 6 minutes)

With HAYATA gone, and Tadasuke turned rogue and saying he never wants to hear about RATELS ever again, all that was left of RATELS now was Harada and YO-HEY. Harada, the victim of every betrayal of his friends, and YO-HEY the one who had started all of this in Yokohama in 2018. It was very sad to see YO-HEY come to ringside, take one look at HAYATA (who took no notice of them, and left dragging the belt behind him), and help Harada up and to the back. 

HAYATA dealt with the IPW belt by saying "Belt. Return", before throwing it in a bin and walking off.

MATCH FIVE

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

This was a lighthearted match which I think the fans needed, which served as a buffer between what had just happened and what was going to come. Kendo Kashin managed to behave himself, not knocking the trainee off the apron, or waving iron barriers around when he comes to the ring. However, NOSAWA was at ringside to keep an eye on things. So while the Sugiura Army are dysfunctional in some respects, they are united in others. 

Despite Sugiura having two smaller and slimmer wrestlers, to face Kongoh's monsters (Inamura is managing to even dwarf Sugiura in size), the match was very much a heavyweight one. Sakuraba mat wrestled Manabu Soya, the building shook when Sugiura and Kitamiya shoulder tackled each other, which Kitamiya won by knocking Sugi down, and a confused NOSAWA looked on as Sugiura took out Kongoh and imitated Mutoh's pose. You could tell that Kitamiya & Sugiura were building up to something. 

WINNER: Kazushi Sakuraba with the Rolling Arm Lock on Manabu Soya (15 minutes, 18 seconds)

Noah then made a couple of announcements; the long awaited N-1 participants for the heavyweight league were announced (understandably there are no gaijin this year, and very few outside Japanese talent with Yoshiki Inamura making his first N-1 appearance), and the relinquishment of the GHC Heavyweight tag belts by Rene Dupree and El Hijo De Dr Wagner Jnr. Via video, Dupree announced that due to the difficulties of travel caused by the Coronavirus, the belts were being vacated. Symbolically he laid them in the ring and said that he and El Hijo De Dr Wagner Jnr would be back for them. It was announced the next day by Narihiro Takeda (Noah's CEO) that Dupree requested that AXIZ face Takashi Sugiura and Kazushi Sakuraba. Match has been set for the 30th in Kawasaki. 

MATCH SIX

Special Single Match

Keiji Mutoh vs Kaito Kiyomiya

It must be said that Kaito Kiyomiya been studying Mutoh, able to reverse some moves, and do some of Mutoh's own moves on him, but this is an older style of wrestling for Kiyomiya, although he has at an advantage as Noah trainees are taught to wrestle the ethics of King's Road, this is an older style to what he is used to. Kenta Kobashi was watching on ZOOM, and held up the "Fist of Youth". 

Despite this being Mutoh's first singles match since his knee operation (he had two artificial knee joints put in), he is still very powerful, working on Kiyomiya's knees constantly. The veteran dominated the first part of the match, with Kiyomiya getting the wind back in his sails for the second half, but the constant wear down on Kiyomiya's knees proved too much and Kiyomiya grabbed the ref, and almost begged him to make Mutoh stop. The day will come when it will be a much older Kiyomiya, a veteran, who is challenged by a young ace. 

WINNER: Keiji Mutoh via submission with the Figure 4 Leglock (27 minutes, 7 seconds)

MATCH SEVEN

GHC Heavyweight & GHC National Double Championship Match

Go Shiozaki vs Kenoh

(Made my "Match of The Year list 2020")

"This is Noah. This is the GHC"

Noah have had a belt vs belt match before, most notably Naomichi Marufuji putting the AJPW Junior on the line against KENTA who was holding the GHC Junior in 2008. As great as their match was, Marufuji had to admit that in his opinion this was better. This is the first time that the GHC Heavyweight (and the GHC National for that matter) has ever been defended in this way. This match turned into a sixty minute ironman match, as neither would give up or give in. 

Kenoh "The Red Champion" as fans are now calling him, had a suitably angry red entry, still looking bruised from the Nakajima match. Go Shiozaki's entry was green, which was made under the watchful eye of Kenta Kobashi high on the screen above on ZOOM, with Katsuhiko Nakajima seconding him. He took off his jacket to reveal his arm and shoulder where heavily taped, with his arms looking stuffed under the athletic supports. Two referees (Nishinaga and Nakayama) did the honors with the belts, showing them to the opponents in turn, and moving like clockwork presenting them to the four corners of the arena. 

This was a fast paced match of kicks and chops, with Shiozaki and Kenoh working to take out each others weapons, for Kenoh it was Shiozaki attacking his knees, while for Shiozaki it was Kenoh attacking his arms. Both kept up this pace for an hour, it picking up pace towards the end as things grew more desperate. Kenoh returning chops for kicks, even the machine gun chops he returned as "machine gun kicks". Earlier, Shiozaki had no sold Kenoh's attack, even brushing one kick off like dust, but he couldn't so easily brush of the multiple PFS he took, and the devastating one that he took outside the ring with Kenoh balancing on the top of the ring post. Marufuji, Kenoh's mortal enemy, was amazed by this. They had promised a match that went beyond, and they more than delivered it. But there could only be one outcome, and it was the right one, the match came to a time out draw.

WINNER: Neither, time out draw.

Shiozaki and Kenoh stared at each other, until Kenoh staggered to his feet, and semi fainted and was helped from the ring by Kongoh. Shiozaki managed to stand and addressed the crowd. He thanked everyone for coming, and promised that Noah would go above and beyond. He finished with "I am NOAH! WE are NOAH!" 

With thanks to: Metal Noah, Abeshin, Kei, Gong-Ex

GIF taken from ABEMATV & Noah GHC Official YouTube

Noah's next show: Thursday August 20th, Korakuen Hall