(NOAH) EVENT RECAP ~ NOAH the SPIRIT2020 (Shinkiba 1st RING, Sunday August 2nd 2020)

With the rainy season passed in Japan, the heat has come in today as fans came to ShinKiba 1st Ring for Noah. ShinKiba is not somewhere that Noah generally use often for regular shows, although it has been a popular place for produce shows. They last came here as a promotion in 2016. Mitsuharu Misawa never bought Noah here. 

The venue was hot, but tolerable. The fans had to go through the usual checks against the Coronavirus before they could enter, and this was doubly vital today as there were no barriers between the crowd and the ring. Merchandise was sold, but there was no autograph signing or pictures today. The new pamphlet NOAH THE STYLE was on sale. 

The event was broadcast live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. Not a free stream, you will need a subscription to view (900 yen per calendar month, the first month of membership is free). 

MATCH ONE

Shuhei Taniguchi & Mohammed Yone vs The Anti Wrestlers Alliance (Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue)

The Anti Wrestlers Alliance came out with the flag, this being their first return as a team since Noah started opening shows to audiences again. Ironically, although Noah never ran ShinKiba during the Golden Era, it had the feel of an old era opener with all four competitors being exactly what you would have seen in an opener in those days; a mixture of Noah veterans, and old men. It was a fun opener.

While there wasn't very much MASAOWORLD antics (bar his yelling "It's over now!" and Yone pointing out it really wasn't), the comedy mainly came from Akitoshi Saito's indignant reaction to Mohammed Yone's disco fever rope breaks. Yone did this twice, both times Saito was not impressed. Then Inoue was tagged in, and hitching up his pants and getting down to business, he found himself against Noah's Veteran Monster, Shuhei Taniguchi. Inoue (unusually focused), managed to bring Taniguchi down with an armbar, which he kept on despite Taniguchi repeatedly punching him in the face, in the end Taniguchi (who at times seemed alarmingly unable to outsmart Inoue), got the upper hand. Saito versus Taniguchi was brutal. 

WINNER: Shuhei Taniguchi with the face kick on Masao Inoue (10 minutes, 43 seconds)

MATCH TWO

Tadasuke vs Seiki Yoshioka

Tadasuke jumped off the walkway to do his normal ring entry, walking round the ring and then headbanging on the apron. He spied a new and therefore not experienced referee in the ring, and decided he was going to try and get away with doing things he would get busted for by the others, starting with only removing his jacket and not his glasses, and making out he was surprised to be asked. You could tell by looking at Tadasuke that Crazy Tadasuke had arrived the moment he walked into the ring. 

As ever, with a new opponent, Tadasuke offered a handshake. Yoshioka knew better than to take it, and so played him at his own game, by slapping his hand. Tadasuke couldn't quite believe it. 

Fast paced match (their first singles match) which illustrated how well Yoshioka has fitted into the Noah Juniors. Tadasuke wrestled manically with a big grin, this was snapped off when Yoshioka started using sharp kicks to him, and he used his immense strength to powerbomb Yoshioka violently to get out of the arm hold that was being constantly applied, so much so it started to dangle, and he did his Kodo Fuyuki lariat with only one arm held up when he geared up for it. Tadasuke has evidently been working on his lariats, as he was using variants today, and attempted to get the pin via short range ones. However, Yoshioka kicked out of  the first and then the second,  and Tadasuke went mad as the match went full time before he could attempt a third and backed the ref into the corner, before angrily walking off and refusing to have his arm raised. 

WINNER: Neither, 20 minute time out draw. 

MATCH THREE

Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kinya Okada vs Kongoh (Kenoh & Yoshiki Inamura)

Kenoh has two ways of showing how angry he is; either he starts screaming, or he will stand very still and just glare. He did both today, with Katsuhiko Nakajima getting the angry silent stare as he sauntered to the ring, and despite Yoshiki Inamura and Kinya Okada squaring up, Nakajima was more interested in starting the match against Kenoh and got the crowd to clap their approval for this, and so the juniors let their seniors get the kick fight from hell started, with Nakajima catching Kenoh in the face once when it got going.

Nakajima started by trying outsmart Kenoh, but this didn't always work as Kenoh kept watching him like a hawk. Nakajima then did the Misawa thing with a flash tag to Okada (Misawa used to do this when he couldn't be bothered and it became legendary), which Kenoh got in his face for until Okada and Inamura intervened by gently separating them. After this the match pretty much settled into Nakajima and Kenoh not having any interest in anyone other than each other, with Kenoh keeping Nakajima on the outside of the ring while Okada and Inamura fought inside of it, and they both tended to only be in the ring when the other was, legally or not. That said Okada did try and kick Kenoh and struck a beautiful drop kick on him, and Inamura got Shutter Chance, Nakajima was told off by the ref, didn't care, did it again. The big grin that Nakajima has which the mouthguard enhances, was wiped off when Inamura took advantage of his power and used it against him. It was commented that Inamura was about to bring ShinKiba down, as he was making the building shake, especially with the front suplex.

The match ended when the referee declared a KO after Kenoh used continuous palm strikes on Kinya Okada. He was bending over him checking on him while Kenoh and Nakajima fought in the background, by the time he turned round Kenoh had knocked Nakajima down, and Inamura had rolled outside the ring somewhere. 

WINNER: Kenoh due to referee stop following palm strikes on Kinya Okada (16 minutes, 20 seconds)

Kenoh started growling on the microphone, which led to a high pitched shriek. Speaking to both the belt and Nakajima, he said that he would stop the belt from crying, and end Nakajima's selfishness towards it and on August 4th he would make the belt smile again. Nakajima sarcastically replied that in Kongoh all he ever does is talk, and he nominated him as he wants to see if he could do anything more than that. He wanted to see more than just what Kenoh could say on the 4th. Nakajima left then, and staring into the camera, Kenoh vowed he would win and lead Noah to the top. 

MATCH FOUR

Kaito Kiyomiya vs Kaz Hayashi

This was a good match to bridge the two highly charged pre-matches, as there wasn't really any emotion behind it and the crowd were tired from Kenoh vs Nakajima. This is the first time Kaito Kiyomiya and Kaz Hayashi have faced each other, and Hayashi bought a veteran style of wrestling (turned the first lock up into the arm bar, used a lot of headlocks) from a different generation that Kiyomiya has not really experienced before, but as he wants to see the whole world of wrestling, this has been good for him, and being a fast learner he picked it up quickly. 

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Tiger Suplex (12 minutes, 33 seconds)

Kiyomiya later commented that this win over Kaz, gave him a great momentum towards the match against Keiji Mutoh in Yokohama as Hayashi is the closest to Mutoh. However, Kiyomiya is displaying his youth here as beating Hayashi is one thing, and beating Mutoh is quite another. 

MATCH FIVE

Go Shiozaki, Daisuke Harada & YO-HEY vs Naomichi Marufuji & FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara)

Atsushi Kotoge, "The Leader" came to the ring telling everyone who would listen that he was the leader, right up until the point he yelled it at Go Shiozaki, who lariated him. He told Naomichi Marufuji that he was "The Leader", made FULL THROTTLE motions, and had to be removed by Hajime Ohara (who even held the ropes open for him). 

The big story of this match was the pre-match fight between Go Shiozaki and Naomichi Marufuji, who squared up over the belt, as Shiozaki got in the ring, unstrapped it and held it in Marufuji's face. The juniors on both sides let them start, and they did what they could to stay out of their way unless it was unavoidable (i.e. Kotoge and Ohara fled when Shiozaki went to knock them off the apron, and the ref had to tell Daisuke Harada and YO-HEY when it was safe to get in the ring), only Kotoge was crazy enough to take Shiozaki on. Shiozaki and Marufuji started off the match, Shiozaki with a clean rope break, which ended with Marufuji threatening his knee. A chop war broke out, with Shiozaki no selling Marufuji's chops and Marufuji blocking his, although Marufuji later got a short version of the Machine Gun Chops. It got to the point where Shiozaki stood with his arms spread in the "Fight Me" pose.

On the junior side, YO-HEY seems to be getting back to his old self as Kotoge came bouncing into the ring, telling everyone who would listen that he was the leader. YO-HEY sarcastically imitated his "FULL THROTTLE" and drummed up support for him by clapping to the crowd. Usual crazy YO-HEY lock up, Kotoge went along with it and they looked like two cats batting at each other. YO-HEY even turned GETZ into FULL THROTTLE. Later, there was a Marufuji vs YO-HEY chop battle, Marufuji folded YO-HEY'S bandanna over his face and chopped him, looking pointedly at Shiozaki when he struck. 

The match ended when Kotoge decided to try and headbutt Shiozaki repeatedly, and was given the Gowan Lariat for his troubles. 

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan Lariat on Atsushi Kotoge (20 minutes, 10 seconds)

After the match, Shiozaki held the belt up to Marufuji, pointing at it and then with a thumb to his chest and saying "ME!". Marufuji attempted to use the knee again, but Shiozaki moved. Marufuji then stalked off, and RATELS came out from the badger sett they had hidden themselves in until he had gone to pose in the ring with Shiozaki for the win. 

Shiozaki made a speech to the crowd thanking them for coming out and ending with, "I am NOAH!"

With thanks to: Metal Noah, Abeshin

GIFS taken from WRESTLE UNIVERSE