(NOAH) EVENT RECAP ~ N-1 VICTORY, NIGHT 3 (22nd September 2020, Korakuen Hall)

Noah kicked off the first night of their three shows in a row at Korakuen Hall today. While the merchandise stable was stocked (and no doubt Kenoh's notorious paranoia will start whispering to him as soon as he sees how the pillows were stocked and start imagining the evil CyberFight were behind it), and Kotaro Suzuki was selling his new product at his own booth, Yoshinari Ogawa (with HAYATA) was in the ring teaching one of the new trainees. Usually Ogawa is teaching members of the roster, so it was a treat for fans to see this. 

The event was streamed free, live and worldwide on ABEMA. You will be able to watch the event for seven days after the date of broadcast. After that it will be placed on WRESTLE UNIVERSE, which you will need to subscribe to to view. 

MATCH ONE

Mohammed Yone & Kinya Okada vs Kongoh (Manabu Soya & Yoshiki Inamura)

Yoshiki Inamura and rival, Kinya Okada, started the match with the woolly mammoth sized Inamura trapping Okada in a submission between his thighs. Okada later faced the other member of Kongoh's monster team, Manabu Soya, who no sold his attacks and then later threw him to Inamura. 

Good opening match, which demonstrated both the growth of Yoshiki Inamua and Kinya Okada's potential as a monster (even if he never reaches Inamura like proportions)

WINNER: Manabu Soya with the Ballistic on Kinya Okada (9 minutes and 29 seconds)

MATCH TWO

N-1 VICTORY

Kenoh vs Shuhei Taniguchi

Having faced Shuhei Taniguchi last year in the N-1 VICTORY and won, Kenoh knew that he would have to bring out something special to defeat him this year. It was Taniguchi, however, who struck first aiming a kick to Kenoh's face. Erupting early on, Taniguchi was able to evade the much smaller Kenoh at times, and Kenoh was able to pull a few tricks of his own, such as his acrobatics which he pulls out for big matches, although rather than a somersault PFS or a moonsault PFS, he did a cartwheel evasion move on the apron. Both had done their homework on each other since their last league match, but Kenoh was the one who had seemingly done more by luring Taniguchi in and then locking in a submission, which is rare for Kenoh to use. Kenoh hung on, his arm wrapped around Taniguchi's throat and squeezed, you could see how tight he was applying it when the ref attempted to move him. Kenoh refused to let go, Taniguchi's tongue was practically coming out of his mouth. Kenoh only let go when the referee called a stop.

Short but very different and very clever match showing how versatile Kenoh is. 

WINNER: Kenoh with the rear naked sleeper hold (referee stop after 14 minutes, 32 seconds)

MATCH THREE

N-1 VICTORY

Kaito Kiyomiya vs Masa Kitamiya

Kaito Kiyomiya's N-1 woes continued against the dominant Masa Kitamiya today in a fast paced match, but Masa Kitamiya's sudden blooming cost Kiyomiya another precious point in the league as speed met experience and power, and experience and power won. 

WINNER: Masa Kitamiya with the Saito Suplex (14 minutes, 32 seconds)

MATCH FOUR

STINGER (Kotaro Suzuki, Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA) vs Kongoh Jnrs (Haoh, Nioh & Tadasuke)

Noah's heel group, Kongoh Jnrs, met the ultra heel group, STINGER. As he got into the ring, Yoshinari Ogawa took a moment to survey his opponents, but no matter how much he hates Tadasuke, and is indifferent to Nioh, the person with the bullseye painted on him was Haoh. A challenge to any member of STINGER marks you as a target, and their attack was relentless. Haoh was very eager to prove himself against Kotaro, and this was sometimes on the verge of desperation. Kotaro however, had nothing but contempt for him and resorted at the end of the match to use the technique of breaking the pin to torture the opponent more. Usually this backfires, but not in this case. 

WINNER: Kotaro Suzuki with the Javelin (referee stop after 21 minutes, 2 seconds)

Kotaro then spoke on the microphone and gave Haoh a vicious character assessment, telling him that not only should he start over as a wrestler, but that he was the "weakest GHC challenger ever". 

Tadasuke also had words for former partner and RATELS member HAYATA, branding him a "shit beetle", which basically means someone who does what he is told in a zombie like fashion.

MATCH FIVE

N-1 VICTORY 2020

Go Shiozaki vs Kazushi Sakuraba

Giving the impression that he was just warming up, in reality Go Shiozaki was not going to forgive Kazushi Sakuraba for making him tap in the pre-match with The Sugiura Army just before the GHC Heavyweight tag battle, and was eager to settle the score. Like everyone else in the league, Sakuraba targeted Shiozaki's arms in a far worse away than Katsuhiko Nakajima's kicks, wrapping them round the barriers in ways they were not meant to bend, before kicking them. This caused Shiozaki to loose power in his arms, and Sakuraba thought that he was going to avoid the chops he so much hates. Sakuraba took to taunting Shiozaki, and even pulling the front of his shirt out to look down his top, but a long fuse he might have, it's never a good idea to wind him up and Sakuraba not only got the Machine Gun Chops but also chops to the head in a flurry. 

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan Lariat (8 minutes, 35 seconds)

Shiozaki then spoke on the microphone and said that he would show a match that was second to none, and finished with "I AM NOAH". 

MATCH SIX

N-1 VICTORY 2020

Naomichi Marufuji vs Takashi Sugiura

Two most senior people in Noah (after Yoshinari Ogawa who is the most senior), hold twenty years of fighting both side by side and against each other, and no matter what it has been for, (except when Sugiura joined The Suzuki Army), it has always been for Noah. Partners, rivals, today they were united in one thing, to put on a match that would not lose out to any other league happening in wrestling at that time. 

There was shades of Baba's All Japan and the wars between Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada in the pacing of the match, with both pulling out desperation moves as time went on, with Sugiura using a rare suplex and Marufuji using his new move, which involves crushing the hand and wrist (which he used against Inamura), it's inventive as most people attack the arm. They fought until the time ran out, Marufuji being saved as the bell signalled full time as Sugiura locked in the dreaded choke. 

WINNER: Time limit draw (30 minutes)

After the match they both shook hands, with Marufuji commenting backstage that he would like to do another singles with Sugiura, but for now he had the league to concentrate on. 

WITH THANKS TO: Abeshin

PICTURE CREDIT: PKDX, Noah GHC 

GIFS taken from ABEMA

NOAH'S NEXT SHOW: 23rd September 2020 (double bill at Korakuen Hall)