(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: NOAH the SPIRIT 2020 (9th September 2020, Fujisan Messe)

It's been six months since Noah have been able to leave Tokyo to hold events outside the city, and today they came to the beautiful Fujisan Messe. Mount Fuji was not very visible, when Noah arrived it was swathed in clouds, but for the fans although the clouds remained the skies seemed to have cleared with a beautiful late summer cornflower blue, despite the typhoon rolling in soon. The venue seems to be affected by the color of the mountain and was a mixture of greys, whites and silvers, but as ever with an atmosphere of fresh air and light. Fans were excited to go, and for those travelling from Tokyo it's only an hour by bullet train. 

Due to a combination of the venues outside of the big cities being smaller (for example, although Noah tried to keep fans and roster apart as much as they could, they were sharing one bathroom as there were no facilities backstage), and the roster having to travel by bus, the company did not want too many people crammed into too small a space due to the threat of infection. The show might have been small and rural, but it had a very good turnout (although I am unsure of the number as Noah did not publish it and one fan joked that as Masao Inoue was not on the card it might be affected), but it was intense. 

Event was not broadcast live today, but will be available to view on WRESTLE UNIVERSE on the 9th September. You will need to subscribe to the service to be able to watch it (900 yen per calendar month, with the first month free).  

MATCH ONE

Daisuke Harada vs Kinya Okada

Strong opener with Kinya Okada "raging" against Harada in a strong fight with arm attacks and kicks, Harada took all of this, but fought back with vicious elbows. Fans have noticed that as well as the Rolling Elbow that Harada seems to have incorporated into his moveset, he has worked on other attacks too.

WINNER: Daisuke Harada with the Diving Elbow Drop (10 minutes, 13 seconds)

MATCH TWO

Mohammed Yone vs Masa Kitamiya

Aside from Masa Kitamiya being not impressed by the "Disco Fever" pose that Yone did on entry, and pressing himself and glaring into the corner of the ring, I don't have too much information on this match, but it was said that despite it being billed as just an ordinary singles match, it was at the level of a N-1 match, despite the fact that Mohammed Yone is not in the league. 

 

WINNER: Masa Kitamiya with the Saito Suplex (9 minutes, 50 seconds)

MATCH THREE

The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura & NOSAWA Rongai) vs Naomichi Marufuji & YO-HEY

Marufuji: Rongai! Come out!

NOSAWA: I don't want to die!

Marufuji nominating a reluctant NOSAWA at the beginning of the match

The main focus here was meant to be the N-1 Victory pre match between the Noah veterans, Naomichi Marufuji and Takashi Sugiura, and while that was true to a certain extent the ultra rare card also saw Marufuji punish a reluctant NOSAWA Rongai and YO-HEY vs Takashi Sugiura, and although someone the size of YO-HEY has very little defence against someone made in SKYNET like Sugiura, they actually kind of worked well together. Despite this, YO-HEY seemed a lot happier today, although I do hope that he was sensible enough not to take a CyberFight t-shirt clad NOSAWA'S hand when he offered. 

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with the Olympic Slam on YO-HEY (14 minutes, 44 seconds)

MATCH FOUR

FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara & Seiki Yoshioka) vs The Kongoh Juniors (Tadasuke, Haoh & Nioh)

"Excellent and spectacular!"

It must be said that when Tadasuke was in RATELS he was the sneaky villain, in Kongoh he is a heel and he is loving every single second of it, and it is what the unit needed, especially the juniors. Nioh even went as far as to tell someone in the audience off for clapping for FULL THROTTLE. 

FULL THROTTLE were all smiles; Atsushi Kotoge acting the usual crazy person, and Seiki Yoshioka giggling at something (probably Kotoge) in a chaotic match. 

WINNER: Haoh with the Jack Knife on Seiki Yoshioka (21 minutes, 37 seconds)

Haoh said in the post match interview that as he pinned Yoshioka, Kotaro better take note, he was coming for his belt, "asshole!". Haoh sadly does not seem to realize that he needs to pin Kotaro in order to convince him to give him a title shot, he is not going to care he has pinned Yoshioka. 

MATCH FIVE

Go Shiozaki, Kaito Kiyomiya & Shuhei Taniguchi vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Yoshiki Inamura)

"Darkside Nakajima"

Katsuhiko Nakajima made his Kongoh debut wearing a maroon coat (not really red) with the hood up, with chains and studs. His part in the Kongoh pose is to sit on the ringpost and watch them pose. The overall effect is sinister. 

Go Shiozaki, Nakajima's former tag partner, came out looking tired, sad and unshaven. He took a long hard sorrowful look at the new Nakajima. Kayfabe the betrayal has been hard on Shiozaki mentally, while physically and in reality the GHC Heavyweight title reign has been hard on him too as he took his jacket off today to reveal that his athletic supports were on both arms and stretched from almost his taped shoulders to nearly his wrists. He faced off with Nakajima in the opening of the match, with Nakajima kicking him around and Shiozaki responding with chops that sounded over the quiet arena like gunshots. Later Nakajima teamed with Kenoh to rub Shiozaki's face in it further, by doing their version of "Endless Love", which saw Kenoh and Nakajima kick Shiozaki between them.

Aside from Nakajima and Shiozaki, the other fight was between Kenoh and Kaito Kiyomiya, with Kiyomiya slapping Yoshiki Inamura who was squaring up to him, without taking his eyes off of Kenoh. 

In the midst of all this emotion of hatred, jealousy, sibling rivalry, betrayal and heartbreak, Monster Taniguchi emerged and took out Kongoh, but the win was not his. 

WINNER: Katsuhiko Nakajima with the Vertical Spike on Shuhei Taniguchi (25 minutes, 52 seconds)

This win before their N-1 match, was a huge upset between Nakajima and Taniguchi, but Nakajima's attention was focused on Shiozaki as he told him "Are you really "I am Noah?" Ha ha ha ha ha! I laugh at you! AXIZ bond? There never was such a thing. That is emotionally messed up thinking, you need to bring it to the ring. Where should I aim next? I'll break you, I'll break you, bit by bit..."

Shiozaki said nothing, but quietly left. 

Kenoh, however, was going to have his say and typically the object his vitriol was Kaito Kiyomiya who he yelled as Kiyomiya was leaving, "When you were GHC Heavyweight Champion, you didn't want to participate, but this time you aim to win in your first appearance?" Kenoh then deliberately spoke the last sentence to Kiyomiya very slowly, "Don't underestimate the N-1". Once Kiyomiya had gone, Kenoh started yelling that he was going to win the N-1 and would change everything about what Noah is. 

The last (and most telling word given what fans are predicting is going to happen in Kongoh) came from Katsuhiko Nakajima who said that from now on, fans should "keep an eye on himself and Kongoh". After that Kongoh did their pose, with Nakajima sitting quietly on the ringpost, watching them...

With thanks to: Ya, Metal Noah, Pyu, Fujieda Mirko, Rembrandt, Juan Casado Barton

Picture credit: Noah GHC 

Noah's next show, "THE REVIVAL" will be on Sunday 13th in Ishikawa.