(NOAH) Event recap: Mohammed Yone's 25th anniversary produce, "Disco Ball" (Korakuen Hall, 18th October 2020)

"Sunday Night Fever"

Mohammed Yone had nothing but gratitude today to Noah\CyberFight being able to book out Korakuen Hall on a Sunday, which is a hard thing to do unless you want it for the whole afternoon\evening. As a result the card was only five matches, and it was a testament to Mohammed Yone as to his popularity with Noah fans. According to Abeshin (an attendee at the event), a lot of people had come directly from the New Japan event which was nearby. 

Flowers lined the lobby; Kenta Kobashi, TEENS HEAVEN, LIDET to name a few had sent them, along with associates of Yone's restaurant, Yoneya (where some fans stopped off to eat before the event). Yone also made a display of his different ringwear from his twenty-five year career. In the main hall, a disco ball was on the monitor as naturally Korakuen is not suited to hanging one from the ceiling. The new boy, Yasuta Yano, was at ringside. The next time he will be here will be in the ring. 

Mohammed Yone welcomed everyone to the show via video monitor, afro comb in hand and crazy smile. He wanted everyone to have lots of fun. The event was streamed live on WRESTLE-UNIVERSE. You must be a subscriber to view.

MATCH ONE

Yoshiki Inamura vs Kinya Okada

Like Hajime Ohara before him, Yoshiki Inamura found that this was a very different Kinya Okada than previously. The match displayed how far they had both come, especially for Okada who had dropped behind his classmate Inamura due to a couple of injuries which delayed both his debut and his early career. Okada used a combination of the echoing kicks he has incorporated, and his classical style, which included multiple elbow drops, leg hold reversal when Inamura picked up and had him on his shoulder, and a bridge to try and pin Inamura with. Crowd were applauding this next step in their rivalry. Inamura then lost his temper, and roaring in fury repeatedly slammed Okada who kicked out. 

Inamura finding he couldn't pin him, went for the submission, but the time ran out. 

WINNER: Neither, time out draw (15 minutes) 

Sadly for Yoshiki Inamura (who lay on the mat screaming in rage, and he could be heard doing the same when Okada left the ring), the elusive hunt for that first win continues. Kinya Okada said he will be training harder as he let the opportunities for victory slip.

MATCH TWO

Mohammed Yone & Alexander Otsuka vs The Anti Wrestlers Alliance (Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue)

"Nobody wants him

He just stares at the world

Planning his vengeance

That he will soon unfurl"

Alexander Otsuka, (like Kinya Okada and Yoshiki Inamura were meant to be), is Mohammed Yone's twin debut as they debuted together on both the same day and in the same promotion (Fujiwara). Kenoh would also make his debut against Otsuka. Throwing themselves back to the past, Yone and Otsuka came out to Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" in their own "Love Warriors" jackets, and immediately attacked. Despite this, Akitoshi Saito was loving it. 

Usual comedy spots from Yone, Inoue and Saito; Yone's usual thwarting of Inoue, Saito yelling his instructions to Inoue, and Inoue on form, bumbling around with eye rakes etc. Otsuka even got in on the action with a bald abdominal headbutt to imitate Yone's abdominal afro headbutt.  

Then it happened....

WINNNER: Masao Inoue with the sneak win on Mohammed Yone (12 minutes, 56 seconds)

No one at all could believe that Masao Inoue had won. "No one" also includes Akitoshi Saito, who despite being Masao Inoue's fair weather friend (well, he doesn't even pretend to be that), who is so used to Inoue losing matches, he joined in with Yone and Otsuka in protesting to the referee that it was two. Saito even went so far as to stamp on Inoue!

Alexander Otsuka spoke on the microphone afterwards, and made a small speech about their shared debut. 

MATCH THREE

THE LEAVE'S MASK 1, THE LEAVE MASK 2, THE LEAVE MASK 3 vs Kongoh (Haoh, Nioh & Tadasuke)

There was a tiny incident which caused Tadasuke to get angry when he got to the ring and found that he couldn't get into it in time for a smooth entry as his is timed with Haoh and Nioh's, and he kicked the ring apron. It was caused by either the ladder not being in place, or photographers being in the way. 

As this match was sponsored by THE LEAVE (Noah's long term sponsors), they sponsored three masked wrestlers to face Kongoh. The blonde hair under one of them, the goatee on the other (plus the fact he was enough of a dork to tuck his t-shirt into his shorts), and the smaller beard on the other was a dead give away that it was FULL THROTTLE under the mask. Suspicions were further aroused when one of them (guess which one), started messing around in the first lock up. Tadasuke, already in a bad mood, held up two screw you fingers to them as The LEAVE Masks were besting them, 

Kongoh, very little sense of humor, broke up their comedy when they messed around outside the ring and Nioh decided to unmask number 2, and the others joined in. The masks off and with the big reveal, THE  LEAVE MASKS\FULL THROTTLE started screaming and hiding their faces. 

WINNER: Leave Mask 2 (Seiki Yoshioka) with the Swanton Bomb on Nioh (14 minutes, 59 seconds)

Putting their masks back on, THE LEAVE MASKS returned backstage and unsuccessfully tried to get the President of THE LEAVE to come out, they managed to get him almost to entryway before giving up.

MATCH FOUR

Go Shiozaki, Kaito Kiyomiya & Daiki Inaba vs The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, NOSAWA & Kaz Hayashi)

Despite his silence on social media and when he did a post a picture, his face was obscured, Kaito Kiyomiya did not have any bruising on his face today following the match with Katsuhiko Nakajima. The red scrape looks to have healed. 

NOSAWA Rongai took an interest in Go Shiozaki, and told Kiyomiya to tag him in. Kiyomiya did as he was told. Shiozaki rubbed his hands together as he climbed through the ropes. NOSAWA tried to chop him, and then with a massive thud, Shiozaki knocked him to the mat. 

NOSAWA tried to tag out with Takashi Sugiura and Kaz Hayashi refusing, with Sugi telling him that he wanted Shiozaki, he fight him. 

NOSAWA then got the machine gun chops and screamed sarcastically "MORE", so Shiozaki did them again. NOSAWA got them about four times as Sugi kept telling Shiozaki to do them, and then laughing at the results. 

NOSAWA, looking very ragged, eventually made it back to his corner and tagged one of his partners in. 

Elsewhere there was an elbow war between Kaito Kiyomiya and Takashi Sugiura, Daiki Inaba did not find Takashi Sugiura easy, and Kaz Hayashi used both his experience and his bad language against Kiyomiya, saying "F U MFER".

NOSAWA had his revenge on Go Shiozaki, which involved imitating Keiji Mutoh's bad knees before a Shining Wizard. Shiozaki couldn't really believe what he was seeing, especially when NOSAWA tried to lariat him and looked as if he was colliding with a wall. Shiozaki gave him a demonstration in how it was done.

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan Lariat on NOSAWA Rongai (15 minutes, 48 seconds)

MATCH FIVE

Mohammed Yone 25th Anniversary Match: Mohammed Yone, Daisuke Ikeda & Ikuto Hidaka vs Naomichi Marufuji, Yuji Ishikawa & Junji Tanaka

For his 25th anniversary, Go Shiozaki (not only the GHC Heavyweight Champion, but the Chairman of the Noah Wrestlers Alliance), came out to present Mohammed Yone with flowers on behalf of the roster. They took a commemorative picture, and I am amazed that Shiozaki kept from having total hysterical laughter as long as he did. 

Mohammed Yone teamed with old friends Ikuto Hidaka and Daisuke Ikeda (both have BattlArts associations as do Yuji Ishikawa and the man who looks as if he arrived from the Edo period with only half his clothes, Junji Tanaka). Hidaka makes the rare appearance in Noah, but Ikeda hasn't been seen since 2017 when he and Kenoh teamed against Marshall & Ross Von Erich. For Marufuji, Ikeda's one night return to Noah, was a continuation of their last match in 2017 when Marufuji was on the winning team. 

As for Hidaka, Marufuji had said on social media he was going to give Hidaka 25 chops, one for each of Yone's years; it would have made more sense for Marufuji to do this to Yone as it's his anniversary, but I think that is probably why he didn't (and is probably also why he bowed to him instead of knocking him off the apron). Marufuji carried out his threat, and chopped him twenty five times. These weren't machine gun chops like Shiozaki, but his singular stinging shots which Eddie Edwards described as being able to tear you apart just by one. Yone counted along. Hidaka's revenge was short, as after ducking Marufuji's kicks, he was hook kicked in the face. 

If it can be imagined, Junji Tanaka is even worse than Masao Inoue. Inoue at least has a small grip on reality, Tanaka threw himself off the top turnbuckle to splash Yone, who was on the other side of the ring, but this went wrong as naturally he landed nowhere near him, and Yone quickly scooped him up for the win. 

WINNER: Mohammed Yone with the Kinniku Meat Buster (28 minutes, 13 seconds)

After the match, Yone was presented with more flowers by old friend Ishikawa, and then he made a speech on the microphone joking that his rushing fast into twenty-five years had caused distress to his parents, and thanking fans for giving him this day. 

With thanks to: Fujiwara Armbar, Abeshin

GIFS taken from WRESTLE UNIVERSE

Noah's next event: Saturday October 24th