(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: N-1 VICTORY 2020 - SEMI FINALS NIGHT (Korakuen Hall, Tokyo - 4th October 2020)

There was an atmosphere of excitement as fans made their way to Korakuen Hall today for what was to be the explosive semi final night of the N-1 VICTORY. Noah did not announce an attendance, but you could tell it was pretty much a packed house. Tickets were available on the door, but much had been pre-sold with Noah attracting new fans to the venue. 

The event was streamed live on ABEMA. You will be able to watch the stream for seven days, free and worldwide by clicking the link above. After that it will be transferred to WRESTLE UNIVERSE (a subscription service). 

During the event Noah made the announcement that they will be returning to Yoyogi 2nd Gymnasium in Shibuya, Tokyo in December (it is currently shut due to seismic damage to the building and undergoing repairs). Noah have not been here since 2004, and only ever run two shows there (there other was in 2002). To many on the roster this will be a new experience, and the last time they were there the current GHC Heavyweight champion, Go Shiozaki, was only three months into his career. It remains to be seen after the events of October, whether he will be returning there as champion. 

MATCH ONE

N-1 VICTORY 2020

Shuhei Taniguchi vs Yoshiki Inamura

This beast fight got going quick. No lock up, straight into shoulder tackle. Huge applause for Yoshiki Inamura when he knocked Shuhei Taniguchi down. When it was Inamura's own turn to fall, Taniguchi went for the head kicks, but he dodged (twice), only to be felled with a lariat. Inamura fought desperately for his last chance at victory in the N-1 and some points, but sadly it was not meant to be in this years league. 

WINNER: Shuhei Taniguchi with the face kick (4 minutes, 36 seconds)

MATCH TWO

N-1 VICTORY 2020

Kazushi Sakuraba vs Manabu Soya

The N-1 match between the powerhouse Manabu Soya and the technician mat wrestler, Kazushi Sakuraba, actually worked very well. It worked so well that by the end of it Soya was requesting a tag match. 

Manabu Soya used his power against the much smaller Kazushi Sakuraba, but when it came down to Sakuraba's level, he was able to mat wrestle. With Sakuraba tying him into knots he knew that the last place he wanted to be with Sakuraba was on the mat, Sakuraba (like the "Company Dog" he is) knew this, sunk his teeth in and kept him grounded. If Soya was to go down to that level, then he would find a way to use his advantage, which he did by using his size and power to reverse a submission and squash Sakuraba

WINNER: Manabu Soya via armlock reversal (5 minutes, 57 seconds)

With the only two obligatory N-1 matches out of the way, it was time to move on to the matches that would directly influence each other, in which the cards following on from Mochizuki vs Masa Kitamiya would be significant in terms of win or lose for the subsequent matches. 

MATCH THREE

N-1 VICTORY 2020

Masaaki Mochizuki vs Masa Kitamiya

(Masaaki Mochizuki needed to win to have a chance to head to the finals as he would have seven points, Masa Kitamiya by this time had pretty much dropped out of the league)

Masa Kitamiya might have lacked points in this years league, but he has started to establish himself as a very powerful singles wrestler, and tonight we saw that by the bucketful. Kitamiya went on the attack very quickly, using a massive Saito Suplex which knocked Mochi out of the ring. When he got back in it, Mochi started begging for a time out, but this didn't happen. However, all of this was a ploy as he was playing for time, and by luring Kitamiya outside of the ring he pounced and attacked the knee which Kitamiya was favoring early in the match (he seems to be okay though). Mocihi, however, was not the only one who could play games, and the crowd were on fire and the applause grew louder and louder as Kitamiya got up after repeated DDT'S. 

WINNER: Masa Kitamiya with the Saito Suplex (9 minutes, 23 seconds)

MATCH FOUR

N-1 VICTORY 2020

Takashi Sugiura vs Kenoh

(Takashi Sugiura who has 5 points, has a chance to advance to the finals if he wins. For Kenoh, with six points, he needs to win but his participation in the finals will rest on the result of Marufuji vs Nakajima)

Kenoh finally noticed earlier today that Takashi Sugiura had been imitating his pose at the N-1 press conference, but he also noticed that instead of a closed fist that Kenoh was waving around, Sugi had inserted his thumb between his first and second fingers, which in Japan means something along the lines of screw you. So because of this, I didn't think Kenoh was going to pose at first, but he did. Although he did keep Sugiura firmly in his sight. However, Sugiura behaved himself, coming to fight and not to play.

In all the league, Takashi Sugiura was Kenoh's last obstacle. Kenoh had beaten Takashi Sugiura once before, but could he do do it again?

The  bitterly fought match started with a martial arts type lock up between them, with Sugi giving a clean rope break. Much to his credit, if Sugiura could do this, so could Kenoh, and as its a big match Kenoh pulled out some of his acrobatic moves (he tends to save them for big matches, he can do flips and cartwheels, he just doesn't do them often). Both then turned from punching and kicking each other to submission holds. Kenoh knows Sugiura well enough to know how to reverse the ankle lock now. As a crowded Korakuen was on fire (there were slight cheers, and I did hear some whistles), Sugiura gave up on the ankle lock when Kenoh kept escaping and went for the choke, Kenoh was not going to give up, so the referee stopped the match when Kenoh stopped responding.

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura via referee stop (16 minutes, 4 seconds)

Kenoh soon recovered and started swearing loudly. 

MATCH FIVE

NOAH JUNIOR BATTLE ROYALE

This might have been a heavyweight dominated show, but the juniors were not going to let their rivals hog the limelight, and so tonight they held the Daisuke Harada mandated Battle Royale. All fourteen Noah juniors (except the absent Hitoshi Kumano who was very very frustrated to have missed this, as was probably Chris Ridgeway), took part. The rules were traditional - one man would enter every thirty seconds, elimination was via pinfall, submission or being thrown over the top rope to the floor. One junior in particular, eliminated himself in another way, but I will get to that in due course. 

DAISUKE HARADA entered

YO-HEY entered

TADASUKE entered

HAYATA entered

~ A RATELS squabble broke out

~ YO-HEY did "GETZ" after a long time

~ Tadasuke made a beeline for Harada

~ HAYATA loved fighting with his former friends

NOSAWA RONGAI entered

~ RATELS who were having a standoff, worked together to beat up on NOSAWA. NOSAWA wisely decided to stay out of the ring until the next person entered. 

JUNTA MIYAWAKI entered

~ NOSAWA kept escaping out of the ring

YOSHINARI OGAWA entered

~ Ogawa went straight to Harada and a brawl broke out

~ HAYATA, lurking in the background, teamed with Ogawa against Harada

SEIKI YOSHIOKA entered (looking like he was wondering what the hell was going on in the ring)

~ Yoshinari Ogawa decided that he was going to leave. He had attacked Harada, wasn't interested in anyone or anything else, and just walked off. The referee at ringside asked him what he thought he was doing and chased after him (slipping over in the process), but Ogawa, who rarely does anything he does not want to do, did not take any notice. 

KAZ HAYASHI entered 

~ By this time fights were going on both outside and inside the ring

~ Junta Miyawaki still tender at his shoulder

HAOH entered

NIOH entered 

HAJIME OHARA entered

KOTARO SUZUKI entered 

ATSUSHI KOTOGE entered (he came rushing to the ring wearing his cap, which he tossed aside at the last minute). 

~ Hajime Ohara attacked Kotoge almost on entry

~ Kaz Hayashi pulled YO-HEY out of the ring when FULL THROTTLE went to tandem kick NOSAWA

~ Kaz Hayashi eliminated Hajime Ohara via pinfall

~ Seiki Yoshioka elimited Kaz Hayashi via the top rope

~ NOSAWA pinned Seiki Yoshioka

~ Kotaro got the Kongoh tandem elbow

~ Atsushi Kotoge eliminated NOSAWA via Killswitch

~ Junta Miyawaki has a much bigger (and better) move set than before he was injured

~ Tadasuke elimited Junta Miyawaki via pinfall

~ Kongoh focused on Kotaro

~ Nioh eliminated Tadasuke (by accident after a set up by Kotaro)

~ Haoh eliminated Kotaro (this is kind of their last pre match)

~ HAYATA pinned Haoh 

~ Harada eliminated Nioh via Katayama suplex 

~ YO-HEY'S beautiful YO-HEY roll on Harada almost got the elimination

~ HAYATA eliminated both Harada and YO-HEY when they were fighting on the apron via somersault into ropes. 

The last two left in the ring were Atsushi Kotoge and HAYATA, with Kotoge winning both the pre-match and the Rumble with the moonsault. The rumble lasted 24 minutes and 32 seconds. 

Sadly, Atsushi Kotoge's speech was not very inspired as he told HAYATA that on the 11th October, he and Daisuke Harada would take the GHC Junior Heavyweight tag titles from himself and Yoshinari Ogawa. 

MATCH SIX

N-1 VICTORY 2020

Naomichi Marufuji vs Katsuhiko Nakajima

(Katsuhiko Nakajima has 6 points, and will have 8 if he wins, so even if Kenoh wins with eight points he will still advance to the finals. However, Naomichi Marufuji, who has 5 points, has the possibility if Sugiura has defeated Kenoh)

Katsuhiko Nakajima has a tendency to let his cockiness get in the way, and if it is not his cockiness it is his ego that can cost him matches. His ego was apparent today when the camera loving Nakajima pointed at it, outside of the Shutter Chance, and his cockiness was saved for the ref when he said that people were applauding him after being told off for doing the Shutter Chance. Ref told him no more, but Nakajima took no notice and did it again. 

The first lock up was naturally wary, with Katsuhiko Nakajima making things difficult and never taking his sight off of Naomichi Marufuji (or even blinking for that matter), finished it with a kick. Nakajima's kicks are his greatest weapon, but Marufuji chose to work on Nakajima's arm and not his knees or his legs. After one such attack,  Nakajima sold his arm injury outside the ring until the count almost ran out, Kuniko Yamada (at ringside commentary in an autographed Kaito Kiyomiya t-shirt) was practically telling him to get back in the ring. When he did, Nakajima got the bloodlust in his eyes after Marufuji worked on his arm, and this is when he become dangerous, as he draped Marufuji over the top turnbuckle and then proceeded to kick him off of it, which sent him flying to the middle of the ring. 

Towards the end of the match, Nakajima had seemingly knocked Marufuji out and threw the ref off of him as he went to check on him. A knock out would not do, Nakajima wanted the pin, which he did with his eyes eerily shining through his hair.

WINNER: Katsuhiko Nakajima with the Diamond Bomb (16 minutes, 25 seconds)

Nakajima just walked off afterwards, and the ref had to get out of the ring to raise his arm, which Nakajima quickly snatched away. He was going to the finals, and the winner of the next match would face him in the finals in Osaka. 

MATCH SEVEN

N-1 VICTORY 2020

Go Shiozaki vs Kaito Kiyomiya

This was a match between two Noah born wrestlers from different generations, Go Shiozaki who was described as the "The Champion in the Misawa green" (which was what Eddie Edwards was also called during his GHC Heavyweight tenure), and the young idealistic Kaito Kiyomiya. Kaito Kiyomiya came out with Kuniko Yamada clapping enthusiastically along to his music, and with a new pose with his arms outstretched on entering. 

Go Shiozaki is a versatile wrestler, he is able to brawl with Takashi Sugiura and get technical with Kaito Kiyomiya, which at times got mat based. Shiozaki in the early stages of the match no sold Kiyomiya, who he sent flying half way across ringside with his chops. Kiyomiya fought back with chops of his own, but it had no effect and he had to go back to the drawing board. If strikes didn't work, then perhaps softening Shiozaki up with submissions holds would? So he locked in a sleeper, and incorporated this to work on Shiozaki's shoulder. The submission attack worked, and Kiyomiya could fight Shiozaki more on his own level, even to the point when they both faced each other with the Kobashi scream. 

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Tiger Suplex (24 minutes, 7 seconds)

On his win, Kuniko breathlessly gasped, "Kiyomiya...."

Then even with the sound of the bell not faded from the air, and Shiozaki not even rolled out of the ring and Kiyomiya not even on his feet, Nakajima immediately appeared in the ring. He began with taunting Go Shiozaki, telling him that as a champion he had gone round in circles, first he had defeated Kiyomiya and now Kiyomiya had defeated him. 

Then in usual sarcastic way, Nakajima noticed Kiyomiya and told him that his "pretence at being a hero, was going to be over in Osaka." 

Kiyomiya got to his feet and shoved Nakajima. 

Nakajima remained grinning. 

Sadly, trash talking has never been a big part of Noah (despite Kenoh's profanity, and Nakajima's sarcasm), and Kiyomiya took great offence to Nakajima saying that this defeat of Shiozaki was only part of "going round in circles", and his momentum was as such he would defeat him for the belt. 

Nakajima left laughing. 

Kiyomiya addressed the crowd, thanking Shiozaki for the match and saying that he would make this league final one that was second to none and that proved that Noah's heavyweight division was number one. 

WITH THANKS TO: Metal Noah, Abeshin

PICTURE CREDIT: PKDX

GIFS TAKEN FROM: ABEMA, Noah GHC 

Noah's next show will be streamed live on ABEMA when the N-1 finals come to Edion 1st Arena in Osaka on October 11th.