(NOAH) Event recap ~ PREMIUM PRELUDE 2020 (Korakuen Hall, 28th October 2020)

There was a big match feel as fans came midweek to Korakuen Hall today; the GHC Heavyweight might not have been on the line, but that didn't stop the carnival atmosphere, especially as a new Noah born, Yasutaka Yano, was debuting tonight and Noah themselves tried to make this a big event for him as much as they could, despite the fact that he could not have cheers, streamers or even banners. Because this was his debut he was excused from disinfecting the ring, and the other boy, (I think he is called Utami), cleaned the ring by himself. Outside in the lobby, Naomichi Marufuji (who woke up with a middle ear infection, but seemed no worse the wear for it) and Kaito Kiyomiya signed autographs. 

The event was broadcast live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE (you will need to be a subscriber to view), and will be shown on Samurai TV on the 8th November.  

MATCH ONE 

Kinya Okada vs Yasutaka Yano

Yasutaka Yano, wearing blue, did the rookie thing by racing to the ring. No one can say he hasn't had a unique debut with making his announcement on YouTube, and then (as has been mentioned) having no streamers, cheers or applause. He couldn't even have a banner put up by his family. 

Yano gave an excellent showing, which got him praise from his seniors who were looking on, and he gave a lot of promise as an aerial technician, although really all he did on the "aerial" side was a couple of dropkicks. His repertoire of moves is simple but effective, and he gave the impression of knowing more of them than any other debut, but I think that because it was delayed by Coronavirus this has given him the chance to be at a much higher level. Tellingly, the match did not end in a submission, but a pin. 

WINNER: Kinya Okada with the Blockbuster Hold (5 minutes, 37 seconds)

MATCH TWO

Naomichi Marufuji & Hajime Ohara vs Mohammed Yone and Junta Miyawaki

Fun second match, with the two Noah veterans, Naomichi Marufuji and Mohammed Yone continuing their rivalry from "Disco Ball", with comedy cursing when they fought, and Yone's "Disco Fever" pose being met with Marufuji carefully pinning his arms down, and then chopping him. Yone danced around the ring afterwards as if he had flames to put out on his chest. 

Junta Miyawaki (with trunks that look like they are about to fall down, and kneepads that don't quite fit him, which gives me the impression he is planning to really bulk up), made the mistake of attacking Marufuji. Marufuji simply knocked him down and chopped him, and then he became sadistic, enjoying beating up on Miyawaki. Miyawaki, however, fought back and bought him down with a Tornado DDT, which certainly surprised the commentators. 

WINNER: Naomichi Marufuji with the True Tiger King on Junta Miyawaki (11 minutes, 52 seconds)

Before he left the ring, Marufuji (who got irritated when the ref went to raise his arm as his elbow was apparently hurt) did the FULL THROTTLE "Brum Brum" thing with Hajime Ohara, although he didn't ride him as he did Atsushi Kotoge, as Ohara is not a crazy person. On the way out you could see how much Noah treasures Ohara, by Marufuji's friendly actions towards him as they walked backstage. 

MATCH THREE

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

It has to be said, Tadasuke is loving every moment of being a heel. The red leather jacket, the sunglasses, the freedom to do all the irritating he things he wants. Kongoh has been good to Tadasuke, in a way that RATELS was not. Here Tadasuke does not have the distinction of being someone who belongs to essentially a unit of good guys, here he can do what he wants. Part of doing what he wants was being sarcastic towards HAYATA by holding the ropes open for him after he knocked him out of the ring. HAYATA gave him his impatient "go away" motion. 

Yoshinari Ogawa and HAYATA were merciless; Ogawa attacking the non injured shoulder of Nioh, as he decided that one was injured enough so he was going to hurt the one that wasn't, and HAYATA (who looked to be carrying a slight elbow\wrist injury as he was favoring it before the match), using new moves. One which involved somehow managing to get Tadasuke to do a DDT on Nioh.

Haoh and Kotaro worked very well together after their title match, especially with the spectacular mid air leg sweep that Kotaro did on him. 

The match ended on a sour note however, with HAYATA inadvertently getting Kotaro sneak pinned by Tadasuke; HAYATA lost STINGER the tag titles, now he was about to cost them something else.  

WINNER: Tadasuke with the sneak pin on Kotaro Suzuki (18 minutes, 2 seconds)

Despite the close teamwork that STINGER had displayed, and Ogawa's concern for Kotaro when he was knocked out of the ring, a row broke out between them after the match. Ogawa attempted to calm Kotaro and HAYATA down by separating them into different parts of the ring, but Kotaro refused to be pacified, and threw an elbow at Ogawa, which made Ogawa and HAYATA turn against him which culminated in a double Tiger Driver. Outside the ring, the referee was screaming "Hey!", the bell was banging, and the commentators alternated between speechless and screaming. 

No one could quite believe that a champion, normally the crown jewel in the collection, would get kicked out of a unit.

Backstage Tadasuke hinted he was on the hunt for a belt, Ogawa said blithely "Who do I need? Kotaro or HAYATA?" and Kotaro hinted that despite how quickly they made up after their last falling out, this was going to be a long bitter grudge he was going to hold, and said simply "tangible things will break someday".

Once the dust had settled from the latest Noah junior spat, Noah made a short announcement on the monitor to announce that "Diamond 3", the next Kongoh produce, would be held on the 26th December at Korakuen Hall. Fans are wondering what will happen about Sugiura's 20th anniversary in wrestling, which will come round on the 23rd December.  

MATCH FOUR

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

The long suffering Go Shiozaki started the match against the perpetually smirking Katsuhiko Nakajima. True to form, Nakajima started messing around at the first lock up, taking cheapshot kicks at Shiozaki, who just dusted them off. After a while, Nakajima used the Mitsuharu Misawa flash tag on Yoshiki Inamura, and Shiozaki tagged in Kiyomiya. Round two of Nakajima and Shiozaki, saw Nakajima ducking Shiozaki's chops, and following them up with kicks to the face and the arms. Later Nakajima made the mistake of daring him, and got chopped around the ring with loud thudding chops. 

Despite being smaller, Kenoh did relatively well in the shoulder tackles with Shuhei Taniguchi, who got a unique double team between Nakajima and Inamura in the corner, which was almost an Endless Love of kicks and chops. Sadly, as events will show, we are not going to be seeing this again. 

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Tiger Suplex on Kenoh (21 minutes, 58 seconds)

Kiyomiya had one of his excited meltdowns on pinning Kenoh, while Shiozaki and Nakajima carried on fighting outside the ring until Nakajima threw Shiozaki in, they butted heads and Nakajima left without even bothering to check on Kenoh like Inamura was. 

Kiyomiya went to leave, but Inamura stopped him by walking quickly into his path. They had an exchange, which ended with Kiyomiya turning away to think of something, then he turned back and extended his hand, smiling at Inamura. Inamura took a look at Kenoh, (who was sitting up watching, holding the ice pack to his neck), and then bowed to him and left the ring. Inamura had just left Kongoh to team with Kaito Kiyomiya, Daiki Inaba and Shuhei Taniguchi. Later, Inamura said he did it because he needed to take the next step in his career.

With Inamura gone, Kiyomiya then turned to Kenoh and asked him how it felt to be on the floor with someone looking down on him....and challenged for the belt, citing his "New View". Kenoh looked resigned to it, like he had expected it to happen. Then he started swearing to himself at ringside as he put the belt over his shoulder and stalked off. Backstage he once again refused to acknowledge that Kiyomiya had any thoughts or motivation of his own (I think Kenoh is probably convinced that if he wasn't being "controlled" by CyberFight, Kiyomiya would come to Kongoh and let Kenoh make all his decisions, which is Kenoh's way of protecting him being convinced he knows what is best for him and being incapable of seeing that Kiyomiya is no longer the awkward teenage trainee he teamed with who adored him), blaming this whole "new view" of his on "underhand people", who made it "artificial". Despite all of this, Kenoh has granted the title challenge and set it for 22nd November at the Yokohama Budokan.  

MATCH FIVE

GHC JUNIOR TAG CHAMPIONSHIP

Momo No Seishun (Daisuke Harada & Atsushi Kotoge) vs FULL THROTTLE (YO-HEY & Seiki Yoshioka)

Out of the two individual grudges going on in this match, Seiki Yoshioka and Atsushi Kotoge (who was slightly hyper, and having to rein himself in), have more unfinished business, and so they started the match. When it came to Daisuke Harada, he wasn't amused by YO-HEY'S crazy lock up and simply stared and held up one hand, when YO-HEY'S attention wandered, Harada yelled "HEY!" and when he kept messing around, Harada bulldogged him. Later he lariated him and almost took his head off.  

Fans want to see a singles match between Harada and Yoshioka, as their short interaction was amazing, and left us wanting to see more.

WINNER: Daisuke Harada with the Katayama German Suplex on YO-HEY (18 minutes, 19 seconds)

Daisuke Harada (who Naomichi Marufuji once called "Poker Faced") had twisted his features into something demonic, as with his teeth clenched he looked at YO-HEY and shook his head at him. However, more demons were about to get into the ring. 

Daisuke Harada was talking about his title challenge against Kotaro Suzuki on the 8th November at Korakuen Hall when STINGER climbed into the ring and attacked himself and Kotoge. Ogawa picked up the belts, as HAYATA (playing for time before he had to speak by checking the microphone worked) said almost inaudibly, "Us....next" as a title challenge (which has been set for 22nd November). 

MATCH SIX

GHC HEAVYWEIGHT TAG CHAMPIONSHIP

The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura & Kazushi Sakuraba) vs Kongoh (Masa Kitamiya & Manabu Soya)

Kazushi Sakuraba and Takashi Sugiura have had custom belts made with their names on them, and they carried them to the ring in addition to their tag belts. Art and craft belts, no doubt displeased the Spartan Kongoh. Kitamiya and Soya look to be staying as a tag team, even have a tandem move, in which Kitamiya lifts an opponent on to Soya who is on the top turnbuckle. Soya then does a brainbuster.

Everyone except Kenoh (and obviously Inamura) came out to second Kitamiya and Soya, and so with NOSAWA at ringside to second Takashi Sugiura ("The Boss") and Kazushi Sakuraba, the ringside was entirely juniors. 

Kongoh may have started dominant, but Sakuraba was true to his word, and worked on Soya, knowing him to be the more susceptible out of the two to joint techniques, even when outside the ring he stood on him to drive his elbow into the steel barrier. 

Kongoh came very close to the titles, but it wasn't as easy as last time they faced The Sugiura Army when it was one junior and one heavyweight, and Sakuraba's prediction about making Soya tap came true

WINNER: Kazushi Sakuraba with the modified keylock on Manabu Soya (20 minutes, 10 seconds)

Naomichi Marufuji came out to ruin the happy moment of brotherly hugs and custom made belts, and he almost dropped the microphone as he spoke but made a good save. Marufuji said he really wanted to see Takashi Sugiura vs Masakatsu Funaki, and would he let them challenge for the belt? They shook on it and agreed.

All titles will be on the line at the Yokohama Budokan on the 22nd November, which is shaping up to be an explosive show. 

Noah's next event is on Tuesday 3rd November. 

With thanks to: Fujiwara Armbar, Abeshin, Metal Noah

Picture credit: Noah GHC, PKDX