(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: PREMIUM PRELUDE (8th November 2020, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo)

"From the beginning to the end, my heart was moved. Everything was intense and fun, it was good professional wrestling. 

It was a lot of fun, about two hours, rich and dense.

Everything was a great scene"

Noah had a good turn out for Korakuen Hall today, although there were some gaps in seats and one side of the hall was not fully filled out. It was a good mobilisation of fans for a Sunday afternoon. 

The exuberant Kuniko Yamada was on commentary. She started clapping when the show started, which you could hear loudly on the monitor. 

Today's show was streamed live on ABEMA TV. You will be able to watch the show for seven days free, after that it will be transferred to WRESTLE UNIVERSE, which is a subscription service. 

MATCH ONE

Kinya Okada vs Yasutaka Yano

Event opened with Noah's newest debut in his third match, facing the person he made his debut at Korakuen Hall against. There was an applause for Yano after his first lock up, although naturally, Okada dominated the match. The crowd were clapping wildly for Yano (in purple today), especially when he refused to give up and reached for the ropes. 

Due to Yano's advanced ability, this felt more like an opening match between two seasoned wrestlers, rather than a young man in only his third match, especially as he was using techniques such as a small package hold and used repeated dropkicks. 

WINNER: Kinya Okada with Blockbuster Hold (6 minutes, 25 seconds)

MATCH TWO

Mohammed Yone, Shuhei Taniguchi & Seiya Morohashi vs The Kongoh Juniors (Haoh, Nioh and Tadasuke)

There were two heavyweights in this match: Mohammed Yone (who felled Haoh with Disco Fever), Shuhei Taniguchi, and one junior with enough heavyweight strength to even be a concern to one of the biggest heavyweights on the roster, Tadasuke. Tadasuke (or to be more apt, "Crazy Tadasuke"), was manic - bouncing up and down when Seiya Morohashi slapped the mat, pulling hair when he was on the apron, and the corner cam was just made for him, as his manic grin lit up screens worldwide when he was attacking on the turnbuckle. Despite their overwhelming heavyweight opposition (Taniguchi in particular, threw the three juniors around), it was because of Tadasuke's strength that Kongoh were able to succeed. 

WINNER: Tadasuke with the Ground Dump Lariat on Seiya Morohashi (10 minutes, 13 seconds)

MATCH THREE

Yoshiki Inamura & Daiki Inaba vs Kongoh (Masa Kitamiya & Manabu Soya)

Unlike their junior counterparts in Kongoh, Manabu Soya and Masa Kitamiya do not have an entry pose together. Although they did have one at the end of the pre-match against The Sugiura Army. The end of this match today, however, was going to be moving. 

While Kongoh are naturally not pleased with Yoshiki Inamura's decision to leave, they have never properly taken a stance on it. Kenoh has never mentioned it, and Kitamiya and Soya have chosen to talk about their upcoming tag title challenge. Nonetheless, Inamura and Kitamiya started the match and it went to a series of shoulder tackles which Inamura won. Soya, however, unlike Kitamiya, no sold Inamura. The focus of the match was very much Kongoh vs Inamura, with Daiki Inaba getting only a look in; it was very much what would happen with the man who chose to leave Kongoh (for Kaito Kiyomiya no less) and his old mentor. Kitamiya worked on Inamura's arm, and later there was a chop flurry between them, and the thump that Inamura made when hitting Kitamiya's chest, made the announcers squirm. Interestingly, like Kenoh and Nakajima (but not the Kongoh Juniors), Kitamiya and Soya have their own version of "Endless Love", which involves bouncing the opponent between them and using heavy chops. 

WINNER: Masa Kitamiya with the Saito Suplex on Yoshiki Inamura (11 minutes, 24 seconds)

After the match, Masa Kitamiya got on the microphone and praised Yoshiki Inamura for how far he has come, and even kind of acknowledging his exit from Kongoh. To everything Kitamiya said, Inamura screamed a loud "Yes", before the two sides departed the ring. 

MATCH FOUR

Atsushi Kotoge & Junta Miyawaki vs STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA)

STINGER do not care about winning pre-matches. All they want to win are their titles back, and so with Atsushi Kotoge and Junta Miyawaki having only stepped in the ring for a few seconds, they attacked. The bell hadn't even rung, HAYATA was still in his jacket and Kotoge still in hist-shirt.

It kind of went schoolyard with Kotoge (hyper) being attacked with his t-shirt over his head. They used it as a weapon, with HAYATA choking him. Ogawa working on Kotoge's knee, and HAYATA almost knocking him out with a kick. Ogawa even used his patented low blow. 

Despite Junta Miyawaki being kept out of the match (I don't think he threw more than a punch), Kotoge was not going to go down so easily, and he managed to fight back from time to time, even headbutting HAYATA at one point. But STINGER with the advantage only grew more vicious, and it culminated with HAYATA shoving the ref aside who tried to get between himself and Kotoge when fighting outside the ring. With the ref down and Miyawaki taken out, HAYATA grabbed the belt, and in process the ref got shoved down again.  

WINNER: Atsushi Kotoge thanks to disqualification (10 minutes, 27 seconds)

STINGER draped the belt over the fallen Kotoge and then left the ring. 

Noah held a small break to announce two important upcoming events; one that fans had been expecting, and the other is what has become Noah's traditional New Year's shows. 

Takashi Sugiura will hold his 20th anniversary event at Korakuen Hall on December 29th, it will be called "All Dogs Gather 2". Card is yet to be announced. 

The second announcement was "NOAH NEW SUNRISE", which will be held on the 4th January 2021 at Korakuen Hall. As per a new tradition, this will be a show where the card is not announced beforehand, but will be a surprise with everyone entering to their own music to announce the matches on the day. 

There was, however, to be a third announcement...

MATCH FIVE

The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kendo Kashin & NOSAWA Rongai) vs Naomichi Marufuji & FULL THROTTLE (Hajime Ohara, YO-HEY & Seiki Yoshioka)

Although he didn't come out waving a chair, Kendo Kashin had to be controlled by his Sugiura Army stablemates; Kazushi Sakuraba controlling him on his way to the ring, and Takashi Sugiura playing his part when YO-HEY was getting attacked on the turnbuckle, and Kashin decided to stretch out one of his arms, and he had to remove him. Naturally, he couldn't stay out of trouble, making Naomichi Marufuji complain when he grabbed him.

Naomichi Marufuji did a lot of complaining, squaring up to the champions, and especially as after starting the match with Sugiura he went for the knee, but Sugi rolled out of the way, and Marufuji ended up hitting the turnbuckle. He was insistent at all times to be tagged in against either Sugiura or Sakuraba, and sensibly Seiki Yoshioka gave him his own way, and Sakuraba was the second person to dodge his knee. When he was in the ring with Sakuraba they got into mat wrestling, and then there was later a chop war between them. Sakuraba's resilience to this seems to have grown.  

Then there was the Noah junior element in this match, and when Noah juniors are involved, mass brawls break out. Tonight was not going to be the last time. 

Looking like a bird of paradise, the very colorful YO-HEY (his tongue was as colorful as his hair), found himself facing Takashi Sugiura. It was like something out of Terminator watching YO-HEY try and attack a man who probably has an endoskeleton, and naturally, Sugi felled him with one punch. Given the fact that Sugiura strikes fear into most of the juniors on the roster (except perhaps Daisuke Harada who once took him on at a RATELS produce, when Sugiura was the GHC Heavyweight champion), they worked in tandem to take him down. We also discovered tonight that it is safe to accept a handshake from NOSAWA, but not Tadasuke. 

With their shared background in mixed martial arts, Takashi Sugiura and Hajime Ohara worked well together, but sadly we only got to see a small slice of Ohara vs Sakuraba. 

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with the Olympic Slam on Hajime Ohara (13 minutes, 31 seconds)

As Sugiura got the three count, Marufuji and Sakuraba had been fighting outside the ring. As Marufuji got back into it, he started complaining, as around them FULL THROTTLE saw to Ohara and took him out of the ring. 

Then the screen went static. 

This is not usually what happens in Noah. A big announcement was coming. 

It was Masahiro Chono, and he had a few choice words for Go Shiozaki, Naomichi Marufuji, Keiji Mutoh and Takashi Sugiura. 

To Shiozaki he said that HE was Chono, and if Shiozaki was going to rip of his phrase and say "I am Noah", then kindly say it in Japanese. 

To Marufuji he warned that he shouldn't trust Keiji Mutoh too much

Chono's big announcement was, however, to The Sugiura Army (who he asked not to do his pose, which they immediately did, and to Sugiura he asked why he was making money off of his dog?). Chono said he was joining their number as a special guest, and would accompany them to the GHC Heavyweight Tag Title match on the 22nd November in Yokohama. 

Naomichi Marufuji, however, wasn't to be outdone. 

If The Sugiura Army could pull in special guests, then so could he, and after the match he called Jurina Matsui (an M'S Alliance member) and asked her to come to Yokohama. Jurina, delighted as she said she had always wanted to do something with them, accepted (either that or she knows that because he has an ear infection he's likely to be difficult). 

MATCH SIX

GHC JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

Kotaro Suzuki vs Daisuke Harada

Kotaro said that before he deals with STINGER, he wanted to get the match with Daisuke Harada out of the way first. It was a gruelling technical match, with a sense of desperation, which bought out the best in both. Harada kicked out of the Tiger Driver and The Blue Destiny, with Kotaro kicking out of the Katayama. By this time, what was left? The crowd were clapping loudly, Atsushi Kotoge (who was seconding Harada) was banging on the apron. The match came down to a series of rolling reversals, and in which Kotaro came very close to retaining, but it was all they had left. 

WINNER: Daisuke Harada after several pin reversals (15 minutes, 22 seconds)

Tadasuke, who said he was going to bide his time regarding a title challenge, came to the ring to challenge. He bought Nioh and Haoh with him. 

Now, we know what happens when Noah Juniors see other Noah Juniors in the ring. Tadasuke hadn't even finished speaking when STINGER burst in to the ring and attacked Kotoge, Harada and Kotaro. Then NOSAWA came in for some reason to help Kotaro, and forcibly gave him a handshake. Kotaro looked puzzled, and overall really wasn't interested, and the crowd laughed, but NOSAWA wouldn't take no for an answer, and it looked as if  Kotaro was being press ganged into The Sugiura Army. 

While the fighting was going on, (FULL THROTTLE did not join in however), Tadasuke decided he was going to steal the belt. Harada noticed this, and Tadasuke was kind enough to leave it in the interview room for him. Harada has accepted his challenge, but due to the Junior tag title match, the belt will not be defended in Yokohama. Noah are yet to announce a date. 

MATCH SEVEN

Go Shiozaki & Kaito Kiyomiya vs Kongoh (Kenoh & Katsuhiko Nakajima)

Go Shiozaki (who is in an increasingly bad physical condition and looking bruised and swollen) came limping to the ring, as the referee was trying to seperate Kenoh and Kaito Kiyomiya, who were getting into a violent shoving match. Once separated, Kenoh could be seen growling "asshole" at Kiyomiya from across the ring. 

Ever the team player, Katsuhiko Nakajima was very helpful. Deciding that he wanted to start, and Kenoh and Nakajima would just have to wait, he stood staring at Shiozaki looking pure evil and with a slight lick of the lips. It didn't take long for Nakajima to reveal he was just being irritating, as he tagged in Kenoh and Shiozaki tagged in Kiyomiya, and the two of them flew at each other. After a punch exchange, Kiyomiya slapped Kenoh so hard all four corners of Korakuen heard the echo bouncing around the venue. 

Nakajima was at his most evil. Smiling like a crack in the walls of hell, he moved slowly around the ring, kicking Kiyomiya and Shiozaki around. With Shiozaki, he aimed for his shoulders and his elbows. Shiozaki suffered not only Nakajima's soccer ball kicks, but "The Endless Love", which was a move that he and Nakajima did in happier times. Kiyomiya was also to share in on this. Even the ref was not immune to Nakajima's sinister brand of evil, as he was shoved out of the way. Telling him off about it naturally did no good, as Nakajima took no notice. 

WINNER: Katsuhiko Nakajima with the vertical spike on Go Shiozaki (16 minutes, 18 seconds)

Nakajima took the belt,  and posed with it while putting one foot on the fallen Shiozaki for pictures. He later said that this was simply, "business as usual" and sarcastically told Shiozaki to come to Yokohama in a good condition. If he could that was. 

Kenoh and Kiyomiya had been fighting outside the ring while this has been going on. As Shiozaki was being rolled out of the ring (Nakajima had long since left by this time), Kenoh got the microphone and glared down at Kiyomiya who was crawling around outside the ring, as he cut a long promo. Kenoh's most recent anger towards Kiyomiya seems to be that Kiyomiya went on a celebrity dating program, and naturally Kenoh doesn't believe that anything Kiyomiya does is of his own free will. Having seen the news article about Kiyomiya's "date" with a ring announcer, Kenoh said on Twitter "What is this?" In the ring, he had a little more to say about it, asking why Kiyomiya was so relaxed before a title match, so much so he went on a date. Kenoh even apparently gave him advice on going for it and not being scared to take it further, before adding that it couldn't possibly be genuine; to Kenoh this is all a set up which Kiyomiya doesn't realise, as he is the puppet of shadowy men with money. 

Noah's next event: Saturday, November 14, 2020, Act City, Hamamatsu (this will be broadcast on WRESTLEUNIVERSE on 17th November)

With thanks to: METAL NOAH, Abeshin, Rembrandt

GIF'S taken from ABEMA