NOAH WEEKLY NEWSLETTER VOL.115 ~ 27TH DECEMBER 2020


NEWS

NOSAWA RONGAI REVEALS THE SUGIURA ARMY'S X
NOSAWA Rongai chose "Diamond 3", the Kongoh produce, to reveal the mystery man who will be appearing for The Sugiura Army on the 29th in the seven man elimination match. NOSAWA did this (although he claimed he had no bias by doing it when he did and no particular target), after Katsuhiko Nakajima and Masa Kitamiya had a tag match against Yoshiki Inamura and Kinya Okada (Okada described their relationship as being like "heaven and earth" i.e. different but connected). In the lull before NOSAWA appeared, fans were wondering just what was going to happen between the former AGGRESSION, but all they really did was their old fist\elbow bump. 


The mystery X turned out to be the returning Kazunari Murakami. 
Murakami is a pro wrestler, and like 99% of The Sugiura Army, has a background in MMA. He appeared in Noah during "The Golden Era" from 2006 to 2007, and then twice after Mitsuharu Misawa's death in 2010. He mainly wrestled tag matches and in 2010 challenged DISOBEY (Takeshi Rikio and Mohammed Yone) for the tag titles, but he did have two singles during his tenure against Mitsuharu Misawa (2006) and Naomichi Marufuji (2007). This will be his return to Noah after ten years. 

While NOSAWA claims he had no target in particular, Murakami has a separate background with both Katsuhiko Nakajima and Masa Kitamiya, stemming from their days at Kensuke Office\Diamond Ring. Never having a singles match with Nakajima, he has nonetheless been fighting him since 2012, and has only one win in tags over him. He and Nakajima do of course have a shared background in MMA. Masa Kitamiya's history with Murakami is a little shorter, but he has fought him in a singles, which he lost in 2012. Kitamiya says he remembers all the conflict in the dojo. 
Nakajima, of course, baited Murakami when he was standing on the apron, a huge smile on his face he tried to goad him to get into the ring, but NOSAWA stopped him. Backstage Murakami said he is enthusiastic about the 29th, and would show everyone what true wrestling was. 

EVENT RECAPS AND POST MATCH PROMOS
Kongoh produce: "Diamond 3" (26th December 2020) ~ Event recap
Kongoh produce: "Diamond 3" (26th December 2020) ~ Post match promos


ELSEWHERE IN NOAH
~ Naomichi Marufuji had promised Masao Inoue a Christmas present of a nice red chest from himself and Go Shiozaki, to be delivered at the Kongoh produce. Inoue said it wasn't something he liked, wanted or needed, but they gave it to him anyway. Inoue ended up with a red chest with fingerprints on it, so bad that the next day he couldn't even take a bath. His problems weren't over as Akitoshi Saito (who lost his pants thanks having to take them off to escape Naomichi Marufuji), teabagged him. 
~ Tokyo Sports ran a fantastical story about Kendo Kashin seeing someone, who looked vaguely familiar, walking their dog on his property (he owns a large area of ground next to his house), when he went to investigate he found a pile of dog feces and a dirty tissue which he said, "someone had wiped their butt with", left behind. While cleaning it up he said he noticed someone watching him from a car, and what looked like a Shiba Inu in the front seat. He has since put up notices around his property asking people not to defecate there, and to clean up after their dogs. The implication is that it was Takashi Sugiura.
~ Naomichi Marufuji called Go Shiozaki, "Shio". 
~ In DDT, Jun Akiyama won the D-OH Grand Prix and announced that he wanted to challenge for either the IWGP (New Japan), Triple Crown (All Japan) or the GHC Heavyweight (Noah). 
~ Go Shiozaki flattened Masao Inoue with the Moonsault for the win at the Kongoh produce. He said this was a message to Keiji Mutoh. 
~ Kenoh, enraged about Kazunaru Murakami, has come away from conjuring up images of old men having a good time in an Izakaya under a railway tracks, to it his drinking with friends in a "shady" Izakaya. 
~ Takashi Sugiura said that if their PPV isn't popular, then it's Noah's Executive Officer, Narihiro Takeda, whose head is going to be on the line.

THIS WEEK IN NOAH
Tuesday 29th December: "All Dogs Gather 2 - Takashi Sugiura's 20th anniversary" (18:30, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo)
Wednesday 30th December: Eddie Edwards (37)
Friday 1st January: Kenoh (36)

CURRENT CHAMPIONS

GHC Heavyweight Champion: Go Shiozaki
Challenger: Keiji Mutoh (12th February 2021, Nippon Budokan)

GHC Junior Champion: Daisuke Harada
Challenger: None

Challengers: None

GHC Junior Tag Champions: STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA)
Challengers: None

GHC National Champion: Kenoh
Challenger: None

BROADCASTS

The Sugiura Army produce will be broadcast on ABEMA, but with restrictions. If you are not a subscriber and\or outside of Japan, you will only be able to view the first hour of the produce, this is because the PPV which is paid for content, has to be purchased and comes as part of the show. Unless you have a working VPN which you know is compatible with ABEMA, I do not recommend you waste money subscribing to ABEMA, purchasing the PPV and finding a VPN that works. 

LINKS

GIFS taken from WRESTLEUNIVERSE. 

Comments