(NOAH) EVENT RECAP ~ STEP FORWARD 2021 (February 24th, Korakuen Hall)

"The drama is again today"

TEENS HEAVEN opened the show, but they did not sing. Instead they made the announcements that ring announcer Ally normally would i.e. hygiene precautions, no alcohol, hand sanitizer, no videotaping of the event, no drunk Tadasuke's etc. Fans would like to see them perform when time and COVID are not such an issue. One thing they didn't explain, and what fans noticed, was that the red and blue corners had changed position. Someone quipped that it was probably for Keiji Mutoh's bad knees. 

The event today was broadcast live on ABEMA (who are now giving names in English under the Japanese, as they are starting to realize that they have an international audience when it comes to Noah). You will be able to view this event for seven days, after this it will be put on WrestleUniverse, which you will need to subscribe to. 

MATCH ONE 

Hajime Ohara vs Yasutaka Yano

There was a very teacher\student feel to this match, starting the moment Hajime Ohara walked out to the ring. Yasutaka Yano continues to rise, and due to his blossoming technique, he was even able to get master ring technician, Ohara, to rethink his strategy, but despite this, Ohara is the senior and practically tied the poor boy into a knot to get the win.

WINNER: Hajime Ohara with the Tres Fleur (6 minutes, 13 seconds)

MATCH TWO

Mohammed Yone, Shuhei Taniguchi & Yoshiki Inamura vs Kongoh Juniors (Haoh, Nioh & Tadasuke)

This was always going to be a tough match for anyone who isn't Mohammed Yone, Shuhei Taniguchi and Yoshiki Inamura, or who doesn't have the heavyweight strength of Tadasuke. I think Tadasuke loves having these kind of matches, as he gets to test his strength against heavyweights. So the people in the match who didn't have an easy time was 5'4 Haoh, and (to a lesser extent), the more thickly set, Nioh. 

The Kongoh juniors put up a good fight. Mohammed Yone was not impressed by Tadasuke knocking him down, and then pulling the Kongoh pose at him, Nioh managed to stand up to Shuhei Taniguchi, but was eventually knocked down and he cleverly took out his knees. Then Taniguchi slammed everyone, and started jigging around. There was no YO-HEY to imitate him this time. If Taniguchi has his slam, then Kongoh have their tandem moonsaults. 

As stated, it was the 5'4 Haoh who got it the worse, as he was almost thrown out of the ring by Yoshiki Inamura (who crushed a Kongoh attempt to gang up on him) when he did GEKITOTZ, and then he bought him down with a terrifying Musou, which looked as if Haoh was nothing more than a rag-doll. Fans said they were left open mouthed, and the video on the official Noah Twitter went viral. 

WINNER: Yoshiki Inamura with the Musou (5 minutes, 48 seconds)

As the Kongoh juniors left the ring, with Tadasuke and Nioh having scraped Haoh off the canvas, NOSAWA Rongai appeared from thin air,and attacked Tadasuke. The fight then went backstage, and it was left to the referee to help Haoh out. When the fight had been broken up, Tadasuke said that he would fight NOSAWA and whoever he chose, three on three. Match has been arranged with The Kongoh Juniors vs NOSAWA Rongai, Ikuto Hidaka and Kotaro Suzuki for the 7th March (Noah's next event, after the FULL THROTTLE produce). 

MATCH THREE

FULL THROTTLE (Seiki Yoshioka & YO-HEY) vs Kotaro Suzuki & Ikuto Hidaka

Short filler match, without a pre-match for Seiki Yoshioka. Kotaro Suzuki, back to wearing black, wasn't in the mood for YO-HEY'S messing around, and grabbed him by the throat after the typically zany lock up. He then softened him up with elbows. 

WINNER: YO-HEY with the YO-ROLL on Ikuto Hidaka (9 minutes, 26 seconds)

Because this is a Noah juniors match, fights broke out at the end when Kotaro kicked at YO-HEY, and again, another fight went to the back. This division is out of control, and it wasn't going to be the last fight of the evening. The rule that you cannot have more than two Noah junior in the ring without chaos breaking loose, was going to be very true on this occasion, and it is not for nothing that YO-HEY described the Noah Juniors as being in their "Warring States Period". 

MATCH FOUR

STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa, HAYATA & Susumu) vs Momo No Seishun (Daisuke Harada & Atsushi Kotoge) & Kinya Okada

With the audacity and bravado of youth, Kinya Okada made the mistake of thinking that he could somehow outmaneuver Yoshinari Ogawa. Ogawa didn't see it that way, and after their first bout, actually gave Okada a pat on the head, before pushing him away before tagging HAYATA in. There was no feeling of any old RATELS anything between HAYATA and Daisuke Harada. The unit is now firmly in the past. 

Daisuke Harada has this kind of sadistic smile (aka his "Shark smells blood" face), when something happens in the ring which means he can cause hurt, but he also uses it for when he's pleased about something happening in the ring, and he had it today when facing Susumu, which is probably because when compared to HAYATA and Ogawa, it's new thing for him.

WINNER: HAYATA with the Moonsault Press on Kinya Okada (15 minutes, 6 seconds)

The referee gave up trying to get STINGER to raise their arms when Momo No Seishun started muscling in, and Ogawa and Kotoge had a tug of war over the belt. Junta Miyawaki got in the ring, and putting out two arms, drove Momo No Seishun back, before another fight (the third junior fight of the evening) broke out. When order was semi restored, Miyawaki took out Ogawa and HAYATA, and had a quick talk with his teammates. Then Daisuke Harada challenged for the tag titles, on behalf of himself and Miyawaki. As for his regular tag partner, Harada said he wanted Kotoge to concentrate on the singles belt. Backstage, Junta dialed it up a notch screaming, "I WANT A BELT."

Title match has been set for 21st March at Korakuen Hall. 

MATCH FIVE

The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kazuyuji Fujita & Kendo Kashin) vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Masa Kitamiya & Manabu Soya)

After being attacked by Kendo Kashin in various disguises (and under various claimed personas), Kenoh said he was going to be wary, watching out during the match for anything that Kendo Kashin might do, and watching what he was going to do afterwards, or what anyone else might do afterwards. Fortunately, the last decoy, Mr Orange (Noah's bus driver) was at the merchandise stand. 

Kashin, however, didn't enter with The Sugiura Army, he tried to blindside Kenoh by sneaking in a different way (he also fell over a barrier when he tried to jump it), and after they had all entered. Seeing Kenoh fighting in his ring gown is very rare, even more rare was seeing him use it as a weapon to choke Kashin with. Kashin, however, was up to usual tricks, distracting the ref so he could kick Kenoh in the groin, and then taking a few shots at him outside the ring. It was also noted in an outside brawl, that Kenoh did not want to go into the crowd, and was trying his best to stay on the other side of the barrier. 

The other story in this match was THE AGGRESSION (Katsuhiko Nakajima and Masa Kitamiya), and The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura and Kazushi Sakuraba). The two teams compliment each other well in a way as Sugiura and Kitamiya are the intense ones, with Sakuraba and Nakajima the more laid back. Although in a different way. A very different way. Sakuraba doesn't smile like a crack in the walls of Hell. 

Katsuhiko Nakajima, was his usual irritating self, did a clean rope break on Sugiura to wind him up, and really stuck it to Sakuraba during the "Shutter Chance". He had a very good exchange with Sakuraba in terms of mat wrestling and MMA style. Earlier in the week Sakuraba had posted on his Twitter that he was practicing a calf kick technique, when Nakajima commented on it, he called it a "Scarf kick" and joked his "neck was cold". Nakajima (true to form) said he preferred kicking people in the face. Although Nakajima was trying to provoke Sakuraba into using them, he saved them, as we will see...

The third story in this match was the one that the fans had all been waiting for since their very short exchange at "Noah The Chronicle Volume 4" was the collision between Manabu Soya and Kazuyuki Fujita. It did not disappoint with brutal shoulder tackles, and even after the match had ended, they had a huge fight which spilled backstage and went into the interviewing area. They will have a singles match on the 7th March in Yokohama. 

Nakajima's kicks seemed to be sharper than ever on Sugiura and Sakuraba, but person who most definitely won the shooting match, was Sakuraba. Sakuraba unveiled his secret weapon, by kicking Nakajima down, and then locking in his new move "The Calf Slicer", which made Nakajima tap. 

WINNER: Kazushi Sakuraba with the Calf Slicer on Katsuhiko Nakajima (22 minutes, 9 seconds)

As Kenoh brawled with Kashin, and Soya and Fujita took their fight backstage, Kitamiya saw to Nakajima as Sugiura addressed THE AGGRESSION. As Sugiura spoke, Kitamiya scowled and Nakajima looked thoughtful 

"Hey! Kitamiya! We are not messing around...we enjoy pro wrestling."

They then did the "I am Chono Pose" as Kitamiya helped a limping Nakajima out. 

Meanwhile Kenoh & Kendo Kashin were fighting by the lifts...

MATCH SIX

The M'S Alliance (Keiji Mutoh, Naomichi Marufuji & Masato Tanaka) vs Kaito Kiyomiya, Go Shiozaki & Daiki Inaba

Daiki Inaba and Naomichi Marufuji had a score to settle since their tag match on the 29th December, which ended with them having a brawl outside the ring, and Inaba appeared to be slightly menacing Marufuji, who simply waved for him to go away. When they did meet in the ring, Inaba tended to no sell Marufuji's chops.

Keiji Mutoh made his first appearance as the GHC Heavyweight Champion, and although he no doubt wanted to avenge his loss, Go Shiozaki left it to Kaito Kiyomiya to take the role of taking on Mutoh. Shiozaki did want to start with against him, however, Kiyomiya herded him back and Shiozaki gave in (I think two stubborn Noah Born together tend to listen to each other), and started off against Mutoh. Later on in the match, he would take an apron shot at him. Shiozaki had little time in the ring with Mutoh, as he was more engaged in his endless tantrum provoking stubborn chop battle with Naomichi Marufuji. It got childish, and Marufuji gave Shiozaki the finger at one point.

Kiyomiya's fight against Mutoh was impulsive, which still showed his youth, and the match ended in frustration for him.

WINNER: Keiji Mutoh with The Shining Wizard on Daiki Inaba (17 minutes, 20 seconds) 

With thanks to: METAL-NOAH, Sakaikick, Kai, Abeshin, TACK

GIF'S taken from Noah Official Twitter, ABEMA TV

Noah's next event: "Engine Zenkai" ~ The FULL THROTTLE Produce (6th March 2021)