(NOAH) Who is the wrestler who knocked out Jun Akiyama and Naomichi Marufuji at The Budokan?
Yahoo.co.jp\BBM Sports
On February 4th, Jun Akiyama and Naomichi Marufuji, who will fight against the tag team of Yoshiki Inamura and Kaito Kiyomiya at the Noah Budokan on 12th February, had a talk and revealed a surprising fact as they talked about their memories of the Budokan.
For Akiyama, the Budokan is a familiar venue which he has continued to attend, starting from October 1992 to the Kenta Kobashi retirement match in May 2013. For Akiyama it has only been seven years and nine months, but "When I entered All Japan, the finals were at The Budokan as a matter of course. I think it was amazing, and I also think it is amazing that Noah will be holding it again for the first time in eleven years." He fully recognized the magnificence of Giant Baba, President of All Japan, and Mitsuharu Misawa, the President of Noah.
Of course, Akiyama has a lot of memories. During his All Japan era, in December 1992, he fought against Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada in the final round of "World's Strongest Tag League", which he did three months after his debut, tagging with Akira Taue as a substitute for Jumbo Tsuruta.
In September 1997, he challenged Misawa for the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship for the first time. In Noah in July 2001, he defeated Misawa and seized the GHC Heavyweight Championship. As an active wrestler, he has been in the Budokan main event twenty-two times.
However, the match that left the most impression on Akiyama at the Budokan, was a surprising one.
"It's probably not what everyone thinks, but I was given a concussion by Yone when he slapped me. That is the most memorable one (laughs). I had a concussion and don't remember anything. Of course, I have other memories, but what makes an impression on me was the match when I lost my memory after being given a slap".
In July 2008, Akiyama teamed up with Davey Richards & Atsushi Aoki to face Akitoshi Saito, Mohammed Yone & Ricky Marvin. During the match he was slapped by Yone, which caused a concussion, and even though he had no memory of it, he continued fighting.
Marufuji agreed with Akiyama's unexpected statement. In the GHC Hardcore championship match in March 2005, he had the same experience as, "I also remember being slapped by Yone. I couldn't stand after taking it."
In other words, Yone's slap had knocked out two superstars, who both remember the history of Noah. Akiyama has advised Yone, "You should be good at slapping by now."
Yone will team up with Shuhei Taniguchi in the 3rd match of Part 1 of Noah at the Budokan on the 12th February, and face Masaaki Mochizuki of DRAGON GATE and Masato Tanaka of ZERO1.
Will the slap that knocked out Marufuji and Akiyama be delivered?
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