(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: NOAH THE INFINITY 2021 (March 21st, Korakuen Hall)

"Hot and humid in the hall"

Spring brings the rain and the wind to Japan, and Tokyo was no exception when fans came to Korakuen Hall for a mid morning Noah show at Korakuen Hall today. Despite the pandemic and Noah not being able to sell all the seats out, they announced an attendance of 678 people. Two fans came dressed as "Funky Express" (Mohammed Yone and Shuhei Taniguchi). 

Noah seem to be suffering from the injury bug at the moment, with Go Shiozaki and Hitoshi Kumano out long term as both need operations (Shiozaki shoulder, Kumano eye) and are a further two men down with Kaito Kiyomiya being absent from the ring tonight due to a concussion, and Kotaro Suzuki suffering gallstones, which put in place an interesting singles match which gave rise to something more than just a card change. 

The event was broadcast live on WrestleUniverse, you will be able to view this on demand, even if you are reading this some months or weeks after the event, but you must be a subscriber to view. 

MATCH ONE

Atsushi Kotoge, Kai Fujimura & Yasutaka Yano vs Kongoh (Haoh, Nioh and Tadasuke)

The young boys came running to the ring, followed by a slightly hyper Atsushi Kotoge. Yasutaka Yano decided he was going to start the match, and ploughed back his teammates. Kotoge, understanding the audacity of youth, kind of rolled his eyes and patted him on the head. Tadasuke congratulated himself on besting Yano, right up until Yano knocked him back with a dropkick to the corner, and Tadasuke felt he needed to complain to the ref. Yano was able to stand up to and almost out wrestle Tadasuke to an extent. Kai Fujimura, however, didn't present too much of a problem and Tadasuke had the wide manic grin with hair flying everywhere when beating up on him, throwing him to the mat after attacks. 

As to be expected from a match with Noah's junior division, there were some melee brawls, but on the whole, the ref was able to keep order. 

WINNER: Nioh with Stuka Splash on Kai Fujimura (12 minutes, 28 seconds)

Although Tadasuke had dropped hints that he may challenge for the title, it was Nioh who got there first, as he and Kotoge had a square off on the ring apron over the belt. Backstage, Nioh officially confirmed he would be challenging and the title match has been set for 18th April at Korakuen Hall. 

In the short lull between the two matches, Kaito Kiyomiya came out to the ring to make an announcement. Dressed in white shirt and jeans, he was unsmiling and not his usual animated self, as he told everyone that he would be returning to the ring on the 3rd April (in an eight person tag match against Kenoh), and he would also be taking part as planned in ZERO-1's show, the "Pro Wrestling All Star Great Charity Festival”. Kiyomiya's appearance was more than just announcing his return, he also stated that he wanted to climb his way up back through Noah. 

MATCH TWO

Hajime Ohara vs Susumu

"Collected more than just wins. I found a rival"

Yuya Susumu

As stated earlier, the card had to be changed due to Kotaro Suzuki becoming ill, but this gave rise to a very technical match (which will have far reaching consequences, i.e. STINGER vs FULL THROTTLE in the long run which is what Noah appears to be building up to), which you could tell that they both enjoyed doing. This is their first singles match, although they have clashed before (the last time they did was in Noah in 2018), and Susumu gave as good as he got and it got to the point where Ohara couldn't believe that Susumu was either not kicking out or not giving up. Ohara pulled pretty much everything he had out, but in the end it was Susumu who did the unthinkable, and made made Hajime Ohara (the nicer version of  Yoshinari Ogawa), tap out

WINNER: Susumu with the Cross Face Lock (10 minutes, 22 seconds)

MATCH THREE

FULL THROTTLE (Seiki Yoshioka & YO-HEY) vs Ikuto Hidaka & NOSAWA Rongai

YO-HEY came out with blue hair and a blue tongue to match. He had announced he would be dying his hair on Twitter, and fortunately for us all, the other thing that was discussed on Twitter with old Dove Pro friend, Naoki Tanizaki, did not happen. His partner, Seiki Yoshioka, looked sad after the title loss, but not defeated, but he was going to have a very different look on his face, one of shock, when NOSAWA managed to win the match with one of his flash pins, which is what makes him so dangerous. 

WINNER: NOSAWA Rongai with the Super high school class La Mahistral (2 minutes, 25 seconds)

Yoshioka couldn't believe it, and neither could YO-HEY. For Yoshioka in particular it was first the loss to Kotoge, and now this. On the way out, YO-HEY, even felt he had to take it up with Ally at ringside on the way out, and Yoshioka slapped the table as he passed. This is unusual for them to be so aggressive towards officials. There were definite clouds on the normally sunny FULL THROTTLE horizon tonight.

MATCH FOUR

Loser disbands and joins the winning team

Funky Energy (Mohammed Yone & Shuhei Taniguchi) vs The Anti Wrestlers Alliance (Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue)

The blue and yellow glowsticks were out in force for Mohammed Yone and Shuhei Taniguchi, who came dancing their way to the ring. Naturally, The Anti Wrestlers Alliance were more somber, and Akitoshi Saito thought it was best he start the match compared to Masao Inoue, who came limping to the ring. Yone and Saito started with shoulder tackles, which led to lariats, and then when neither of these failed to knock the other down, they had a kind of "hair off" after butting heads in which Saito smoothed back his hair, and Yone smoothed his afro. 

Masao Inoue can do serious wrestling when he wants, and it does make him a threat when he does, and in any case, Saito was not in the mood for any bumbling by Inoue tonight. Like NOSAWA, Inoue can be dangerous when he uses flash pins and so used a succession on Shuhei Taniguchi, who kicked out of all of them, making Inoue to complain to the ref. Inoue also used the Noah in joke of stamping on Taniguchi's toes. To explain to newer fans, both Inoue and Taniguchi suffer from gout, so the heavyweights make a point of stamping on Inoue's toes.They do this more to him than they do Taniguchi though. Inoue showed grit in his fight with Taniguchi, but ultimately the taller and stronger prevailed, and The Anti Wrestlers Alliance ended after almost a year. 

WINNER: Shuhei Taniguchi with the Funky Press (12 minutes and 4 seconds)

Excited, Shuhei Taniguchi got on the microphone, and did a celebratory jig screaming "Funky", Yone reminded Saito he had a promise to keep. Saito said he was a man of his word, and from now on, they would all be "funky" together. They did a four man fist bump, and for Th Anti Wrestlers Alliance, there was one last wave of the flag, a bow to all four corners by Saito and then forgiveness for Inoue. On Twitter, Saito sadly packed away his Hakama and thanked Inoue for everything. 

Personally, I don't see Saito putting up with this for very long.  

MATCH FIVE

The M's alliance (Naomichi Marufuji & Yuko Miyamoto) vs The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura & Kendo Kashin)

The match started off as it meant to go on, with comedy between the two teams. 

The chaotic tag team of Takashi Sugiura and Kendo Kashin started with them both standing on the ring apron as neither wanted to start the match, and Kashin couldn't do as he was told. Naomichi Marufuji and Yuko Miyamoto later parodied this. Then after a brief exchange with Naomichi Marufuji, Kendo Kashin tagged in Takashi Sugiura using the Misawa flash tag, Sugiura got in the ring, and then immediately tagged Kashin back in. 

Aside from his usual tactics of grabbing the referee, Kashin went for his perspex sheet spot, which he famously used on Kenoh. He went to use it on Marufuji, who was being held by Sugiura. When he went to put it over Marufuji's face, he hit him on the back of the head. Marufuji wriggled free, and ran off, and Sugiura ended up having it done to him. Afterwards, he audibly accused Kashin of doing it on purpose. Kashin denied it, and Sugi just looked weary. However, Sugiura would recover his sense of humor enough about it to parody Kenoh in accusing Noah officials of doing it deliberately, saying he had been with Noah twenty years, wasn't going to be treated this way and was going to quit if it happened again. 

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with the Olympic Slam on Yuko Miyamoto (11 minutes, 35 seconds)

The Sugiura Army were not finished yet, in victory they made Referee Nishinaga stand with his hands raised between them. He does deserve it though with having to control out of control Noah Juniors, grumpy heavyweights, and Kendo Kashin. 

MATCH SIX

Kongoh (Katsuhiko Nakajima, Masa Kitamiya & Manabu Soya) vs Osamu Nishimura, Yoshiki Inamura & Kinya Okada

Osamu Nishimura teamed today with Yoshiki Inamura and Kinya Okada, but he very much kept out of the match, and a lot of his interactions were mainly with Manabu Soya. They have an extensive history together stretching through All Japan and New Japan, which started in 1993 with Nishimura's defeat of Soya in the Young Lions Cup. 

Yoshiki Inamura and Masa Kitamiya created loud ripples of sound over Korakuen, by having a shoulder tackle fight and screaming loudly as they slammed into each other. This Hoss Fight was not resolved until Inamura got Kitamiya in a headlock, and tagged Kinya Okada in. Then Nakajima entered the ring, and a slow evil smile spread over his face as he kicked Okada around. However, as much he might do that, long suffering referee, Shu Nishinaga, refused to count Nakajima's cocky pin as a pin, no matter how many times Nakajima moved his foot around. Okada kicked out, and went on to duck some of Nakajima's kicks.

Okada took down Kitamiya, until Kitamiya decided he had had enough of this. This didn't stop Okada's momentum however, but after a spirited fight, the tag champion got the win.

WINNER: Masa Kitamita with the Saito Slam on Kinya Okada (16 minutes, 14 seconds)

Given their long past history, Osamu Nishimura and Manabu Soya had a stare off briefly, and Nishimura remained in the ring to stare at him as he left. Regarding the Heavyweight Tag Championship, at the time of writing, no one has come forward to challenge THE AGGRESSION for the titles. Fans were hoping that Yoshiki Inamura and Kinya Okada might. 

MATCH SEVEN

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship 

STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA) vs Momo No Seishun (Daisuke Harada & Junta Miyawaki)

This has been called Junta Miyawaki's "break out match", and with good reason. He was on fire and showed far more technique and far more presence than he ever had done before. From the moment he entered the ring, Miyawaki set his stamp by standing defiantly in the ring against STINGER, Yoshinari Ogawa flicked the wet from his hair at them, and the ref eventually told Miyawaki to back off. Harada didn't though when Miyawaki bundled him into the corner, as he was determined to start. 

STINGER had never really given Miyawaki much credit during the pre-matches, and now they were finding much to their chagrin, that he was fighting back, especially when they tried to isolate him. Miyawaki worked with HAYATA'S fragile, if not injured, arm to good effect in a more savage style than before. Yoshinari Ogawa was watching intently, although inside the ring he was more interested in fighting Daisuke Harada, who he considered a more worthy fight...or else, knowing Ogawa, there could well be another reason. Ogawa couldn't escape Miyawaki however, and so he punished him for his hubris in Miyawaki's attacking HAYATA'S wrist, as STINGER attacked his knee. Miyawaki gritted his teeth until Harada came to the rescue to break the hold, so Ogawa did an even worse one.  Generally, Ogawa was furious with Harada, and insulted by being challenged by Miyawaki. 

The more relentless STINGER grew, the more hungry Momo No Seishun grew. No matter what STINGER did to him, Miyawaki was not going to give up, which meant that STINGER had to pause and take stock of the situation. Miyawaki also demonstrated a budding devious streak, when he pretended to be dazed in order to lure HAYATA into a submission move, in which he pulled and pulled on his arm. Harada was frantically keeping Ogawa outside the ring, HAYATA refused to give up, so Miyawaki pulled more and more. In the end, it was Ogawa who broke up this high adrenaline moment, and the match ended with HAYATA using a really nasty looking submission, in which basically used Miyawaki's own arm to choke him.

WINNER: HAYATA with the Modified Camel Clutch on Junta Miyawaki (26 minutes, 47 seconds)

After Atsushi Kotoge and Daisuke Harada had rolled Junta Miyawaki out of the ring, some old and unwelcome enemies of STINGER raised their heads. The type of unwelcome faces which are guaranteed to drive Ogawa into a frenzy. 

NOSAWA Rongai and Ikuto Hidaka had come to challenge for the belts. HAYATA accepted as Ogawa wouldn't (Ogawa is not going to speak on the microphone or in interviews unless he has to, and as he he is so senior, no one is going to make him), and as you have four Noah juniors in the ring, a fight broke out and NOSAWA and Hidaka posed with the belts before sarcastically draping them over the champions and leaving. Title match has been set for 29th April in Nagoya. 

MATCH EIGHT

GHC National Championship

Kenoh vs Kazuyuki Fujita

"For Kenoh, the future will depend on whether he can overcome this with a victory."

Led by the challenger, Kazuyuki Fujita, The Sugiura Army filed out in an orderly but somehow still chaotic line (Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba, who by the way had forgotten his "SAKU" belt which made Sugiura laugh, NOSAWA Rongai, Kendo Kashin and Kazunari Murakami). Katsuhiko Nakajima for some reason joined Kongoh, which is something he normally wouldn't do. 

Kazuyuki Fujita added the last moment of comedy, which we had seen in the pre-matches and when Kenoh had nominated Fujita as challenger, by standing in the way of Kenoh when Kongoh did their pose, and seeing who would move first. 

Had it just been Kenoh on his own, he probably would have stayed as still as he could for as long as he could, but as he was aware that all of Kongoh was waiting, he got up and was immediately irritated. The ref had to separate them. 

This was not going to be the last stare off, which have now become a staple of Fujita title matches, the second occurred when the ref checked them for weapons and Kenoh broke it with kicks. The third happened afterwards, although their seconds urged them to do something but no one moved. They slowly started to move towards each other, and then the match was on. Kenoh had come to the ring looking as if he realized that in Fujita, he had bitten off more than he could possibly ever chew, let along swallow, and he faced the painful reality of no matter what he did it was having very little effect -his normally devastating kicks met with Fujita telling him to "Come On!", and after being shoved to the mat by Fujita, Kenoh made the mistake of rolling off into The Sugiura Army corner which naturally caused the juniors on both teams to start fighting with the heavyweights breaking it up. 

Back in the ring, Fujita destroyed Kenoh, he was just too powerful, nothing Kenoh did made any difference

WINNER: Kazuyuki Fujita with the Facekick (19 minutes, 14 seconds)

There was one last moment of comedy, however, when Fujita tried to get NOSAWA and Kendo Kashin to stand with one of their feet on Kenoh's chest, but Kongoh refused to let this happen, and took Kenoh from the ring. Takashi Sugiura got on the microphone soon afterwards and said;

"Congratulations! Kazuyuki Fujita is wearing a Noah belt. It's fun, isn't it?! However, I want to fight the strong Kazuyuki Fujita. I want to fight with all my heart for that GHC belt."

The title match will take place on the 29th April in Takashi Sugiura's hometown of Nagoya, but before that, there is a pre-match on the 18th at Korakuen Hall, and from now this is the first time that anyone in The Sugiura Army has challenged another for a belt.  

WITH THANKS TO: Tetorin No.3, Nodapooh3, Abeshin, Metal-Noah, Kazuaki 

GIFS taken from WrestleUniverse

Noah's next event: 3rd April 2021, Yokohama Radiant Halls