(NOAH) CARD: NOAH the GLORY 2021 (Thursday 29th April 2021, Nagoya Congress Center)

With Kenoh ill with Coronavirus, and Tadasuke, Manabu Soya and Haoh absent due to needing to quarantine, Noah bring their last attended show for a while to Takashi Sugiura's hometown of Nagoya. Nagoya may well be destroyed after Noah finish, especially since there is a beast fight on the card. 

The doors open at 2pm JST, with the event beginning at 3pm. It can be viewed in three ways. With all the streams, please tune in about half an hour before.  

WrestleUniverse: subscription service, English commentary.

FITE TV: $19.99, English commentary

ABEMA: Japanese commentary. Although Noah and ABEMA are saying that this is a free stream, it may mean that this is only a free stream in Japan. I have my doubts that this is going to be available worldwide as it has exactly the same "free to view for three days afterwards", as the last ABEMA "free" show did. I cannot guarantee that you will be able to watch through ABEMA, all I can say is that you see what happens on the day. 

MATCH ONE

Momo No Seishun (Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada) & Yasutaka Yano vs FULL THROTTLE (Hajime Ohara, Seiki Yoshioka & YO-HEY)

The last time YO-HEY came up against GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion, Atsushi Kotoge, he was defeated. YO-HEY wants to challenge for the title, he needs to prove that he can beat the champion, and left last time pointing at Kotoge. I am expecting to see YO-HEY make his second attempt at the win today. 

Elsewhere in the match, we get the jewel that Noah bring out for big occasions; Hajime Ohara vs Daisuke Harada. 

MATCH TWO

Kongoh (Katsuhiko Nakajima & Nioh) vs Akitoshi Saito & Junta Miyawaki

With the rest of Kongoh out of action due to Coronavirus issues and Masa Kitamiya in the main event tonight, Katsuhiko Nakajima tags with Nioh against a very rare paring of Akitoshi Saito and Junta Miyawaki. Junta stands to gain a big win here if he pins Nioh or one half of the GHC Heavyweight Tag champion.

MATCH THREE

Kotaro Suzuki vs Susumu

In a complete grudge match, which Noah have been simmering for a whole, Kotaro Suzuki takes on the person who he originally bought in to even the field against Yoshinari Ogawa and HAYATA...who then turned out to be an old friend of HAYATA'S. I am expecting this match to either end in a time out or by an intrusion, either by Yoshinari Ogawa or NOSAWA Rongai. Another thing to perhaps expect, is a twist. This match somehow seems too straightforward to just end in any kind of normal way.  

MATCH FOUR

The Sugiura Army (Kazushi Sakuraba, Kazunari Murakami & Kendo Kashin) vs Funky Express (Mohammed Yone, Shuhei Taniguchi & Masao Inoue)

Poor gouty Masao Inoue finds himself teaming with his tougher teammates (Mohammed Yone who did Shoot Style and Shuhei Taniguchi an ex soldier who did Greco-Roman) against Kazunari Murakami, a hooligan who Takashi Sugiura thinks is some kind of mob sub boss, Kazushi Sakuraba a MMA fighter and Kendo Kashin. Look to this match to be the light relief between what may have happened in the one before it, and what may happen in the match after it. 

MATCH FIVE

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Championship Match

STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA) vs Ikuto Hidaka & NOSAWA Rongai

It has been a long series of annoying pre-matches for STINGER, with NOSAWA constantly making their lives difficult with sneak tricks leading to low blows and swift pins, ring intrusion, interference outside the ring or walking out of matches. STINGER have the chance to get rid of them as challengers, but they need to stay on their guard, NOSAWA can be as devious as Ogawa, but he's not as clever in doing it and tonight perhaps more than ever, he is going to find out just what that is. No matter the outcome, and depending if anything has happened in Kotaro vs Susumu, I am expecting something to happen to change the balance between the two teams (and once again in the perpetually revolving Noah Juniors) which is more than just a title change. 

MATCH SIX

The M's alliance (Naomichi Marufuji, Masaaki Mochizuki & Masato Tanaka) vs Kaito Kiyomiya, Yoshiki Inamura & Kinya Okada

Old friends of Marufuji's return to Noah to take on a young team of Noah born wrestlers. Yoshiki Inamura vs Masato Tanaka is highly anticipated, as is Kinya Okada trading kicks with Masaaki Mochizuki and of course, Kaito Kiyomiya vs Naomichi Marufuji. Kaito Kiyomiya, not his usual bouncy idealistic self since losing to Keiji Mutoh, continues his search for that elusive spark to ignite whatever it is he is looking for.  

MATCH SEVEN

GHC National Championship Match

Kazuyuki Fujita vs Takashi Sugiura

Kong vs Godzilla...Sanda vs Gaira...this beast fight is going to tear apart Takashi Sugiura's hometown of Nagoya. The feeling of this match isn't really one of a falling out or even really an argument, or taking sides in The Sugiura Army, and if the getting drunk and then going out to have a drinking competition at the press conference tells us anything, it's that this match (as brutal as it is going to be), is in many ways a friendly competition.

MATCH EIGHT

GHC Heavyweight Championship Match

Keiji Mutoh vs Masa Kitamiya

The shadow of Masa Saito, the mentor of both Keiji Mutoh and Masa Kitamiya, hangs over this match as after a huge and emotional build up, (far more than Kitamiya has ever had before in any of his previous title challenges), the two men he mentored face off for the biggest title in Noah. Will Kitamiya win? Fan opinion swings both ways. Either way, this is going to be Kitamiya going to the next step. 

Picture credit: Noah.co.jp