(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: ALL OUT ATTACK 2021 (Saturday, May 15th, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo)

Following in the footsteps of the DDT\Noah invasions of the past few weeks, DDT'S Sasadango (complete with camera) decided to try and show up at Noah today, and joined the 497 fans heading towards Korakuen in a humid early summer Tokyo. While 497 people might have found it easy to buy a ticket, he was told he wasn't allowed, and after wandering around the building, he was met with a withering look when at reception he asked if he should fill in some kind of form. Wondering how on earth this worked as Takeshita, Kenoh, Kaito Kiyomiya and Yoshiki Inamura managed it, he left two boxes of Ramen for Takashi Sugiura. NOSAWA was given them to to give to Sugi, who chose one and gave the other to Noah's CEO, Narihiro Takeda. Everyone else (after some people bought Funky Express flashing glasses from merchandise), took their seats in the hall, as Noah played Jumbo Tsuruta's theme "Rolling Dreamer" as a tribute to his memory. To explain quickly, Jumbo Tsuruta was the senior of Noah's seniors (Misawa, Kobashi, Taue, Akiyama), and had a hand in training Yoshinari Ogawa and Naomichi Marufuji, sadly he passed away on May 13th 2000. If Giant Baba is Noah's Grandfather, Tsuruta is Noah's uncle.  

Today's show was titled "ALL OUT ATTACK", which apparently is the name of a Godzilla movie. While there may have only been one beast fight\Hoss fight on the card, it can be said to be very true that cracks appeared between two units in the heavyweight league today.   

The event was streamed live on ABEMA, but while this was a free live broadcast, I am not going to post link as ABEMA have changed their policy. Events can be viewed live and for free, but you must now be an ABEMA premium member to view the replay. The event will eventually be put up on WrestleUniverse. 

MATCH ONE

Kinya Okada vs Yasutaka Yano

I can imagine that from watching Yasutaka Yano's reversal into submission today, that he is probably the prize pupil Yoshinari Ogawa (and Hajime Ohara). Yano is able to wrestle to a similar Showa style as Kinya Okada, and while I think Okada enhances it, this is the basic Noah style that is inherited from Baba, Tsuruta, Tenryu etc, these two seem two Noah Born gel when using various levels of it. Yano put up a good fight, but fans feel that Okada needs to progress to doing more than the opener. He himself would agree with this, saying backstage he wants to "fight higher people".

WINNER: Kinya Okada with the Sharpshooter (5 minutes, 44 seconds)

MATCH TWO

Kotaro Suzuki, YO-HEY & NOSAWA Rongai vs Kongoh Juniors (Haoh, Nioh & Tadasuke)

Kongoh's Haoh and Tadasuke made their return to the ring today. Fortunately neither of them caught COVID from Kenoh, which is a relief in the case of Haoh who is asthmatic, and Tadasuke's happiness to be back was quite inappropriate for Kongoh, who seem to hate fun of any kind. Tadasuke wasted no time adjusting his glasses at the ringside camera, and as we were soon to see, Crazy Tadasuke was also back too. 

Since being betrayed by HAYATA for STINGER, and then being betrayed by Seiki Yoshioka in the same way for the same reason, YO-HEY has not been completely his usual bouncy self. Today he was very subdued, and didn't even have colors in his hair. Subdued YO-HEY, Crazy Tadasuke, it didn't matter, because the fight started in typical Noah Junior style, a mass brawl, which left Noah's poor junior ref standing and waving his arms helplessly. Somehow he managed to regain order and get everyone into their corners. 

Before Tadasuke had to self isolate he had started training with Yoshiki Inamura's tires, which he probably went back to once he could return, and you could tell that this had paid off when Kotaro collided with him as if he was crashing into a brick wall, and he threw YO-HEY about effortlessly. 

WINNER: YO-HEY with the YO-ROLL on Haoh (6 minutes, 19 seconds)

MATCH THREE

Momo No Seishun (Atsushi Kotoge & Junta Miyawaki) vs STINGER (Yuya Susumu & Seiki Yoshioka)

Back with his old friends HAYATA and Yuya Susumu, and away from Hajime Ohara's kindhearted influence and aligned with that of Yoshinari Ogawa's, a very different Seiki Yoshioka came to Korakuen Hall today wearing a new blue costume which was almost as icy as he had become. Inside and outside the ring he used STINGER style tactics, apron interference with kicks when Kotoge took the ropes, and intruding via an over the top rope kick to Kotoge's head. He and Susumu had a strategy, wear Atsushi Kotoge down and keep Junta Miyawaki away. Miyawaki was repeatedly knocked off of the apron while Kotoge was worked on. Miyawaki did get his chance however, and in true division style, the match dissolved into chaos. He also got his revenge on Yoshioka by throwing him out. 

Old friends Kotoge and Susumu have known each for a long time, and so neither for a while could find a way around the other, but it was Susumu who found a way.  

WINNER: Yuya Susumi with a Facelock on Atsushi Kotoge (9 minutes, 41 seconds)

The Noah Juniors in the previous match might have left without a fight as Kongoh are not the targets of NOSAWA'S team at the moment, however, STINGER are and a fight broke out after the match when Yoshioka was jumped by YO-HEY and Kotaro joined in. After the brawl was over, and YO-HEY and co had left, Susumu and Kotoge had a stare off in the ring. 

MATCH FOUR

Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura vs The M's alliance (Masato Tanaka & Masaaki Mochizuki)

Kaito Kiyomiya has lost a lot of his young idealism since losing to Keiji Mutoh, and has been searching for something to ignite his dreams again. Sadly, he didn't find it today, and has begun to question his ability of taking the leading role against both Masato Tanaka and other veterans. 

Today's match was mainly between Masato Tanaka and the increasingly morose Kaito Kiyomiya. Tanaka, the veteran, knows from experience that if attacking the upper body doesn't work (and it didn't against Inamura unsurprisingly) attack the legs. He had many ways throughout the match to take out both Inamura and Kiyomiya.  Masaaki Mochizuki, the other person in the match, found that kicking Kiyomiya had no effect (Kiyomiya is used to being kicked) as Kiyomiya yelled "Come on!" at him, and then he was ganged up on later in the match by the Noah born who crowded him into a corner. The match was so intense, so strong was Kiyomiya's need to overcome Tanaka (and probably Inamura throwing his opponents as if they weight nothing), that the ringpost camera was knocked off. 

WINNER: Masato Tanaka with the Sliding D on Yoshiki Inamura (15 minutes, 1 second)

Staring angrily at Tanaka, Kiyomiya rolled Inamura out of the ring.

MATCH FIVE

Kongoh (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Masa Kitamiya & Manabu Soya) vs Funky Express (Mohammed Yone, Shuhei Taniguchi, Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue)

Kenoh returned from illness tonight, and found that Kongoh had changed in his absence. Katsuhiko Nakajima was now the focus, and this started right from the moment they entered, with Kenoh having to come to a screeching halt as Nakajima stopped in the walk to the ring to start looking and pointing around. Kenoh gave off the impression throughout the match of looking a bit left out, although he and Nakajima did kick Mohammed Yone around between him. Another person who was looking glum, was Akitoshi Saito, who remained Kongoh's focus right from the time wobbly Inoue was jumped by Kenoh and the others while doing their funky pose on ring entry. Nakajima had a big grin when slapping Saito around. 

WINNER: Mohammed Yone with the Kinniku Buster on Manabu Soya (12 minutes, 52 seconds)

Funky Express were so happy with their win, finally Disco had triumphed! As Kenoh stalked off angry (although he later said on TWITTER that it felt good to return home to wrestling), Mohammed Yone spoke on the microphone and did what everyone knew what he was going to do, and challenged THE AGGRESSION for the GHC Heavyweight Tag Titles, telling Nakajima to take a look at what he just saw, and that they had no intention of "being put out of business", and if he wasn't scared of "old men", then he should accept their title challenge. 

Katsuhiko Nakajima thought this was the funniest thing he had ever heard, and started laughing. In typical mocking style he asked them whether or not they should be telling everyone that they were "going out of business", he then added in sarcastically about being too scared of the "power of the old men" to give them a title shot. The audience however, applauded, and becoming serious Nakajima made it for "the best stage", by which he means May 31st at the Mitsuharu Misawa memorial. 

MATCH SIX

The Sugiura Army vs The Sugiura Army

Takashi Sugiura & Kazuyuki Fujita vs Kazushi Sakuraba & Kazunari Murakami

There was a mini stand off between Kazuyuki Fujita (who appears to have no feelings either way about Takashi Sugiura taking the belt off of him) and Kazunari Murakami, which fortunately did not last long. When Takashi Sugiura finally locked up with Kazushi Sakuraba, it was, like the rest of the match, done in very much of an MMA style. The atmosphere of the match reminded me somewhat of The Sugiura Army produce when they all fought to see who was the strongest, except there was no Kongoh, and there where no "playful old men" either, tonight "Sugi and Saku" became rivals. 

WINNER: Kazushi Sakuraba with the ankle lock (15 minutes, 38 seconds)

MATCH SEVEN

Keiji Mutoh & STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA) vs Naomichi Marufuji & Momo No Seishun (Daisuke Harada & Hajime Ohara)

The main event was a mixed junior heavyweight and heavyweight pre-match, and the first tag of Daisuke Harada & Hajime Ohara. Naomichi Marufuji shook hands his teammates, Hajime Ohara who was obliging and polite, and then after a pause from Daisuke Harada. Harada it looked like had been made to do it by Ohara, but there was no childishness between them today. Speaking of difficulties when shaking hands, Keiji Mutoh had no problems taking one from the normally reticent HAYATA.

Marufuji and Mutoh started the match, which probably saved it from turning into a junior brawl, especially since Harada and Ohara squared up to STINGER before the bell rang. Marufuji knows Mutoh well, but it was a different kind of knowing and not just one he has picked up when he fought The Great Muta as Magical Immortality, or the kind of knowing that comes from tagging, but the kind that came from observing, as he had been watching him ever since he was a child. 

The match contained some rare match ups, Marufuji vs HAYATA (HAYATA got chopped to the floor), and Ogawa and HAYATA teaming with Mutoh, which fans said was unusual in that Ogawa teamed with someone of another generation. Mutoh said later he could well understand why it was that Misawa had teamed with Ogawa. Ogawa vs Marufuji is not necessarily rare, but it can happen. HAYATA got a small look in too. While Mutoh did not specifically mention him, they were seen talking, which for HAYATA is a big thing. After the match, HAYATA was seen shyly patting him. 

With Ogawa & Ohara in the match, Noah's master technicians, you can well imagine that this match would go to double submission, it did twice and this was how the match ended. 

WINNER: Yoshinari Ogawa with the figure four on Hajime Ohara (23 minutes, 14 seconds)

As mentioned above, Hajime Ohara and Yoshinari Ogawa are birds of a feather, and only one can make the other tap. STINGER of course had nothing to say about the match, but Ohara was different. Crawling on the floor of the interview booth, he apologized for what had happened. Kotoge said he too felt frustrated, with Harada saying frostily before walking off that he agreed it was frustrating, but it was never going to end like this. They were never going to give up, and would rally from here. 

As for Mutoh and Marufuji, Mutoh said he was confident in his stamina, but was worried about Marufuji's speed, which he found hard to keep up with. He also mentioned that in the future he would like to team with Ogawa for a tag belt. Marufuji spoke of the uniqueness of the pre-match and the uniqueness of the title match, and the damage that Mutoh could inflict in one go. 

Attendance: 497

With thanks to: Totoro_Hero, Tatsukun, Voyage, Abeshin. Metal-Noah

Noah's next event: ALL OUT ATTACK 2021, Yokohama Radiant Halls, 22nd May 2021.

Picture credits: Pro Wrestling DX