(NOAH) EVENT RECAP ~ "UP TO EMOTION 2021" (Korakuen Hall, 30th June 2021)

Fans returning to Korakuen Hall today (and there were some who came for the first time ever having watched Noah online), came through Suidobashi station as per usual, but left by a different exit as THE LEAVE had a huge Noah advertisement there, at Korakuen Hall there was a photo gallery of CyberFight wrestlers, and the special pictures of YO-HEY sold out quickly. The same could be said for the new and wildly popular "Perros Del Mal De Japon" t-shirts, which practically flew off the shelves. Fans were excited to be back, and it showed. 

Today's show, which started with sparks and proceeded to become a fireball, was broadcast on WrestleUniverse. You can watch this when you want, but you must be a subscriber to the service. 

MATCH ONE

Funky Express (King Tani, Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito) vs Junta Miyawaki, Kinya Okada & Yasutaka Yano

Now that Shuhei Taniguchi is officially known as "King Tani" (I wish I was joking about that), he came to the ring wearing his yellow boa, flashing glasses and a crown. The referee told him to remove it, and King Tani looked as if he could not quite believe it. Surely such a thing had never been requested to royalty? 

Junta Miyawaki was too polite to react in rage like the rest of the roster when Mohammed Yone pulls his Disco Fever rope break, and young Yasutaka Yano was very optimistic in his attack repeatedly trying to scoop slam King Tani (who also has a new dance). Yano gave it his all, but his seniors were unresponsive to his attacks. Kinya Okada, more heavyweight than Junta and more experienced than Yano, probably did the best against the opposition. 

WINNER: King Tani with the Wyvern Catch on Yasutaka Yano (10 minutes, 3 seconds)

MATCH TWO

YO-HEY vs Seiki Yoshioka

Seiki Yoshioka entered the match looking dark and angry. They didn't pounce on each other the moment the bell went, but instead circled each other like they were trying to work out who would get the upper hand first. Then it was on, a fight on the ropes and a big slap from Yoshioka. A lightning speed match followed with an amazing YO-HEY dropkick. 

WINNER: Seiki Yoshioka with the Yoshi-Roll (10 minutes, 21 seconds)

Yoshioka won on momentum using YO-HEY'S own move, "The YO-Roll", which Yoshioka has now stolen and renamed after himself. YO-HEY was so stunned on losing that he backed the ref into the corner before storming off. Yoshioka celebrated his win by laughing and taunting YO-HEY had it was three before vanishing backstage. 

This was not going to be the end of this matter. 

MATCH THREE

Momo No Seishun (Daisuke Harada, Hajime Ohara & Atsushi Kotoge) vs Kongoh Juniors (Haoh, Nioh & Tadasuke)

Rockstar Tadasuke strolled to the ring in usual manner, and incorporated his ABEMA camera spot into the ringside cameras, checking his hair and glasses. Haoh and Nioh had new clothes, and because he's had to be somber and serious as champion, Atsushi Kotoge was bouncy. 

Hajime Ohara, in his best "I'm very mad at you" moment, marched across the ring and attacked Tadasuke. This very aerial match was to be the start of Ohara's revenge for being pinned the last time. The crowd were as excited as the wrestlers, and Haoh certainly felt this in an exuberant top rope somersault which almost sent him crashing into the crowd. Somewhat painfully he landed on the railings. Tadasuke and Haoh worked in tandem, using new moves that neither of them have used before as a team. However, it was Daisuke Harada who represented the wall that Tadasuke would come up against, but it was Haoh who he got the win over. 

WINNER: Daisuke Harada with the Katayama German Suplex on Haoh (12 minutes, 40 seconds) 

 

Harada decided to taunt Tadasuke after the match. It doesn't really translate well what he said, but to set the scene Tadasuke had said that the belt looked dull on Harada and Ohara, and he used the Kansai dialect word to indicate an explosion, or a "boom". What Harada basically told Tadasuke was that in Sendai he would kick the match off with a "Kaboom". 

MATCH FOUR

STINGER (HAYATA, Yoshinari Ogawa & Susumu) vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (NOSAWA Rongai, Ikuto Hidaka & Kotaro Suzuki)

Yoshinari Ogawa didn't even bother to take his jacket off before getting into the ring as the usual Noah Junior fight broke out between STINGER, Perros Del Mal De Japon, and people who weren't in the match, such as YO-HEY and Seiki Yoshioka. It was such chaos that even the ref got knocked down, and probably the only way that he could keep order was agree to YO-HEY'S demand that this become a eight man tag. 

From the start of the brawl it had become evident that HAYATA was being targeted by Ikuto Hidaka, so much so that HAYATA wasn't interested in fighting YO-HEY, and waved him away. The other focus of STINGER (especially Ogawa, who was furious) was NOSAWA Rongai. Ogawa was so furious that at one point he even went to choke him with his wrist tape. 

WINNER: Ikuto Hidaka with the Sean Capture on Susumu (14 minutes, 1 second)

There was the usual Noah Junior brawl after the match, after which Ikuto Hidaka challenged HAYATA for the GHC Junior Championship. HAYATA has found now that he doesn't have to say anything to give a response to his challengers (he only ever said one word anyway and now he's not even going to say that and the last time he said a sentence was New Year 2021), and so he attacked Hidaka to give his consent. Title match has been set for 22nd July at Korakuen Hall. 

Noah had promised an announcement that everyone would love, and they made it while the fire was being put out from the Noah Junior match and the start of the semi main event. 

The N-1 Victory would return in September 2021, albeit under different circumstances. It would only run the opening night and the finals night and the championship night at Korakuen Hall, all the other nights would be run empty arena. Noah have not announced the participants yet, but the dates will be as follows ~

12th September (opening night) ~ Korakuen Hall

18th September ~ Empty Arena

19th September ~ Empty Arena

20th September ~ Empty Arena

26th September (finals night) ~ Korakuen Hall

3rd October (championship night) ~ Korakuen Hall 

MATCH FIVE

Masa Kitamiya, Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Manabu Soya)

Kaito Kiyomiya made his sad slow walk to the ring, looking at the floor. Yoshiki Inamura as per usual, came out carrying his tire high. Noah are pushing him as a singles competitor, and he is taking that ball and running fast with it. 

The match started with a Hoss fight between Yoshiki Inamura and Manabu Soya. There was a butt of heads after shoulder tackles failed to knock each other down, and then it went to a test of strength. There are seldom walls that Soya can't break through, and he found today that Inamura was one he had difficulty getting round. Soya tagged in Kenoh (who has a blue strip in his hair thanks to the Green mist from Great Muta), and Inamura tagged in Kiyomiya. Kenoh is able to ignite the spark in Kiyomiya, but much to his fury, he can't get him back on track. It seems that nothing can. The match branched off as very much Kenoh & Kiyomiya, Katsuhiko Nakajima and Masa Kitamiya and Yoshiki Inamura and Manabu Soya. Inamura was probably the most dominant.  

Katsuhiko Nakajima had something special for his tag partner who hates him, a series of new type of kicks, each delivered with an evil smile and glowing eyes. The ref refused to count Nakajima's cocky pin, so he was forced to sit on Kitamiya. Kitamiya wasn't going to be pinned like that, so he kicked out fortunately. If Nakajima had his kicks, then Kitamiya had the Prison Lock. He savored it the first time he locked it in, slowly drawing his hand across this throat. Each time Nakajima went for the ropes, he changed position. Fortunately the first time it was done, Nakajima was saved by Soya, but he had no such luck the second time.

WINNER: Masa Kitamiya with the Prison Lock on Katsuhiko Nakajima (22 minutes, 15 seconds)

The referee tried to pry Kitamiya off Nakajima, but was shoved aside. It took polite and gentle Kiyomiya to do it and the two teams faced each other. Kitamiya knew that things between himself and Nakajima could last until the end of time, that was how much he hated him, but the tag belts were a different matter. They couldn't team with each other to defend them, so they had to choose new partners to resolve the issue once and for all. Throwing in his bitterness as to how losing both a cage and a hair match hadn't stopped Nakajima from being smug, 

Nakajima chose as his partner, Manabu Soya. Interestingly, he did not chose Kenoh, but I guess he wanted an ultra heavyweight to even the odds between himself and Kitamiya, especially as Kitamiya had chosen Kiyomiya (who had a "Who? Me?" look when it was announced), Soya is a former tag partner of Kitamiya (albeit brief), and Kenoh may well be engaged in other championship matters by that point. Title match will take place on the 22nd July. 

Katsuhiko Nakajima, however, was going to have the last word ~ 

"You and Kiyomiya? For you guys, Soya is sufficient. I will teach you wrestling."

Kenoh says he is glad Nakajima chose Soya. He's a monster.

MATCH SIX

The M's alliance (Naomichi Marufuji, Masato Tanaka, Masaaki Mochizuki & Yuko Miyamoto) vs The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kazunari Murakami & ??)

NOSAWA Rongai pretended not to hear Takashi Sugiura when he was warned not to bring any further members into The Sugiura Army, but he evidently heard correctly when Sugi warned him not to bring any more troublemakers in. In the usual Sugiura Army manner, a mystery man was advertised, with Naomichi Marufuji saying he was a little worried about who it might be, with Masato Tanaka not being too concerned. 

The mystery man turned out to be Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Fujiwara, trained by Karl Gotch, is the master of catch wrestling, and has trained many pro wrestlers and MMA Fighters. Noah's Mohammed Yone knows him from his BattleArts & Fujiwara-Gumi days, and the older Noah roster from his appearances in ZERO-1, the two promotions having been close for Noah's twenty-one years and counting. Fujiwara showed himself to be a stern taskmaster, laying into Masato Tanaka and taking him down with mat wrestling holds. 

Naomichi Marufuji's intense study of this form of Takashi Sugiura he was facing bore fruit at first, Marufuji being able to dodge his attacks and read what he is going to do next and even goad him into being angry, but it wasn't enough, Sugiura was not going to be pinned by the Shiranui and Marufuji found to his horror that Sugi could even find a way through him from that. Surprise has often been an element of Takashi Sugiura, and today he had another one to pull out of the box that Marufuji had not seen and could not see coming.

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with the Yoneman Lift (20 minutes, 10 seconds)

Marufuji, after holding the belt up to the M's alliance and point out he was champion, stamped off backstage angry. It was back to the drawing board to tear it all down and start again. Sugi made a speech to the crowd, he felt the need to assure them that given the general seediness that the Sugiura Army generated, the ganging up on Naomichi Marufuji te GHC Heavyweight Champion, (and probably as a dig at Kazunari Murakami, who he calls a "Yakuza sub-boss"), that they were not Yakuza. 

"Thank you for coming today! I will challenge for the GHC Heavyweight belt owned by Naomichi Marufuji. Only he and I will fight now."

The Sugiura Army got into the ring and posed together, after that it was time for handshakes. Everyone got one except for Kazunari Murakami, who was given a slap and told to watch it by Yoshiaki Fujiwara, who Murakami had accidentally hit when one of the opponents dodged out of the way. 

WITH THANKS TO: Metal Noah

GIFS taken from WrestleUniverse

Noah's next event: Yokohama Radiant Halls, Saturday 3rd July (live stream on WrestleUniverse)