(NOAH) EVENT RECAP ~ CROSS OVER IN SENDAI (11th July 2021, Sendai Sunplaza Hall)

Normally when Noah comes to Sendai, they go to the much smaller (and theatre like), Sendai PIT, and as Tokyo Sports pointed out, it is rare they hold a grand event at a bigger venue there. Today Noah laid on a Korakuen style show; the Gatcha machines were out and lined up like sentinels, they had Funky Express present the merchandise (among fans the crown has now replaced the cloak), there was a life size Naomichi Marufuji cut out to pose with, and everyone snapped up the Noah\Rakuten Eagles baseball shirts (even the ring crew were seen to be wearing them). After the event there was a further surprise for fans as Hajime Ohara, Daisuke Harada and Atsushi Kotoge did an autograph signing. They were joined by the lesser spotted STINGER (HAYATA, Yuya Susumu & Seiki Yoshioka).

 Event was broadcast via FITE TV (you can buy the PPV for $19.99, but this is not available if you live in Japan), ABEMA and WrestleUniverse (you must be a subscriber).

MATCH ONE

Nioh vs Yasutaka Yano

Yasutaka Tano entered for the first time ever to his theme music, “Flash”, which is also featured on the new Noah theme album much to his delight. The young boy is forever evolving and progressing and is starting to introduce an element of acrobatics and aerial manoeuvres to his wrestling. Like he did with Kotaro Suzuki, Yano gave Nioh such a run that Nioh started wearing a similar expression, but as good as fight as he gave the win still went to his senior.

WINNER: Nioh with the Camel Clutch (7 minutes, 41 seconds)

MATCH TWO

M's alliance (Masato Tanaka & Masaaki Mochizuki) vs Junta Miyawaki & Kinya Okada

Junta Miyawaki bravely started against Masato Tanaka, while later Masaaki Mochizuki and Kinya Okada got into a kick war. Okada has worked on those kicks and is no longer hesitant, he’s got a lot more attitude behind them now. Naturally, Tanaka and Mochi were the dominant tag team, but credit must be given to the two younger boys, they gave as good as they got, and what they got was elbows, kicks and a nice Sliding DK (combined move) to finish the match off.

WINNER: Masaaki Mochizuki with the Sliding DK on Kinya Okada (9 minutes, 51 seconds)

MATCH THREE

STINGER (HAYATA, Seiki Yoshioka & Yuya Susumu) vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (YO-HEY, NOSAWA Rongai & Ikuto Hidaka)

Usual chaotic atmosphere when both teams were in the ring, but somehow everyone waited for the bell to ring before NOSAWA (one of three people who can wind HAYATA up), lit the fuse by doing just that and interfering from the apron as HAYATA started the match against the challenger for his title, Ikuto Hidaka. It also was not lost on fans that YO-HEY’S color choice was a blue tongue to match purple hair...but nothing came of this tonight, and if NOSAWA was going to taunt HAYATA, then he was going to taunt Yoshioka, although as events later in the night would show, exactly how what is to be resolved between them remains to be seen.

WINNER: Seiki Yoshioka with the Crash Driver on YO-HEY (10 minutes, 41 seconds)

After the match, HAYATA (hiding behind the barrier ready to go and half in the shadows and not the last time he would be hiding this evening), held up the belt to Ikuto Hidaka and a scuffle broke out.

MATCH FOUR

Funky Express (King Tani, Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito) vs The Sugiura Army (Kazushi Sakuraba, Kazuyuki Fujita & Kendo Kashin)

Kendo Kashin was persuaded to start by Kazuyuki Fujita and Kazushi Sakuraba, who told him he would love to open the match against Noah’s resident funk masters. Kashin (whose logic defies logic) ran out of the ring and chased the poor boy carrying a pile of feather boa’s backstage and tried to mug him for them. Unsuccessful he had to get in the ring where King Tani was waiting for him. Unwilling to lock up with him, Kashin tried to tag out but in The Sugiura Army watching Kashin get a thrashing is a highly enjoyable spectator sport, and neither of his teammates wanted to tag in. They wouldn’t let him in until he had been through all of Funky Express (and a mass leg lock involving everyone), by this time he was looking ragged and Sakuraba got in the ring. Karma it seemed was also tagging with The Sugiura Army, and Sakuraba found when his own turn came to tag out, there was no one there as everyone was involved with brawls around the ring.

King Tani, despite the crown and the flashing shades, can still be the monster when he wants to be. Slamming The Sugiura Army onto each other, even Fujita’s size and weight gave him no problems, but then he followed it up with a new dance which involved grabbing his crotch.

Beating up on and winning over rookies is one thing, but Funky Express could hardly expect the same results against three guys trained in MMA and with many years experience under their belts, and the unhinged Kashin, powerful Fujita and technical Sakuraba are quite another.

WINNER: Kendo Kashin with the Samsung Clutch on King Tani (11 minutes, 59 seconds)

After the match King Tani was in the interview area, when Kendo Kashin decided to burst in and attack him. During their brawl, Kashin was heard to tell Tani to "bring his Queen". Tani responded sadly that he "had no Queen", as he "had no woman at home". 

MATCH FIVE

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Championship

Daisuke Harada & Hajime Ohara vs Kongoh (Haoh & Tadasuke)

Tadasuke entered like a rock star walking out on stage, and as ever, preened to the fixed ring post camera. To Daisuke Harada there was only one opponent in the match, and the one who winds him more than anyone, to Tadasuke Harada is the wall he cannot quite get around having faced him (and failed) numerous times in title matches. Tadasuke took the opportunity to taunt Harada when in the ring, at one point even dusting his hands after dealing with him. Harada gnashed his teeth and sunk them in. Tadasuke however barely noticed, his manic grin growing bigger which usually means he’s either powering up or getting carried away. He came very close to winning at several points, even with the new finisher he has added to his repertoire.

Hajime Ohara was fighting for redemption, having done dismally in the pre-matches and letting his side down. Leaving Tadasuke pretty much to Harada (it’s a RATELS squabble and he knows to stay out of that), his focus was on Haoh who he tore apart by submissions. Haoh was saved the first time during a double submission by Tadasuke, but in the second time with his shoulder torn back and his foot almost touching his head, he had no choice but to tap.

WINNER: Hajime Ohara with the Mui Bien on Haoh (18 minutes, 59 seconds)

The champions didn’t have long to take a breath, as out of the shadows emerged one half of Noah’s most reclusive tag team, STINGER’S Yuya Susumu and Seiki Yoshioka, clad in black, who had come to challenge for the titles. Harada shrieked,

 "Yoshioka and Susumu, once again guys worth doing it against have come. We will accept your challenge and rise. But I will just say this ~ no matter who comes, Ohara and I will defend brilliantly. We will defend brilliantly with Dokan*"

 (“Dokan” is a word that does not translate well, it means to explode or erupt)

Backstage, Tadasuke said this wasn’t over. The Kongoh Juniors needed reinforcements, and he was bringing in an old friend to help. Mystery person will be revealed on the 27th July when all four Noah Junior Units go to war in an twelve man elimination tag. As for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag, it will be defended on the 1st August in Hiroshima, a special place for the shared background of HAYATA, Susumu and Yoshioka due to their background in Wrestlegate.  

MATCH SIX

Masa Kitamiya, Yoshiki Inamura & Atsushi Kotoge vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Manabu Soya)

Prior to the match where he would be facing the three members of the original Kongoh, who had all left to pursue different avenues (Atsushi Kotoge went back to the Noah Juniors, Yoshiki Inamura left to be with his own generation and Masa Kitamiya could not stand any longer being around Katsuhiko Nakajima), Kenoh was full of nostalgia about the past, posting pictures on his Twitter of them together and not just in the ring ~ informal pictures taken at hot spring or at a sand sculpture exhibition. Throughout the match Kenoh had a detached and somewhat sad air which went with his usual anger. He did his own thing, and pretty much ignored the others in his team, pulling his own pose as if he had fought a singles and leaving. 

There was little time to ponder the past however bittersweet it might have been, as fights broke out almost immediately as everyone scattered into the hall, Nakajima and Kitamiya fighting on the ramp which left Kenoh and Kotoge in the ring, Kenoh screaming “hit me” throughout the match each time they met. When everyone was back Manabu Soya and Yoshiki Inamura had a beast fight with Inamura winning the test of strength, and after the obligatory primal roar, it was Soya who knocked Inamura down in shoulder tackles. Soya was then lifted and slammed as if he weighed no more than a feather. The ref only just got out of the way of the GEKITOTZ.     

Tadasuke is not the only one to treat the corner camera as if it was a mirror, Katsuhiko Nakajima naturally used it (and other cameras) to illustrate how he was beating up Kitamiya. The big evil Cheshire Cat grin was spread out over his face as he kicked Kitamiya and Inamura around.

WINNER: Manabu Soya with the Mochitsuki Power Bomb on Atsushi Kotoge (21 minutes, 43 seconds)

Making a point of throwing his arm around Soya,  Nakajima spoke on the microphone in an act designed to annoy Kitamiya by showing him what a wonderful tag partner he had, but not out of any affection. Nakajima labelled Soya a “partner he had trust in”.

MATCH SEVEN

SPECIAL TAG SENDAI

Keiji Mutoh & Yoshinari Ogawa vs Kaito Kiyomiya & Kotaro Suzuki

Kaito Kiyomiya teaming with Kotaro Suzuki, means a shared bond ~ both are Noah Born, both were trained by Yoshinari Ogawa and both have an intense rivalry with their opponents. Maybe it was the presence of Keiji Mutoh who stopped them, but Ogawa and Kotaro did not attack each other on sight. Speaking of Mutoh, anticipating that Ogawa might come out in a denim jacket he bought one from home, but Ogawa came out in the leather one, Mutoh shrugged it off.

Keiji Mutoh can be devious, and he found the best way to work around the young and intense Kaito Kiyomiya today was to play the old man, asking for a time out and hobbling away from the ring in search of a place to sit down. Mutoh went to lift an empty chair from the crowd but found he could not, and so was forced to sit on the ramp to get his breath back. This kind of imitates what Mitsuharu Misawa had used to do for comedy purposes (usually at Christmas or special shows), although fortunately Mutoh did not imitate the flash tag that Misawa had used to do when he couldn’t be bothered. Ogawa, however, seemed determined to knock Kiyomiya’s sulks out of him. Kiyomiya, despite the wild look in his eyes, could not outwit Ogawa (very few people can). 

Mutoh and Ogawa formed a very technical team as can be expected, and the match naturally fell into Mutoh vs Kiyomiya and Ogawa vs Kotaro. It also had Misawa overtones, not just with Mutoh’s actions as mentioned above, the Rolling Elbow also made an appearance via Kiyomiya.

WINNER: Keiji Mutoh with the Shining Wizard on Kotaro Suzuki (21 minutes, 56 seconds)

 After the match, Mutoh hinted at a further tag with Ogawa. Ogawa naturally said nothing. Kotaro retreated from the ring with an ice pack on his much attacked knees, and Kiyomiya commented on Twitter that he was thinking of many things before the match, and he has found what he is has been searching for.

MATCH EIGHT

GHC Heavyweight championship

Naomichi Marufuji vs Takashi Sugiura

The story of Naomichi Marufuji vs Takashi Sugiura continued today, and it started with a handshake. No malice or hatred between the two, just mutual respect with an underlying pull of a power struggle for dominance in Noah and as if to symbolize that this match was about the GHC Heavyweight, and the GHC Heavyweight and Takashi Sugiura only, Sugiura came to the ring without the GHC National Championship. Both had something they desperately needed to surpass, for Sugiura it was the streak of beating Marufuji, for Marufuji it was the streak of being beaten by Sugiura. He did not once describe him as a “weapon” once for nothing.

 The match was brutal, both wore each down. Marufuji working on Sugiura’s arm and elbow, pulling out moves he doesn’t generally do anymore (rope flip for example), Sugiura wearing Marufuji down by vicious elbows, his corner flurry and even at one point ripping up the mats outside the ring and driving him into the concrete. Marufuji was always looking for ways to get through Sugiura’s seemingly impenetrable armor, and he found it as Sugiura concentrated on defense, and he managed to break through during the linked chop\punch war, which he bought to exhaustion and then took his chance.  

WINNER: Naomichi Marufuji with the Pole shift type Emerald Flowsion on Takashi Sugiura (32 minutes, 19 seconds)

 Marufuji spoke on the microphone after the match, thanking Sugiura for all the support he had offered both himself and Noah over the past turbulent twenty-one years.

 "If I look back on 21 years with Sugiura, there are really more painful and sad memories than good ones. However, if I continue to endure and do my best, then one day the day will come when I can look back and laugh on those memories". 

Later he spoke more on those years and how they had protected Noah together while their younger wrestlers grew up, so there would be a Noah for them. 

Marufuji and Sugiura bowed to each other deeply from the ring and the ramp. No challenger had come forward while Marufuji was in the ring, but he did backstage as Kazushi Sakuraba said he had watched the match and found a way to get past Marufuji. Marufuji accepted his challenge saying he was looking forward to it, and the title match has been set for the 1st August in Hiroshima.

WITH THANKS TO: Rick178, Metal-Noah

GIF'S taken from WrestleUniverse

Noah's next event ~ Sunday 18th July