(NOAH CARD) DEPARTURE 2021 Day 1 (Thursday 6th August, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo)

Noah celebrate a double anniversary today, they celebrate the 21st anniversary of their first show, which Mitsuharu Misawa named "Departure" as a way of sticking two fingers up at All Japan as he walked out with most of their top talent and their future talent to found a promotion where he could do what he wanted. 

Daisuke Harada also celebrates a debut anniversary today, as like HAYATA in Hiroshima on the 1st August, he celebrates his own 15 years in wrestling. Harada, however, doesn't get to be in his hometown for it, although he is teaming with the person he made his debut against, fellow Osaka native, Atsushi Kotoge. Noah will be selling commemorative t-shirts at the venue, which can be purchased online via the official Noah shop on the 6th August from 11pm JST. Those outside of Japan, please use a carrier like White Rabbit as sadly Noah cannot ship internationally. 

DEPARTURE 2021 DAY 1 will be broadcast live on WrestleUniverse, but if you are a subscriber you can watch this at any time. You will not be able to watch this event if you do not have a subscription. 

The card today (and tomorrow) has had to be changed as Nioh has had to self isolate and will therefore miss both today's and tomorrow's event. 

MATCH ONE

Masa Kitamiya vs Kinya Okada

Masa Kitamiya bulldozes both his way into the opener, and into Kinya Okada. Okada says he is looking forward to taking on one of the tag champions. 

MATCH TWO

Funky Express (Akitoshi Saito, Mohammed Yone & King Tani) vs The M's alliance (Masaaki Mochizuki, Yuko Miyamoto and Masato Tanaka)

King Tani's bizarre behaviour will no doubt continue as he leads his group into battle against three people who don't look as if they enjoy disco or any kind of funkiness that much. It should be noted that Kendo Kashin (who is currently stalking King Tani) is not on today's card, but this never stopped him in the past. 

MATCH THREE

Yoshinari Ogawa vs Yasutaka Yano

Yasutaka Yano gets the honor of facing his teacher, but he might not even get a chance to show him what he can do, as Eita is in the building, as is NOSAWA, and NOSAWA won't have forgotten about being attacked and thrown out of the ring by Yoshinari Ogawa in Hiroshima. Let's say this match may be the start of the Noah Junior chaos for the next few matches. 

MATCH FOUR

Noah Regulars (Junta Miyawaki, Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada) vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (NOSAWA Rongai, Eita & YO-HEY)

Eita returns to Noah and Perros Del Mal to take on the Noah Regulars. Depending on whether Eita and/or NOSAWA had anything to do with the match beforehand, Ogawa may well feel that he should have something to do with this match.

MATCH FIVE

Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Hajime Ohara

Katsuhiko Nakajima and Hajime Ohara have had three singles matches so far (2013, 2014 and 2017). Ohara has never won a singles match against Nakajima so far, who commented ominously "It's been a long time". 

MATCH SIX

Kongoh Juniors (Tadasuke, Aleja & Haoh) vs STINGER (HAYATA, Yuya Susumu & Seiki Yoshioka)

The Kongoh juniors take on the reclusive STINGER, who now hold all the junior belts (HAYATA the singles belt, and Yuya Susumu and Seiki Yoshioka the junior tag), Tadasuke is on a roll as he has been notching up big wins in the last few matches - will he (or another member of the group), make a challenge for the singles? 

MATCH SEVEN

Kongoh (Kenoh & Manabu Soya) vs The Sugiura Army (Kazushi Sakuraba & Kazuyuki Fujita)

Kenoh's main fixation in this match is (as he said) Kazuyuki Fujita who defeated him for the GHC National belt. Kenoh says he wants revenge. 

MATCH EIGHT

Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura vs Kaito Kiyomiya & Kotaro Suzuki

The first night of Noah's 21st birthday ends with the two of the three left in Noah who were part of the All Japan walkout, Naomichi Marufuji and Takashi Sugiura, taking on Noah's firstborn, Kotaro Suzuki, and the most eligible Noah born heavyweight of the current generation to be in this match, Kaito Kiyomiya. Kiyomiya has said that although he respects his seniors as wrestlers, he won't be holding back.