(NOAH) EVENT RECAP - DEPARTURE 2021 Day 1 (Thursday 5th August, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo)

Noah celebrate today their 21st birthday on the anniversary of their two inaugural shows at the now demolished Differ Ariake, Mitsuharu Misawa had named these shows "Departure" as a way of holding up the middle finger at All Japan as he walked out the door with not only the majority of their top talent, but also their future talent. A video package was shown of Noah back then, Misawa staring back at us from a vanished time and a vanished era. As a nod to Noah as it was then, the trainees at ringside were seen to be wearing green t-shirts with the old logo on them. The ark with the dove logo had been designed by Naomichi Marufuji at Mitsuharu Misawa's request. 

Daisuke Harada celebrates 15 years in wrestling today, but aside from a commemorative poster, he did not get a special singles match. His debut was made in 2006 in Osaka against Atsushi Kotoge. Naomichi Marufuji made a comment about "Dahara", which Harada naturally did not acknowledge, and Harada's older brother alluded to the story of the Peach Boy, who was born from a giant peach found floating down the river by a childless woman who was washing clothes, and saying how big Harada had grown. Harada took no notice of that either. 

Today's show was broadcast live on WrestleUniverse, you can view this any time you want, but you must be a subscriber. Nioh was absent today due to having to self isolate. 

MATCH ONE

Masa Kitamiya vs Kinya Okada

Masa Kitamiya worked tough on Kinya Okada, looking like he was going to twist that arm out of its socket. He had a merciless sneer on his face, especially when taunting him. Okada managed to fight back, taking Kitamiya down with a shoulder tackle, but kicking Kitamiya never does any good. It only makes him mad, probably because it reminds him of Katsuhiko Nakajima, plus Okada had been taught to kick by Nakajima. The two were well paired, Okada being known as the "Showa wrestler" (a more classical style used from the 1920s until the late 1980s), and Kitamiya of course being trained by Masa Saito, who was a Showa Era wrestler. 

Winner: Masa Kitamiya with the Prison Lock (8 minutes, 56 seconds)

MATCH TWO

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

King Tani came to the ring in usual fashion - unlit cigar, gold jewelry, and big crown. His opponents were not impressed, and Masaaki Mochizuki started objecting to him not removing anything. Tani looked bewildered, until the ref told him to take off the crown, and then because royalty does not remove their own jewelry, once again he had to remove the gold chain and the ring. Tani's behavior aside, the story of the match today was about Mohammed Yone and his ongoing rivalry with Masaaki Mochizuki, which dates back to their days in BattlArts. By far the funniest moment was when Yone pulled his Disco Fever pose after the rope break, and Mochi slowly pulled it back. Yone looked shocked, but worse was to come when Yone tried to halt Mochi by pulling it during the shoulder tackles, and Mochi took no notice at all and knocked him down. Later, Mochi would do a lightning strike kick attack on Akitoshi Saito.

Aside from ordering the ref to remove his jewelry, King Tani was all business in the match, the monster side of him emerging as he slammed his opponents, but this this vanished as he started dancing. He was also seen to command his team to get into the ring to help attack opponents, but I get the feeling that his behavior is going to start riling up his teammates sooner or later. 

Winner: Masato Tanaka with the Sliding D on King Tani (11 minutes, 24 seconds)

Backstage Yone said (and with good reason), that he admired the M's alliance and how they worked, and he wanted to make Funky Express just like them.

MATCH THREE

Yoshinari Ogawa vs Yasutaka Yano

Yasutaka Yano seems suddenly to have bloomed, he is filling out and taking shape, and suddenly looks so much more different. Today he took on his teacher, in a match that fans called "Yoshinari Ogawa's public training class", and you could see Ogawa throughout the match whispering advice for a few seconds. 

Like Kotaro Suzuki and Ikuto Hidaka, Ogawa found it hard to keep this boy down, and like them started wearing a "WTF is this?" look on his face. Yano has become very good at reversals, however Ogawa is better, but no rookie is allowed to fight Ogawa like Yano did and Ogawa kept throwing him out of the ring repeatedly. 

WINNER: Yoshinari Ogawa with the Back Drop (7 minutes, 24 seconds)

Ogawa was not finished with Yano yet, throwing him out of the ring one last time and then stalking backstage. 

MATCH FOUR

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

Eita made his return to Noah, and immediately set about using heel tactics, mainly against Daisuke Harada who said that he wasn't going to let Eita do what he wanted. Eita wound him up by pulling his hair and ignoring the ref when scolded for this. It's easy to wind Harada up however, especially if you are Tadasuke. Despite Eita's chaotic presence, the match itself wasn't as wild as the Noah Juniors can sometimes be, although there was an element of it, and the referee was resigned to the fact that no one was going to take much notice of him. Ever the polite Noah Born, Junta Miyawaki was highly apologetic when Eita (who has no such qualms) threw him towards the referee. 

WINNER: Eita with the Hidalgo on Junta Miyawaki (11 minutes, 50 seconds)

After the match., the referee was seen to have to herd YO-HEY when he was squaring up to Kotoge, and he wanted him to raise arms with his team. He had to keep an eye on Perros to see what they were doing as every Noah ref knows, any moment could escalate suddenly. After this there was a slight shoving match as NOSAWA was grinding his boot into Junta's face, but nothing more. Eita was seen to be holding his arm, but he seems to be okay though. Sadly, it was announced the next day that his absence has come from having to self isolate due to YO-HEY developing a fever that evening and taking a positive PCR test, not injury. 

MATCH FIVE

Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Hajime Ohara

Hajime Ohara wrote in his blog that this match was special to him as Katsuhiko Nakajima was the only Noah wrestler he had faced in Mexico, and he felt a sense of fate. For Nakajima however, it was the sinister comment that it had "been a while". Ohara's best form of defense was submissions, to wear Nakajima down, and this worked well. No matter how well this worked, Nakajima wasn't going to take any notice of the ref, and neither was he going to be beaten by a Noah Junior, and a streak of blood from Ohara was seen smeared on his shoulder. 

Winner: Katsuhiko Nakajima with the Vertical Spike (9 minutes, 56 seconds)

MATCH SIX

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

Tadasuke wasn't the only person with a grin in this match, as STINGER once they had emerged from the dark shadows in which they live in, had dark sadistic grins as they beat up on their opponents, Haoh in particular, this was most notable especially with HAYATA and Seiki Yoshioka. Tadasuke got revenge however, by hitting the ring like some kind of manic whirlwind and knocking the opponents off of the apron. 

WINNER: Aleja with the Swivel Type DDT on Seiki Yoshioka (13 minutes, 2 seconds)

In usual amplified style, Tadasuke reacted in wonder to Aleja's win, it was kind of like "this guy...this fucking guy" magnified, but the champions had been beaten and Tadasuke knew what he was going to do. This was the chance to snatch some gold, getting on the microphone he told the GHC Tag Champions -

"Hey! Junior Tag Champions! Which one of you is Yoshioka, and which one of you is Susumu? We are more suitable for the belts than handsome guys like you with no personality! This is a challenge statement!"

Championship match has been set for 15th August at KAWASAKI GO.

MATCH SEVEN

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

Prior to the match Kenoh had growled on Twitter that his target was Kazuyuki Fujita, who he had not forgiven for taking the GHC National from him.

Kenoh was also Fujita's target, in that Fujita got into the ring, walked over to Kenoh's corner, shoved him out of the way (ignoring his swearing) and stood on the turnbuckle and held his arms up. Kenoh was furious (even more so than usual), stalking Fujita around the ring until both Soya and the ref separated them. This lasted until the start of the match when Kenoh faced Fujita, using his Nippon Kempo jabs and kicks. It was a slap however that made Fujita lose his temper, so the ref again had to separate them and Manabu Soya got in the ring. 

It was a Hoss fight that fans love to see. 

Kazushi Sakuraba was a rag doll to Soya, but he knows how to take down larger and stronger opponents and countered with a leg lock. Fujita very helpfully held the ropes away from Soya. Then there came a kick war with Kenoh, but it was not to be Kongoh's victory after a still enraged Fujita knocked Kenoh down

WINNER: Kazushi Sakuraba with the Deformed gait arm cross on Manabu Soya (15 minutes, 50 seconds)

MATCH EIGHT

Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura vs Kaito Kiyomiya & Kotaro Suzuki

A special main event was arranged with Noah's seniors, Naomichi Marufuji and Takashi Sugiura, versus Noah's first born, Kotaro Suzuki and the most senior and unofficial leader of Noah's new generation, Kaito Kiyomiya. Both Sugiura and Marufuji (plus Ogawa) had been part of the walk out from All Japan. Marufuji says that Misawa never talked to him about it, as his trainee he was expected to follow his teacher, although Sugi says he was asked his thoughts, and Ogawa has never said. Marufuji was the only person in this match to have been at the very first Noah show, Sugi didn't debut until that December, Kotaro hadn't yet joined Noah and Kiyomiya was only a small child. 

Misawa's boys (Marufuji and Kotaro, who both wear gold and black), opened the match, Marufuji pulling Kotaro around his ears, and knocking him down in the chop war in which Kotaro had used jabs. Although he was the only junior in the match, Kotaro can more than hold his own against the heavyweights, even doing a Tiger Driver on Sugi. Older brother Marufuji praised this after the match, telling him it was the best in the world. This praise meant a lot to Kotaro, and he repeated his plea for a singles match again sometime. 

Kotaro and Kiyomiya worked well as a team, although Kotaro was more in control of his emotions than Kiyomiya. There was something wild and angry about Kiyomiya's wrestling today, and more aggressive than usual as he was against his seniors. After the match Takashi Sugiura commented that regarding their own seniors (his and Marufuji's which means Misawa, Kobashi, Taue), they were untouchable and inapproachable as obstacles, he and Marufuji too wanted to be walls to their own junior wrestlers (not the division, who hate the heavyweights anyway more than they hate each other), but there was a difference. Where their seniors had been above the clouds, they were going to be down to earth, but just as solid obstacles. 

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with the Olympic Slam on Kotaro Suzuki (21 minutes, 59 seconds)

After checking that Kotaro was okay as he was taken out of the ring and being presented with a gift from their sponsors, Marufuji spoke on the microphone

"I couldn't imagine what Noah would look like 21 years after the launch. This day was celebrated thanks to the many wrestlers, staff & fans on board the Ark, which was about to sink many times. Thank you very much!"

Takashi Sugiura then followed this up by leading the crowd (as best he could given the circumstances) in "1,2,3...Noah!". There was then a handshake, and a playful knee attack from Marufuji, which had him doubled up in laughter. Like the first show twenty one years ago, this one ended in a feeling of hope for the future after a troubled past and painful birth. 

Noah's next event: DEPARTURE DAY 2, 6th August 2021. 

With thanks to: Metal Noah

GIFS taken from: WrestleUniverse