(NOAH) EVENT RECAP - KAWASAKI, GO! 2021 (Sunday August 15th, Culttz Kawasaki)

しばらくは闇のともしを花火哉

for a moment

the darkness is lighted...

fireworks

A hot and humid Kawasaki bought fans today for Noah's last big event of the summer. Hajime Ohara was right in calling this a "summer tradition", and it has been that way over the past four years since he started doing it. The event always gives the feeling of being the end of summer, with one last fireworks display before everyone goes home to look towards the autumn schedule and then the winter and the end of year festivities. 

Momo No Seishun (Daisuke Harada and an energetic Atsushi Kotoge) did a small pre-show whereby they introduced the merchandise. Some of the merchandise didn't need to be introduced however, as there was a long queue for the Noah baseball shirts. With the venue estimated to be about 80% full, and the demand for the shirts, the surplus left over from Hiroshima and Sendai did not last long. 

The event today was broadcast on ABEMA, FITE & WrestleUniverse. You must either be a subscriber to WrestleUniverse or buy the PPV on FITE for $19.99 to view. The first few matches where broadcast via Noah's official YouTube. 

MATCH ONE

N-1 VICTORY 2021 Block B qualifying match

King Tany vs Kendo Kashin

With Kazunari Murakami out of the N-1 due to a sciatic nerve condition, and following the press conference where both declared they would enter, King Tany and Kendo Kashin met in a hastily arranged match. Kashin was up to his usual tricks such as throwing a ladder at Tany when he entered the ring, not letting the ref check him and later using his Perspex plastic sheet spot. Tany may have had size and power on his side, and his Greco Roman may have been used to counter Kashin's MMA style, but unfortunately his crown may have squeezed his common sense as he actually accepted a handshake from Kashin, although to be fair, Kashin was very insistent. After a scuffle over this the fight went backstage and then to the bleachers at the top of the building and down the stairs. 

The result was they got counted out. 

RESULT 1: Draw

The furious referees (it took two of them) told them both to get back in the ring and the match was restarted. Kashin went for the same tactics, but Tany kept him in the ring, throwing him from corner to corner. Kashin wasn't finished yet and took the ref out, which meant his getting pinned by Tany's splash gave him time to kick out as it was delayed. King Tany royally complained about the count. No dancing from the King though, he was riding into battle and not at a court ball. Kashin in true fashion of court jester (although perhaps more cursed Jack-In-The-Box than the Lord of Misrule) stole the win and will be entering B Block in the N-1 Victory. We shall see how thrilled about this development that Kenoh was later.

WINNER: Kendo Kashin with the Kid Clutch 

Noah had been saying for weeks leading up to the event that they would be making a big announcement. Fans speculated as to what it would be, as did wrestlers, Kenoh growling that it had better not be another change in ownership, although he did not think it would be. Naomichi Marufuji came to the ring dressed in traditional clothing (Montsuki-haori hakama, which is the highest formal attire for a Japanese man and are worn at important events), and spoke on the mic. He then stood on the turnbuckle as the video played. The video showed him standing on the turnbuckle of a Noah ring which was floating above the skies, he jumped off of it and fell through the clouds, landing on earth he found himself outside The Nippon Budokan. Taking a brush pen and an ink tray, he wrote the words "Nippon Budokan Event Decision". 

Noah will run The Nippon Budokan as a New Years show on 1st January 2022, even Kenoh (whose birthday it is), is pleased about this. 

MATCH TWO

Masa Kitamiya vs Daiki Inaba

Good opener, but ultimately a filler opener as Noah are down so many roster members on the card. Daiki Inaba is bulking up, and Masa Kitamiya is still a wall of Masa Saito proportions. Inaba had the advantage of speed if not size, which he caught Kitamiya off guard with a few times. The speed of water wore the stone down to an extent, but Kitamiya has a horrible submission on his side, which he utilized. 

WINNER: Masa Kitamiya with the Prison Lock (8 minutes, 55 seconds)

MATCH THREE

Funky Express (King Tany, Mohammed Yone, Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue) vs Junta Miyawaki, Kinya Okada, Yasutaka Yano & Kai Fujimura

The youngsters assembled in the ring while Masao Inoue came hobbling out, Mohammed Yone waving glowsticks and King Tany (not phased about his loss) smoking an unlit cigar. The ref knew now to assist him with the royal disrobing, and Tany didn't have to ask. Over in the other corner, Yasutaka Yano herded his teammates to the apron to start the match against Yone, who was pumping up his afro. Yano, being the polite Noah born he is, made no reaction to Yone's disco fever, but attacked him, knocked him down much to his shock and then went to knock Funky Express off of the apron, but Tany grabbed him. He was rescued by his team who then all ganged up on Yone. I guess Disco causes hatred, anger and extreme rage in those who didn't even remember it. 

Masao Inoue was also taken down by Yasutaka Yano (who is young enough to be his grandson), but he got his own back on the youngsters by foot stamping and eye raking. It wasn't just Inoue who had his revenge, Funky Express got their own back for being ganged up on, with their target being Kinya Okada. Much to Inoue's horror, he found that Okada (like everyone else in Noah) gave him the boot, so this probably means that Inoue will have to suffer another generation who tease him as a gouty old man.

Okada provoked a look of rage in Akitoshi Saito as he dared stand up to him and scream, so Saito took the young man very much down

WINNER: Akitoshi Saito with the Suikurudesu on Kinya Okada (10 minutes, 24 seconds)

Saito and Yone danced their way back from the ring, Saito doing his cat dance and Yone joining in. 

MATCH FOUR

Momo No Seishun (Daisuke Harada & Atsushi Kotoge) vs Perros de mal del Japan (Kotaro Suzuki & Ikuto Hidaka)

Atsushi Kotoge was predictably bursting with pent up energy, from the moment he walked out of the entryway. Both he and Daisuke Harada have had to self isolate due to being in close contact with YO-HEY who tested positive for Corona, and while isolating was probably easier on Harada, Kotoge is someone who needs to be doing something fast paced and he wasn't even able to go out to run. It was probably merciful to let Kotoge start. 

Perros started as they meant to go on with Ikuto Hidaka hair pulling and then eye taking as Atsushi Kotoge refused to be broken down by him, and then Kotaro Suzuki attacking Harada's knee. The knee as a target caused Harada to limp for the rest of the evening, but it did give Kotoge a big chance to work off his energy. 

WINNER: Daisuke Harada with the Katayama German Hold (14 minutes, 5 seconds)

Harada getting the sudden win led to a short stare down between Kotaro, Hidaka and Momo. Perros could not believe it. Harada could quite believe it, and didn't hesitate to hold up three fingers to them or the camera. Then he and Kotoge made a slightly comical exit from the ring with Harada linked arms with Kotoge to hop, and Kotoge who was clutching the back of his head and couldn't walk well.

MATCH FIVE

Hajime Ohara vs Kaito Kiyomiya

Hajime Ohara made his triumphant entrance in front of his hometown crowd. Not only had he arranged today for the visually impaired to be able to enjoy the event via use of audio and donated some money to an orphanage so the children could come to the show, he was tireless outside of the ring for the wellbeing of the citizens - a volunteer firefighter, instructor of the elderly in a gentle exercise class (inspired by his experience of looking after his grandparents), work with dementia sufferers, and on various health boards throughout the city, so win or lose, people were happy to see him. Noah unintentionally caught a poignant moment when the camera panned over the darkened crowd with the silver lights from the glowsticks looking like bobbing lights on ocean waves. 

If you were to ask Kaito Kiyomiya how he has been recently, he would tell you things are not too good. It's true he and Masa Kitamiya are the GHC Tag Champions, but that was more to do with the fact that Kitamiya wanted the pleasure of taking the title from Katsuhiko Nakajima, and it is not a singles accomplishment, and as soon as it looked like he was going to repay NOSAWA Rongai for the humiliations caused in Hiroshima, the card was changed. So like any stubborn Noah Born who didn't get his own way, he sulked and Hajime Ohara became the focus for Kiyomiya's rage. Kiyomiya, however, as he is a stubborn Noah Born who didn't get his own way, was going to make sure that later he got it. 

When Kiyomiya is angry he (like Tadasuke when he becomes wild) forgets that you need to wrestle with your head, and wrestling on pure emotion alone does not work against Hajime Ohara and he soon had Kiyomiya tied up in a knot. The last singles match they had was in 2016 and was Kiyomiya's third match after debuting when. Ohara has probably hand in training Kiyomiya somewhere along the line, but the whole teacher and pupil thing aside, Ohara was determined not to lose in front of his hometown fans. Kiyomiya has the size to get out of Ohara's submissions, not many juniors have this and Ohara had to go for a different tactics. Kiyomiya kept kicking out however, but there was no disadvantage really as aside from height, Ohara is used to the heavyweight strength thanks to Tadasuke.

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Stretch Plum Facelock (12 minutes, 12 seconds)

Backstage Kiyomiya started screaming something about NOSAWA and not letting it end here, before stamping off. Sulking, yelling and making threats - he's turning into Kenoh. 

MATCH SIX

GHC JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TAG CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

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

Tadasuke made his traditional ABEMA camera spot, adjusting his glasses and talking about Aleja as STINGER made their entry. Seiki Yoshioka had a wild look in his eyes (I swear they almost turn red), his rope break on Aleja was full of contempt as he pushed him away roughly. 

Tadasuke motioned throughout the match about Aleja in the manner of "This guy...this fuckin' guy..." , and who can blame him? Kuniko Yamada certainly couldn't as she joined in the applause for him, and then there was the moment when Aleja saved Tadasuke by going over Yoshioka and not under him when Yuya Susumu had Tadasuke in the second submission and Yoshioka was trying to keep him out of the ring. Tadasuke, however, was naturally growing wilder and wilder, the more the excitement and the momentum took him as the match progressed. Even using sneak movements like making the ref think that Yoshioka was up to something, and then knocking Yoshioka down when he was distracted. While Tadasuke when he goes wild rides the momentum, Headbanging Tadasuke is a sign of his peak manic level, which means although it is powerfully enhanced (his heavyweight strength meant he had no difficulty in holding Susumu up for a while, and then throwing the much lighter Aleja afterwards and using a clever assist in lariating Yoshioka who had Aleja ready for the Crash Driver, which reversed the move and meant Aleja almost got the pin), it usually gives his opponents time to recover as he wastes time showboating to the crowd.

WINNER: Yuya Susumu with the Cross Face Lock on Tadasuke (18 minutes, 54 seconds)

Tadasuke said his dreams of holding a title (he has held one, but for a very short period of time), were not over and he would be back. Personally, I think a run with the GHC National at some point would be good for Tadasuke.

MATCH SEVEN

Kongoh (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Manabu Soya & Haoh) vs The Sugiura Army (Kazushi Sakuraba, Kazuyuki Fujita, Kendo Kashin & Daisuke Nakamura)

To the surprise of no-one (except probably Kendo Kashin who has a strange sense of reality, thinking he and "Daisuke" are friends), Kenoh started yelling at Kashin. Kashin decided he was going to start the match against him, and everyone else in The Sugiura Army cleared the ring. Kashin then decided after a lock up that he was going to tag in Kazushi Sakuraba. It took some persuading for Sakuraba to get in the ring, not because it was Kenoh, but because The Sugiura Army enjoy seeing Kashin get beaten up (its one of their favorite pastimes alongside drinking and dogs) and not tag in. So after some screaming from Kenoh at them, Kenoh finally relented and tagged in Katsuhiko Nakajima. Kenoh's focus was on Kashin, who kept making a nuisance of himself. Kenoh is generally furious anyway, but Kashin provokes a rage in him that not even Kiyomiya can aspire to. 

During the match an earthquake struck Kawasaki, as Kazuyuki Fujita and Manabu Soya clashed in the ring. This was followed, as far as Soya was concerned by a light breeze as Kashin tagged in. Unfortunately for Kashin, Kenoh also ran in and he got the Kongoh elbows. It wasn't just Kenoh who enjoyed beating up Kashin, Nakajima also enjoyed it, kicking him around and grinning. Kashin tried to tag in, but Nakajima got hold of his belt and then did a submission. The referees might no longer count his cocky pin, but Nakajima can be just as irritating and they couldn't stop him trapping Kashin in a submission and facing The Sugiura Army with a big grin on his face. Aside from Kashin, Nakajima's other target (his main target) was Kazushi Sakuraba, who is in his N-1 VICTORY block. A kick war broke out, which you could tell Nakajima was loving. He wasn't so impressed when Kashin joined in with the Shutter Chance, which ultimately put pressure on Sakuraba who was at the end of the line. Fujita denied all knowledge when Nakajima turned around to see what was going on.

WINNER: Kazuyuki Fujita with the Power Bomb on Haoh (18 minutes, 9 seconds)

Outside the ring, Kashin took the opportunity to beat up on Kenoh, with Sakuraba helping him. After the Sugiura Army celebrated their win,  Kashin decided he wasn't going to slap hands with the others due to everyone (aside from Nakamura) being his N-1 enemies, Sakuraba however, forcibly shook his hand. 

MATCH SEVEN

SPECIAL TAG IN KAWASAKI

Magical Immortality (Naomichi Marufuji) & NOSAWA Rongai vs STINGER (HAYATA & Yoshinari Ogawa)

There can be a chilly wind sometimes at the end of summer as the autumn rolls in, and this was most certainly the case today when a noticeable chill settled between Yoshinari Ogawa and HAYATA. It could not escape fans that in a tag match they entered separately rather than a team. You could explain this because HAYATA is the Noah Junior singles champion, but HAYATA only ever enters by himself when he has singles matches and has never taken much notice of being champion or the benefits that come with being champion, the belt usually trailing at his side like an afterthought. 

NOSAWA entered in the usual manner. No one should have had any concerns that he was going to imitate Muta (NOSAWA being NOSAWA is more than enough) as he entered in usual manner as he was holding a chair. The chair he placed in the middle of the ring and sat on. The ref had to check him while sitting down. 

Magical Immortality came out with a fire extinguisher and blew red everywhere.

Then Kaito Kiyomiya, who had been politely waiting on the apron for Magical Immortality to blow red mist, charged into the ring, shoved Ogawa aside and attacked NOSAWA.

Kiyomiya got no thanks from STINGER however, as Ogawa grabbed his hair when standing on the ring apron, but probably only for shoving him aside. Not for interfering in the match or attacking NOSAWA. After this, Kiyomiya lurked outside the ring waiting for NOSAWA (he's too polite to get in the ring and disrupt the match, i.e. he's not Tadasuke), and so NOSAWA not only had Kiyomiya outside the ring waiting for him, Ogawa took advantage of it too. Kiyomiya once got up on the apron, but then very politely got down when told off by the ref.

NOSAWA kept good his promise to kick Ogawa in the groin, which he did twice. Then HAYATA did it back to NOSAWA and looked for a moment like he didn't know what to do and hurriedly went to hide in the shadows, he later emerged with Magical Immortality's fire extinguisher, which Ogawa couldn't get to work which left time for Magical Immortality to hook kick him. HAYATA back in the ring got a blast of it, before the thing went wild spewing white mist everywhere. In the confusion, Ogawa got a submission on NOSAWA. 

WINNER: Yoshinari Ogawa with the Figure Four on NOSAWA Rongai (17 minutes, 56 seconds)

Ogawa wouldn't let go of NOSAWA, and  HAYATA got knocked down with the green mist. Then now that the match was safely over, Kiyomiya got in the ring, politely checked on HAYATA and then attacked NOSAWA. HAYATA rolled out of the ring, while elsewhere at ringside Magical Immortality attacked Okada and the other trainees, he later explained to his agent Marufuji that he wasn't used to the human realm. I get the impression that the Great Muta is more au fait. Kiyomiya was savagely attacked NOSAWA and Ogawa watched from the ring, before leaving himself and frostily handing HAYATA his belt. 

I think this match would have been a lot more bloodier and a lot more wild had the demon Magical Immortality been able to work with the more experienced demon, Great Muta, but they did the best with what they had which included Magical Immortality biting HAYATA, who was determined not to get the poison mist, and even took to holding his hand over his mouth. Usually at the end of a Great Muta match there is blood, chaos, weapons strewn around the ring, and opponents covered in gore, green and red mist. Today sadly it was only HAYATA getting the green mist and smudges of Magical Immortality's make up on HAYATA and Ogawa. 

MATCH TEN

GHC NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP & ZERO1 WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

Takashi Sugiura (GHC National Champion) vs Masato Tanaka (ZERO1 World Heavyweight Champion)

Stiff handshake and a stare before Kawasaki fell to the ground, the bell rang and it was on. Stiff stiff stiff - elbows, punches, kicks. Not a technical match by any means, more of a raw brawl. TKO would probably be the best way to win this. Submission moves were intended to wear the other guy down and neither truly wanted to win by tap out, there were slams off of the apron and rather than your trainees, an army of referees at ringside with the boys from ZERO1 seconding Masato Tanaka. The atmosphere at Kawasaki was on a knife edge. Bloody headbutts to escape from the submissions that were used, Tanaka using a chair, the ref shoved down, a Sliding Elbow from the apron and vicious elbow war. This was probably the toughest fight that Takashi Sugiura may have ever had, leading to Masato Tanaka to comment later that Sugiura was "rugged, strong, just like a pro wrestler". Tanaka was hammered in the corner by Sugiura's elbows, but this only had the effect of powering him up and not knocking him down. With the upper hand, Tanaka took his elbow pad off and struck Sugiura with his elbow but Sugiura was lying in wait and reversed this into the dreaded neck lock. 

Just like the days of summer which start off with brilliance and grow shorter and shorter as time passes, the end of the match kind of mirrored this. Exhausted, worn down and covered in sweat, an elbow war turned into a slap war which bought Sugiura almost to his knees as they then moved on to knees, but there was one last burst of an Indian Summer when Sugiura went for the top rope Olympic Slam and just like summer, Tanaka was spent.

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with the Snowfall Olympic Slam (38 minutes, 37 seconds)

The referee was waiting to present Sugiura with the belts, but he wanted to shake hands with Tanaka first. Tanaka who in a highly professional and touching gesture, handed them to him himself, they embraced and then both bowed on all fours. Sugiura, who has made history by being both the GHC National Champion and the ZERO1 World Heavyweight Champion. then spoke on the mic;

"Thank you! I won by chance today! Masato Tanaka, we are The Bullet Yankees, lets do it again someday. The world is gloomy, and I hope that Noah's Pro Wrestling lifted the hearts of everyone who saw it. It was a fireworks display! Everyone, I would like to close out in the usual way...Let's go! 1,2,3 Noah!!"

WITH THANKS TO: Metal Noah, Abeshin

GIFS taken from WrestleUniverse

Noah's next event: Saturday, August 28th - Masa Kitamiya's 10th anniversary show (Takaoka Ecourt, Takaoka) - this will not be broadcast live, but will be available to view on the 31st August.