(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: NOAH Jr. YOKOHAMA OVATION (Friday, September 3rd 2021, Yokohama Radiant Halls)

Yoshinari Ogawa, never one for the spotlight, celebrated his 36th anniversary in wrestling today quietly, and while there may have been no flowers presented in the ring, there were flowers left for him in the lobby. Ogawa's legacy is twofold, he is one of the greatest technical wrestlers ever and the true master of ring psychology, and for over twenty years in Noah he has passed on to countless generations what he learned directly from Giant Baba, Mitsuharu Misawa and Genichiro Tenryu. Tenryu himself once commented when he came to Noah that he could see Baba's All Japan Noah, even in the sound the wrestlers made when they took moves, which he attributed to Ogawa's teaching. Eita (who was not on today's show) said he would mark Ogawa's anniversary with water instead of beer, "soon". 

YO-HEY described today as "Demon's Yokohama Radiant", and while the card might not have been as out of control as the division today centered around can get, he was certainly right in that something is beginning to stir in the division again. An eruption is imminent. 

MATCH ONE

Kongoh Juniors (Nioh & Haoh) vs Kai Fujimura & Yasutaka Yano

Fans had blue lights out for Yasutaka Yano as he came running to the ring with Kai Fujimura. Both boys are suddenly looking very toned, and Fujimura although he has come from the outside to Noah, is kind of like an unofficial Noah Born. Nioh made his return to the ring today (Noah delayed his return as he was still slightly asymptomatic with a cough), and he looks okay. Thinner than he was before, and a little tired, but he didn't look as wan as YO-HEY did. Haoh however did the majority of the in ring work. Yano went immediately on the attack, and the rookies did a good job against the far more experienced Kongoh, but ultimately experience won over youthful momentum. 

WINNER: Haoh with a reversal of the diving body attack (7 minutes, 32 seconds)

MATCH TWO

YO-HEY vs Aleja

Very fast paced match in which YO-HEY has come back to his old self, once again flamboyant and using his crazy lock up which every Noah junior hates. YO-HEY is probably the best Noah Junior to keep pace with Aleja due to his natural speed and natural agility and as ever because this is Yokohama Radiant Halls (a notoriously small venue) and because it's the Noah Juniors, and it's this kind of match, it briefly went into the crowd. It's been a while since fans have had to scatter from their seats, which is hopefully a good sign. 

WINNER: Aleja with the Sky Bullet (10 minutes, 17 seconds)

Fans are saying that YO-HEY is in a slump. YO-HEY would agree saying later that the momentum of Perros had vanished, but he was still upbeat that he would revive, albeit gradually.

MATCH THREE

Daisuke Harada vs Tadasuke

Tadasuke hit the ring, already wired before the match even started. Daisuke Harada made a naturally more quiet and dignified entrance, which meant that Tadasuke is going to get hurt. You could see this look on Harada's face as soon as he took his robe off. He even warned Tadasuke what was in store by pointing at him. Not the last time Harada was going to do this this evening. Then Harada made his point by diving at Tadasuke, knocking him out of the ring and on to a chair, where Tadasuke fell backwards.

The referee tried to stop Harada doing this again, but Harada took no notice and just leapfrogged him and did it anyway. He's a Noah Junior, and this is a Noah Junior dominated event. Tadasuke soon had Harada gnashing his teeth, but this also meant that Tadasuke got carried away with a huge grin and headbanging which is precisely what Harada wanted to capitalize on. The more carried away Tadasuke gets, the more he showboats and the more he wastes time and the more opportunities his opponents have to recover. There was a few close calls for Tadasuke to get the win, but Harada always seemed to kick out, and eventually he found his opening. 

WINNER: Daisuke Harada with the Katayama German Suplex (10 minutes, 51 seconds)

Harada wins over Tadasuke again, and while this match was intended to be a settlement, I don't think it will ever be settled between them. 

MATCH FOUR

STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa, Seiki Yoshioka & Yuya Susumu) vs Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara & Junta Miyawaki

Hajime Ohara is loving the whole open baseball shirt look and playing up to the crowd with it, which lets face it is probably the most badboy Ohara gets! By the time STINGER had emerged the atmosphere was already turned up a notch, and continued to rise. Full of energy Atsushi Kotoge I think really wanted to start, but he grudgingly gave way to Junta Miyawaki. Kotoge didn't have long to wait, and neither did Yoshinari Ogawa who soon dealt with bouncy Kotoge. It must be said that though that Ogawa had had a lot of matches with Miyawaki recently, but probably because Miyawaki is in the ZERO1 Junior League (his first solo excursion in this manner) and Ogawa wants to keep a close eye on developments. Ogawa did not appreciate his knocking him off the apron. 

There was the usual technical war between Ogawa and Ohara, and I think Yuya Susumu often gets overlooked in this as he tends to be overshadowed by the other two, although he is just as good. 

WINNER: Hajime Ohara with the Finnish Forearm on Yuya Susumu (15 minutes, 53 seconds)

After the match, Atsushi Kotoge challenged for the titles on behalf of himself and Hajime Ohara;

"Ohara, we won. That means...Susumu! Yoshioka! Ohara, you and I, let's challenge for that junior tag belt. If we take it, hot hot hot! We will liven up the junior fight!"

In usual style, STINGER made no comment and simply held up the belts. Backstage they were a little more talkative, saying they would accept the challenge, even though their opponents had no chance in taking the belts. Susumu wondered on his official Twitter if the opponents even knew what day it was they were asking from, but he did admit, he liked that kind of big talk. Title match will take place at Korakuen Hall on the on the 12th September. 

MATCH FIVE

Kaito Kiyomiya vs NOSAWA Rongai

Ikuto Hidaka came out to the ring with NOSAWA. I thought for a moment given NOSAWA'S comments on boycotting the match if he didn't get his own way that Hidaka was going to be his stand in. Fortunately Hidaka was only there to second NOSAWA as Kaito Kiyomiya would have gone mad if this match didn't go ahead. 

Kiyomiya came out looking alarmingly like Kenoh, blonde hair, very angry face, and unusually for him, no robe or even title belt. He's still polite though and waited for the ring bell before starting the match. After an initial flurry from Kiyomiya, NOSAWA resorted to a chair, Kiyomiya was not standing for that however, and NOSAWA tasted it when it was dropkicked back in his face. After this, Kiyomiya laid into NOSAWA in a fury, even the ref was thrown aside by his rage. NOSAWA being NOSAWA, used eye rakes to get the advantage. There was only one thing for Kiyomiya to do to control this, pin the notoriously slippery NOSAWA down to prevent him from cheating, and he went for the face plum stretch lock. Naturally, NOSAWA found a way out of this but Kiyomiya was not going to give up. He wanted this to end here.

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Stretch Plum Face Lock (16 minutes, 23 seconds)

Was it over? This rage? This hopelessness? Did Kiyomiya feel any different? He certainly thought so as he commented on Twitter that his worries may not be over just yet, but today he saw something else, a different view. He will scream if he wants and at the N-1 he will win and grab the light. 

MATCH SIX

GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship Match

HAYATA vs Kotaro Suzuki

Kotaro Suzuki was merciless. He has a special facial expression for when he wants something and is determined to get it, and he worked calm, calculated and methodical to wear HAYATA down. Kotaro was going to need to beat heavyweights, he was going to get the chance to face the GHC Heavyweight Champion, but to do that he had to first beat the GHC Junior Champion. HAYATA though wasn't as helpless or as worn down as Kotaro would have liked and eventually struck back, you could see mentally that Kotaro was going back either to the drawing board or plan B, and whatever he went with it worked for a time. Kotaro thought he was going to use the same trick as HAYATA used on YO-HEY, wear him into a state of desperation where he stops thinking and goes with whatever he thinks will work. But HAYATA was not going to make it that easy, he had his own tricks and used it at moment that was devastating in effect to retain.

WINNER: HAYATA by reversal of the Tiger Driver (14 minutes, 12 seconds)

As Kotaro was rolled out and taken away by the seconds, Daisuke Harada rolled into the ring to challenge HAYATA for the title;

"I can't keep silent after watching such a great match. My challenge is dokan! Please accept it. On the 10th October, a big match in Osaka. A match in a special place for us!!"

HAYATA gave his consent by holding up the belt to him, Harada pointed to indicate he was a marked man, and slowly made the title belt motion around his waist. 

The title match has been set for the 10th October in Osaka like Daisuke Harada said, it will take place on the same night that the winner of the N-1 faces Naomichi Marufuji for the GHC Heavyweight Championship. Harada is right, Osaka is a special place for both HAYATA and himself, Osaka is not only associated with HAYATA'S days in Dove, and his and Harada's shared days in Osaka Pro, it was also the spiritual home of RATELS. 

GIF taken from WrestleUniverse (you must be a subscriber to view the whole event)

Noah's next show: Monday, September 6th (Shinuku FACE)

Note: Harada's "Dokan" expression doesn't really translate well into English, it's like saying "the thunder crashed", "the fireworks exploded". It's more of a word indicating a sound like "bang" or "boom".