(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: Go on to the DEMOLITION STAGE 2021 (Sunday, October 24th - Aore Nagaoka, Niigata)

Aore Nagaoka had decked itself out for Halloween outside the venue; a ghoul sat on a bench laughing, while pumpkins smirked around him, decorating the venue sign. Some fans travelled out from Tokyo, while others came from the nearby area, one fan said that the last time they came to see wrestling was when Giant Baba was in town. It was an apt thing to say, as Baba's presence was definitely going to be felt today. 

As Noah like to support local businesses when they come to town, this also extends to other sports teams and fifteen minutes before the bell sounded, ring announcer Ali introduced Aredo, who is the mascot of the local Basketball team, Niigata Aibrex BB, to promote the league that had started on the 23rd October. Ali asked a few questions and the mascot answered in mime. 

Then Naomichi Marufuji appeared and thanked everyone for coming. The Mascot then got a chop to see if he could stand up to it, and naturally fell on the floor. After which they both posed for pictures before going back inside the curtain. 

Noah fans had been concerned that only one boy out of the three that are usually at ringside had been seconding recently. This prompted Kaito Kiyomiya to explain that Ozawa was on his own because the other two were injured, fortunately there were two again today. 

MATCH ONE

Kotaro Suzuki vs Kinya Okada

Noah's first Noah Born, Kotaro Suzuki, took on the newer generation of home grown Noah talent, Kinya Okada. Okada had the advantage of weight over Kotaro, if not the experience, and like any true pupil of Yoshinari Ogawa he worked on Kotato's knees, as for the kicks, well Kotaro grew up being kicked by KENTA so he's used to them. Kotaro sold the attack on his knee well after offensive moves of his own by favoring it if he had to put weight on. Fans have said for a long time in that for the younger roster, the dojo matches have been very good, and Okada is probably ready to go to the next level. Kotaro, however, is also a pupil of Ogawa and so the quick sneak pin got him the win. 

WINNER: Kotaro Suzuki with the Samsung Clutch (5 minutes)

MATCH TWO

HAYATA vs NOSAWA

NOSAWA kept everyone guessing as he appeared to be up to something. He offered HAYATA a handshake, and HAYATA, who is wise to the ways of the Noah Juniors and doesn't like shaking hands anyway, waved him away. NOSAWA was insistent, and found out the best he was going to get was a kind of flick of the fingers. 

There was an element of fury to HAYATA'S wrestling today, which is unusual for him, but then again NOSAWA is one of the three people who can wind HAYATA up. As for NOSAWA (who had his arm twisted out of its socket practically), he showed that he can do more than brawl and can do technical wrestling very well. It wasn't just NOSAWA'S arm that was worked on, HAYATA systemically took him apart bit by bit, working on his knee and even somersaulting on it at one point. Despite everything HAYATA put him through, NOSAWA refused to quit as he knew that either a draw or a loss would rattle HAYATA.

 

WINNER: Neither, time out draw of 20 minutes 

NOSAWA had accomplished his goal and left laughing. HAYATA stalked away the ring looking irritated. Backstage, NOSAWA said that a draw was good, he didn't win and he didn't lose and in the title match he was going to get the title at 59 minutes and 59 seconds after wrestling a match that Noah fans (who he hated) would hate. 

MATCH THREE

Masa Kitamiya, Seiki Yoshioka & Kai Fujimura vs PERROS DE MAL DE JAPON (YO-HEY & Ikuto Hidaka) & Daiki Inaba

The big grin that YO-HEY had contrasted with his rival, Seiki Yoshioka, who came out to the ring looking sulky and pointing at him. The match was started, however, by Ikuto Hidaka and young Kai Fujimura. Fujimura has improved, but Hidaka took him down nonetheless. YO-HEY and Seiki Yoshioka would have their turn (at YO-HEY'S command to Fujimura), Yoshioka was not going to give YO-HEY time to do his irritating lock up, but it didn't matter as YO-HEY wound him up just by grinning at him. Masa Kitamiya (who had actually bought the GHC Heavyweight Tag title with him, which is something Noah seems to have forgotten about recently), was not someone that YO-HEY was interested in fighting and so he tagged in the only other heavyweight in the match, Daiki Inaba. With four Noah juniors all in one place the soon fell into junior chaos as YO-HEY and Yoshioka made a beeline for each other whenever each was in the ring with Yoshioka even throwing Fujimura into YO-HEY at one point, then everyone started brawling outside of the ring leaving YO-HEY and Kai Fujimura inside. 

WINNER: YO-HEY with the Face G on Kai Fujimura (13 minutes, 3 seconds)

MATCH FOUR

Takashi Sugiura, Daisuke Harada, Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara & Yasutaka Yano vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Tadasuke, Aleja, Haoh and Nioh)

Noah does not usually put rookies in mid card matches, Yoshinari Ogawa once commented that this is something that Misawa would not have approved of, but Junta Miyawaki is injured and Noah needed a replacement fast. Yano however was more than up to the challenge, and you would never have thought that he hasn't even celebrated a year yet. When Yano was in the ring Daisuke Harada, Atsushi Kotoge and Hajime Ohara were seen huddling together discussing him. Yano also had his first taste of being involved in the whirlwind that characterizes a division likened to the "Warring States Period", which saw the Noah Regulars unveiling a new tandem move, which unsurprisingly involves Hajime Ohara being in charge. Atsushi Kotoge also seems to be having an issue with an Aleja, which could make for an interesting rivalry. 

Yano was unfortunate that he had to endure the Kongoh elbow and then a stamp down, luckily he escaped Kenoh, who fortunately left him to the other juniors, although when they did meet Kenoh could not believe that this boy kicked out. Tadasuke also had an experience with Yano, who fought back against Tadasuke slapping him and much to his credit he managed to take down Tadasuke enough to attempt a pin. The match evolved into the usual brawl, referee knows that when the juniors do this, it's best just to concentrate what goes on in the ring as they will all inevitably get in the ring sooner or later as there are other Noah Juniors in it. Much to Yano's credit, he might not have gotten the pin (he's still too junior), but he wasn't the one pinned either. 

WINNER: Daisuke Harada with the Katayama German Suplex on Nioh (14 minutes, 48 seconds)

MATCH FIVE

Yoshinari Ogawa vs Kaito Kiyomiya

Kotaro Suzuki joined the commentary team for what was basically a public Ogawa classroom, to teach Kiyomiya the basics of Noah wrestling. You would have thought that Kotaro would have been either bitter or sarcastic, but he spoke of Ogawa warmly saying that it was Ogawa who taught him technique in the ring, not Misawa. If anything it seems that Misawa probably took on the role of teaching his students how to live as a wrestler and what was expected of them outside the ring. Baba expected his wrestlers to be monsters in the ring, but to be gentlemen outside of it, Misawa seems to have been the same. 

As Naomichi Marufuji once said about wrestling Ogawa in a singles match, Ogawa knew every move he was going to make and was waiting around every corner. Kiyomiya's reversals probably did Ogawa proud, as did his ring psychology, but he ran up against who fans called "Rat Boy" in the early 2000s. 

Kiyomiya powered up and fought back, but he wasn't using his head as he was running on momentum, he caught Ogawa in a sleeper, and then locked in the Plum Stretch, which had ironically been Toshiaki Kawada's move. Ogawa got to the ropes, Kiyomiya charged and Ogawa threw him out of the ring. After this Kiyomiya was punished, and still running on momentum he went for quick pins, which Ogawa got out of quickly. 

WINNER: Neither, time out draw of 30 minutes 

Both looked at each other after the match, and Ogawa offered a handshake, which Kiyomiya took.  

MATCH SIX

Kongoh (Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Manabu Soya) vs The M's alliance (Naomichi Marufuji & Masato Tanaka)

Katsuhiko Nakajima started off against Masato Tanaka. There was no big grin and he was trying to concentrate, I think Nakajima is aware of what happens when his ego takes control, and so was trying to control it. Against Naomichi Marufuji however he could be as sarcastic as he wanted, and when it came to attempting a pin he looked pointedly at Tanaka. Marufuji was a "prey" he was able to play with. 

Naomichi Marufuji was not interested on the whole in Nakajima, their story was done for now, he was more interested in Manabu Soya. Soya no sold Marufuji's attacks and put him right down to the mat on the test of strength. Marufuji loved his target being someone as big and strong as Soya, never mind the fact that Soya could pick him up and bear hug him.  Sadly for the struggling Manabu Soya, a chop war led to Marufuji taking him down with kicks, and The Ballistic was stopped twice. First by Marufuji with kicks and then Tanaka with the Sliding D. 

WINNER: Masato Tanaka with the Sliding D on Manabu Soya (22 minutes, 9 seconds)

With flames in his eyes, Nakajima held the belt up to Tanaka before leaving the ring. Tanaka spoke on the microphone to Tanaka telling him;

"Hey! Katsuhiko Nakajima! Bring that belt down to Hakata! I'm looking forward to taking it!"

Katsuhiko Nakajima's response was to grin evilly, sling the belt over his shoulder and walk off. 

With thanks to: Kai & Metal-Noah

GIFs taken from WrestleUniverse

Broadcast: WrestleUniverse (no English commentary today)

Attendance: 246

Noah's next event: Thursday 28th October, Kumamoto Castle Civic Hall