(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: GRAND SQUARE 2021 in OSAKA (10th October, EDION Arena Osaka 1st Stadium)

"It's been a long time since I watched NOAH, how many years has it been?"

New fans, old fans, fans from the local area, fans travelling from Tokyo or elsewhere all came together today in an attendance of 1,291 to watch the crowning of the N-1 Victory 2021. Fortunately as the world is emerging from the Coronavirus pandemic, Noah made the seat capacity greater than last year (January 2020, when they could only have about 400 people in), and while the show was not sold out, the attendance was approaching the same level it was in 2015. 

While fans waited for the doors to open, they amused themselves in the lobby by playing the gatcha machines...for some reason, everyone seemed to be getting Eita. Prophetic perhaps? When the doors finally opened, Noah Halloween goods were on sale in the lobby, but the badges (HAYATA the pirate, YO-HEY the jester, Kenoh the angry vampire and Katsuhiko Nakajima the werewolf amongst other designs) were only available in the venue and for those who dressed in Noah merchandise and who posed with the cardboard cutouts of Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura or Keiji Mutoh. The cutouts were arranged in such a way under lights that fans said it felt like you were in a studio. Kendo Kashi and Kazuyuki Fujita also had shops set up, (fans want the Kendo Kashin bottle openers to be made mail order), as did Masakatsu Funaki. Takashi Sugiura was on autograph duty. 

You can watch today's event on WrestleUniverse, but you must be a subscriber. 

MATCH ONE

Daiki Inaba & Kai Fujimura vs Kinya Okada & Yasutaka Yano

Osaka local boy, Kinya Okada, debuted his new gear today in front of his hometown crowd. He's got rid of the lightning bolt (which with where it was placed he must have had a lot of teasing), and gone for something far more suiting his character, a very Showa era style pattern of black and grey. 

As this was primarily a young boy match, everyone except the more experienced Daiki Inaba, ran to the ring where Yasutaka Yano pushed Okada to the corner, and started against Daiki Inaba. Inaba found that he had to take Yano down a peg or two, especially when he realized that he was pulling the same face as Kotaro Suzuki did. Yano, this young boy who will be celebrating his one year debut anniversary later this month and is yet to win his first match, is capable of reducing his seniors to a sweat. Another first for Yano was the tandem move, and Okada it seems is also branching out to doing spinning kicks. It was simple with Yano climbing on Okada's shoulders and he flipping him, but it proves Yano is branching out. Inaba might have been the most experienced guy in this match, but he did not look like he was wrestling guys far less experienced than him, if anything everyone in the match seemed to be on the same level. 

WINNER: Daiki Inaba with a German Suplex on Kinya Okada (9 minutes, 39 seconds)

MATCH TWO

Funky Express (King Tany, Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito) vs Kongoh Juniors (Tadasuke, Haoh and Nioh)

Tadasuke entered his old stamping grounds of Osaka looking like he was yelling he had come home, in the ring his usual ringside camera spot was hijacked by Nioh and Haoh.

Their opponents of Mohammed Yone and King Tani came out dancing behind Akitoshi Saito, who looked grim. King Tany was smoking his unlit cigar and the ref had the usual trouble trying to get Tany to take his crown off, and then ran to take the gold chain off his royal master. Saito watched, a comical expression on his face.

Nioh did well,  showing a latent heavyweight strength, shoulder tackling Saito. Saito soon dealt with him via a slam. Haoh tagged himself in, and as this is the Noah Juniors, it was a signal to attack as a group. However, it couldn't last and the heavyweights soon got rid of Tadasuke and Nioh leaving Haoh to be beaten down by the heavyweight team, Yone and Tany leapfrogging Saito to choke Haoh while he was on the ropes. Later Funky Express said they had come up with this spontaneously. Tadasuke was on the apron raring to go, shaking the ropes, trying to get in the ring. Tany (who is having the time of his life) regally waved him out of it. Tadasuke got his chance but he couldn't fell Tany with the lariat and Tany slammed Kongoh on to him.

WINNER: Mohammed Yone with the Kinniku Buster on Nioh (9 minutes, 39 seconds)

MATCH THREE

Masa Kitamiya & Junta Miyawaki vs Kongoh (Manabu Soya & Aleja)

Masa Kitamiya started the match against former partner Manabu Soya in a test of strength which he won. There are not many people who can overpower Kitamiya. The building shook when Soya and Kitamiya butted heads and then went into flying shoulder tackles.  At the other end of the scale, Junta worked well to keep Aleja grounded, attacking his knees, later Soya picked Aleja up and used him as a weapon against Miyawaki. 

WINNER: Aleja with the Sky Bullet on Junta Miyawaki (13 minutes, 47 seconds)

Soya frustrated that he didn't win, snatched his arm away from the ref and stalked away much to the surprise of the referee. He was noticed to be walking some distance behind Aleja as well. 

MATCH FOUR

STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & Seiki Yoshioka) vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (YO-HEY & Kotaro Suzuki)

In contrast to the colorful YO-HEY, Yoshinari Ogawa came stalking out to the ring and as Kotaro Suzuki was in it, made a beeline for him. Kotaro, like a magnet, could not stay away and the two sides squared up. There is a lot of unfinished business here, and as this is a Noah junior match, it escalated quickly as Seiki Yoshioka kicked YO-HEY in the face which meant that for a while Kotaro was on his own and as Ogawa is driven to distraction by the sight of Kotaro, he didn't even let him check on him before attacking him. Fortunately for Kotaro YO-HEY reappeared and took everyone out with his famous dropkicks, and then went for the sneak YO-ROLL on Yoshioka

WINNER: YO-HEY with the YO-ROLL (6 minutes, 54 seconds)

YO-HEY taunted Yoshioka with the win and after STINGER had slunk off, he even told the ring announcer it was three and then he told the cameras. 

MATCH FIVE

The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazuyuki Fujita & Kendo Kashin) vs The M's alliance (Masakatsu Funaki, Masato Tanaka & Masaaki Mochizuki)

As he and Kazuyuki Fujita had to team with the unhinged Kendo Kashin, Takashi Sugiura said on Twitter that he and Fujita would be treating this like a 2 on 3 match. Kashin took this to heart and set about proving to Sugiura that he could be trusted; laboriously folding up his t-shirt, actually letting the ref check him and managing to behave when Sugiura and Fujita decided he should start. I mean they didn't actually ask him, they just went to stand on the apron as he faced off against Masakatsu Funaki, to whom he later offered a handshake with no tricks attached. However, Kashin didn't stay on his good behavior for long, he kicked Funaki in the crotch and later attempted to throw him off the balcony and Mochi got the bottle opener to the head.

Masaaki Mochizuki and Takashi Sugiura seemed to have an electricity between them the moment they entered the ring which stemmed from the finals night of the N-1 when Sugiura had pinned Mochi. Naturally, Mochi wanted revenge, but he also wanted something else.

WINNER: Masaaki Mochizuki with the True & Strong High Kick on Takashi Sugiura (18 minutes, 19 seconds)

As Kashin attempted to throw Funaki off the balcony at the time of the pin, Funaki got his own back and the ref who followed to control Kashin had to stop them both going over, while this was going on, Mochizuki challenged Sugiura for the GHC National saying that he had always wanted to have a singles with him, Sugiura granted him the title match, which will take place on the 28th October in Kumamoto. 

MATCH SIX

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Championship Match

Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (NOSAWA Rongai & Eita)

Eita and NOSAWA came sauntering out. The bell ringing for the match to start was only a formality as no self respecting Noah Junior listens for a bell when they don't have to. The champion team got the upper hand when they double teamed Eita and continued this attack against their challengers, but they were no match against the usual underhand fighting style of Perros which included face stamping, double teaming, NOSAWA Rongai apron interference and then due to this Eita striking a strong kick to Hajime Ohara's face for the win. 

WINNER: Eita with the Imperial Uno on Hajime Ohara (4 minutes, 4 seconds)

Eita spoke on the microphone;

"We are the new champions! You are below trash, we don't need your applause! Kotoge, Ohara, they were boring today"

Backstage, NOSAWA said they weren't interested in defending the belts against any of Noah, and told Eita to bring someone from DragonGate. This is interesting given that just yesterday, Kenoh and Haoh went to DragonGate and challenged for the tag titles. 

MATCH SEVEN

GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship Match

HAYATA vs Daisuke Harada

Unlike the last Noah Junior title match, this was not going to be a ball of chaos that finished in a few minutes. It was not without a tinge of jealousy on Daisuke Harada's part that he said should HAYATA win then HAYATA will be the "absolute champion" of the Noah Junior division, and that is why he had to stop him. Harada started by wearing HAYATA down initially, but he found that HAYATA reversed it and rolled him off.  HAYATA enjoying torturing Harada's arm, inventive reversals in a very Ogawa style, he seems to have almost shed Gunso's mannerisms and picked up Ogawa's, introducing a more submission based style which he had never used before. Harada had a struggle to get to the ropes at some points, but with Kotoge and Ohara losing the belts earlier, he knew it was all down to him. 

There were still some parts of the new HAYATA which were easy to read, but Harada's arm made him a target and even simple things like a jab to it was enough for HAYATA to get out of some moves. In the end, HAYATA used a simply brutal  bridging submission on Harada which effectively prevented him from getting to the ropes, there was no where at all that Harada could go and nothing he could do so he did the unthinkable, something that Harada has never done before in a title match or in any match recently. He tapped. 

WINNER: HAYATA with the modified armlock (19 minutes, 9 seconds)

Like coyotes, Perros Del Mal De Japon swarmed the ring, everyone jeering and pointing at HAYATA. 

HAYATA got up and grabbed the microphone, speaking for the first time in more than a year and nominating NOSAWA who was standing at the forefront as his next challenger. 

"Next...NOSAWA Rongai"

NOSAWA deiced he didn't want it and pointed at Eita. His moment in the spotlight done, HAYATA left. No one is letting NOSAWA out of this. Backstage NOSAWA said that if he was going to be the next challenger, then everything was going to be done his way - he would choose the pre-matches, he would choose the title match place. One problem with this NOSAWA, HAYATA really doesn't care what you do. Title match will take place in Fukuoka on 30th October. 

MATCH EIGHT

Special Tag in Osaka N-1 LIMITED

Keiji Mutoh & Kazushi Sakuraba vs Kenoh & Kaito Kiyomiya

Kazushi Sakuraba and Keiji Mutoh shook hands, Kongoh looked sulky and Kenoh let Mutoh start against Kiyomiya. Kiyomiya was only interested in fighting Mutoh in this match, but Kenoh was also, but only because he wanted to rub it in Kiyomiya's face. Kiyomiya's attack was so intense that he had Mutoh outside the ring, and waited ominously for him inside. Mutoh tagged in Sakuraba complaining about Kiyomiya, so Kiyomiya irritated, tagged in Kenoh. Sakuraba challenged Kenoh to a kick fight, both chest and back. Kenoh probably thought he was an old man playing games, so he didn't take him too seriously. Mutoh told Sakuraba to stop messing around, but no way in hell he wanted to tag in there. Kiyomiya remained very politely watching as Sakuraba gave up and tagged Mutoh in, Kenoh was furious as he hates this Sakuraba who just messes around, and because he didn't get (couldn't get) the "Gracie Killer" Sakuraba who he hungers for, he kicked Mutoh around. 

Sakuraba further enraged Kenoh by punching Kiyomiya with a closed fist. Not that Kenoh cared about him beating up Kiyomiya, it was more the messing around. Sakuraba's reaction to both the referee telling him off and Kenoh's anger was...

Kiyomiya got his second wind back when he saw Mutoh tagged it, but it didn't last for long, Mutoh took him down. When it was Kenoh's turn, he knocked Mutoh into the corner and kicked him repeatedly, showing no mercy to the old man. Kiyomiya said the match was fun, but he felt a twinge of jealousy. Fighting back against Kenoh, Mutoh made Kenoh's knee a target, Sakuraba joined in, then the veterans put the younger team in a double submission, fortunately Kenoh (the legal man) got to the ropes. 

At the press conference Mutoh had mentioned to Sakuraba that they should use The Road Warriors tandem move "Double Impact", once Sakuraba had worked out that Mutoh wasn't talking about the movie, he said they should practice it. They got as far as Sakuraba lifting Kiyomiya up while Mutoh prepared to dive at him. Fortunately for the sake of Mutoh's knees (the last time he attempted a top rope maneuver his doctor called him in fury), Kenoh put a halt to this. 

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with a roll up on Kazushi Sakuraba (20 minutes, 54 seconds)

Sakuraba and Mutoh started arguing in a typically playful manner, when they were done, Mutoh took the win up with Kiyomiya, who was politely rude. Once the old men had shuffled off, there was a slight stare off between Kenoh and Kiyomiya in the ring, but Kenoh walked off without a handshake and walked off. Backstage in the interview area both came to a moment of realization that their goals were similar (if not entirely the same) after Kenoh said, "Kiyomiya and I defeated those guys..."

MATCH NINE

GHC Heavyweight Championship Match

Naomichi Marufuji vs Katsuhiko Nakajima

Katsuhiko Nakajima was in full hunt mode, never taking his eyes off Marufuji, watching every move, making slow and cautious movements of his own to test the water. He could unleash his ego when he wins, for now, he had to remain focused. This was better said than done, and Nakajima is starting to get a grip on it during matches at least, but Marufuji let Nakajima think he was in control enough to let the ego inflate and the grin naturally come back. Marufuji's strategy paid off as Nakajima cannot resist "The Shutter Chance" when he gets to both wind up his opponent and play to the cameras, the ref tells him to stop it and then he does it again. There is always an opening here as Nakajima gets told off by the ref, and Marufuji took advantage of that to strike back. Nakajima was dog eared into the corner and then chopped, worn down by various submissions, winded by knees to the sternum and dropped twice on to the apron. Nakajima was worn down from the N-1 and worn down by this match, Marufuji was fresh, but whatever Marufuji did, Nakajima knew he had no choice but to scrape himself up and get back up. But, while "The Shutter Chance" creates an opening, The Shiranui can also offer an opening too and Nakajima narrowly squeezed into the gap, but Marufuji changed it to a standing one and after Nakajima had kicked out of the pin, worked on his arms and not his knees to cut out a lot of the swift movements Nakajima makes. You could see a lot of Ogawa in these. 

This was a match with a story, a story of the past, of shared experiences, of the future and as the Japanese sports media once put it, "Pro Wrestling has always had an eternal theme of a generational struggle" and this was that too - Go Shiozaki had tried for years to beat Naomichi Marufuji, which he did, and now it was Katsuhiko Nakajima's turn to bring the younger generation to lead the promotion and to do this he drew on the shared experience that he and Marufuji had by anticipating a move, catching him on his shoulders and turning it into a Vertical Spike with a long hangtime. 

WINNER: Katsuhiko Nakajima with the Vertical Spike (37 minutes, 18 seconds)

As the referee handed Nakajima the belt, the Noah of four years ago when he had first become GHC Heavyweight Champion in a very difficult time as a nice (but bland) young man, must have seemed a million miles away. Nakajima could now start his reign of terror, and have the title reign he always should have had and couldn't have had in a turbulent era. As Marufuji rolled off the apron and into the arms of Masaaki Mochizuki, Nakajima said on the microphone;

"I devoured Naomichi Marufuji, the N-1 and the GHC Heavyweight. Devouring, devouring and devouring, is not enough"

Nakajima's first challenger appeared in the form of Masato Tanaka, who made his bid by saying;

"You haven't devoured me yet, and I am going to take a bite out of everything. Let me challenge you for that belt"

Nakajima accepted Masato Tanaka's challenge, and it has been set for the 30th October in Fukuoka, which is Nakajima's hometown. After Kenoh had gone, Kongoh got in the ring, and for the first time ever, Nakajima actually stood and posed with them, holding the GHC Heavyweight up, but there are divisions in the group with Soya's increasing dissatisfaction with his situation and Kenoh's growing realization of a common ground with Kaito Kiyomiya. Once Kongoh had gone, Nakajima made a short speech;

"The era is moving. I have finally taken the GHC Heavyweight! I AM NOAH"

Noah's next event: Friday 15th October, Yokohama Radiant Halls

GIF taken from WrestleUniverse & Noah GHC Official Twitter

With thanks to: t.ogawa, Jiuqu, Metal-Noah