(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: N-1 VICTORY 2021: Finals Night (Sunday October 3rd 2021, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo)

"Ready for tears"

It was a hot day in Tokyo with a blue sky over Korakuen Hall, where the atmosphere was going to get even hotter than it was outside.  The atmosphere at Korakuen was felt by everyone, there or at home watching worldwide. In fact there was such a lot of buzz surrounding the show that Noah trended in Tokyo for hours afterwards, and even came third in the USA. Kuniko Yamada on commentary said she had goosebumps too. Despite the fact that cheering is still prohibited, it felt like the crowd of old, and the crowd of old would probably have bought Korakuen noise complaints from Hokkaido with how highly charged tonight was. 

The event had sold out well in advance with Noah announcing 713 people in attendance, some of these people were coming to see Noah for the first time. For those not able to attend, the show was streamed live on ABEMA and WrestleUniverse, with the introduction of a new HD camera. Further technology will be used in Osaka. 

MATCH ONE

Masa Kitamiya, Kotaro Suzuki & Daiki Inaba vs Akitoshi Saito, Manabu Soya and Kendo Kashin

You can always rely on Kendo Kashin to light the fuse of what is already an explosive show, and he gave a clear indication as to what he was going to be up to by treading on the pyros venting smoke on his way to the ring....and immediately starting trouble with Manabu Soya, and getting into a scuffle with the ref who was attempting to check him for weapons. Akitoshi Saito took the opportunity to do his Cat dance before the match, as I think he probably knew that with Kashin around, celebration afterwards would be unlikely.

Even the opposition were complaining about Kashin, and he hadn't even done anything to them. Yet. Kashin however  started accusing Daiki Inaba (of all people) of hiding a weapon. His teammates took a leaf out of The Sugiura Army book and let Kashin start, and he started against Masa Kitamiya. Kashin continued his reign of terror by driving a weapon he had hidden in his pants into Kitamiya's head, (Kotaro Suzuki and Inaba inadvertently aided him in this by complaining about him), tried to throw Kotaro off of the balcony (and Kotaro was half way down, only the count threatening to run out saved him) and as for his teammates, well neither of them got on with Kashin very well, and Kashin tagged himself in the moment Saito got in the ring as he refused to be tagged in by Soya. The young ref did well in controlling Kashin, he's had a lot of experience with the Noah Juniors. 

Aside from the general terror Kashin caused to everyone in the ring, Kotaro did well against Soya, although he was no match for his strength, but Inaba however was strong enough to slam him, which indicates a definite progression. 

WINNER: Manabu Soya with the Ballistic on Daiki Inaba (10 minutes, 56 seconds)

To the surprise of no one (except probably Kendo Kashin), there was a shoving match between the winning team afterwards. 

MATCH TWO

N-1 VICTORY 2021 SEMI FINAL

Kaito Kiyomiya vs Kenoh

"I thought it was going to be Keiji Mutoh or Takashi Sugiura, and so I was surprised that Kiyomiya had won. I think something has happened, I want to make sure in the ring". 

Kenoh

This was probably the most emotionally charged match of the evening, even more so than the main event.

Kenoh had said he wanted to see for himself if something had happened to Kaito Kiyomiya, and he got that chance the moment the bell rang as it was Kiyomiya who flew right into the attack going for two quick pins in succession. This is new and it took Kenoh completely off guard. Another thing that Kenoh hadn't experienced in Kiyomiya before was to attack Kenoh's knee, which ironically had been something he had been too polite before to do. The new Kiyomiya knew the old Kenoh too well and so could anticipate him, something Kenoh couldn't do well with the new Kiyomiya, so he had to treat him like a new opponent and wear him down by reversing slams and turning them into chokes, it wasn't enough and Kiyomiya kicked out of the PFS, but Kenoh wasn't finished yet and Kiyomiya was not out, and Kenoh won by reversal catching Kiyomiya off guard. 

WINNER: Kenoh via reversal (15 minutes, 35 seconds)

Kiyomiya threw an utter tantrum on losing. 

MATCH THREE

N-1 VICTORY 2021 SEMI FINAL

Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Masakatsu Funaki

There are a lot of similarities between Katsuhiko Nakajima and Masakatsu Funaki; both debuted at fifteen years old, both have a background in MMA, both had similar childhoods (absent fathers) and both have similar names. 

Katsuhiko Nakajima came sauntering to the ring, the arena lit in red and looking suitably sinister. The referee told him he had to start the match, as he stood nonchalantly in the corner while Masakatsu Funaki advanced on him to start the match. When he did, it was an MMA style initial lock up. Nakajima never took his eyes off Funaki, but the grin was absent. He had to concentrate and not let his ego get in the way. 

The atmosphere of this match was completely different to the highly charged one before, but it was no less intense. Maybe it wasn't quite as short as Nakajima had expected, but it was as brutal. Funaki's dream was to have a singles with Nakajima, Nakajima's was to go to the finals and win the championship for the second time, and he ushered that dream in with a long hangtime on the Vertical Spike.

WINNER: Katsuhiko Nakajima with the Vertical Spike (8 minutes, 38 seconds)

Now that he was going to the finals to meet Kenoh (another ambition of his), Nakajima went back to being sarcastic. Looming over Ally, the ring announcer, to make sure that he announced properly that he had won and would be going to the finals. 

Funaki bowed out gracefully, if this was going to be the last league of his career, then at least he could say that he got to the semi finals. 

Now it was time to break away from the Heavyweights and check in with the chaos of the Noah Junior division.

MATCH FOUR

Atsushi Kotoge vs Eita

Eita bought Kotaro Suzuki and NOSAWA Rongai with him, but there was no YO-HEY tonight. Atsushi Kotoge, who has a lot of excess energy and who doesn't do inactivity well as a result, came bouncing out followed by Hajime Ohara and Junta Miyawaki. There was a contrast between the lightness of the Noah regulars, and the dark threatening presence of Perros Del Mal De Japon in a situation that was

already volatile, just by the Noah Juniors being in the ring. 

There is a simple rule in Noah; it is okay to accept a handshake from a Noah Heavyweight as this is usually done in agreement to have a good match and no hard feelings afterwards, but you should never accept a handshake from a Noah Junior as it means they are going to laugh at you and then attack you. 

Eita offered Kotoge a handshake...and for some reason beyond all understanding, Kotoge actually went to shake hands and ended up beaten down and with a foot on his neck. This was not going to be the last of Eita causing havoc in a division that gave the word its meaning during this match, he even hid under the ring at one point. The referee looked for him, and even NOSAWA went to look to him and he came out the other side to blindside Kotoge, who he eventually nonchalantly threw over the barrier before he utterly annihilated him.

WINNER: Eita with the Hidalgo (9 minutes, 49 seconds)

Eita got rid of Hajime Ohara who had come to check on Kotoge and threw him out of the ring. Then grabbing the mic as NOSAWA held the tag belt, Eita briefly paused to put his foot on Kotoge's face as NOSAWA dropped the belt over him. He gave a long speech the gist of it being to mock Kotoge's "What A Day" saying and to say that everyone came to the N-1 night to see him. After this, he dragged Kotoge up, poured water over him and then knocked him down with his knee as he passed. Kotoge only had one word, "Humiliation". It was not a very encouraging pre-match.

MATCH FIVE

STINGER (HAYATA & Yoshinari Ogawa) vs Daisuke Harada & Junta Miyawaki

HAYATA has had a lot of meaningful title matches this year, YO-HEY in Hiroshima and then Daisuke Harada in Osaka (although it's kind of the other way round here, Osaka is the significance, not Harada and Osaka like it was YO-HEY and Hiroshima), and so they went right into it. Harada knew he was facing the strongest HAYATA, someone he didn't know well anymore, and someone who the fans said was the true heir of what they call "Ogawa-ism", and so he has said he is working on strategies, and one of these seems to be to wear HAYATA down, but the match today ended in a draw as both had their shoulders down. 

Winner: Draw (8 minutes, 6 seconds)

The referee judged it a draw and because this is the Noah Juniors, everyone started arguing over who won. Harada, knowing that this was an explosive situation and he didn't want Perros Del Mal De Japon storming the ring (or in fact any other of the Noah Junior roster who were lurking around), he said that he and HAYATA were going to continue the match now, one on one, sudden death, only them. HAYATA played along with it to a point, and then decided to leave and this being the Noah Juniors, the fight went backstage with Harada and Junta chasing after them and the ref following on. 

No one came back and so it was on to the next match.

MATCH SIX

The m's alliance (Keiji Mutoh, Masaaki Mochizuki & Masato Tanaka) vs The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba & Kazuyuki Fujita)

I get the feeling from this match that there is a rivalry brewing between Keiji Mutoh and Kazuyuki Fujita (which Mutoh kind of confirmed backstage), and perhaps Takashi Sugiura and Masato Tanaka. Mutoh decided that he would start the match against Fujita, and Fujita seemingly refused to sell for Mutoh. The second time around, Mutoh's strategy was to take out his knees, Kazushi Sakuraba proved helpful by breaking the Figure 4 and then when it was his turn to face him, using his own submissions on Mutoh. He later had a kick war with Masaaki Mochizuki. 

With all the fury of an N-1 match, The Bullet Yankees (Takashi Sugiura and Masato Tanaka) tore into each other. It says something about the force in which it was done as despite everything that Kenoh and Kiyomiya had done, Nakajima and Kenoh were going to do, it was Sugiura who was left bleeding by Tanaka. 

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with the Olympic Qualifying Slam on Masaaki Mochizuki (18 minutes, 17 seconds)

Before the main event started, Naomichi Marufuji came out to the ring, and said he would be waiting for the winner in the ring in Osaka. He then sat on commentary with the ABEMA team. Manabu Soya at ringside, Kongoh's most burly member was there to scrape up the loser. 

Katsuhiko Nakajima got his wish, it was going to be a Kongoh final. All he had to do was win to complete his vision.

Note the bruising on Katsuhiko Nakajima's neck from the match earlier in the evening

Korakuen became so breathless than you could feel the air being sucked out of the hall in anticipation of not just the match itself and how hard hitting it was going to be, but also the result. The two shook hands beforehand, but the gloves were most definitely going to be off. 

In almost the style of a Mitsuharu Misawa vs Toshiaki Kawada match (although Kenoh probably wouldn't appreciate the comparison), Nakajima set about winding Kenoh up. Partly because he thought it would be funny, partly because it would make Kenoh lose concentration, and partly because he couldn't keep his hubris in check, Nakajima provoked a rage in Kenoh by putting his foot on his chest. His tactic worked, and Kenoh got his own back, yelling and kicking Nakajima in the head. Nakajima had the usual big grin, and looked even more demonic than usual. True to form, Nakajima could not resist doing two "Shutter Chances", but even more true to form sad to say is that his messing around cost him as Kenoh reversed it and then did his own. 

The crowd gave him a big applause, as Kenoh doesn't often do comedy outside a Kendo Kashin match (or that time Dieno tried to kiss him), and certainly not on such an important occasion. Then with all messing around done, it was time for the kick fight to begin and they hammered each other mercilessly. One thing they both understood was that there was going to be no pin and no submission unless the other person was worn down totally, and so Kenoh went to choke out Nakajima, whose face went almost purple. In the final stages, the kick war turned into a slap war, Kenoh the victor here. Taunting Nakajima and telling him to rise up, Nakajima looked as Kenoh had tried to do an exorcism and it hadn't worked. He struck back with a powerful attack which made Kenoh look like he was flailing at him when he fought back, and then he was too spent to fight back any further. 

Winner: Katsuhiko Nakajima with the Diamond Bomb* (20 minutes)

*Not a move he has done recently

The two members of Kongoh sat in the ring, exhausted. Nakajima had all his wishes, and a disappointed but resigned to his loss Kenoh, accepted a small talk, a handshake and then a hug. It was perhaps the closest they had ever been in Kongoh, the group that Nakajima has only seemed to come to care about recently. Kenoh could take solace in two things; that it was a member of Kongoh who had won, and that it wasn't Kiyomiya (or God forbid one of the "pocket money" earning "old men"), and he would probably be getting a cash prize. Kenoh made no mention of any of these things, remarking on his Twitter only that "Nakajima was strong".

After wrapping himself serpent like around the trophy, Nakajima spoke on the mic and caused Marufuji to leave the commentary booth and come down to the ring. 

"I won it this year too! Naomichi Marufuji, after winning the harsh league called the N-1, at last I have come to you. I am not going to finish there. On the 10th October, I am going to take Naomichi Marufuji's belt in Osaka. Please polish it for then."

Nakajima almost looked like KENTA with his waving to the crowd to cheer his opponent pose. Marufuji came to the ring and stood facing Nakajima. He congratulated him on his win, and said;

"I will shatter the confidence, the motivation & the chance to succeed that you gained by winning the league. I am going to break you into small pieces. I will break you so much you won't even understand the meaning of winning the league. It's victory or defeat, Katsuhiko"

The GHC Heavyweight title match will be held in Osaka on the 10th October, on the same night HAYATA will defend the GHC Junior Heavyweight against Daisuke Harada and the GHC Junior Heavyweight tags will be defended by Hajime Ohara and Atsushi Kotoge against Perros Del Mal De Japon (NOSAWA Rongai and Eita). There are now no more pre-matches, and it's going to be a big night in what is known as Japan's entertainment capital. 

Noah's next event: GRAND SQUARE 2021 in Osaka (10th October 2021)

GIF credit: WrestleUniverse

With thanks to: Saricochan, Metal-Noah, Abeshin, Kodamaxmax