(NOAH) CARD: LEC Cleanup! presents NOAH the BEST 2021 (Sunday November 28th, Yoyogi National Stadium Second Gymnasium)

"Without riding on the rails laid by the company, Kongoh made a topic in the first half of 2021..."

The finale of Noah's November culminates in a big event in Yoyogi with a double title match (GHC Heavyweight vs GHC National) and a GHC Junior Heavyweight tag title defense. We could see two double champions after tonight's show, which starts at 3pm JST and will be broadcast on WrestleUniverse (English language commentary available), ABEMA (Japanese commentary, but you cannot watch a replay) and the first two matches will be broadcast live on Noah's YouTube. Noah have asked those to come to the venue to wrap up warm, as the building gets very cold. For those watching at home, please use the hashtag #GHCvsGHC. 

As per tradition with big events, the merchandise will be introduced by two roster members, this time Yoshiki Inamura and Yasutaka Yano, which will be streamed live on Noah's Instagram. Atsushi Kotoge will be back demonstrating cleaning products on the LEC booth, and after the event Kazuyuki Fujita (in a very rare move) will be signing autographs and posing for pictures. 

Noah have also announced that they will be making what they call the "biggest announcement in history", no one knows what this will be, but it seems to be connected with the Ariake Coliseum (which was next door to what was their old home of Differ Ariake), and Noah have not been to since about 2016. It was heavily used during the "Golden Era".  

MATCH ONE

Kinya Okada vs Kai Fujimura

Kinya Okada and Kai Fujimura open the show in traditional Noah style, two youngsters have a match. Okada will (most likely) get the win here, but sadly it is not going to be his big breakthrough win. 

MATCH TWO

STINGER (Seiki Yoshioka & Yuya Susumu) vs PERROS DEL MAL DE JAPON (YO-HEY & Kotaro Suzuki)

The rivalry between YO-HEY and Seiki Yoshioka is the focus of this match, especially since in their last involvement Yoshioka cracked YO-HEY around the head with a huge kick when he stormed the ring to get Ogawa off of Eita. Yoshioka as of late hasn't been on a winning streak, but YO-HEY has, so he will be looking to even the score. 

MATCH THREE

Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba & Yoshiki Inamura vs Funky Express (King Tani, Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito)

The funky disco dancers take on the Noah heavyweight regular unit (i.e. those who are unaffiliated). Yoshiki Inamura in particular seems to have a rivalry going with King Tani and Mohammed Yone, and Akitoshi Saito will be added to that mix. Expect a heavyweight clash between Masa Kitamiya, Yoshiki Inamura and the three heavyweight opponents. 

MATCH FOUR

Kaito Kiyomiya, Daisuke Harada, Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara & Yasutaka Yano vs Kongoh (Manabu Soya, Tadasuke, Haoh, Nioh & Aleja)

No pre match tonight for Tadasuke as HAYATA is in a title match, so the Noah Juniors team with Kaito Kiyomiya to take on an equally mixed Kongoh. Tadasuke is known for winding Daisuke Harada up with repetitive questions, and has already started asking "What is "Innovation?"

MATCH FIVE

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Championship Match

PERROS DEL MAL DE JAPON (NOSAWA Rongai & Eita) vs STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA)

Thank young Yasutaka Yano for the creation of this match. After humiliating Eita and NOSAWA Rongai in Yokohama, Yoshinari Ogawa sent Yano back with the belts that he (Ogawa) had stolen in order to humiliate them. Yano, in Ogawa's words, got "a little carried away", and challenged them for the belts on behalf of himself and Ogawa. It got him beaten up and water dumped on him. NOSAWA said he wasn't going to accept a challenge from Yano, if he was going to be challenged then it would be by Ogawa and HAYATA. Ogawa for once agreed with NOSAWA, saying in an interview it was HAYATA and only HAYATA he would be teaming with as Yano needed more experience in the ring. Ogawa also said in the same interview that since Eita had such a problem following Noah rules, why didn't they do the match under the DragonGate No-Touch rules? This means that one person does not have to physically tag his partner in, he just has to be outside the ring for his partner to get in it. Ogawa has never wrestled a match under these rules, and NOSAWA has said he will make his opponents fear it, and the monster he is going to become. Personally, I think PERROS should be cautious as it was Ogawa who made the suggestion, and he rarely does anything that seemingly benefits his opponents without a plan beforehand.  

MATCH SIX

The M's alliance (Keiji Mutoh, Naomichi Marufuji & Masato Tanaka) vs The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba & Kazuyuki Fujita)

The GHC Heavyweight tag champions appear together for the first time since winning the belts, but will have their first challengers this evening? 

MATCH SEVEN

GHC Heavyweight & GHC National Double Championship Match

Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Kenoh

Here it is, finally. The "Kick Fight from Hell". Kenoh (GHC National Champion) vs Katsuhiko Nakajima (GHC Heavyweight Champion). Title vs title. This is the second time the GHC Heavyweight and the GHC National have been challenged for in this way, and this is Kenoh's second attempt at becoming a double champion. Kenoh has a dream to enter the ring at the Nippon Budokan on January 1st, his birthday, in the main event with both belts. For Nakajima, the 1st January is also a special date as it is the date he joined Noah in 2016. Fans are predicting either a time out draw or a TKO, but all are expecting what Kenoh has called "The best kick fight in the universe".

GIF taken from Noah Official Twitter