(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: LEC Cleanup! presents NOAH the BEST 2021 (Sunday November 28th, Yoyogi National Stadium Second Gymnasium)
With the blue winter skies above, the 917 fans who came to the event bought gatcha and swapped with each other, and bought the merchandise after the presentation by Yoshiki Inamura and Yasutaka Yano, while Kaito Kiyomiya signed autographs and Atsushi Kotoge (back on the LEC booth) did a presentation of cleaning equipment. All was bright, and all was hopeful with a good feeling in the air, which by the end of the event would turn into an electric bolt that would blaze into the New Year.
The event was streamed live on WrestleUniverse (English commentary is available), but you must be a subscriber to view.
MATCH ONE
Kinya Okada vs Kai Fujimura
Kai Fujimura went straight into the attack, and didn't even bother with a lock up. If he was going to win then it was going to be a win done on momentum and surprise. To Fujimura's credit, he was not knocked down by the first shoulder tackle and managed to evade Kinya Okada after he had challenged to a round of them with dives and a dropkick. Additionally, Fujimura is also showing his growth by introducing slight aerial maneuvers (somersault). However, Okada soon got the upper hand although Fujimura battered him with elbows.
WINNER: Kinya Okada with the Block Buster Hold (6 minutes, 15 seconds)
MATCH TWO
STINGER (Seiki Yoshioka & Yuya Susumu) vs PERROS DEL MAL DE JAPON (YO-HEY & Kotaro Suzuki)
With the rivalry between YO-HEY and Seiki Yoshioka, it's not surprising that YO-HEY was not interested in Yuya Susumu when he tagged himself in. He wanted Yoshioka, and he got him, including a wild tussle on the ropes which included having his hair pulled, and lightning speed exchanges which culminated in the back of Yoshioka's heel meeting YO-HEY'S head. When Susumu did get in the ring, he bent YO-HEY'S neck into a angle the human head isn't designed for. Ogawa would have approved most likely. He also probably would have been proud of Kotaro as he outwitted Susumu by waiting for him to do one thing and then reacting in completely another way.
WINNER: YO-HEY with the Face G on Yuya Susumu (11 minutes, 24 seconds)
Once again YO-HEY who is growing stronger, was dominant. He left the ring taunting his opponents, and gave a wiggle to the camera as he walked triumphantly up the ramp. Backstage he said he would be saving his strength for supporting Eita and NOSAWA in the title match. Even Kotaro commented on how strong YO-HEY was becoming.
The video began of a familiar figure walking the road towards the now empty Differ Ariake lot. He was reminiscing. His story was a sad one.
Pausing at the empty lot he reflected leaving in 2014. Differ was different then. When he came back to Japan he returned to Differ, there was someone inside which he knew from experience was the younger wrestlers. He did think about going in, but he didn't want to see them. Or more likely, he didn't want them to see him as he had had no luck in America. He couldn't go in. His pro wrestling life had started from here. This is where he came from.
Who could it be? Everyone knew.
It was KENTA. He went on to say that it has been seven years since he was KENTA in Noah, and comparing the Noah he knew to the Noah it was now, he was positive about it and he had no reason to say no. He acknowledged Noah had evolved with some traditions kept, and others let go...but what he wanted to say was that on January 1st, KENTA was coming home. People wept in the arena, as did those watching at home. The last time Noah had seen him he was a ghost, now he was made flesh. Almost immediately, KENTA started trending on Twitter.
MATCH THREE
Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba & Yoshiki Inamura vs Funky Express (King Tany, Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito)
It's kind of unfortunate that this match took place after the big announcement as people were so dazed I don't think too many people paid attention to it. Yoshiki Inamura had a major Hoss fight with all the opposing heavyweights, picking up King Tany (who is one of the tallest on the roster) and putting him on his shoulder, spinning him round and slamming him. People don't usually pick up Tany like that, but then again, they don't usually march to the back carrying bales of rice like it weighs nothing. At one point Tany knocked Inamura off of the apron, but Inamura is too polite to get back in the ring and try and attack him. Then again, he's also never been in a Noah Junior. If Inamura had King Tany, then Mohammed Yone had Masa Kitamiya. Yone couldn't knock him down and was then taken down by a spear. Somehow, this match was more chaotic than the juniors before them.
WINNER: King Tany with the Funky Press on Yoshiki Inamura (10 minutes, 40 seconds)
Funky Express left dancing with Akitoshi Saito doing his cat dance. After posing on the top of the ramp together, backstage Yone hinted that with today's win they may just challenge for the GHC Heavyweight tag titles.
MATCH FOUR
Kaito Kiyomiya, Daisuke Harada, Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara & Yasutaka Yano vs Kongoh (Manabu Soya, Tadasuke, Haoh, Nioh & Aleja)
Tadasuke does not simply walk to the ring. He enters on stage and like any good rock star, heads straight to the cameras. He seems to have gotten used to being photobombed by Nioh though.
Over on the other team, Kaito Kiyomiya really needs to change his theme music from the sound of an idealistic young boy to something a little darker. Kiyomiya was also slightly threatening towards his teammates, throwing off his t-shirt and looking somewhat aggressive when speaking to them.
It was young idealistic Yasutaka Yano who started however, and Kiyomiya (one Noah Born meeting another equally stubborn Noah Born, which is sometimes the best way to get through to other Noan Born), let him start. So the three who had trained Yano huddled together to watch, with Kiyomiya (the dojo head) looking on. Kongoh left it to Haoh to start and Yano drove him to despair as he kept kicking out, but being the youngest and the least experienced meant he was a target and although he tried, Manabu Soya was his wall. The others he had a reasonable success against. Soya even swung him round at one point. Kiyomiya just seemed angry with everyone, himself, his opponents, his teammates. His rivalry seemed to be with Soya the most out of everyone, although probably because he was the only heavyweight on the opposite side. The juniors ensured the match was chaotic, and even Kiyomiya took no notice of the rules at the time.
WINNER: Daisuke Harada with the Katayama German Suplex on Haoh (17 minutes, 21 seconds)
Harada had got the win once again. Not Atsushi Kotoge. Harada made a big thing of his win when the Noah Junior regulars (and Kiyomiya) left the ring, with Hajime Ohara herding Yano.
MATCH FIVE
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Championship Match
PERROS DEL MAL DE JAPON (NOSAWA Rongai & Eita) vs STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA)
All of Perros came out to the ring (they move in a pack) with NOSAWA making a point of standing on the tag belt as they entered. The match started not in the way a tag championship match anywhere else would start, but in true time honored Noah Junior style - a melee fight where no one waits for the bell and the referee can only protest to the air.
The rules of the match were meant to be done under the No Touch tag rules, but Yoshinari Ogawa could be seen tagging HAYATA in and vice versa. I think the two of them probably just forgot. NOSAWA didn't, and started in an already wild match by jumping in and out of the ring making Eita the legal man one moment and then not the next. Ogawa grew tired of this in a very short period of time, and attacked him regardless. NOSAWA also became acquainted with Ogawa's boot when it was driven into his face. HAYATA added to the chaos in a match where the rules just flew out of the window in a division where legal tags don't really exist as everyone tends to storm the ring on whim, by making out that Eita was up to something to he could help Ogawa out and attack NOSAWA. The advantage swung between Perros and STINGER swiftly with the pins constantly being broken. Something, anything had to give and Ogawa did this by playing Eita at his own game by hanging him on the ropes and getting him counted out.
WINNER: STINGER due to count out (13 minutes, 59 seconds)
With the belts back in the Noah camp (albeit STINGERS, the team who have held the GHC Tag titles three times in 2021 alone and who vanished from the arena as soon as possible), a crowd of Noah Juniors were immediately attracted to the ring. Namely Momo No Seishun (or the "Expired Peaches" as Kotaro Suzuki called them), and YO-HEY and the aforementioned Kotaro. This led to a few seconds of mic snatching and finger pointing, with the champions slinking off and leaving the others to sort it out between them. Daisuke Harada took the initiative and proposed a number one contenders match to be fought at the first night of the "N-Innovation" at Korakuen Hall on the 25th December in Yokohama. Then somehow, four Noah Juniors left the ring without fights breaking out, although YO-HEY left yelling (which is unusual for him but then again he has developed a streak almost as nasty as HAYATA'S), Harada left making belt motions. In a very rare interview backstage, Ogawa (alongside a worried looking HAYATA two belts), said that he didn't think either team were really worthy, but what remained unsaid was that both Ogawa and HAYATA would probably prefer Momo No Seishun to Perros Del Mal De Japon. Harada and Kotoge come without the emotional baggage that YO-HEY and Kotaro Suzuki do.
MATCH SIX
The M's alliance (Keiji Mutoh, Naomichi Marufuji & Masato Tanaka) vs The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba & Kazuyuki Fujita)
Naomichi Marufuji has long wanted to have a match against Kazuyuki Fujita, and despite the fact that Fujita has been in Noah for a while, it hasn't happened until now. The two started off the match throwing chops at each other, Fujita knocking Marufuji around and down and then dusting himself off irritated. Kazushi Sakuraba then decided to challenge Marufuji to a chop contest, Marufuji told him to take off his top, but Sakuraba told him to chop his back as he hates his chest being chopped. Marufuji had a look of bewilderment for a few moments...but he got his way as by the end of the match Sakuraba's back and chest was streaked with chop marks. I guess he is going to have to sleep sitting up.
The Bullet Yankees (who like three things, tagging together, fighting each other and tanning) tore into each other, and that was going to give this match a context. Elsewhere, Keiji Mutoh continued his feud with Kazuyuki Fujita.
WINNER: Masato Tanaka with the Sliding D on Takashi Sugiura (20 minutes, 52 seconds)
Backstage, Tanaka said he was going to bring the ZERO1 championship home and challenged Takashi Sugiura. Tanaka set the date for the title match the 1st January at Korakuen Hall, which is the same as Noah's Budokan event. It has not been announced as of yet whether this will take place earlier or later in the day, or else on another date.
MATCH SEVEN
GHC Heavyweight & GHC National Double Championship Match
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Kenoh
A handshake, a stand off and then the kicks came. Strikes and MMA style jabs. Katsuhiko Nakajima with that smirk on his face and glint in his eyes, a lick of the lips and then he worked on Kenoh's knee and feet after the second lock up. His movements were controlled, slow and deliberate. He could not afford just yet to let his ego gallop away with him. Kenoh was enraged when it did, but not because it had but because he was being humiliated by the Shutter Chance, and had one of his usual bouts of temper after Nakajima threw him into the corner for another one. At one point, Nakajima even dusted his hands.
Outside the ring the fans were going wild clapping and Kongoh (Tadasuke and Soya in particular) were pounding on the apron. At times during the match Kenoh was hanging on to his dreams with his teeth, even when it looked threadbare and there was nothing to cling on to. The hope that Nakajima's ego would carry him away and make him careless was a good thing to bide his time over, and he finally saw and opening when Nakajima went to kick him from the apron, and he almost wrenched his knee from its socket. Following Kenoh's traditional double title PFS to the outside of the ring, Nakajima sought respite, but Kenoh would have followed him into a pit of fire if it meant getting the belt. The PFS (he would take more than one) took a lot of Nakajima, and for a while he remained winded and clutching his ribs. Movement was hard, but he lived for moments like these. After that there would be no more posturing. He could do that later, although the cameras would remain a lure.
The match rolled on, the time rolling on. They were both spent but somehow summoned the courage for a slap war, a kick war to exhaustion and somehow they kicked out and dragged themselves up again and again again. Nakajima ended up taking four PFS in total, with one to his back. Kenoh was running out of options and so he went for the chokehold. Nakajima was caught, not even backing Kenoh and slamming him into the turnbuckle would work. Kenoh dragged him to the centre of the ring, where Nakajima watched the referees face blur into the lights as Kenoh held on fast. He struggled, attacking Kenoh's knees with his elbows to make him let go, it worked and Kenoh loosened his grip.
What more? Submissions hadn't worked, and they didn't come up again in the match. Nakajima seemed more interested in either a knock out or a pin as he followed Kenoh's choke out attempt up with sharp kicks to the face. Kenoh's dream vs Nakajima's anniversary was on the line, he went back to slaps but
Nakajima was in full demon mode and it had no effect for a while. They ran on adrenalin, hoping for a solution, but there wasn't one, Nakajima even using lariats which is something he never does. Then the time ran out with Kenoh's dream evaporating, but Nakajima's remaining intact.
Winner: Neither. Time out draw at 60 minutes.
The ref raised both their arms, after which Nakajima fell on the mat and grabbed the microphone. Kenoh knelt down near him. Dazed and exhausted, Nakajima said "Kenoh...", but before he could say anything further the lights dimmed, a green light shone above the entryway and very familiar music started playing as Go Shiozaki stepped out from behind the curtain, and made his way to the ring. Kenoh (who would later rant against Shiozaki as "the guy lazing about at home") left. Shiozaki addressed the crowd first, saying that "I am Noah" has come home!" and confirming he would return at Noah's next show on the 5th December. He then noticed Nakajima and turned to him,
"Nakajima, that belt is mine. It doesn't suit you. On New Year's Day, at the Nippon Budokan. I am next."
Nakajima, his look of exhaustion turning into a snarl responded with, "Shiozaki, I'll do it. It is me who is moving the times. Shiozaki. I am Noah"
Title match has been set for the 1st January 2022 at the Nippon Budokan. Backstage Shiozaki said he had returned for the belt, which he said belonged around his waist. Nakajima vowed to destroy him once and for all, as after all it was he who "was Noah". He also had a message for Kenoh, which he posted on Twitter later. He had various emotions from the day, but there was one emotion that he was sure of and it was, "Thank you for today, Kenoh".
With thanks to: Hiroto, Metal-Noah
GIF taken from WrestleUniverse
NOAH'S next event: Sunday December 5th, "THE WARROAD 2021 IN NAGOYA"
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