(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: MAN CRUSH 2021 - Shizuoka / Kira Messe Numazu (Sunday December 12th 2021)
Excited fans created a real buzzing atmosphere at the arena, which lies in the shadow of Mount Fuji (the mountain was being good today and gave a clear view of the summit), as they came to Noah's last event in the countryside of 2021. Some fans came in cosplay, The Funky Couple, classic Aleja and even Kotaro Suzuki. There were lots of rare cards, THE LEAVE handed out special "Merry Christmas" masks, and a traditional "Great Thanks Autograph Session" was held after the event. There was such a long line for merchandise (people were waiting twenty minutes or more) that Noah started the event a little later than planned.
Today's event was not streamed live on WrestleUniverse, but it will go up on Wednesday 15th December. You must be a subscriber to view. However, the 3rd and 4th matches were streamed live on Twitter, with the main event on Noah's official Instagram.
MATCH ONE
Funky Express (Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito) and Kinya Okada vs Kongoh Juniors (Tadasuke, Haoh and Nioh)
Fans really wanted Kinya Okada to pose with Funky Express, but he didn't. Okada likes to dance (as we have seen), but I guess he draws the line at getting drawn into the murky world of Disco. Mohammed Yone and Nioh started the match, and of course being the smallest and the lightest in a team whose opponents are heavyweights, Haoh was thrown around meaning that Tadasuke came to the rescue. Tadasuke really came into his own against Akitoshi Saito, despite what fans described as "the sickening sound" of Saito's attacks, Tadasuke gave as good as he got by lariating Saito down. Juniors are not meant to do this to heavyweights.
WINNER: Nioh with The Stuka Splash on Kinya Okada (11 minutes, 2 seconds)
Mohammed Yone said that usually after the event he would go out drinking, but sadly that was not possible this year. He hopes that 2022 will be better.
MATCH TWO
Seiki Yoshioka vs Aleja
Lightning speed match which culminated in Seiki Yoshioka capitalizing on Aleja's move set and turning it into the Crash Driver for the win.
WINNER: Seiki Yoshioka with the Crash Driver (10 minutes, 47 seconds)
The tag champions and now rivals over the GHC Junior Heavyweight, HAYATA and Yoshinari Ogawa started the match, both managing to outwrestle each other at points. It was going to be a busy evening for Ogawa; he was seen giving instruction to Kai Fujimura (no match for King Tani) and Yasutaka Yano (who moves as if he's been doing this for years), and stamping on Masao Inoue's gouty toes, plus booting King Tany's crown out of the ring. While Inoue wasn't slapped around by idols/unit bosses this evening, he was a target for every single one of his opposition, Tany dealt with him very firmly when he attempted to aid Fujimura and even Yano beat him up! Inoue got his own back on Tani though by stamping on his toes as Tani also suffers gout. As ever Inoue thought he could outsmart Ogawa.
Because this match was dominated by juniors, things went off the rails and in the midst of Ogawa and HAYATA fighting, of which HAYATA culminated with The Headache, and Inoue being attacked by Yasutaka Yano outside the ring, King Tany got the win over Kai Fujimura.
WINNER: King Tany with the Funky Press on Kai Fujimura (15 minutes, 17 seconds)
HAYATA briefly posed with the belt over Ogawa before leaving. Good pupil that he is, Yano helped Ogawa out.
MATCH FOUR
PERROS DE MAL DEL JAPON (NOSAWA Rongai, YO-HEY & Kotaro Suzuki) vs Noah Junior Regulars (Daisuke Harada, Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara)
After his defeat at the hands of Kotaro Suzuki in the last pre match, Atsushi Kotoge started the match with him. Everything went fine until NOSAWA Rongai started sneaking around on the apron and PERROS did their double team. Daisuke Harada was even more focused today than usual, he had won the last pre matches pretty much, and he was going to win this one in his quest to be the Ace of the Noah Juniors again. Harada was not going to put up with YO-HEY'S wind up lock ups, and when everyone got counted out due to a mass brawl after 4 minutes 59 seconds, and PERROS decided to leave, he had the match restarted. Long suffering referee, Shu Nishinaga, had to call NOSAWA back for the match to restart, which it did in another mass brawl. NOSAWA was not the only one being obstructive, Kotaro refused to remove his leg from the ropes when standing on the apron and had to be asked repeatedly.
As PERROS pegged Kotoge as the weaker one, he took the brunt of their attack. Kotaro was even seen outside the ring at one point doing a nasty move which involved practically shoving Kotoge's head into the ringpost and then twisting his neck around it. This meant his neck and shoulder was then the focus of their attack. Fans said his "moans echoed around the hall".
WINNER: Daisuke Harada via Katayama German suples (Kotoge helped via knee to Kotaro's face) (11 minutes, 38 seconds)
The Noah Junior army did their pose as PERROS rolled Kotaro out of the ring, as fans said, it's unusual for Kotaro to lose in a six man tag.
MATCH FIVE
Naomichi Marufuji and Daiki Inaba vs Takashi Sugiura and Masa Kitamiya
Although both Daiki Inaba and Naomichi Marufuji had agreed to get along today and go back to fighting each other when they are opponents, when Marufuji asked Inaba for a handshake, he gave him a very light one compared to the strong one between Takashi Sugiura and Masa Kitamiya.
Although not an official tag team, Sugiura and Kitamiya had their own pose, and so awesome they were as a team (Marufuji managing to knock Kitamiya into the ropes, which only got him knocked down when Kitamiya bounced back, Marufuji was then picked up and slammed when attempting to leapfrog him), fans want to see more of them tagging.
WINNER: Masa Kitamiya with the Prison Lock on Daiki Inaba (21 minutes, 54 seconds)
After the match Masa Kitamiya admitted that despite his earlier comments in the year about Takashi Sugiura being just an old man who likes to mess around lightheartedly, he had gained real respect and understanding of him when tagging and hinted he wanted to take this further.
MATCH SIX
Kongoh (Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kenoh & Manabu Soya) vs Go Shiozaki, Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura
Everyone in this match had their own agenda; Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Go Shiozaki, Kaito Kiyomiya vs Kenoh, and Yoshiki Inamura vs Manabu Soya. Inamura and Soya are the only two who are not fighting for titles, but their rivalry (the Noah ultra heavyweights have their own fraternity almost), was no less intense. Kenoh's expression of disbelief was something to behold when he came up against Inamura.
As he knows Go Shiozaki so well, Katsuhiko Nakajima knows where his weak parts are. Instead of attacking Shiozaki's elbows and shoulders, Nakajima went for Shiozaki's knees, which he probably knows where an issue before his injury, but not so much of one to need rehab on. The same could be said of Kenoh and Kiyomiya, Kenoh knows how to sap that energy of Kiyomiya's and wear him down. The slap Kenoh gave Kiyomiya was said to be accompanied by Kiyomiya's scream as it travelled around the arena. 
WINNER: Kenoh with the PFS on Yoshiki Inamura (19 minutes, 26 seconds)
Normally when the match ends, the heavyweights stop. If they get into arguments, it's normally verbal and at most finger pointing. Today they all became like Noah Juniors with the two champions and their challengers getting into melee fights. Kiyomiya was triumphant over Kenoh, and he stood over him with the belt as Shiozaki and Nakajima fought outside. Once things had calmed down, Nakajima held up the belt with an eerie smile that looked like he was about to rip Shiozaki to shreds. Kiyomiya left making belt motions and backstage he said it wasn't about anyone else in the match and what they wanted, as far as he was concerned, it was about the belt he wanted and was going to get.
"Great Thanks Autograph Session"
Traditionally at the end of the year, Noah will hold an autograph/photo session in the last rural venue they visit. Today in the interim session between the end of the show and the autographs starting, Osamu Suzuki, the composer of Go Shiozaki's theme "Enforcer" and Keiji Mutoh's, "Hold Out" treated them to an electric guitar rendition of them both.
The Funky Express booth (Mohammed Yone, King Tany, Masao Inoue and Akitoshi Saito) was nicknamed "The Funky Booth".
Takashi Sugiura's booth was known as "Pictures with The Boss".
Naomichi Marufuji, Kinya Okada, Yasutaka Yano and Daiki Inaba
An elderly lady came to the booth wearing an old wristband of Marufuji's, which was a design he had worn when he was in his twenties and Noah was in its infancy, so we are talking about the early 2000s or so. Marufuji was overcome by this, and pointed this out to the young trainees, whose age he was when the design had been used. In a very sweet moment, Marufuji seeing that the old lady wasn't very mobile, was kind enough to help hold her up when posing.
STINGER (HAYATA and Seiki Yoshioka. Yoshinari Ogawa was meant to have his own booth, but I don't think he appeared)
HAYATA felt he needed to wear his blue cats eye contact lenses, and it looked like Seiki Yoshioka positioned him where he couldn't either hide behind him or press himself into the wall.
Kongoh Juniors (Tadasuke, Haoh, Nioh & Aleja)
Aleja had a fan in cosplay, who came dressed in his classic look before the red of Kongoh.
Kongoh (Katsuhiko Nakajima and Manabu Soya)
Kenoh did not appear at the booth, and Nakajima ever aware of the cameras, made Soya pose. Soya just stood there however.
PERROS DEL MAL DE JAPON (NOSAWA Rongai, YO-HEY and Kotaro Suzuki)
The blue, green and peroxide in YO-HEY'S hair kind of blended with the posters behind him.
YO-HEY was probably the only person who posed in this booth, Kotaro and NOSAWA aren't really known for it, and NOSAWA then only when he is in the ring. YO-HEY loves the cameras however.
Go Shiozaki, Kaito Kiyomiya, Masa Kitamiya, Yoshiki Inamura, Daiki Inaba
The most animated of the booths, as they seemed to have worked out their pose beforehand. Kaito Kiyomiya, who seconded Go Shiozaki at such events for a long time, had his second nature of doing this come out in handing him merchandise and indicating where he should sign. Shiozaki was also happy enough to pose with his biceps!
With thanks to: krpaヨーコ, Voyage_0217. Shizuka, Matcha koala, JuaninJapan88, TACK, Kei, Yoshi_Suwa, Amu Amu.
Attendance: 341
Noah's next event: MAN CRUSH 2021 (Saturday December 25th, Yokohama Radiant Hall)
GIF taken from Noah GHC official Twitter or Instagram livestream
Picture credit: Noah GHC (some screenshotted by myself)
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