(NOAH): EVENT RECAP: THE WARROAD 2021 in NAGOYA (Aichi/Nagoya Congress Center Event Hall, Sunday December 5th)

Go Shiozaki made his return to the ring today, and in true champion style he was filmed arriving at the arena. Noah normally do this when they hold title matches, but for the man who steered Noah through the pandemic, it was fitting. It was also fitting that Shiozaki was on autograph and picture duty, naturally he began giggling when Noah filmed him. 

Many new fans came to the arena today, and for some it was the first time they had ever seen Noah. One fan said they regretted not seeing them when they lived near Differ Ariake, and so came along today. The sense of excitement for the show was everywhere, both in the arena and among the people watching worldwide, so much so that #GOtoBUDOKAN was trending even BEFORE the show began with #Noah_ghc trending both in Tokyo and then worldwide. 

Today's event was broadcast on WrestleUniverse (English commentary available), with Funky Kato introducing the special theme song "Voyage", he wrote for the Nippon Budokan event on ABEMA. If you click the link it will take you to YouTube (see if you can spot the secret only Noah fans know). You must be a subscriber to view the event on WrestleUniverse, but you can catch the first two matches free on Noah's YouTube. 

MATCH ONE

Atsushi Kotoge, Kinya Okada, Kai Fujimura & Yasutaka Yano vs Kongoh (Manabu Soya, Haoh, Nioh and Aleja)

In an opening match dominated by Noah Juniors, naturally the first match went off the rails although it started off civilized enough with Kinya Okada glaring at Manabu Soya, and then knocking Nioh down like a freight train. He would get Soya later, shoulder tackles and slams followed, by Okada. 

While Kai Fujimura continues to bloom, Yasutaka Yano has begun to flower. Yano bought Aleja to a standstill, and then proved he has more than joined the usual brand of chaos that the Noah Juniors are known for, by calling in his partners to storm the ring and attack the other team. Soya was a different matter for Yano however, as he no sold his attacks. 

As there is a rivalry growing between Kinya Okada and Manabu Soya, it was fitting that the two ended the match with Soya trapping Okada in a Boston Crab. Okada refused to quit at first, but gave in when Soya put his full strength on him. The ref had to pry him off and afterwards Soya stalked around looking menacing.  

WINNER: Manabu Soya with the Boston Crab on Kinya Okada (13 minutes, 23 seconds)

MATCH TWO

Daisuke Harada vs YO-HEY

Part one of an increasingly escalating situation, which by the end of the evening would culminate in Noah announcing YO-HEY and HAYATA would team together (again) against Yoshinari Ogawa and Daisuke Harada, but lets get back to the beginning. 

YO-HEY is evolving and has started to introduce submission moves into his repertoire, which is rare for him and not something he ever did before. This hasn't stopped the flamboyant lock up (YO-HEY even imitated Harada), which resulted in Harada getting him into a lock. 

YO-HEY'S submissions worked so well that Harada was forced to go for a flash win in order to catch YO-HEY off guard, but YO-HEY was resilient and not even an elbow from the top turnbuckle could pin him. If he couldn't wear him down and YO-HEY with the lightning quick YO-ROLL reversal which caught Harada off guard, meant that Harada would have to resort to catching him off guard and so he did when he anticipated YO-HEY would go for the Face G, which he caught and turned into the Katayama German Suplex. Round one to Momo.

WINNER: Daisuke Harada with the Katayama German Suplex Hold (13 minutes, 47 seconds)

Backstage Daisuke Harada said he would work his way back up to being the Ace of the Noah Juniors again. This probably won't sit well in the long run with his partners, who talk as a team, not as individuals. Kotoge in particular is focused on the tag challenge, Harada (as per usual) on something he is doing alone. 

Noah made another announcement regarding the Nippon Budokan. Ultimo Dragon will participate in a match with two of the "Dragon Kids" YO-HEY and Eita, and KENTA will team with Takashi Sugiura and Kazushi Sakuraba against Daiki Inaba, Masa Kitamiya and Yoshiki Inamura. Sugiura wondered whether KENTA still had the old Noah shine after being polluted by teaming with Jado. 

MATCH THREE

STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & Seiki Yoshioka) vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (NOSAWA Rongai and Kotaro Suzuki)

Naturally, Kotaro Suzuki and Yoshinari Ogawa started. Ogawa was restrained until the bell rang, and then he saw the usual red when he tore into Kotaro. No one, not Eita, not NOSAWA, not any other Noah Junior can provoke the rage that Ogawa has for Kotaro. Kotaro knows how to humiliate Ogawa, and think this is possibly the reason why; Kotaro doesn't need to pour water over him to be disrespectful, he can use tricks like stepping on Ogawa and kicking him in the head. Kotaro found after he did this that Ogawa threw him outside of the ring and onto the ring announcers table. 

NOSAWA was up to his usual tricks, even arguing with the referee when told off. He came in for a taste of Ogawa's wrath by being choked by him as Ogawa pulled the back of his t-shirt over the ropes. As for the fourth man in the match, Seiki Yoshioka. Once again, it was not going to be his evening. 

WINNER: Kotaro Suzuki with the Samsung Clutch on Seiki Yoshioka (12 minutes, 2 seconds)

NOSAWA looked smug and grinned at the departing STINGER, and then turned to Kotaro who made belt motions. 

MATCH FOUR

Kazushi Sakuraba vs Hajime Ohara

Hajime Ohara revealed on his blog (in English) that he had been a pupil of Kazushi Sakuraba's, and you could see in this match how much Ohara has incorporated what he has learned both in terms of ring style and technical ability. 

WINNER: Kazushi Sakuraba with the Radius Arm Bar (10 minutes, 29 seconds)

Kazushi Sakuraba, after giving a handshake and pat on the back to Hajime Ohara, who bowed very low as his teacher left, went to leave the ring and walk to the back. After bowing to the crowd, he turned and found that someone (probably Takashi Sugiura but it could also have been Kendo Kashin) had zipped up the curtain, so he had to bend down and almost crawl under it. 

MATCH FIVE

The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazuyuki Fujita & Kendo Kashin) vs Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba and Yoshiki Inamura

Kendo Kashin entered with The Sugiura Army, and then wandered off and came round another way to the ring for some reason known only to himself. Takashi Sugiura just let him go without a second thought. In the ring, Kashin folded up his clothes very neatly and handed them to the attendant, while on the other team Yoshiki Inamura very politely said he would start with a handshake with his partners and right into a fight with Kazuyuki Fujita. The shoulder tackles were halted by a lariat. Inamura showed his massive strength by picking up Sugiura and squatting with him mid slam, and managing to dwarf pretty much everyone in the match except Fujita. 

Kashin was up to further tricks in the match especially as he was out for revenge against Daiki Inaba after he knocked him out of the N-1 VICTORY, taking him to the back of the arena and vanishing off through the arena doors and returning with the life-size cutouts of Takashi Sugiura and Keiji Mutoh which he battered Inaba with. Later, the ring attendants were seen putting them back. They both scrambled back into the ring as the time was threatening to count down. There has also been a reason why Kashin had allowed the referee to search him earlier without a fuss, he had stashed one of his bottle openers away and later used it on Inaba. Compared to usual, Takashi Sugiura and Kazuyuki Fujita were not above cheating with Kashin when the referees back is turned, which is rare. Fujita even joined in with Kashin's shutter chance. 

WINNER: Kendo Kashin with the Strangle hold γ on Daiki Inaba (19 minutes, 23 seconds)

Inaba may have tapped, but Kashin wouldn't let go for a while and then the ref had trouble even lifting his arm as Kashin caused trouble there by lifting his, and refusing to let go so another tussle broke out. Usually there are two refs to deal with Kashin, but today poor Nishinaga was on his own

MATCH SIX

GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship Match

HAYATA vs Tadasuke

In epic Rockstar Tadasuke fashion, he strolled across the ring looking at HAYATA, and slowly took his aviator shades off. 

The match wasted no time getting going, there wasn't even a lock up before they both charged. Yoshinari Ogawa appeared at ringside to watch HAYATA torture Tadasuke. It's rare that Ogawa appears like this, and it usually means something. Tonight it was going to.  

Tadasuke's heavyweight strength meant nothing when he went for moves that HAYATA could predict and one of the ways HAYATA docked this strength was by taking Tadasuke's knee out, another way was to lure Tadasuke in to getting carried away to make him start showboat and strike back during the gap. 

HAYATA employed all of these tactics, but it wasn't going to be that easy. Tadasuke could also play the comeback card, and I don't think it was something HAYATA was expecting, but it did play into his hands when Tadasuke started getting wild. The crowd were also behind Tadasuke, who once called himself an underdog for good reason.

Tadasuke dished out huge devastating lariats, but unfortunately for him, HAYATA kicked out of all of them, and it was the terrible move that comes out of nowhere that finished the match and kept HAYATA the title. 

WINNER: HAYATA with the Headache (18 minutes, 54 seconds)

Yoshinari Ogawa and Seiki Yoshioka came and posed with HAYATA. I think HAYATA probably knew something was going to happen. Ogawa went to pull the belt off of HAYATA'S shoulder, and HAYATA held on to it as Ogawa pointed to it and then to himself to indicate he was challenging and then left the ring. 

Backstage, HAYATA had said his usual words when faced with any challenge, this time it was "Next...Ogawa" when Ogawa walked in, offered a handshake and then attacked HAYATA, throwing him into a wall and leaving after putting him in a submission. As stated earlier, Noah have arranged a complicated pre-match on the 7th December where YO-HEY teams with HAYATA, and Daisuke Harada teams with Yoshinari Ogawa. Ogawa is challenging HAYATA for the GHC Junior (title match to take place on the 1st January at the Nippon Budokan) and YO-HEY and Daisuke Harada will clash on 25th December in a number one contenders match for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag titles, that are held by Ogawa and HAYATA. 

MATCH SEVEN

The M's alliance (Keiji Mutoh, Naomichi Marufuji, Masato Tanaka & Masaaki Mochizuki) vs Funky Express (King Tani, Mohammed Yone, Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue)

A resume of Masao Inoue's rough night (as promised by Naomichi Marufuji): slapped by Jurina Matsui, fled the ring from Keiji Mutoh, kicked in the face by Masaaki Mochizuki, chopped by Naomichi Marufuji and sent spinning by Masato Tanaka's elbows. Inoue only has himself to blame, as he nominated himself to start the match. Well "Nominated" might be the wrong word, as it looked like Funky Express had persuaded him and then backed off with a smile when Inoue pointed to himself. Inoue's big chance against Marufuji came when when Marufuji had been roughed up by someone else. Somewhere Takashi Sugiura was laughing, while Toshiaki Kawada was shaking his head in despair. 

Mohammed Yone had earlier stated that Funky Express might just have an interest in those belts that Naomichi Marufuji and Keiji Mutoh had, and aware of this Marufuji wanted King Tany, rather than any other of his opponents, although he was humiliated by the Funky Rope pose. Yone scared him with Disco Fever, and the first time Marufuji fled to the corner in fear, the second time he calmly pinned Yone's hands to his side and chopped him. Things were a little more serious in the ring with the others of Funky Express, Tany showing he could still be a monster and the four of them ganging up on Masato Tanaka. There was no shame in being beaten down by Yone, Tany or Akki (Saito), but Tanaka wasn't going to take any attacks from poor Masao Inoue. Fortunately, for Noah's most harassed man, it wasn't him who had to take Tanaka's finisher. 

WINNER: Masato Tanaka with the Sliding DK on King Tany (21 minutes, 53 seconds)

Funky Express lost the match and so there was no way they could challenge, but there were other challengers waiting. Tonight had been a night of inter unit challenges so far, and so Tanaka hopped on that train and challenged for the GHC Heavyweight Tag belts on behalf of himself and Maasaki Mochizuki. Marufuji and Mutoh referred the answer to Jurina (who is probably the boss of the unit), and she gave her consent for the match. The M's alliance took the challenge in a far better way than we saw earlier in the evening from the Noah Juniors, and they all posed together. The title match will take place at The Nippon Budokan on the 1st January. 

MATCH EIGHT

Go Shiozaki return match

Kongoh (Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kenoh) vs Go Shiozaki and Kaito Kiyomiya

Go Shiozaki made his return to the ring to a sea of green lights in the crowd. He admitted the match was hard and seemed exhausted but happy afterwards. 

Kenoh (who probably has bruised ribs) came to the ring looking more thoughtful than angry, probably because he knew that Kaito Kiyomiya had alluded that since everyone in the match was looking towards The Budokan, he would make his own steps too. Then it was back to yelling at Shiozaki, who Kenoh termed as "lazing about at home" and then returning to "steal the glory". Kenoh would have his revenge, trying to humiliate Shiozaki by standing with one foot on his chest and following this up with small kicks to the head. He was knocked down with chops. 

The focus of the match was on Katsuhiko Nakajima and Go Shiozaki. Nakajima looking like a wolf eyeing his prey through long grasses. He never took his eyes off of Shiozaki. Chops were met by kicks as the two circled each other. Nakajima would, however, get the machine gun chops despite the fact that he targeted Shiozaki's shoulder and arms during the match with kicks and locks. The grin rarely left his face.  

The match culminated with Shiozaki and Nakajima drifting in and out of the ring, coming back in whenever their partners were in danger of being pinned, and then leaving to fight again. Kaito Kiyomiya went for a submission, which must have been hell on Kenoh's bruised ribs, and so he tapped. 

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Stretch Plum Type Face Lock on Kenoh (35 minutes, 10 seconds)

Kiyomiya challenged Kenoh for the title; 

"I will take next year from the start! On New Years Day, I will challenge you for the GHC National belt!"

Title match has been set for the 1st January at the Nippon Budokan. Kenoh left furious at Kiyomiya's challenge. Kiyomiya challenging him seems to enrage Kenoh more than anyone else, and backstage he declared that he was going to "break" him. 

Attendance: 618

With thanks to: NoroiDoll

GIF taken from WrestleUniverse

Noah's next event: MAN CRUSH 2021 (Tuesday December 7th, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo)