(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: REBOOT 2022 (Korakuen Hall, 5th January 2022)

At the start of each New Year Noah will hold a mystery card event in which matches are announced by theme music only. Two things always happen. A sudden title challenge and Masao Inoue gets beaten up. Both were true today. Noah also made two announcements, the first being of the N-Innovation starting, which is Daisuke Harada's creation, and the second that Ninja Mack, an overseas wrestler from GCW is coming soon to Noah. 

Sadly as the event began at two with the bell sounding an hour later, it is hard for people on a Wednesday afternoon to come to Korakuen and so Noah only announced an attendance of 373. However, the event was streamed live on WrestleUniverse and you can watch the first two matches on Noah's official YouTube. Noah did manage to attract new fans who came to see them first time, so that is a definite plus. But, as we later discovered an hour after Noah finished, there was a reason for such an early start time on a weekday. 

Katsuhiko Nakajima celebrates eighteen years in wrestling today. He made his debut in 2004 and at Korakuen Hall. Eighteen years ago he was a sixteen year old rookie debuting against Tomohiro Ishii, today he is GHC Heavyweight Champion. Seiki Yoshioka also celebrates his thirty-fourth birthday today. 

MATCH ONE

Kai Fujimura & Kinya Okada vs Yasutaka Yano & Junta Miyawaki

The Noah Born decided who would start the match in their usual way. By one firmly putting the other in the corner. In this case it was Yasutaka Yano who started against Kai Fujimura, who seems to have a renewed passion today for getting his own big first win. 

The match kind of felt like a dojo match and not an opener, despite Junta having a vicious look on his face when pulling Fujimura's arm out of his socket, Okada did not come off the apron though to break the pin for some reason. Perhaps a spot went wrong in the match and Yano was meant to knock him, but it just seemed peculiar. 

WINNER: Junta Miyawaki with the Armbar (7 minutes, 39 seconds)

MATCH TWO

Masaaki Mochizuki, Ikuto Hidaka & Mohammed Yone vs Kazushi Sakuraba, Kotaro Suzuki & King Tany

Masaaki Mochizuki came out holding aloft a red Noah penlight. He didn't pose, although one of his partners Mohammed Yone, appreciated the gesture. Ikuto Hidaka was not going to join in and didn't. King Tany formed part of the opposite team and his own teammates were doing their best to ignore him. Kotaro Suzuki appears to share the same dim view of Tany as the seniors do and the look on his face when Tany made the ref remove his bling was comical. Kazushi Sakuraba found it funny though.

Throughout the match Tany and Mohammed Yone targeted each other when they could, with Tany being ganged up on by everyone else, including Yone who battered him with kicks with Masaaki Mochizuki felling him with a giant slap. 

WINNER: Masaaki Mochizuki with the straight palm on King Tany (9 minutes, 31 seconds)

Match over, Yone was kind enough to check on Tany. But this loss does mean that as a unit they are only capable of beating much younger teams. Yone was on the winning team, but he didn't get the win and Tany of course was pinned.

MATCH THREE

Masao Inoue vs Masakatsu Funaki

I'm just going to post the gif and let this one play out. 

Winner: Masakatsu Funaki after Masao Inoue quit after a right high kick (10 seconds)

Getting Inoue gently rolled out the ring and then taken away by the seconds took longer than the actual match. 

MATCH FOUR

Hajime Ohara & Atsushi Kotoge vs Dragon Kid & Ultimo Dragon 

Dragon Kid made a surprise appearance in Noah today, alongside his teacher, Ultimo Dragon. The last time Dragon Kid came to Noah was in 2007. With Hajime Ohara and Atsushi Kotoge too respectful and Ohara looking to overcome his teacher, no one was going to be resorting to ripping masks off, and so the technical match between Ultimo Dragon and Ohara ended with Ohara rolling out of the ring to seek refuge. With Ohara fighting his master, a rivalry began to bud between Dragon Kid and Kotoge. Much to Ultimo Dragon's dismay, Dragon Kid spent time playing up to the crowd and this let Kotoge recover. 

WINNER: Ultimo Dragon with the Asai DDT on Hajime Ohara (13 minutes, 20 seconds)

I think Dragon Kid would fit in well with the Noah Juniors, and fans would certainly like to see more of him. At the end everyone shook hands (after Ohara had bowed to his teacher) and then posed together with their arms raised as a winning team. Not everyone got a handshake though as Ultimo Dragon refused to shake hands with Dragon Kid (he was kidding of course because Dragon Kid, who is also his pupil was acting like "What about me?") and then as his teacher, commanded him to come from the ring. You would think Dragon Kid was a man in his 20's....

MATCH FIVE

Kongoh (Tadasuke, Haoh & Manabu Soya) vs Kongoh (Katsuhiko Nakajima, Nioh and Aleja) 

An interunit battle. Kongoh are all about being spartan, expressing their own beliefs and Kenoh once stated with a snort that if anyone ever asked for advice then they would find themselves out. This was their own version of a military war game. It started civilized enough with four Noah Juniors around, and Tadasuke even offered Nioh a handshake. I really would have thought that Nioh would have known better, but he got the better of Tadasuke. Good news is that there seems to be no lasting damage to his knee from yesterday, despite the poor condition they are in. Then because the Noah Junior rule states you have to attack other division members on sight, the juniors soon stormed the ring along with Manabu Soya. Aleja found that once again, he was a ragdoll to the ultra heavyweights. 

For Katsuhiko Nakajima, this was an easy payday. I don't think he was too bothered about who won and who lost, he could afford to play up to the cameras while he kicked Manabu Soya around. It was Nioh who was pinned however, not Nakajima. 

WINNER: Manabu Soya with the Ballistic on Nioh (10 minutes, 15 seconds)

Nakajima showed a rare team spirit by helping Nioh and Aleja out. The others just left in usual military style. Tadasuke was excited over Soya's win. 

MATCH SIX

STINGER (Yuya Susumi, Seiki Yoshioka, HAYATA and Yoshinari Ogawa) vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (NOSAWA Rongai, YO-HEY & Eita) and....

When Perros came to the ring there were only three of them. They looked around and in exaggerated fashion, noticed this themselves. Holding up three fingers to STINGER, each other, the referee and even the fans, NOSAWA got on the microphone and announced they had a new member...familiar music started (NOSAWA was playing air drums) and Super Crazy came out. 

Super Crazy was in Noah a lot from 2012 and was last seen at Sumo Hall in November 2019. Today he returned as a member of Perros Del Mal De Japon. He started off against HAYATA, but his reunion with NOSAWA, who tried to hug him, was ruined when the Noah Juniors stampeded the ring. NOSAWA also had a reunion with HAYATA'S boot, its owner smiling as he drove it into his head. 

Issues might have been resolved within STINGER, but the issues between Eita and Yoshinari Ogawa very much remain with Eita taunting Ogawa every chance he got and provoking him into a blind rage. He got a kick to the groin in return. 

WINNER: Super Crazy with the moonsault press on Yuya Susumu (7 minutes, 19 seconds)

Perros all posed together as HAYATA and Ogawa once again stood united with the tag belts. NOSAWA, much to Ogawa's fury, was hinting at a tag challenge although nothing has been said so far. 

MATCH SEVEN

GHC National title match

Daisuke Harada vs Kenoh

Noah like to throw these shock challenges into the mystery cards at New Year, so no one of course had any idea that Harada had even challenged or wanted to challenge. Given his hatred of the heavyweights, it does fit that he would want the juniors to have a chance with the belt. Harada is only the second junior to have ever challenged, the last was in March 2020 when Minoru Tanaka challenged Takashi Sugiura. 

Stemming from their days as Noah Juniors, Kenoh and Harada do not have a good relationship with each other. Kenoh describes it as "snake and scorpion". Harada went for the surprise pins, and he came very very close on a few occasions to winning. Kenoh worked on Harada's torso as he knew that is where his strength comes from, especially when it comes to the Katayama German Suplex and other power moves as Harada does tend to do a lot of throws. Despite his wearing him down, Kenoh knew that as short as this title match was going to be, Harada was still a threat. 

WINNER: Kenoh with the PFS (10 minutes, 56 seconds)

Kenoh was about to leave the ring when his next challenger arrived. Masakatsu Funaki. Funaki came to the ring and silently waved his finger and pointed at the belt. He then left. Title match has been set for the 22nd January and will take place in Funaki's hometown of Osaka at the Edion 2nd Arena.  

MAIN EVENT

Go Shiozaki, Daiki Inaba, Masa Kitamiya & Kaito Kiyomiya vs The Sugiura Army (Kazuyuki Fujita & Takashi Sugiura) & M's alliance (Masato Tanaka, Keiji Mutoh and Naomichi Marufuji)

Go Shiozaki burst through his teammates to take on Kazuyuki Fujita. As I said earlier, this is now Noah Born do things. 

Then the famous stare off occurred. 

Time was ticking, Korakuen had a booking later in the day, and Noah needed to be somewhere...Takashi Sugiura tried to get Fujita to break, and it took Masa Kitamiya to deal with Go Shiozaki. Shiozaki, who had a very Kenta Kobashi like expression on, was finally persuaded to leave the ring as was Fujita. Fujita, being non Noah Born only took Sugi to do it. Shiozaki needed both Kitamiya and the ref. The ref tucking his leg back over the ropes. The match then started with Kitamiya and Sugiura shoulder tackling each other and screaming. The match was as wild as a Noah Junior one almost with everyone fighting everyone and lariats being taken out by other lariats. 

In all the rivalries that went on in this match; Keiji Mutoh and Kaito Kiyomiya, Masato Tanaka and Yoshiki Inamura (who have unsolved business from Fire Festival), Naomichi Marufuji and Daiki Inaba, and the ever present Shiozaki vs Sugiura (complete with Shiozaki trying to lift Sugiura, which he couldn't do), by the end it was plain to see that Kiyomiya with the whirlwind of energy of youth, who ducked Masao Tanaka's Sliding D and got the win with Tiger Suplex Hold was the one who was drawing the most resentment. Not from Mutoh however. Go Shiozaki.

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Tiger Suplex Hold on Masato Tanaka (19 minutes, 38 seconds)

Masato Tanaka was furious at the loss, and Naomichi Marufuji left with a glare to the juniors in the ring who had managed to beat their seniors. The real drama was happening inside of it. Partly due to a knock to the forehead, and partly due to Kaito Kiyomiya who had not only got the win today, but was closing out the show, Go Shiozaki was not happy. Then he heard what Kaito Kiyomiya had to say.

"The start of the year was a terrible one, but I won't stop! Spreading this promotion is my reason for living, it's what I really want to do. This year Noah is me, believe it! This year, I will carry it!"

An hour after Noah had finished in Korakuen, the roster appeared just a few meters down the road at the Tokyo Dome where New Japan where holding the second day of WrestleKingdom 16. The seniors, Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura and Keiji Mutoh (Ogawa would never have spoken on the mic) left the younger generation of Kaito Kiyomiya and Kenoh to provoke New Japan and stayed in the background where they threw shades by being more interested in taking selfies. Perros Del Mal De Japon, always on the look out for the potential to cause trouble joined in. Shingo Takagi came out alongside BUSHI and Hiromu Takahashi to confront them, Kiyomiya said he had come to pick a fight, but Kenoh was naturally more vocal. At the end, Kenoh and Kiyomiya joined forces and shook hands. They would lead Noah into this fight. 

GIF taken from WrestleUniverse.