(NOAH) Go Shiozaki's "Road to the GHC" four match series
Go Shiozaki (22nd January 2022)
Go Shiozaki will have four singles matches. He will face Takashi Sugiura (27th January), Masato Tanaka (9th February), Naomichi Marufuji (10th February) and Kenoh (11th February) at Korakuen Hall. In order to be in the GHC race once again, Shiozaki must defeat each opponent in a singles match before he can challenge for the heavyweight singles title.
VS Takashi Sugiura
HIGHER GROUND 2022 (Thursday, January 27th)
There was a big fight feel during this match, which gave the event a stadium feel. For Takashi Sugiura this was just a match, and he had nothing to lose. For Go Shiozaki, he needed to win. You could feel the punches through the screen if you were watching ay home, with the chops sounding like gunshots. The attack between the two was so intense that at one point, Shiozaki was knocked outside the ring. He didn't move and after a while dragged himself into the ring at the count of 19. Takashi Sugiura was waiting inside to greet him with a few big boots. Shiozaki powered up Kenta Kobashi style and delivered chops. He also channeled Mitsuharu Misawa, but Sugiura blocked The Rolling Elbow.
That wasn't all; reversing a potential Go Flasher, Sugiura locked in the Front Neck Lock. Shiozaki recovered and slammed him. A massive lariat followed, but Sugiura kicked out. Then holding on like a dog with a stick, Sugiura did the lock again. Shiozaki lifted him up, but fell to his knees with Sugiura hanging on. The referee knew that Shiozaki would never quit, he would rather be choked out, and so he stopped the match
WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with the Front Neck Lock, referee stopped the match (23 minutes, 24 seconds)
Shiozaki, bruised and frustrated, was left in the ring slapping the mat. The seconds went to help him up, but as ever he shook them away and walked to the back on his own.
His first match in his "Road to GHC" series had ended in a loss, but at least he wasn't pinned. It would be onwards and upwards, the next person he would face would be on Wednesday 9th February when he took on Masato Tanaka.
VS Masato Tanaka
STEP FORWARD 2022 (Wednesday, February 9th)
WrestleUniverse (original broadcast was on ABEMA)
This match was the kind of battle that Go Shiozaki lives for, and was worried that he would never be able to do again due to his shoulder injury, and so perhaps this series forms part of his overcoming that fear. However you look at it, it was a vicious fight. Their last singles match had been in 2012 at ZERO-1's Fire Festival, which Tanaka had won. Today to a thunder of applause they went for everything; vicious elbows (the crowd screamed at one of Tanaka's as the sound echoed around the hall), a brainbuster battle led to a lariat one with each blocking each others moves, Shiozaki moonsault, Tanaka Sliding D, Shiozaki even drawing out a rare submission which even the commentators were struck by, and an atmosphere which grew more and more frantic as time went on, and a crucial moment was reached when Tanaka kicked out of both the Go Flasher and the Gowan Lariat. The battle went just as long as their one in 2012, and again Tanaka emerged the winner.
WINNER: Masato Tanaka with the Sliding D (20 minutes, 12 seconds)
There was an audible gasp of horror from the crowd when the referee counted Shiozaki's shoulders down. He had lost two out of four matches, the first had been a referee stop when he fainted after Takashi Sugiura choked him out, but this was a clean pinfall. Shiozaki, keeping true to his "I AM NOAH" soul and his maintained belief that the champion always stands, whether he is a champion or not, staggered his way to the back.
His only comment was "This is what I want..."
VS Naomichi Marufuji
STEP FORWARD 2022 (Thursday, February 10th)
"Maybe I will give something different, maybe I won't. Doing things the opponent can't imagine, I think will be interesting to see. I want to think properly when it's a big single" - Naomichi Marufuji.
At the start of the match Naomichi Marufuji offered Go Shiozaki a handshake, which Shiozaki took in the usual hesitant style. Misawa's boy vs Kobashi's, except now they were the seniors. The level of the match was akin to a title match. I found it hard to believe that neither was holding a belt.
This match was Naomichi Marufuji's lesson to Go Shiozaki in how to adapt and how to change, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to change your style radically. Shiozaki learned the lesson well and bought out a few new things of his own, and even did some small new things such as lifting Marufuji onto the apron and chopping him, one big thing he did was change the Tiger Driver into an armbar. Perhaps this lesson in reinvention was what Shiozaki needed, nothing as dramatic as a name change or a gimmick, but an adjustment.
Marufuji worked throughout the match in taking out Shiozaki's main weapons, his arm and shoulder, but unusually for him he did not break the hold when Shiozaki was on the ropes. Attacking Shiozaki's most powerful attack points, and even dropkicking his shoulder, didn't mean that a chop battle could be avoided or was going to be even less painful as they chopped each other red raw. Even linking hands to do it so neither of them fell. You could hear the commentators flinching with each chop.
In tribute to his partner, Marufuji pulled out The Shining Wizard, but it was with a new move (as if to prove a point) that he won the match.
Winner: Naomichi Marufuji with the Modified Rotation Technique (22 minutes, 23 seconds)
There was a square up between them, with Marufuji clapping and then doing his M hand sign.
Shiozaki was frustrated, he had now lost three of his four matches. He couldn't probably now challenge for the GHC with such losses, but he had learned something for the future.
STEP FORWARD 2022 (Friday, February 11th)
Kenoh called Shiozaki "battered" before the match and with good reason, this was the third night of the series following the elbows from Masato Tanaka and the chops from Naomichi Marufuji. Kenoh it seems had taken heed of Naomichi Marufuji's lesson yesterday, and took Shiozaki off guard by drawing out new things himself. Unlike Marufuji however, Kenoh was not concerned with anything new that he might provoke Shiozaki into. He was also out for revenge after Shiozaki had denied him the main event limelight at The Nippon Budokan. The PFS to the apron, which made the crowd scream, was probably a culmination of both.
Shiozaki struggled to get back into the ring after this, Kenoh made sure he did not first time by knocking him back out. When Shiozaki did get back in after a close call, Kenoh was given a lariat in mid flight from the turnbuckle. Sadly this was not enough. Kenoh might have called Shiozaki "tired", but he gave him two PFS before he pinned him.
WINNER: Kenoh with the PFS (18 minutes, 41 seconds)
Kenoh addressed Shiozaki after the match.
"Everyone may have forgotten, but I haven't, that you ruined everything after the Yoyogi double title match and stood in the main event at the Nippon Budokan, which was my dream. I hate you and I hate it, but you fought well for almost 20 minutes in the three singles matches of this series, but this is what your level is now. Hey, catch up to me fast."
Afterwards Kenoh both in the ring and backstage bought up the subject of the next Nippon Budokan in July 2022. He was going to be in the main event again. Go Shiozaki also said the same. These four fierce battles with Noah's top was exactly what he had wanted. He would rise up from here to the main event of the Nippon Budokan;
"This is it. This is it. This is fight of Pro Wrestling Noah. This is the fight I wanted, Noah's fight in the ring. I was absent and returned, my absence was meaningful. I feel like I understand that. I am grateful to the wrestlers I fought that I have been able to return. After this I will raise myself, and at Sumo Hall and The Budokan, I will be the one who wears the belt and stands in the main."
Picture credits: Noah.co.jp
GIF taken from WrestleUniverse
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