(NOAH) CARD: STEP FORWARD 2022 (Korakuen Hall, Wednesday February 9th)

With The M's alliance having to return the belts yesterday due to Keiji Mutoh's probable long term injury, the next four days are going to be intriguing. Funky Express have stated they want a belt, preferably a tag or perhaps one they can make their own, fans have their own picks (the return of THE TOUGH aka Masa Kitamiya and Yoshiki Inamura), and even STINGER (HAYATA and Yoshinari Ogawa that is, although naturally Ogawa said it and not HAYATA), have hinted that they may be interested in the GHC Heavyweight tag belts. On top of that tonight we have the Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Kazuyuki Fujita pre-match, an all out junior war (part 1 of 4), Daisuke Harada defends the GHC Junior against Tadasuke and Kaito Kiyomiya and HAYATA have a very rare singles match. 

ABEMA will be broadcasting tonight's show which will begin at 18:30 JST. The stream should be free and worldwide, but please note you cannot watch replays or from the beginning should you tune in half way through. For many people signing up to ABEMA is probably not a good option and I do not recommend this unless you are sure you have a VPN that is compatible. Since finding one can be expensive, time consuming and frustrating, I recommend a subscription to WrestleUniverse. The event will be placed here in a few days. 

MATCH ONE

Kai Fujimura vs Yasutaka Yano

In a show filled with matches where at least one person has some kind of rivalry with another, the young boys are no exception. Yasutaka Yano leads the way with wins in singles and tags, and a win over Kai Fujimura. Fujimura will be looking to even the score as he catches up to Yano in the race. 

MATCH TWO

Funky Express (King Tany, Mohammed Yone, Akitoshi Saito) vs Masa Kitamiya, Yoshiki Inamura & Kinya Okada

...The tag belts are vacant. Funky Express have been talking about getting (or even creating) a belt and fans are hoping that THE TOUGH get back together, possibilities of all sorts...

MATCH THREE

The Noah Junior Regulars (Hajime Ohara & Haoh) vs The Kongoh Juniors (Nioh & Aleja)

To concentrate on the GHC Junior title match, Tadasuke leaves the punishment of Haoh to Haoh's former partner, Nioh. Nioh returns tonight from being absent due to sickness, he will have seen the beatdown Haoh took in Hamamatsu will surely want to add his own contribution. On Haoh's side, he says he wants to build up a relationship with each of The Noah Junior Regulars to prove he belongs with them, but his issues with his former team are more with his former partner than with Tadasuke. 

MATCH FOUR

Naomichi Marufuji, Atsushi Kotoge & Junta Miyawaki vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (Kotaro Suzuki, Super Crazy & Daiki Inaba)

Like his teacher, Mitsuharu Misawa, Naomichi Marufuji loved being a Junior. Tonight he makes a rare tag with Junta Miyawaki (not so much Atsushi Kotoge) and gets involved in the endless Noah Junior war as they take on Marufuji's younger brother, Kotaro Suzuki, semi rival Daiki Inaba and old friend Super Crazy. 

MATCH FIVE

Kaito Kiyomiya vs HAYATA

Believe it or not, HAYATA and Kaito Kiyomiya have had three singles matches and this will be their fourth and first in four years. HAYATA has won two (the first in 2016 and the second in 2017) with Kiyomiya winning the third in 2018. However, this is not the HAYATA that Kiyomiya knew back then and this is certainly not the fragile boy who shook and took deep breaths before matches. 

MATCH SIX

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

Probably the ugliest match on the card, and probably the most wild. There are many things going on here and not just the whole issue of dumping water on Yoshinari Ogawa. YO-HEY has challenged Seiki Yoshioka and Yuya Susumu for the GHC Junior Tag Titles on behalf of himself and NOSAWA. NOSAWA isn't interested in the challenge, far preferring to fight Ogawa and HAYATA, the former champions. If YO-HEY wants him to challenge, then he said he better show him more in the ring. In addition to this Ogawa wants a singles match with Eita, but NOSAWA wants a singles match with Ogawa, and says HAYATA can have Eita. This is going to be an all out war. 

MATCH SEVEN

GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship Match

Daisuke Harada vs Tadasuke

With his long held ambition to not let the Noah Juniors be outdone by the heavyweights, I can't imagine that Daisuke Harada is too happy about not being in the semi main event for the junior title match, but as he seems to like Go Shiozaki, I doubt he's too cross about not being put in the main event. In any case, there isn't much time for complaints as Tadasuke stronger, more determined, and angrier than usual has come for the belt. Tadasuke has defeated Daisuke Harada in the past, can he do it for the title? 

MATCH EIGHT

Kongoh (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Manabu Soya) vs The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazuyuki Fujita & Kendo Kashin)

If there is one person who haunts Kenoh's nightmares, it's not Takashi Sugiura, it's not Kazuyuki Fujita, it's Kendo Kashin. Kashin, who plays NOSAWA to Kenoh's Ogawa, is convinced he and Kenoh (who he calls by his real name "Daisuke") are some kind of friends. Kenoh is too spooked by him to even consider this or not. While Kenoh will probably be chased around the arena, and Takashi Sugiura and Manabu Soya shoulder tackle each other, Katsuhiko Nakajima makes his return after illness to face down the beast who is challenging him for the title; Kazuyuki Fujita. Nakajima has seen first hand what Fujita is capable of (Go Shiozaki had a burst eardrum, vision problems and a dislocated jaw and that was just in the pre matches), and Nakajima will need all his cunning and strength to defeat him tonight, never mind the title match. 

MATCH NINE

Go Shiozaki's "Road to GHC" Series

Go Shiozaki vs Masato Tanaka

The difficult path back to the GHC brings Go Shiozaki up against his second opponent, the hard as nails, Masato Tanaka. Shiozaki has already had one defeat in his series, and that was by Takashi Sugiura. Sugiura commented after the match (in which he choked Shiozaki out) that this was not the Shiozaki who came to the ring in perfect form, this was just ordinary Shiozaki. You can bet anything that Shiozaki will have taken that onboard for this match. Tanaka and Shiozaki clashed last (and for the first time) in a singles at ZERO1's Fire Festival in 2012, but it was no easy defeat, Tanaka took twenty minutes. It's going to be a long hard fight. 

Picture credit: ABEMA