(NOAH) CARD: STEP FORWARD 2022 (Korakuen Hall, Thursday February 10th)

Noah will start the second night of their first ever three day event at Korakuen Hall at 18:30 JST. The show will be streamed live on WrestleUniverse. You must be a subscriber to view. 

MATCH ONE

The Kongoh Juniors (Nioh & Aleja) vs Kinya Okada & Kai Fujimura

With Tadasuke taking care of Haoh tonight after Nioh's defeat yesterday, the Kongoh Juniors take on a young man fresh off of his first victory and a young man who is heading towards one. 

MATCH TWO

Haoh vs Tadasuke

Haoh defeated Nioh yesterday, but will he be so lucky tonight against Tadasuke, a junior who wrestles with the strength of a heavyweight and even took Daisuke Harada by surprise with how much of a powerhouse he has become, and one who lost his title bid yesterday? 

MATCH THREE

Kongoh (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Manabu Soya) vs Funky Express (King Tany, Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito)

No Kazuyuki Fujita tonight, so Katsuhiko Nakajima can kick around the disco dancers. Kenoh no doubt will be enraged at the sight of all of them, Manabu Soya will be gearing up for a King Tany or Akitoshi Saito showdown. 

MATCH FOUR

STINGER (HAYATA & Seiki Yoshioka) vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (NOSAWA Rongai & YO-HEY)

HAYATA steps in for the absent Yuya Susumu tonight and teams with fellow Hiroshima boy (i.e. WrestleGate, HAYATA is the only Hiroshima native), against the belt challengers, NOSAWA Rongai and HAYATA'S former partner, YO-HEY. Seiki Yoshioka was pinned by YO-HEY yesterday, he's going to do his very best tonight to not let it happen again.

MATCH FIVE

Kaito Kiyomiya, Yoshinari Ogawa & Yasutaka Yano vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (Eita, Kotaro Suzuki & Super Crazy)

Part 2 of the STINGER vs Perros Del Mal feud sees Kaito Kiyomiya team with his teacher, and Yasutaka Yano once again rise up in the card. In Yano's case fans see him as an unofficial member of STINGER (and Ogawa's favorite pupil) and Kaito Kiyomiya has a hatred of NOSAWA Rongai. As does Yoshinari Ogawa. In fact it might he hard to say who exactly Ogawa hates more Eita or his first Noah pupil, Kotaro Suzuki. Both of whom make him see red. I am expecting that this match will probably have some kind of overlap with the one before. 

MATCH SIX

Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Masato Tanaka, Daisuke Harada & Hajime Ohara vs Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba, Yoshiki Inamura, Atsushi Kotoge & Junta Miyawaki

An utterly insane ten man match which teams hostile juniors with heavyweights, M's alliance with The Sugiura Army (reuniting The Bullet Yankees) and pits The Noah Junior Army against each other. 

MATCH SEVEN

Go Shiozaki's "ROAD TO GHC" Series

Naomichi Marufuji vs Go Shiozaki

Go Shiozaki has lost two matches so far in this series with defeats by Takashi Sugiura and Masato Tanaka. He has to break even and win tonight. If he can win two he may be able to salvage something of his dream, a loss tonight would be catastrophic. 

MATCH EIGHT

GHC National Championship

Masakatsu Funaki vs Masaaki Mochizuki

Masaaki Mochizuki swore six years ago at a DragonGate show in Kobe that one day he would face Masakatsu Funaki in a singles match. That day has come, and he will face him not only in a singles match, but for the GHC National title. Mochizuki has an objective other than winning here, if he wins he wants to bring the belt and Funaki back to The M's alliance. Mochi also wants to prevent any chance of Funaki bringing Katsuyori Shibata in. While I doubt that Funaki is leaving any time soon, the outcome of this match is going to be interesting. 

Picture credit: WrestleUniverse