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

Noah opened the first of three nights in a row at Korakuen Hall, and debuted their new high tech camera which made the broadcast more cinematic, in depth and high quality. It made it look as if you were watching a studio produced movie on the big screen. Korakuen itself was also lit up, but I think that Noah where just testing the capabilities tonight as green bubbles where projected onto the walls. Backstage, ShakeShack supplied burgers to the roster. Yoshiki Inamura posed for a picture with Kaito Kiyomiya and two representatives and said no matter your age, you were never too old to smile behind of a burger, and then "eat up and become a beefy wrestler". 

Keiji Mutoh was absent from the event today, and will be for the foreseeable future, due to a hip injury and so the GHC Heavyweight tag belts have been returned. There was no movement on that front today however. 

The event was broadcast on ABEMA, with a package shown of Kazuyuki Fujita & Katsuhiko Nakajima and Kenoh, Masakatsu Funaki and Masaaki Mochizuki with a somewhat Showa era monster movie theme. Unless you have a VPN that you know works with ABEMA I do not advise you subscribe to the channel, the show will be uploaded to WrestleUniverse in due course.  

MATCH ONE

Kai Fujimura vs Yasutaka Yano

Kai Fujimura was determined to catch up to Yasutaka Yano today, and you would no way think that these two boys were still both rookies. Fujimura was quicker and more confident, but despite this Yano was not going to make it easier for him, but he found just how much Fujimura had skyrocketed. 

WINNER: Kai Fujimura with the Boston Crab (5 minutes, 59 seconds)

MATCH TWO

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

One of the most wonderful things about Funky Express is their entry. The hall is dark and you can see lights in the crowd moving in time to the music. In the ring Yoshiki Inamura stood with his arms crossed (always a sign he's getting ready for a hoss fight), as the referee naturally had to assist King Tany in disrobing himself of his royal chain. Fortunately, Tany removed the crown. He probably remembers the last time he wore it into battle...

Everyone was well matched today: Kinya Okada and Mohammed Yone for kicks, Akitoshi Saito and Yoshiki Inamura, Masa Kitamiya and King Tany for size, weight and power. King Tany is probably one of the few in Noah who can scoop slam Yoshiki Inamura, although his dance did show signs of fatigue afterwards. Okada, who the spotlight seemed to be on today, got a huge applause from the crowd when he countered the Disco Fever with a sharp kick to Yone's chest. It made a change from the usual skidding stop that most people come to. Yone stops being funky when provoked, and returns to his BattlArts persona. Saito too was merciless, his face twisted like a demon, he slammed Okada repeatedly. 

WINNER: Akitoshi Saito with the Suikuru Death on Kinya Okada (9 minutes, 58 seconds)

MATCH THREE

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

Haoh was propelled towards the ring by Hajime Ohara, the moment he got in the green met the red and Nioh was in Nioh's face. Fight's didn't break out immediately though. They were civil enough to wait for the bell. Then things stopped getting civil as a far more focused Nioh attacked at once (personally, all I think he needed was a good rival), but Haoh struck a blow for both himself, his own ideals and his team to cement himself into his new unit. 

WINNER: Haoh with the Tornado Clutch on Nioh (8 minutes, 31 seconds)

Ohara was thrilled with the win and so that no fights could ruin it (he is wise to just how this division works) got Haoh out of there quickly and went backstage.

MATCH FOUR

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

Junta Miyawaki and Kotaro Suzuki started the match, but they couldn't keep the rivalry of Naomichi Marufuji (who I thought looked a little sad today, but with good reason) and Daiki Inaba at bay for long and Atsushi Kotoge knew it was best to tag Marufuji in. Kotaro Suzuki was very helpful to Inaba, helping him to work on Marufuji's arm by digging his boot in and when it came to Kotaro and Marufuji, Inaba then wanted to tag in. He does not know the rules regarding this. Marufuji and Kotaro had a chop fest which Kotaro won. 

WINNER: Super Crazy with the Moonsault Press on Junta Miyawaki (11 minutes, 54 seconds)

In a match full of Noah Juniors, the two heavyweights were the ones who acted most like them by brawling outside of the ring causing the seconds to come to break them up. Angered by Marufuji driving his boot into his neck, Inaba squared up and another fight broke out. It went backstage with the seconds chasing after them.

MATCH FIVE

Kaito Kiyomiya vs HAYATA

This was a rare singles match, Kaito Kiyomiya has rarely fought HAYATA and more often teamed with him. They have had three singles matches in total though, HAYATA has won two and Kiyomiya one. In today's match so much time and history had passed for both of them since 2018, that they were not the people they were before and they knew it. HAYATA probably doesn't care about Daisuke Harada's insistence of Noah Juniors not losing out to the heavyweights, but Junior pride was on the line, and he worked on Kiyomiya's arm to wear him down. Kiyomiya later said HAYATA was amazing. 

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Tiger Suplex hold (12 minutes, 1 second)

In a gesture that amused the HAYATA fans, Kiyomiya managed to shake HAYATA'S hand by picking his hand up and shaking it as HAYATA was lying on the mat.

MATCH SIX

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

Eita came to the ring, swaggering, grinning and holding a box. Perros Del Mal De Japon gathered round it to see what was inside. When STINGER emerged, only YO-HEY faced up for the belts as NOSAWA was testing him and wasn't quite sure as to whether or not he wanted to challenge with him. The match began with the pre match for the Junior title belts as YO-HEY faced off against the tag champions in turn, Yuya Susumu and Seiki Yoshioka. Perros where kind enough to wait a moment before they attacked STINGER and the usual brawls outside the ring broke out. Yoshinari Ogawa's hatred of Eita could not be contained for long, and Ogawa attacked at the first opportunity. Even with the box. He also did some water throwing of his own when a half opened bottle was thrown at NOSAWA. NOSAWA had wanted YO-HEY to "show me more" in the ring, and YO-HEY did just that by holding off the tag champions by himself and then pinning Seiki Yoshioka with the FACE-G. 

WINNER: YO-HEY with the FACE-G on Seiki Yoshioka (7 minutes, 57 seconds)

NOSAWA was happy to challenge with YO-HEY now, but they didn't have long to celebrate as Yuya Susumu attacked them. Susumu was beaten down with the tag belts, with NOSAWA battering him and even throwing it outside the ring when he was done. Then the victors posed with their boots on Susumu. 

On Twitter, Takashi Sugiura sent YO-HEY his congratulations on the win, but got no response. Sugi suspects that since no one ever responds to him, (well aside from Naomichi Marufuji who sent him song lyrics), that Noah has issued a gag order against him. 

MATCH SEVEN

GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship Match

Daisuke Harada vs Tadasuke

Tadasuke attacked with a wild scream. The more the crowd clapped, the more his strength seemed to multiply. The crowd is Tadasuke's spinach, but they can also be his Achilles Heel, and Daisuke Harada knew that all he had to do was wait for an opening. During that time Tadasuke came close, too close for Harada's liking to win. They know each other very well, so when it came to doing false moves they returned it on each other in sequence. 

I don't think Harada truly realized until now what a powerhouse Tadasuke has become, as he found it hard to bring Tadasuke down. He tried a sleeper, but Tadasuke shrugged him off, even the Rolling Elbow was kicked out of (I like to imagine that this match could have taken place at SEM, and Mitsuharu Misawa's reaction), so Harada had to be inventive and in an inventive match bounced Tadasuke off the top rope to go for the Katayama. Tadasuke kicked out, and it was time then to finally make him realize what Dokaan was. 

WINNER: Daisuke Harada with DOKAAAN on Tadasuke (11 minutes, 41 seconds)

Super Crazy arrived on the scene as Harada's next challenger, and made his challenge in Mexican. In a rough translation he said, "Champion, champion...please let me challenge for the belt". Harada did a good translation to the crowd, asking if everyone would like to see him defend against Super Crazy. Match has been set for the 23rd February in Nagoya. After Super Crazy had gone, Daisuke Harada had some big news for the crowd. 

"I have something to say. We want you to hear about future hopes and the challenges of the Noah Juniors. I said I would create a Noah Junior that would not lose to the heavyweights, and so on the first day of the two days at Sumo Hall, we will hold the "N-Innovation", in which only Junior wrestlers can participate. The Noah Juniors are amazing, and we will all prove it."  

Backstage Daisuke Harada said that the title of the April N-Innovation (29th) would be "Challenge", their aim was to spread the Noah Juniors to the world. He understood the difficulties, but he wanted to bring in foreign wrestlers too. Tadasuke commented that he would make his way up again and stand in the main at Sumo Hall, while Nioh said his target was still Haoh, and they would color Sumo Hall red. Perros have not commented, Sugi has tried trolling NOSAWA, and naturally STINGER have nothing to say.  

MATCH EIGHT

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

Kendo Kashin was suspiciously well behaved, but Kazuyuki Fujita did not want to waste time with the ref checking him. Kenoh was yelling at everyone, and Katsuhiko Nakajima withdrew to the corner. As is the way, the champion and his challenger started off first with Fujita offering Nakajima a handshake. Nakajima did not accept it, and spread his arms. Kashin for reasons known only to him (and where they should probably stay) tried to tag Nakajima in. Nakajima took no notice and got down to the business of trying to figure out his formidable opponent. Against Fujita, the smile was kept away. It flickered on for everyone else though. When tagging out, Fujita was not finished with Nakajima and Nakajima was not finished with Fujita, taking a shot at him on the apron. 

Kenoh's nightmares are no doubt filled with images of Kendo Kashin, who today challenged him to a very slow chop match. Kenoh yelled at him, kicked him out of the ring, and then yelled at him some more. Kashin got in and repeated the slow chops. Kenoh looked like he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. Kashin tried to escape Kenoh later by rolling out of the ring, but he was stopped by Kenoh who ran round to prevent him from going anywhere. He had his revenge though, a well aimed kick to the red crotch. Even referee Shu Nishinaga was drawn into Kashin's zany world at one point. 

There was nothing so lighthearted for Nakajima though. No one able to help when Fujita slammed him, but he kicked out. Fujita screamed at him for this and almost took Nakajima's head off with the a kick to the face. He then knelt down and pinned him with one knee.

WINNER: Kazuyuki Fujita with a kick to the face on Katsuhiko Nakajima (20 minutes, 55 seconds)

Kazuyuki Fujita paraded round the ring with the belt, even wearing it over his shoulder. The referee attempted to retrieve it, but he couldn't and Fujita strolled backstage with it and wore it while he made his post match promo. 

"I'm Noah! I'm Noah! I'm Noah! What I'm Noah! What's wrong? The belt has come to where it should be. Noah is over!"

MATCH NINE

Go Shiozaki's "Road to GHC" Series

Go Shiozaki vs Masato Tanaka

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..."

Tomorrow he faces Naomichi Marufuji. 

Attendance: 408

Noah's next event: STEP FORWARD 2022, 10th February, Korakuen Hall

GIF taken from ABEMA & Noah's official YouTube

With thanks to: Gong EX & Metal Noah