(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: GREAT VOYAGE 2022 in FUKUOKA (Monday March 21st, Fukuoka International Center, Fukuoka)
Noah announced an attendance of 697 today.
You can watch the event on WrestleUniverse (English commentary only) or if you are not a subscriber, the first five matches on Noah's Official YouTube.
MATCH ONE
Funky Express (King Tany, Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito) vs THE TOUGH (Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura) & Kinya Okada
Mohammed Yone appears to be the one who removes King Tany's chains now. I think the referees refuse...anyway, this hoss fight opener started with Yone himself and Yoshiki Inamura. Inamura's reaction to Yone's Disco Fever rope-break was typically polite, in that he made no reaction. King Tany tried to slam Inamura when he was first in the ring with him, but found that a man who weighed 105kgs meant nothing. Inamura threw him round the ring as if he was one of his tires. Literally.
Kinya Okada continues his journey towards that big win, slapping the mat and fighting back against his seniors, especially on that long hangtime that Akitoshi Saito did, getting him to stagger and then knocking him down. Masa Kitamiya pretty much left the match to the younger wrestlers, Inamura to throw them around and Okada to knock them down, but he himself got the win.
WINNER: Masa Kitamiya with the Saito Suplex on King Tany (10 minutes, 59 seconds)
Just like the GIF above, Funky Express where in an endless loop, they just could not get a win. As Mohammed Yone helped King Tany to the back, Akitoshi Saito followed on looking thoughtful.
MATCH TWO
The Noah Junior Regulars (Haoh, Alejandro & Kai Fujimura*) vs Kongoh Juniors (Tadasuke, Hajime Ohara & Nioh)
Tadasuke came to the ring clutching the red Aleja mask, which he took to the corner camera and promised punishment against Alejandro. When Alejandro came to the ring, he dangled the mask at him until the ref told him to put it away. The two
The two started off, Alejandro at lightspeed, which left Tadasuke banging his hands against the canvas in frustration. Nioh was far more cool headed in taking on his former partner. Tadasuke got his revenge later as he once again used the mask to taunt Alejandro with when Kongoh had him in their corner, and he watched the beatdown by his colleagues with a big grin.
Bodies flew everywhere, Haoh using the Kongoh Juniors against each other. Nioh he used as a springboard, and dodging so Hajime Ohara hit Tadasuke and knocked him off the apron.
Kai Fujimura's rivalry with Tadasuke continued at the crescendo of the match. With a little help the first time and then on momentum on the second, he came close to pinning Tadasuke, but the older and more experienced wrestler ultimately won out.
WINNER: Tadasuke with the Jidanda Lariat on Kai Fujimura (13 minutes, 7 seconds)
Their rivalry will continue in a singles match on the 23rd March when Noah return to Korakuen Hall.
MATCH THREE
Naomichi Marufuji vs Yasutaka Yano
With a GHC Heavyweight match on the card and a GHC Junior Tag, tonight was equally as important for Yasutaka Yano as he was in the third match of the night and in a singles match with one of his seniors. Not just a senior, but one of the veterans. This did not look like a rookie vs grizzled old vet.
Yano managed to get Naomichi Marufuji in a headlock for quite a while, standing up to some boots and kicking Marufuji outside the ring and following it up with a dive. Marufuji started wearing the same expression as Kotaro Suzuki (and ironically Mitsuharu Misawa) following a surprising sustained attack, "What the....".
Veterans have their limits, and Marufuji felt that playtime was over, so perhaps so he thought when he tried to reverse on Yano, but found himself arm-tossed repeatedly and even thrown off the top turnbuckle and his hook kick kicked out of.
By this point the move that Marufuji did the most was to grab his hair. However, the tide soon turned for Yano as Marufuji was not appreciative of the slap he was given, and in one lunging motion made him tap to a tight headlock.
WINNER: Naomichi Marufuji with the Headlock (11 minutes, 1 seconds)
After the match Yasutaka Yano showed himself to be two things; a true Noah Born, and a true Noah Junior. Like the Noah Junior he is, he tried to fight Marufuji who pulled him to his feet by his hair. Marufuji, knowing he was dealing with both a Noah Junior, who don't trust handshakes, and a stubborn Noah Born, shook hands with Yano forcefully and left.
Afterwards he commented on social media that he wanted Yano to do his best as a Noah Junior.
MATCH FOUR
STINGER (HAYATA & Yoshinari Ogawa) vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (Eita & Super Crazy)
Yoshinari Ogawa came to the ring carrying a box, he emptied it in the centre of the ring to reveal it was full of bottles of water. The box was thrown out of the ring and Ogawa booted all the bottles together as Perros Del Mal made their entrance. Eita was also carrying something, a bag. Using stalling tactics he and Super Crazy made their way to the ring slowly, Eita showing off the belt and posing for pictures. Ogawa was wound up by this, and stood with a bottle in hand and yelling at him from the ring. HAYATA, however, is used to long prolonged ring entrances.
When Eita did eventually get to the ring, the bag was parked in the corner, and the match started in the usual way. A brawl. Eita cheated, pretended injury, took the turnbuckle pads off, and rolled in and out of the ring to wind Ogawa up primarily. It didn't really work on HAYATA though. Eita, a champion who is prepared to cheat and play rough, managed to be everywhere and it became almost impossible for Ogawa and HAYATA to run the ropes without their legs being snatched out from under them. Eita is also a champion who doesn't hesitate to use the belt, and as a result both the match (and the ref) was thrown out.
WINNER: HAYATA thanks to Eita using the belt on Yoshinari Ogawa (9 minutes, 54 seconds)
In the post match chaos, Ogawa was beaten down with kicks after which the Perros celebrated either what they consider to be their somewhat their dubious "win" (although they hadn't won anything) or else their dominance. No one was sure. Then Eita got a chair, which a groggy HAYATA was forced to sit in on the ramp. Eita emptied his bag, which contained a big bottle of something, but it wasn't Ogawa who was humiliated today, it was quiet shy HAYATA who was lathered with shampoo (one fan quipped they wondered if the shampoo was "Dove"), and afterwards he was forced to pose for pictures.
Backstage Eita once again lamented that he had expected a challenger, but no one had come forward. His quest may be over at Korakuen Hall on the 24th March when Yuya Susumu joins STINGER against Perros Del Mal.
MATCH FIVE
Kaito Kiyomiya & Daiki Inaba vs The Noah Junior Regulars (Daisuke Harada & Junta Miyawaki)
Half way down the ramp, Kaito Kiyomiya went back to doing his pointing to crowd members thing, then comically in the ring he said something to Daisuke Harada and scooted off when Harada turned, later he looked like he wanted to apologize to Harada for not letting Junta Miyawaki tag in. Despite his hatred of the heavyweight division, Harada was gracious enough to shake hands with everyone and niceties over, he and Inaba started the match. Throughout the match, Harada was not going to be taken out by the heavyweights and neither was he going to take out one heavyweight in particular, he targeted them both at the same time.
Junta Miyawaki and Kaito Kiyomiya, old dojo friends and fellow Noah Born, got in each others faces after the initial lock up. In a division who aims to overcome the heavyweights, for Miyawaki, Kiyomiya is that heavyweight.
WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Stretch Plum Type Face Lock on Junta Miyawaki (17 minutes, 33 seconds)
MATCH SIX
Go Shiozaki vs Masaaki Mochizuki
The match got going quickly. Go Shiozaki, fired up from his loss yesterday and the upcoming match with Katsuhiko Nakajima on the 23rd, was not going to wait around. At one point the match almost imitated the time when Kenta Kobashi went to chop KENTA. KENTA moved and cheekily told him to calm down. It wasn't exactly the same, but the similarities where Masaaki Mochizuki chopping Shiozaki, making the same movements and almost the look on Shiozaki's face. Kobashi didn't dust himself down though, he just looked angry at KENTA's cheek.
Another issue, which has been notable in some recent matches, is Shiozaki's strength which has returned. He picked Mochi up, walked the length of one side of the ring, and drove his knee into the ring post. In return, Mochi worked on Shiozaki's arms and elbows, and blocked his lariats with kicks. Shiozaki also countered with his own few submissions, which is rare for him.
After hour long matches with Kenoh and of course Nakajima and to a certain extent KENTA, some of the kicks he did now have very little effect on Shiozaki.
WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Strong Arm Lariat (16 minutes, 49 seconds)
Go Shiozaki had overcome Masaaki Mochizuki, and atoned for his loss at the N-1 Victory a couple of years ago. A handshake was offered and accepted. Next up for Shiozaki was the match that has managed to somehow eclipse the GHC National match on the same day, the match against Katsuhiko Nakajima on the 23rd at Korakuen Hall.
MATCH SEVEN
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Championship Match
The Noah Junior Regulars (Atsushi Kotoge & YO-HEY) vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (NOSAWA Rongai & Kotaro Suzuki)
This was going to be a tough challenge for the tag champions, given their less than stellar pre match results, but would their challengers to have eat their words as to how easy this was going to be? So easy in fact, they could do it with their eyes shut. And so at first yes the champions did well with the match starting slow, steady and methodical. Then NOSAWA decided to get involved, which gave Perros the upper hand. NOSAWA displayed the usual rough wrestling, treading on YO-HEY's head, even when the ref told him not to. Kotaro bounced YO-HEY'S head around, making him look like a pinball. NOSAWA taunted Kotoge and with the ref distracted, Kotaro also joined in. In the pre matches, the champions had stood to lose loss of face, in the title match they stood to lose even more.
After the double sub, in which the champions hung in there although Kotoge was the legal man and YO-HEY had jumped in to help, Perros found this was not going to be as easy as they expected and NOSAWA resorted to a low blow on YO-HEY. Kotoge broke the pin with literally a second to go before the ref counted three, took Kotaro out with a moonsault, did the Killswitch on NOSAWA and dragged a groggy YO-HEY to the centre. YO-HEY saved the day and won the war with Facial G finishers and a final dropkick.
WINNER: YO-HEY with a dropkick on NOSAWA Rongai (23 minutes, 6 seconds)
Kotaro left with a scowl and a warning, this wasn't over. The Noah Junior Regulars took no notice and celebrated their win. As ever in the Noah Juniors there is an air of tension as you never know what is going to happen, but happily nothing did. Backstage, YO-HEY paid tribute to Kotoge's saving him.
MATCH EIGHT
The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Hideki Suzuki, Kazushi Sakuraba & Kendo Kashin) vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Masakatsu Funaki & Manabu Soya)
Very little was made of Katsuhiko Nakajima being from Fukuoka, but since Nakajima's early life was not an easy one with an absent father, half starved and cold childhood as he lived in extreme poverty and suffered bullying at school, he may not have wished to dwell too much on it.
Kenoh entered the ring with the usual scowl, and almost gave an impression he was ignoring Masakatsu Funaki who was following on behind. When The Sugiura Army entered only three of them came out together, Kendo Kashin was missing. When Kashin did turn up, he had dragged King Tany out from somewhere and was once again scuffling with him at ringside.
In the ring Kashin started arguing with Kenoh, who is well aware of his claim (and Fuminori Abe's assistance in this matter) that he will get Funaki out of Kongoh. Kashin for some reason started flashing the M's alliance hand sign. Kenoh looked grimmer than usual, it probably hadn't escaped him either that Kashin was wearing a Kongoh like red, which was pattered similarly to theirs also. Kashin's antics over, the match got underway with Masakatsu Funaki and his GHC National challenger, Hideki Suzuki, who got into mat wrestling, MMA and a Catch wrestling mixture.
Katsuhiko Nakajima seemed to find some amusement in the match, a slight look of a laugh on his face when Kenoh was arguing with Kashin and then when he got the Kashin version shutter chance. As for Funaki, he took very little notice of his presence. Later, Kashin would experience the real Shutter Chance. He would also experience his unit pulling their own antics against him, keeping him from running elbows at Kenoh when he did his slow walk across the ring to do slow-mo chops, when it was Kashin's turn to reach Kenoh. they ran off and left him to Kongoh.
Kashin's antics were not over, sometime after Kongoh had done their elbow drop chain on him, he and Funaki disappeared. The cameras revealed that he and Funaki where fighting on one of the balconies and Kashin was trying to throw him off which he attempted twice. Fortunately, Funaki was rescued by Tadasuke, but because he wasn't in the ring, he wasn't there to prevent Hideki Suzuki from getting the win.
WINNER: Hideki Suzuki with the European Clutch on Manabu Soya (18 minutes, 22 seconds)
Kenoh was furious.
MATCH NINE
GHC Heavyweight Championship Match
Kazuyuki Fujita vs Masato Tanaka
Frightening match which started with a stare off, fortunately it did not last for more than a few seconds as Masato Tanaka was not going to be drawn into this again. This was a heavyweight wear down match, very much on the mat to begin with, Fujita bigger and heavier and using this to his advantage, Tanaka had such an opponent a long time ago. Throughout the match, Fujita's demonic expression rarely left.
Tanaka's attack was sustained in that he went for Fujita's knees with kicks, submission moves and even wrapping his knee around the steel barrier outside. Fujita even lost one of his kneepads. The match continued very much in this slow and steady pace of each wearing the other down, until Tanaka exploded into a flurry of slams and Sliding D elbows for the win. This had been what Fujita had been waiting for as he let loose with his own. To Tanaka's credit, he was going to try anything he could, even vicious shoulder slams on Fujita's head, but it wasn't enough. Nothing was enough and The Beast ultimately dodged The Bullet.
Winner: Kazuyuki Fujita with the Mochitsuki Type Powerbomb (31 minutes, 28 seconds)
Noah's next event: JUST FINE! 2022 (Wednesday 23rd March, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo)
GIF taken from WrestleUniverse
With thanks to: Metal-Noah
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