(NOAH) Chronology - Go Shiozaki (GHC Heavyweight Championship)

With a fifth title reign, Go Shiozaki now holds the record in Noah

Won: WrestleUniverse presents MAJESTIC 2022, (Ryogoku Kokugikan, Saturday 30th April)

Number of title reigns: 5 

Number of defenses: 0

Lost: CyberFight Festival 2022, Saitama Super Arena, 12th June

Total number of days held: 44

Challengers

1. Satoshi Kojima

Title match: CyberFight Festival 2022, June 12th Super Saitama Arena

Title challenge

WRESTLE UNIVERSE presents MAJESTIC 2022 (Saturday April 30th, Ryogoku Kokugikan)

Satoshi Kojima came to challenge for the title. Kojima said simply, "The next challenger is me". Shiozaki responded by raising the belt. Title match has been set for CyberFight on the 12th June. Tokyo Sports are calling this challenge, "Strong Arm vs Hard Arm" and Shiozaki well remembers the force of Kojima's lariats. 

Backstage, Shiozaki said he wouldn't truly feel like champion, unless he overcame Kazuyuki Fujita, which was his original goal. 

Dream on 2022 (Wednesday May 4th, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo)

Go Shiozaki, Daiki Inaka & Yoshiki Inamura vs Satoshi Kojima, Naomichi Marufuji & Masato Tanaka

Part generational match and part pre-match. Satoshi Kojima is fighting Go Shiozaki for the GHC Heavyweight, while Naomichi Marufuji has a score to settle with Daiki Inaba, and Masato Tanaka had it reinforced to him once again today that Yoshiki Inamura is becoming harder and harder to beat. But while the other three in either team had a battle, Go Shiozaki and Satoshi Kojima had a war sending a clear message about just what this title challenge is going to be like. Their interactions were vicious to say the least, and at the end of the round of chops, Kojima posted a picture on his Twitter of his bright red and bleeding chest. 

Naomichi Marufuji, for whatever reason, had some kind of issue with Yoshiki Inamura's costume. First of all telling the referee to recheck it, and then making some kind of motion to Inamura about it, and after being thrown about the ring, he even pinged his braces! Marufuji wasn't much interested in Shiozaki and left him and Kojima to tear into each other. 

WINNER: Satoshi Kojima with the Lariat on Go Shiozaki (14 minutes, 16 seconds)

The challenger had pinned the champion in the very first pre-match, it was an upset to say the least. Normally, Shiozaki as the champion would stagger off on his own two feet, but as he was stunned, I don't think he minded too much leaning on Inamura. Backstage Kojima spoke about people talking of him being in his prime, and this was to him, his prime. 

Dream on 2022 (Thursday 19th May, Yokohama Radiant Hall)

Go Shiozaki & Daiki Inaba vs Satoshi Kojima & Naomichi Marufuji

Go Shiozaki had been humiliated in his last encounter with Satoshi Kojima, and he was not going to allow a repeat of that tonight. With the presence of Naomichi Marufuji and Daiki Inaba in the match, it felt like a generational war, not just in terms of age, but also in move-set and even puroresu history. Go Shiozaki (a Noah Born) was trained by Kenta Kobashi, who is of the Baba line, while Satoshi Kojima (a Young Lion) was trained in the New Japan dojo, and therefore is of the Inoki line. It was a clash of lineage. 

Naomichi Marufuji (much to his credit) was not interested in fighting Shiozaki, that spotlight belonged to Kojima. His portion of the match was Daiki Inaba, and with only their chop war battle occurring between himself and Shiozaki, he had no reason to steal anyone else's thunder. Mitsuharu Misawa once said that it was easy to fight people of his generation, it was the young people who he found difficult, and so I am wondering if this is part of the reason why Marufuji relishes the challenge with Inaba and others. 

WINNER: Satoshi Kojima with the Western Lariat on Daiki Inaba (17 minutes, 32 seconds)

The second pre match had ended in another win for Kojima, but it wasn't a win over the champion. Kojima spoke on the mic (fans thought it was somewhat New Japan style) and said;

Go Shiozaki! Finally, our title match is only in three weeks time. I won't run away and hide! I will do my best to win with all my strength and the pro wrestling that I have been doing for thirty-one years. I will win this with Western Lariat!! But finally I am going to say this...I'm going to win, idiot!

The last line seems to be one that Kojima often uses, and while the crowd laughed at it, Go Shiozaki got into the ring and silently held up the belt. 

Dream on 2022 FINAL (Saturday May 21st, Ota Ward General Gymnasium)

Go Shiozaki, Kaito Kiyomiya & Masato Tanaka vs Keiji Mutoh, Naomichi Marufuji & Satoshi Kojima

Keiji Mutoh made his return to Noah today. His agility seemed better than it had been, and he was moving quicker, but no one was under any illusions as to his underlying condition and Mutoh was going to have a reminder himself. 

There were a lot of layers to this match; Keiji Mutoh said his target was to pin Go Shiozaki, Naomichi Marufuji and Masato Tanaka would fight each other as they were the only people "without a theme" as Marufuji put it, Satoshi Kojima was aiming for Go Shiozaki (and likewise) while also preventing Mutoh from stealing his thunder, and Kaito Kiyomiya was aiming for Keiji Mutoh. Mutoh remains the wall that Kiyomiya wants to get round, the person who he wants to absorb everything from, as really he is one of the last of the Misawa era veterans still active, but sadly time may be running out. Added to the personal dynamics between the six, was the ever present generational war between Kaito Kiyomiya and his seniors. This permeated Shiozaki and Marufuji too. Marufuji realized during the chop battle that Shiozaki was becoming more like iron than ever, and Shiozaki's chops had far more effect on him than his did on Shiozaki. 

Tokyo Sports labelled Shiozaki vs Kojima as "The Battle of The Strong Arm", and the pre matches have not disappointed. Recently Kojima revealed in an interview that although he had been using the lariat since 1995, he had received input from  Stan Hansen in 2002, and of course Shiozaki's own lariat was from Kenta Kobashi, who had been advised to use the move by Stan Hansen. It demonstrates how close the relationship is between New Japan, Noah and All Japan, despite their differences. The last pre match had ended in humiliation for Shiozaki when Kojima pinned him. He had to break even, and he had to break through. There was also Keiji Mutoh to watch out for, but Shiozaki blinkered him and concentrated on Kojima. It paid off.  

WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan Lariat on Satoshi Kojima (23 minutes, 46 seconds)

In the ring, Go Shiozaki spoke;

"Thank you for coming! Satoshi Kojima, I am only thinking of you right now, that is how exciting this fight with you is. On the 12th June at CyberFight Festival, that I AM NOAH is me!"

NOAH SANCTUARY (30th May 2022, "Noah Special Arena" - Club Citta, Kawasaki)

Go Shiozaki, Shuhei Taniguchi & Daisuke Harada vs Satoshi Kojima, Mohammed Yone & Atsushi Kotoge

Go Shiozaki, looking very somber, wore no cloak and no smile. Satoshi Kojima was just as intense. Shiozaki kept Kojima in his sights, no matter who he was fighting in the ring, he was sending a message to him. 

As well as the GHC pre match, the other two stories going on was the Funky Express continuing rivalry and the only two juniors in the match, who were determined not to be outdone by the four heavyweights. Atsushi Kotoge could not resist pulling disco poses however. Later Daisuke Harada took him out with the Misawa rope dive, then ironically as he is a junior doing a heavyweight move, the heavyweights started brawling outside the ring, while the juniors fought inside of it. Harada later had no qualms about throwing Kotoge to the GHC Heavyweight Champion

Monster Taniguchi took everyone out, which no doubt pleased his seniors (plus Kenta Kobashi), but Kojima staring at Shiozaki grimly, pinned him with the Western lariat. 

WINNER: Satoshi Kojima with the Western Lariat on Shuhei Taniguchi (20 minutes, 53 seconds)

Kojima gave an high powered promo after the win, after which Shiozaki watched and then made a dignified exit. They might not had gotten the win over each other tonight but Kojima had gotten the win, and sent a clear message to Shiozaki.

"Shiozaki, do you hear me? The GHC title match is about two weeks away. Are you ready? Are you thinking about me for 24 hours a day? Hey, what about it? I'm always thinking about you. I wake up, eat, train at noon, after that think about you, eat at night and then think about you before going to bed. If you want to know more about me, then read Satoshi Kojima's page on Wikipedia. Anyway, I can only say this to close out the event...GHC Heavyweight Champion, I will win, stupid!"

Sunny Voyage 2022 (Sunday June 5th 2022, Niigata / Aore Nagaoka)

(Please note this was not live streamed, so information on the event was sparse)

Go Shiozaki defeated Mohammed Yone with a lariat. Not Satoshi Kojima. He closed out the show briefly with;

"Thank you for visiting the Nagaoka event. Satoshi Kojima! I am always thinking. I am always thinking of wearing the GHC belt. I will not give you it!"

STAR NAVIGATION 2022 (Korakuen Hall Night 2, Wednesday 8th June)

Go Shiozaki, Kaito Kiyomiya, Michael Elgin & Masa Kitamiya vs Satoshi Kojima, Masato Tanaka, Masaaki Mochizuki & Daiki Inaba (Satoshi Kojima defeated Go Shiozaki with the Western Lariat - 24 minutes, 23 seconds)

There was a thunder of applause for the final pre match between Go Shiozaki and Satoshi Kojima. This was their final chance to get the win and send a message to the other. It wasn't just Shiozaki and Kojima and their chops and lariats that the match was all about, everyone in the match fought brutally. Daiki Inaba and Kaito Kiyomiya went to war in particular. They might be polite to each other outside the ring, but inside it they tore into each other with as much brutality as the champion and his challenger. The match came down to Shiozaki and Kojima, Kojima kicked out of the Go Flasher and then it came down to lariats, Kojima managed to catch Shiozaki on the rebound and pinned him. It was a complete humiliation for the champion and he stumbled backstage. His only comment was, "I will never give you this belt".

CyberFight Festival 2022, Saitama Super Arena, 12th June

The match was a culmination of the struggle between chops, lariats and beyond that generations, lineages and record holders. Go Shiozaki was on his fifth title reign (record breaking in Noah) and Satoshi Kojima looked to have a record made himself, for if he won he would become the fourth man to hold The Grand Slam Championship title. It was almost as if there was two versions of everything - Shiozaki was Noah, Kojima was New Japan - both came from Rikidozan, both had a record either made or to be made, both had Stan Hansen as an association, both used lariats albeit a different version. 

As Shiozaki had discovered in the pre matches, Kojima was a tough opponent and he went to go for momentum pins when he found nothing was working. Kojima led him on in this, he was a dangerous opponent and he knew he warranted this, but it also played into his hands. 

WINNER: Satoshi Kojima with the Western Lariat (21 minutes, 11 seconds)

Next champion: Satoshi Kojima

LINKS

"Show Noah's Fight at CyberFight Festival where Pro Wrestling is condensed"

"I want to protect the GHC after fully drawing out the strength of Satoshi Kojima" Go Shiozaki's confidence for the GHC Championship, but "My lariat is not yet enough"