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

"Thank you - SOLD OUT"

Noah announced a sold out crowd of one hundred and sixty-two people today at Club Citta. Club Citta (which Noah owe much to, considering they operated out of here during the pandemic) usually hosts smaller shows. Today's show might not have featured the whole roster, but it wasn't without drama. You can watch the WrestleUniverse stream, but you must be a subscriber. Japanese commentary only.

Junta Miyawaki is leaving for Mexico to train at Toryumon Casa after today, and so Noah held a final farewell for fans in the form of autographs and pictures. There was a huge queue of people, with fans wishing him well and asking him to do his best. 

Naomichi Marufuji missed the event due to knee pain, and so Mohammed Yone substituted for him in the main. 

MATCH ONE

Yoshiki Inamura vs Kazusada Higuchi

(Match of The Year)

Fans said that they wanted to see the ring or the building fall down with the momentum of this match. Fortunately, that did not happen, but the ring was shaking dangerously and the crowd could not help but gasp when the two slammed into each other during the Sumo moment.

Kazusada Higuchi entered to very fitting music for the match, it sounded like a Showa era movie monster theme. Yoshiki Inamura added to this when he did his scream when entering the ring in Higuchi's face, not something he has done to any other opponents so far. Then bell rang and the behemoths charged. Fans said yesterday on Inamura's Twitter Space that they wanted this to be a yearly CyberFight event, and who can blame them? Both slammed into each other repeatedly, throwing each other around the ring, chop war led to slam war. Wearing each other down became a frustrating and grueling experience as neither would stay down, and both kept staggering to their feet. They both kept going on and on and on. Having exhausted wrestling, they fused it with sumo, which is something seldom seen in a Noah ring (not since Takeshi Rikio at least who used sumo style attacks to drive his opponents back), and charged at each other, locking up and grappling.

Winner: Time out draw at 15 minutes 

The two butted heads at the end. It didn't matter now that Higuchi refused to engage with his CyberFight Festival partners or that his partners where ignoring Yoshiki Inamura, the two would focus on each other. This would be their story. No wonder fans wanted this rivalry to be part of CyberFight Festival every year. Backstage, Inamura called the period between the end of this match and the start of the CyberFight Festival tag the break period when two Sumo are given water before the fight begins again. 

 

MATCH TWO

YO-HEY & Xtreme Tiger vs The Noah Junior Regulars (Haoh & Alejandro)

The ring, it must be said, was looking a little fragile as Xtreme Tiger offered a fist bump to Haoh and this friendly match began, which is ironic that it's called "friendly" as it ended with Haoh stamping off. Alejandro and YO-HEY went slightly wild, which was kind of like a good description of this match, as each term started pulling poses at each other. 

WINNER: YO-HEY with the YO-ROLL on Haoh (11 minutes, 15 seconds)

Fans are wondering if the pair will challenge for the GHC Junior Tag Titles. 

MATCH THREE

Michael Elgin & Masa Kitamiya vs Simon Gotch & Kinya Okada

Simon Gotch used his own foot to batter Masa Kitamiya, while he had him on the mat and in a headlock. I don't think Kitamiya has ever had anyone grab their own foot and hit him with it. Kinya Okada it seems may also have learned something of this, and although it was not the same move, seemed to be more inventive in using himself in different ways. Okada continues his growth, coming very close to pinning his opponents. 

WINNER: Michael Elgin with the Elgin Bomb on Kinya Okada (9 minutes, 52 seconds)

Gotch left fireman carrying Okada, while backstage the heavyweight tag champions issued an "anyone, anywhere" call for challengers. 

MATCH FOUR

Junta Miyawaki send off match

Kaito Kiyomiya vs Junta Miyawaki

(Match of The Year)

Both Kaito Kiyomiya and Junta Miyawaki were slightly emotional. Miyawaki was determined to win, not only because the Noah Junior Regulars were at ringside, but because he wanted to at leave some impact before he left. The match contained a rare spot (for them both) of the fight going outside the ring, and Kiyomiya slamming Miyawaki on the ramp. Throughout the match, Kiyomiya was determined to provoke Miyawaki's fighting spirit to tell him what he expected him (as his senior) to do when he went to train and what he expected of him when he came back. Kiyomiya wanted to see the difference. Miyawaki almost stole the win a few times, although he was going for desperation momentum tags. It was almost reminiscent of when Kiyomiya had his own farewell match against Kenoh. 

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Tiger Suplex Hold (17 minutes, 12 seconds)

Kiyomiya spoke emotionally on the mic, as Miyawaki lay on the mat

"Miyawaki, always come at that level. Today it was conveyed that you were different than usual. Miyawaki's resolution? Did you all see it? By the time you return, I'll be the new Noah, so I won't lose to you either. But, with your resolution today I am sure you will come back in a big way. I will be expecting that".

The Noah Junior Regulars then got into the ring, and encouraged Miyawaki to get to his feet by himself and they posed together when he did. 

Miyawaki's face was crumpled and emotional. Afterwards, Miyawaki said backstage that he had always been indebted to Kiyomiya since he entered Noah at the age of eighteen, and he would take what Kiyomiya said to heart as his expectations were absolute, train hard and return to Noah. 

But, considering the rivalry between the heavyweights, Kiyomiya's statement that it will be his Noah when Miyawaki returns, and the unstableness of the Noah Junior division, what kind of Noah will be Miyawaki coming back to? 

MATCH FIVE

Kongoh (Kenoh, Hajime Ohara & Hi69) vs Damnation (Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON)

Damnation entered in a way calculated to wind up Kenoh. Not that there was anything different than DDT'S rebel unit entering in a way they always probably did in their home promotion, but Kenoh was so irritated by the sight of them that he yelled at them from the top of the ramp. Maybe Kongoh should have done their pose there, as Damnation jumped them the moment they got in the ring with Daisuke Sasaki attacking Kenoh, who hadn't even had time to take his jacket off. 

The match was chaos inside and outside of the ring. Sasaki (when he wasn't taking Kenoh's knee out in a languid manner) threw a chair into Kenoh's head thanks to a distraction by one of his teammates. When it came to the pair of them one on one, Kenoh was so furious he could hardly speak and Sasaki's attacks did nothing. The only person who provoked Kenoh into this type of rage was Kiyomiya, and unbelievably, Kenoh was then even angrier then. Naturally, their interaction was brutal, with Kenoh grabbing Sasaki's hair at one point and slapping him repeatedly. Kenoh was not falling the second time for any chair shots (which came about thanks to another member of Damnation who was not in the match causing a distraction) and stood there looking enraged, removing the body of the chair from around his neck, but a win over Kenoh would have to wait for Sasaki, although he did win the match.

WINNER: Daisuke Sasaki with the Mystica Cross Face Lock on Hi69 (15 minutes, 13 seconds)

Damnation's win triggered another brawl, and while Kenoh was fighting with KANON, Sasaki attacked Kenoh with an stun gun. Getting on the mic he told him;

"Daisuke Sasaki came to Noah's filthy ring, representing DDT. I am sure of it today that it figures, Kenoh, that you are not a big deal."

He vowed to destroy him at CyberFestival. 

MATCH SIX

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!"

With thanks to: Metal-Noah

GIF taken from WrestleUniverse

Noah's next event: SUNNY VOYAGE 2022, Sunday June 5th (Niigata / Aore Nagaoka)