(NOAH) CARD: Sunny Voyage 2022 (Yokohama Radiant Hall, Friday 24th June)

The Noah Juniors held their emotional (and in parts, shocking) N-Innovation at Shinkiba FACE yesterday, so tonight the heavyweights take Yokohama Radiant Hall. There might not be as many matches with as much riding on it as the Noah Juniors did (i.e. a title match, a major grudge match and a loser leaves Noah match), but there are some definite sparks on this card, a pre match and a tag title that needs to be challenged for. 

Event begins at 18:00 JST and will be broadcast on WrestleUniverse.

MATCH ONE

Funky Express (Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito) vs Shuhei Taniguchi & Kinya Okada

Funky Express open the show against their former member, who has shed his funky ways and now unanimated and serious, has no time for funkiness or disco dancing, despite how many times that Mohammed Yone tries to bring him back to the Night Fever side. While his veterans fight, Kinya Okada grows stronger, and Taniguchi seems to be there to guide him. 

MATCH TWO

Daiki Inaba vs Simon Gotch

This match stems from the conflict at The CyberFight Festival when Daiki Inaba and Simon Gotch were on opposing teams. Neither got the win over the other, but that isn't going to prevent this match from being a continuation of Team Japan vs Noah International. 

MATCH THREE

Manabu Soya vs El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr

If a card is all heavyweights, then sooner or later you need to have a heavyweight Hoss fight, which Manabu Soya and El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr will be presenting tonight. 

MATCH FOUR

THE TOUGH TRIO (Michael Elgin, Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura) vs Takashi Sugiura, Hideki Suzuki & Timothy Thatcher

For a few weeks now, the tag champions have been asking for their challengers to come forward. I'm not sure whether Takashi Sugiura will get involved, but I am wondering if Hideki Suzuki will want to challenge with Timothy Thatcher (Suzuki was interesting in continuing the tag with Sugi, but things have sadly changed for Sugi recently) or else Yoshiki Inamura may announce his own challenge. Either way, with all the other title matches being set up for the Nippon Budokan, hopefully tonight should see a resolution. 

MATCH FIVE

Go Shiozaki vs Rene Dupree

Before the pandemic caused Noah to close the borders, Go Shiozaki and Rene Dupree had a rivalry starting. That rivalry reared its head in Kobe and has resulted in this singles match. No titles are on line, so it's going to be two guys fighting it out, and probably not reaching a resolution. 

MATCH SIX

Satoshi Kojima & Kaito Kiyomiya vs Kenoh & Katsuhiko Nakajima

Kenoh and Satoshi Kojima go for their second pre-match, with the added addition of Kaito Kiyomiya (Kenoh's nemesis) and Katsuhiko Nakajima. A smaller match this time with more opportunity for the champion and his challenger to get the win over each other, but nonetheless, there are two people in the match who aren't going to be upstaged. Kiyomiya is looking ahead to the singles match with Keiji Mutoh and so has found inspiration in Kojima, and Nakajima (I would imagine) will continue to send a strong message to Jun Akiyama, and who better to send it through than the GHC Heavyweight Champion? 

Picture credit: WrestleUniverse