(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: N Innovation (Thursday 23rd June, Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo)

Noah announced a sold out crowd of 360 people, thanks to a full on campaign by The Noah Junior Regulars (with a little help from Satoshi Kojima) to sell the last few remaining tickets. Sadly, neither Alejandro or Daisuke Harada where able to attend the show due to both running temperatures. Noah have not said whether or not this is Covid related, but as Mitsuharu Misawa once said "A wrestlers life is communal living", it may just be an unrelated virus. Due to Harada's absence, the Open The TriangleGate championship was vacated and Kaito Kiyomiya would team with a mystery partner as Xtreme Tiger would team with YO-HEY and Atsushi Kotoge for the vacant titles. 

This is the first time that the N-Innovation has been held at Shinjuku FACE, and it was so reminiscent of SEM with the lighting and the layout of the venue, the way the wrestlers entered, the way they left and a small intimate feeling. It was hard not to believe that this wasn't Differ Ariake on a Thursday night. 

The event can be viewed live on WrestleUniverse, but you must be a subscriber to view. 

MATCH ONE

Kaito Kiyomiya & X vs Kongoh (Shuji Kondo & Hi69)

Satoshi Kojima, the GHC Heavyweight Champion, was revealed to be Kaito Kiyomiya's mystery partner. Kojima was gracious enough to appear at a small venue, at a junior event, and without the GHC Heavyweight, to help Noah out in a crisis. This got him the thanks not only of fans, but Daisuke Harada himself and his older brother too. 

Satoshi Kojima and Shuji Kondo had their first match in twelve years, while Kaito Kiyomiya looked on. Kiyomiya has said that Kojima is a good study for how to fight Keiji Mutoh, but I am wondering if he is also doing some scouting on Kojima himself for when the time comes to make a challenge. 

Winner: Satoshi Kojima with the Western Lariat on Hi69 (9 minutes, 33 seconds)

MATCH TWO

Yoshinari Ogawa vs Kai Fujimura

With the audacity of youth, Kai Fujimura attacked Yoshinari Ogawa straight away. However, Ogawa shortly reversed and made Fujimura tap and then left the ring. The referee had to raise his hand halfway between the ring and the curtain.

Winner: Yoshinari Ogawa via submission (51 seconds)

MATCH THREE

Seiki Yoshioka vs Yuya Susumu

Yuya Susumu had spoken before the match that here in their singles match, he was confident that Seiki Yoshioka would return to STINGER. Yoshioka had no intention of doing that, and labelled Susumu's words "sugary" or "coaxing". Susumu offered a handshake twice, before the match (which Yoshioka looked completely fed up with) and after the vicious match they had which kept fans on the edge of their seats wondering who would win, and what would happen. 

Winner: Seiki Yoshioka with the Crash Driver (17 minutes, 34 seconds)

As Yoshioka stood over Susumu, Susumu made one last attempt at reconciliation by exhaustedly raising his arm and extending a hand to his former partner. Yoshioka looked down and quickly walked off. Backstage Susumu had to finally admit defeat. Knowing Yoshioka as he does, he said that he would wait for him to work this out of his system, and return to tagging with him. He was confident that he would. He may be waiting a while, as Yoshioka has declared he will be now a lone wolf. 

MATCH FOUR

OPEN THE TRIANGLEGATE CHAMPIONSHIP

The Noah Junior Regulars (Daisuke Harada, Atsushi Kotoge & YO-HEY) vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (NOSAWA Rongai, Eita & Kotaro Suzuki)

If ever a rule was made for Noah Juniors, it is the No Touch Tag Rule. Used in Lucha, this means that a tag partner does not have to physically tag in to make his partner the legal man, all he has to do is be outside the ring. Throw six Noah Juniors into this, and you have complete chaos. Fights took place all over the venue, bodies flew everywhere from the three aerial Noah Junior Regulars (Xtreme Tiger at one point even took on the role of air traffic controller and directed YO-HEY). YO-HEY, so happy to have been a DragonGate champion (Kobe was a dream to him) fought desperately to keep the title, but there was a certain irony in one DragonKid pinning the other for the title. 

Winner: Eita with the Imperial Uno on YO-HEY (10 minutes, 10 seconds)

As the Noah Junior Regulars slunk backstage disappointed and huddled together in the interview area, Perros Del Mal dragged out Yoshinari Ogawa and threw him in the ring. This happened during the interval between their match and the next match, causing the trainees in the ring doing disinfectant work to scatter. 

After beating Ogawa down (plus an Imperial Uno kick from Eita following a Kotaro Blue Destiny), Eita put his foot on Ogawa's chest and challenged himself (and Chris Ridgeway) for the GHC Junior Heavyweight tag titles. Kotaro would be his partner;

"Once again, I am going to wear the GHC Junior Tag belt. Ogawa-san, champion! The place is the Nippon Budokan! The next challengers are me and Kotaro!"

The title match will take place at the Nippon Budokan on the 16th July.

MATCH FIVE

LOSER LEAVES NOAH

Haoh vs Tadasuke

This was a highly emotional match for Noah fans and for Haoh and Tadasuke themselves, despite their mutual hatred. Tadasuke said he wasn't leaving as he had things he wanted to do in Noah (becoming singles champion) while for Haoh, the story was a little longer; he had left everything for Noah, his real name for starters, and this was the ring he had tried to enter fourteen years ago and had failed as he hadn't passed the entry test. He had fought to protect his name (plus his hair) and he was going to win this. He tried, he tried his best but few with Haoh's physique are successful against someone like Tadasuke who wrestles with the strength of a heavyweight, and this was one battle that Haoh was going to lose. 

Winner: Tadasuke with the Outcast (16 minutes, 10 seconds)

Haoh had lost, and now he had to leave Noah. He was in tears as he left, and fans wondered if there was an element of truth to them. Atsushi Kotoge who had seconded him, was also in tears. Tadasuke was jubilant. His backstage promo consisted of basically saying that “He left Kongoh, took my friends hair and his name, so I had no choice but to kick him out. Now he won’t see my face. See ya!”

MATCH SIX

GHC JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

HAYATA vs Hajime Ohara

HAYATA wasn't quite so confident that this match would be over so easily as Hajime Ohara, who is an eternal student of anything he does (college, wrestling, teaching the elderly and studying dementia prevention through exercise, voluntary firework), studied and almost passed the exam. Ohara has a certain element of revenge in challenging HAYATA for the GHC Junior as he not only wants to be champion, he wants to take the belt from him as revenge for HAYATA ending his title reign a few years ago. HAYATA is not the HAYATA he fought then and unbelievably got the win via submission on one of Noah's premier technicians. 

Winner: HAYATA with a deformed armlock (24 minutes, 8 seconds)

Seiki Yoshioka wasted no time coming to the ring to challenge HAYATA for the GHC Junior.

"The next challenger is me. That is why I decided to leave STINGER and go it alone. I will take the belt without having rely on anyone"

As far as HAYATA was concerned, he and Yoshioka were still friends, right? 

Wrong. He told Yoshioka he would happily accept his challenge and offered his hand. Yoshioka looked at it and just like he did earlier with Susumu, went to shake it and then turned and kicked. The title match will take place at the Nippon Budokan on the 16th July. 

Backstage Yoshioka elaborated on his decision to leave STINGER. He said that this was because he wanted to be GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion and thus prove he belonged at the peak of the Noah Juniors, and the path in this case was unavoidable. It led through HAYATA. 

Other notes

- Yoshiki Inamura at ringside had a rough evening. Not only did he have to chase various Noah Juniors around the venue, tell audience members to move for moves Eita decided not to do as he wanted to fool YO-HEY, he had to gently take a chair off of an angry Kaito Kiyomiya who was threatening to use it on Shuji Kondo, and NOSAWA Rongai used him as a weapon.

- The venue was rocking to metal and stadium rock music prior to the event starting, Metallica and Motley Crue were on the playlist. 

Noah's next event: SUNNY VOYAGE 2022 (24th June 2022, Yokohama Radiant Hall)

GIF credit: WrestleUniverse

With thanks to: Metal Noah