(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: STAR NAVIGATION 2022 (Korakuen Hall Night 2, Wednesday 8th June)

Today's event was streamed live on ABEMA, and is available to view on WrestleUniverse. You must be a subscriber to watch. 

The event

The first match was part opener, part teaching, part feud and part exhibition. Hideki Suzuki and Yoshiki Inamura went head to head, with the advantage more Inamura who knocked Suzuki out of the ring. Both Yoshiki Inamura and his tag partner, Kinya Okada, demonstrated their growth as wrestlers and the skills they had learned while training at Kazushi Sakuraba's Natural9 gym. Okada in particular managed to take down Kazuyuki Fujita. Suzuki won however, and Fujita gave Okada a friendly slap on the back before he left. It feels like he is becoming Okada's mentor and believe it or not, teaching was something Fujita wanted to do when he entered Noah. As Fujita left the ring, Suzuki and Inamura were squaring up to each other. 

After losing the Open The TriangleGate Tag belts yesterday, Perros Del Mal De Japon made a slightly grumpy appearance. Kotaro Suzuki was once again a little distant from his teammates, although there was no visible split in the match. Eita menaced his opponents as soon as he got into the ring, and tried to rip off Alejandro's mask. The Noah Junior Regulars (Alejandro, Haoh and Xtreme Tiger) did not trust them and started to complain about something hidden in the kneepads. Fortunately nothing came to light, but Alejandro (ironically) was lucky he wasn't injured when he went crashing into the steel barriers and made one of the commentators scream. Eita won the match and Perros stamped off. We would see more of them later. 

Despite Tadasuke's hint that he would be targeting HAYATA, it was more Hajime Ohara. Tadasuke was more concerned with having both a fight and a swearing competition with Simon Gotch, whose enthusiasm was infectious and even involved HAYATA. Gotch even made a point of looking for Tadasuke, over the top of Tadasuke's head, and then looking down to notice him. He also made Kai Fujimura (who was on fire, and rising to the challenge of this match) scoop slam him on to Tadasuke. The match was won by Hajime Ohara, who challenged HAYATA for the GHC Junior afterwards;

"Hey, HAYATA! Let me challenge! The next challenger is me!"

HAYATA accepted, and said backstage that Ohara's challenge was an easy victory, but he would accept it as he said he would accept any challenger. He was even looking ahead as to who would challenge after Ohara. 

Timothy Thatcher was able to draw out a part of Shuhei Taniguchi, that Noah fans have not seen for a long time, and bought him back to basics. Before turning pro, Taniguchi had been hugely successful as an amateur and had even made it to the All Japan (not the promotion) championships. This was probably the best match that Taniguchi has had in a long time, but the true test of a Taniguchi match is whether or not someone can provoke the sleeping monster. Although he was not provoked today, Thatcher won in seven minutes and twenty-seven seconds with the Fujiwara Armbar. 

Jun Akiyama made a flying visit home to Noah to be on commentary during the match. Kenoh was seen scanning the crowd for Daisuke Sasaki, but he did not appear, and did not jump Kenoh backstage either. Katsuhiko Nakajima was suitably sinister, throughout the match which was not notable for what happened in it, but more what happened after it.

Nakajima: Hey, Akiyama, what's the matter? Why did you come here for? Do you want to come up to the ring? 

Akiyama, holding the stun gun (and wearing a t-shirt which read "Keep calm and sexy wrestling") removed the commentators headphones and got in the ring. Unbeknownst to Kongoh, old Uncle Jun had not come alone, he had bought back up from DDT and Tetsuya Endo, Kazusada Higuchi, Yuya Takashika and Toui Kojima. 

Endo: Hey, Pro Wrestling Noah! It's KO-D Openweight Champion Tetsuya Endo himself, I am here for public relations. In the absence of Naomichi Marufuji, isn't Katsuhiko Nakajima a delicious opponent? No matter who comes, on June 12th we will prove that we, DDT, are superior to Pro Wrestling Noah. In other words, what I want to say is...we came to pick a fight.

Higuchi: Well actually, I came here today to say hello...

Kenoh (interrupting): Let me just say one thing. Here is not the place to act like a local councilor, right? Don't come to Noah's ring with that tone. My opponent? Oh. What's his name?

Jun Akiyama turns on the stun gun warningly, a crackling sound filling the quiet arena. The warning is lost on Kenoh, who continues "my opponent had long black hair. Let's see...black hair (Endo), black hair (Higuchi), black hair (Takashika & Kojima)...you don't have any hair! (Akiyama). Hey! Long black hair! Why didn't you come here? This is why DDT act at pro wrestling. On June 12th, at the CyberFight Festival, I will take everything from you, stun guns, whatever, and I'll beat you. Tell that to the guy with long black hair."

Kenoh leaves the ring.

Akiyama: Katsuhiko, I'll go all out on the 12th.

Nakajima (laughing): I'm laughing. Bothering to greet in fight? Who are you anyway? The Suckerfish champion, The Gerontocracy, The washed up Sumo wrestler and the two behind you. I don't know who they are. Was the Akiyama I knew so small, that he would wither before a fight? Go home, fast. Noah's hot and tough fight is continuing after this, so go home quickly.  

Akiyama and DDT leave the ring, Nakajima calls after Akiyama: Hey, Jun Akiyama, how did it feel when climbing into Noah's ring for the first time in a long time? Was it exciting? It's different from when you where here. I'll give you a taste at CyberFight Festival on June 12th.

In the Open The TriangleGate tag match, HAYATA came out to second his team, which had a sense of tension between them. Yuya Susumu had said Seiki Yoshioka might have won them the belts yesterday, but he was going to defend them today. The Noah Junior Regulars seemed more united though, although Atsushi Kotoge was down and a little unenthusiastic, but this was following his comments yesterday when he said he was not annoyed with his partners, or his opponent, but himself for his lethargy. DragonGate fight their tag championships under the Lucha No Touch Rule. What this means is that the legal man in the ring does not have to necessarily tag in, he is the legal man as soon as his partner is outside the ring. For the Noah Juniors, it's a signal for more chaos and this match was wild and during it Susumu hit Yoshioka by mistake, and this meant that Harada could capitalize for the win. For YO-HEY, this was a very special win, and he was delighted to have a DragonGate championship, albeit he had won it in a Noah ring. Fans hope that he will go to DragonGate to defend the title at some point. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Certain things happened beforehand, one affecting him and the other not. 

Seiki Yoshioka shoved Yuya Susumu, who was attempting to check on him. Shoved Ogawa and then when he left the ring and HAYATA stood in his way, shoved past him too. He later announced that he had left STINGER. Yuya Susumu, after some initial anger backstage in which he said that if Yoshioka left he wouldn't forgive him (HAYATA and Ogawa discreetly vanished), reflected that they had been partners for a long time, was Yoshioka going to throw all that way? He also said that they where STINGER. 

STINGER'S issues were not an issue for The Noah Junior Regulars, but Perros Del Mal De Japon where, and they arrived on the scene soon after. Eita sarcastically said that they were so happy they had got the belts, but they were coming for them back. Daisuke Harada accepted the challenge and it has been set for the 23rd June at Shinjuku Face. Atsushi Kotoge cheered up after the challenge, saying winning this belt had given him much needed momentum. 

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".

RESULTS

1. The Sugiura Army (Kazuyuki Fujita & Hideki Suzuki) vs Yoshiki Inamura & Kinya Okada (Hideki Suzuki won with The Robinson Special on Kinya Okada - 11 minutes, 53 seconds)

2. Perros Del Mal De Japon (NOSAWA Rongai, Eita & Kotaro Suzuki) vs The Noah Junior Regulars (Xtreme Tiger, Haoh & Alejandro) (Kotaro Suzuki won with the Trauma on Alejandro - 9 minutes, 47 seconds)

3. STINGER (Simon Gotch & HAYATA) & Kai Fujimura vs Kongoh Juniors (Tadasuke, Hajime Ohara & Hi69) (Hajime Ohara won with the Mui Bien on Kai Fujimura - 15 minutes, 44 seconds)

4. Timothy Thatcher vs Shuhei Taniguchi (Timothy Thatcher won with the Fujiwara Armbar - 7 minutes, 27 seconds)

5. The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Rene Dupree & El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr) vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Manabu Soya) (Katsuhiko Nakajima won with the Vertical Spike on Rene Dupree - 13 minutes, 25 seconds) 

6. OPEN THE TRIANGLE GATE Championship - STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa, Seiki Yoshioka & Yuya Susumu) vs The Noah Junior Regulars (Daisuke Harada, Atsushi Kotoge & YO-HEY) (Daisuke Harada won with the Katayama German Suplex on Seiki Yoshioka - 14 minutes, 4 seconds)

7. 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)

GIF taken from WrestleUniverse/ABEMA

Noah's next events:

CyberFight Festival - 12th June at Saitama Super Arena

Back In The Kobe - 19th June at Kobe Sambo Hall