(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: SUNNY VOYAGE 2022 - Sunday July 10th, Fujisan Messe, Shizuoka

Due to Michael Elgin being absent, the card was hurriedly changed with Rene Dupree taking Mohammed Yone's place in the opener, and Anthony Greene and Stallion Rogers making their Noah debut, a few hours after getting off of the plane. Satoshi Kojima was on autographs, fans said that he made you feel as if he cherished talking to you. 

The venue today is one of the most beautiful that Noah goes to. Fujisan Messe lies at the foot of Mount Fuji, and often the light mimics the mountain in the venue. Today, Mount Fuji was swathed in white fluffy clouds, giving the venue a kind of soft creamy look. The event itself was not streamed live, although Noah did show match five live on Instagram. The event will be shown on WrestleUniverse from 18:00 JST on the 13th July.   

Memorial

A memorial bell ceremony was held for Director Masashi Aoyagi, who died a few days ago. He had been part of Noah from 2000 to 2015, whereby he retired following a motorcycle accident before returning to the ring a few years later. Akitoshi Saito, who had been Aoyagi's student, did the honors. He was emotional and was keeping back tears. The roster came to ringside, those who had been in Noah during that era, remembering Aoyagi too. 

MATCH ONE

Rene Dupree vs Kinya Okada

Rene Dupree's chops echoed throughout the hall. Kinya Okada displayed grit, gritting his teeth and getting up as much as he could. 

WINNER: Rene Dupree with Satan's Wing submission on Kinya Okada (7 minutes, 37 seconds)

MATCH TWO

Xtreme Tiger vs Alejandro

Rare to see a masked man vs masked man match in Noah. This was a friendly and done between the Noah Junior Regulars. 

Winner: Xtreme Tiger with the Reverse Face Bomb (8 minutes, 13 seconds)

MATCH THREE

Anthony Greene vs Stallion Rogers

Ironically, the best place to make a surprise debut is the countryside. The fans in the provinces say they get to see shows, but they rarely get surprises which are usually saved for Korakuen etc, and so they cherish moments like this. A lot of the roster too turned out to watch the match, and were seen standing in various places around the arena. Fans were fascinated by the match, and urge you all to watch it on WrestleUniverse when you can.

WINNER: Anthony Greene with the Alternate Ending (10 minutes, 53 seconds)

MATCH FOUR

STINGER (HAYATA & Simon Gotch) vs Seiki Yoshioka & Kai Fujimura

HAYATA held up the belt to Seiki Yoshioka. Yoshioka had said that Gotch was not going to either get in or stand in his way, and it appeared that he was able to knock them both out of the ring at some point as HAYATA was overheard asking Gotch how he was. 

Winner: Simon Gotch with the Gotch Style Pile Driver on Kai Fujimura (11 minutes, 48 seconds)

Yoshioka's traditional parting shot was to again kick HAYATA in the head with another Buzz kick. Gotch carried HAYATA out, HAYATA still clinging to the belt.

MATCH FIVE

Go Shiozaki, Akitoshi Saito & The Noah Junior Regulars (Daisuke Harada & YO-HEY) Vs Kongoh (Katsuhiko Nakajima, Manabu Soya, Tadasuke & Hi69)

Hoss fight, Noah Junior melee brawl, sneaky Tadasuke, former AXIZ going to war, kicks and chops - as you can imagine, this match had it all. Go Shiozaki and Manabu Soya had a massive lock up, while Akitoshi Saito and Manabu Soya had a Hoss Fight and Akitoshi Saito and Katsuhiko Nakajima had a kick war. YO-HEY was also on the receiving end of Nakajima, who threw him into the steel barriers repeatedly, with a big grin on his face.

Tadasuke had been wondering why it was he hadn't had any revenge from the Noah Junior Regulars, and I think he got his answer today when Daisuke Harada laid into him, even once hitting with a flying punch to stop him from ganging up with Kongoh on YO-HEY. 

WINNER: Daisuke Harada with the Katayama German Suplex Hold (17 minutes, 29 seconds)

After the match, Saito paid tribute to his teacher. 

Backstage, Go Shiozaki swore that he would win the N-1 and prove to Katsuhiko Nakajima, Keiji Mutoh and Masakatsu Funaki, that "I AM NOAH". The Noah Junior Regulars also spoke, with YO-HEY saying that now that Harada had returned, he felt like they had got revenge for Haoh. There may be more here that has gone unsaid, first of all it kind of makes the others look weak that they can't do anything without Harada (which Tadasuke will pick up on no doubt) and secondly, where is Haoh? 

MATCH SIX

Kaito Kiyomiya & STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & Yuya Susumu) vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (NOSAWA Rongai, Kotaro Suzuki & Super Crazy)

NOSAWA Rongai came to the ring with a little paper bag, which souvenirs are put in, and when Yoshinari Ogawa entered, looked as if he was asking him to exchange his belt for a souvenir. Oddly, Ogawa refused his kind offer, but as we would later see certainly wanted to see what his gift was. NOSAWA placed the bag very carefully in the corner. 

The match progressed with the usual tricks from NOSAWA involving chairs, Ogawa ripping Kotaro Suzuki's Perros Del Mal De Japon shirt off him and strangling him with it, and Kaito Kiyomiya road testing his Keiji Mutoh moves and mannerisms, usually on NOSAWA. 

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Shining Wizard on NOSAWA Rongai (12 minutes, 30 seconds)

After the match, Ogawa opened his gift, which turned out to be white powder, which he threw in Kotaro's face and then again after Yuya Susumu and Kaito Kiyomiya (again using Keiji Mutoh moves) beat up on Kotaro, and then some more for good measure. They posed with Kotaro, and then left. Kiyomiya had a smile, Kotaro looked like he had been made up to play a ghost on stage. Backstage Kotaro spluttered was this some kind of slapstick comedy?

MATCH SEVEN

Masa Kitamiya, Yoshiki Inamura. Shuhei Taniguchi & Daiki Inaba vs The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Hideki Suzuki, Timothy Thatcher & El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr)

WINNER: Timothy Thatcher over Shuhei Taniguchi with the Fujiwara Armbar on Shuhei Taniguchi (17 minutes, 21 seconds)

Hideki Suzuki was seen to be cooling Timothy Thatcher down afterwards, and telling him to wait until The Budokan next week. Backstage, Thatcher said, "Let's talk about pro wrestling, we have a lot of ways to beat you."

MATCH EIGHT

Satoshi Kojima & Atsushi Kotoge vs Kongoh (Kenoh & Hajime Ohara)

A foul mouthed feud deserves a final foul mouthed final pre-match, and with Kenoh and Satoshi Kojima swearing at each other, the referee even got dragged into it when one started complaining about the other. Kenoh even changed Kojima's "Let's go..." into "Let's go, assholes!". Kaito Kiyomiya wasn't the only person to use Keiji Mutoh moves, as Kojima used the Dragon Screw.

Winner: Kenoh with the PFS on Atsushi Kotoge (17 minutes, 19 seconds)

The final pre match ended with Kenoh winning over an opponent, but not the champion. Kenoh saw it as a win in lieu, and said so much on the microphone afterwards in usual shrill and angry manner. Then after butting heads, the row went backstage and because this is a small country venue everyone heard them. Their last challenges included squats, push ups and now Kojima suggested karaoke... 

Noah's next event: ABEMA Presents DESTINATION 2022 (16th July, Nippon Budokan)

GIF taken from Noah Official Twitter

Picture credit: Noah Official Twitter

With thanks to: Little Goto Monster, Metal-Noah, Shishikazu, Kei