(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: N-1 VICTORY 2022 (Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Friday August 19th)

"Heaven if you win, hell if you lose"

Masa Kitamiya

Scores going into the event tonight

BLOCK A

Kenoh = 6 points (3 wins, 1 loss)

Kazuyuki Fujita = 4 points (2 wins, 1 loss)

Hideki Suzuki = 4 points (2 wins, 1 loss)

Masato Tanaka = 4 points (2 wins, 1 loss)

Go Shiozaki = 4 points (2 wins, 2 losses)

El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr (2 wins, 2 losses)

Anthony Greene = 2 points (1 win, 2 losses)

Masaaki Mochizuki= 0 points (4 losses)

BLOCK B

Satoshi Kojima = 6 points (3 wins, 1 loss)

Jack Morris = 4 points (2 wins, 1 loss)

Masakatsu Funaki = 4 points (2 wins, 1 loss)

Takashi Sugiura = 4 points (2 wins, 1 loss)

Katsuhiko Nakajima = 4 points (2 wins, 2 losses)

Masa Kitamiya = 4 points (2 wins, 2 losses)

Kaito Kiyomiya = 2 points (1 win, 2 losses)

Kinya Okada = 0 points (4 losses) 

Korakuen Hall is a venue that is charged with emotion. Layers upon layers of history from not just wrestling have built up in the ether, tonight, as you would imagine added another layer to a building that is already it's own living entity. Tonight was a night of triumph and disappointment, joy and anger. The juniors naturally had their own drama to add to the events. 

As is tradition, the Noah Junior Regulars did a short InstaLive (Daisuke Harada, the most responsible, did it from his account) which featured Seiki Yoshioka looking bewildered by being surrounded by a unit the complete opposite of STINGER, YO-HEY wandering off with the Styrofoam head again, and everyone talking excitedly when standing on the lobby stairs in loud voices due to the cacophony of noise from the background which included someone counting, the mat crashing, and sound tests for the mic, the bell, the video system and the sound system. Funniest part was everyone wishing someone a good day, and YO-HEY who was next to Harada, put his face half in the camera and yelled loudly. 

Today's event was originally broadcast on ABEMA, but if you subscribe to the service, you can watch it on WrestleUniverse. English commentary is available.

MATCH ONE

Yoshiki Inamura & Stallion Rogers vs Daiki Inamura & Kai Fujimura

Wrestle-1 reunion vs The Bandana Brothers (they and fans seem to have settled on that name). Daiki Inaba and Yoshiki Inamura who are not in the N-1, put on N-1 style matches, while the rapidly growing Kai Fujimura fought Yoshiki Inamura and was launched into the air by Stallion Roger's headbutt. 

WINNER: Stallion Rogers with the Missile Headbutt on Kai Fujimura (11 minutes, 37 seconds)

I thought that Noah would make the announcement as to the mystery partner of The Great Muta later in the show, but they actually showed it before the N-1 matches began, which I guess made sense. Muta's mystery partner was announced as The Great O-Khan (New Japan) who appeared on the monitor and said

"Bow down, foolish people of Noah. I am Great-O-Khan, the ruler of New Japan Pro Wrestling. Now, it appears that The Great Muta has directly asked me to form an alliance with him. Hahahaha! Happily! I will grant that request. Other than that! In Osaka I will take full control of Noah and The Underworld on September 3rd"

The Great O-Khan will team with Great Muta and NOSAWA Rongai in a six man tag, their opponents are yet to be confirmed. 

MATCH TWO

N-1 VICTORY

BLOCK A

Kazuyuki Fujita vs Anthony Greene

Anthony Greene, despite the size and power differences, would not permit a squash match and in any case, Fujita made no potentially embarrassing boasts about it, but despite the fact that he put up, Greene was not going to stand up to the devastating finisher. 

WINNER: Kazuyuki Fujita with the Powerbomb (4 minutes, 59 seconds)

- Kazuyuki Fujita advances with 6 points (3 wins and 1 loss)

MATCH THREE

N-1 VICTORY

BLOCK B

Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Jack Morris

Katsuhiko Nakajima toyed with Jack Morris, like he was playing with the prey he was hunting, even reaching a new level of cockiness by waving his finger at him.

Nakajima's grin was plastered to his face throughout the match, Morris fought back, but Nakajima kept playing with him. However, his fighting back did eventually enrage Nakajima though, and Morris came very very very close to pinning him. The crowd screamed on several occasions, but who could blame them? One kick out was done by Nakajima with not even half a second to go before the referee's hand hit the mat, and then there was the reversal of The Tiger Driver.... 

WINNER: Katsuhiko Nakajima with The Reversal of The Tiger Driver into a Hurricanrunna (13 minutes, 41 seconds)

- Katsuhiko Nakajima advances with 6 points (3 wins and 2 losses)

With such a rough N-1 schedule, it is no wonder that backstage Nakajima said he felt like his knees were broken. He does not now have a match until the 28th and 29th August when he faces Satoshi Kojima on the 28th and young Kinya Okada on the 29th. 

MATCH FOUR

N-1 VICTORY

BLOCK A

Masato Tanaka vs Masaaki Mochizuki

Ironically, now that he had no chance of winning the league, Masaaki Mochizuki I think started wrestling for himself now that he was unburdened by points and win/loss ratios etc. Masato Tanaka, however, was firmly focused on the glittering prize that lay at the end of the line, the GHC Heavyweight. Mochizuki attacked with kicks, while the commentator screamed for him and the crowd clapped furiously. Always popular with fans, people just wanted to see him get something in this league.

WINNER: Masaaki Mochizuki via intercepting the Sliding D with a kick (13 minutes, 43 seconds)

- Masaaki Mochizuki picks up 2 points (1 win, 4 losses) 

MATCH FIVE

STINGER (HAYATA, Yoshinari Ogawa & Yuya Susumu) vs The Noah Junior Regulars (Atsushi Kotoge, YO-HEY & Seiki Yoshioka)

YO-HEY motioned to start against HAYATA, who with a quiet smile turned away and Yuya Susumu got into the ring. YO-HEY was forcibly removed by Atsushi Kotoge, and for a few seconds the match was civilized, but then as predicted grew unruly. Susumu seemed to be in more demand than the champion, Kotoge wanted to fight him and then naturally so did Seiki Yoshioka. Alejandro too got involved in the action when he climbed up on the apron to protest STINGER and Yoshinari Ogawa pulled him into the ring and ripped his mask off. Triumphantly, Ogawa impaled the mask on the STINGER corner ring-post. Had this been the feudal era, he would have tied it to the pommel of his saddle. Trust Perros, however to ruin everything, as they stormed the ring, attacked Ogawa and the match was thrown out. 

Match thrown out after 9 minutes and 25 seconds

Ogawa was beat down by the four of them until Susumu and HAYATA came in wielding chairs. Eita, who had been carrying the GHC Junior Tag belt which he is parading around as his, in the Perros Del Mal bag, took it out and on the mic demanded a match with Ogawa in Kawasaki on the 28th of August. Backstage, Eita had another idea, but probably because he knew that himself vs Yoshinari Ogawa in a singles match would probably end with him getting ripped limb from limb, so why not make the match on the 28th a "Captains Fall" match? To explain very simply, a Captains Fall match is an elimination which only ends when either of the captains on the teams are pinned. Not that anyone is going to take any notice of the rules probably. 

Backstage, YO-HEY warned of another Noah Junior war that is about to break out, by telling Perros and STINGER to prepare themselves as they, the Noah Junior Regulars, were going to deal with them.

MATCH SIX

N-1 VICTORY

BLOCK B

Takashi Sugiura vs Masa Kitamiya

The match started off with the obligatory shoulder tackles, in which neither was knocked down, and Masa Kitamiya simply dusted himself off. 

The best way to describe this match was if two stone boulders were racing down a mountain towards a finishing line, and both bumping into each other and chipping parts off as they made their way to their goal. 

WINNER: Takashi Sugiura with the front neck lock via referee stop (10 minutes, 26 seconds)

- Takashi Sugiura advances with 6 points (3 wins and 1 loss) and is now the B Block leader

Masa Kitamiya was furious and left slapping the mat in pure anger as with 4 points and a win/loss ratio of 2 wins and 3 losses, he was now second from bottom of the table, he hulked to the back looking threatening. Not even Yoshiki Inamura went near him.

MATCH SEVEN

N-1 VICTORY

BLOCK A

Kenoh vs Hideki Suzuki

(MOTY)

In reality, the Noah fans can only sit and clap, but being wound up from the matches earlier, zero to ten was reached and maintained, and they occasionally screamed in the static atmosphere that touched everyone in the hall today. In a perfect world, they would have been standing up and screaming, and banging their feet on the bleachers with how intense this match was. Each time it looked like it had to end here, there was always one last thing Kenoh and Hideki Suzuki would pull out; Kenoh using the MMA moves he had learned, his acquired older style of wrestling, pin reversals, stiff punch and kick and slap wars, high risk moves from the turnbuckle, submissions. To give you an idea of how stiff this match was, the meticulous Kenoh had his wrist tapings come undone.  

TIME OUT DRAW AT 30 MINUTES

Each had now one point each 

- Kenoh still leads the block with 7 points (3 wins, 1 loss & 1 draw) but he is being menaced by the possibility of Kazuyuki Fujita  and Hideki Suzuki catching up to him, and they both have more matches left than Kenoh does, so a win today was vital.

- Hideki Suzuki advances with 5 points (2 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw). A win today would have put him ahead of Kenoh in the table.  

Kenoh left in a rage, snatching the GHC Heavyweight belt and kicking the barrier on the way out. Suzuki remained behind to argue with the referee. 

MATCH EIGHT

N-1 VICTORY

BLOCK B

Masakatsu Funaki vs Kaito Kiyomiya

Kaito Kiyomiya fought (and won) the match in what he called "Kiyomiya style", which is to say blending the moves that Keiji Mutoh had given him and putting his own spin on them. Getting past Masaaki Mochizuki to do them was a challenge, and he took the young man to the mat, he also blocked a lot of Kiyomiya's "Mutoh moves", so it may have been that what Kiyomiya came up with was a way to outfox Funaki. 

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with a Shining Wizard variation (13 minutes, 49 seconds)

*Note, there was talk online that this could be an early form of The Shining Wizard (credit, Metal-Noah)

Kaito Kiyomiya was now ascending with four points (2 wins and 2 losses) and had three more matches to have before the N-1 closed, Masakatsu Funaki however stayed on what he had come in with, and was overtaken by others on the table. 

The two shook hands and Funaki gave Kiyomiya a friendly slap for encouragement (this is an old Japanese tradition, and it was certainly not meant aggressively as it may have appeared) before he left the ring and Kiyomiya spoke on the microphone. Kiyomiya thanked Funaki for the match, and admitted he was nervous in facing him, but said that he might have been on the verge of losing and he wasn't going to look back on that as he didn't have time. He wanted to go the top of the N-1, and everyone was coming with him. 

Attendance: 584 people

GIF credit: WrestleUniverse

Noah's next event: N-1 VICTORY 2022 (19th August, Korakuen Hall)