(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: N-1 VICTORY 2022 GRAND FINAL & GREAT MUTA OSAKA FINAL (Edion Arena Osaka First Stadium, Saturday September 3rd)

Noah announced an attendance of 2988 people (a full house) in Osaka today to bid farewell to The Great Muta, see The-Great-O-Khan make his Noah debut, and see the final of the N-1 VICTORY. A lot happened at today's show, and not all of in the ring. 

When fans arrived there was a huge throng of people in the lobby due to the autographs going on (Naomichi Marufuji and the Noah Junior Regulars) and a huge mass of people at the merchandise tables. In the ring, Kazuyuki Fujita was finishing up training with a man who looked like he was wearing a panda mask. 

Event today was broadcast live on WrestleUniverse. English language commentary is available, but you must be a subscriber to view.

MATCH ONE 

Super Crazy vs Hajime Ohara

This was a war between units rather than individuals, as neither really have any issues with each other as Kongoh have little to do with Perros Del Mal De Japon who are more focused on STINGER, and besides, Kongoh hate everyone so Super Crazy made little difference to Hajime Ohara probably.

WINNER: Hajime Ohara with the Mui Bien (9 minutes, 33 seconds)

Unsurprisingly, Super Crazy left limping and slapping the mat in anger. 

MATCH TWO

Jack Morris & Daiki Inaba vs Anthony Greene & Stallion Rogers

This was the heavyweights version of the Noah Junior's competition to outdo each other, sure there were two teams, but each man seemed to be in rivalry with another, and just like the juniors, there were lots of aerial moves.    

WINNER: Jack Morris with The Tiger Driver on Jack Morris (8 minutes, 59 seconds)

MATCH THREE

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

YO-HEY said he would be aiming for the champion in Osaka (which is pretty apt given their combined and entwined history there) and so he did just that. HAYATA had been ready to leave the ring, but he seemed to have second thoughts and he and YO-HEY started the match. This was not the YO-HEY vs HAYATA of before, and once again HAYATA found that his former partner was at times able to outfox him.  

Yuya Susumu however had no interest in YO-HEY, his issue was still with Seiki Yoshioka, but he reserved some of his anger for Atsushi Kotoge as he had vowed that they (STINGER) would smash the Noah Junior Regulars.

WINNER: Atsushi Kotoge with the Killswitch on Yuya Susumu (13 minutes, 13 seconds)

Fans waited to see what would happen, but the Noah Junior Regulars celebrated and YO-HEY said nothing, although it had been blatant to all that he had been aiming for the champion and HAYATA knew it. There was even a moment after the match when HAYATA was outside of the ring and he looked as if he expected something to happen. 

Backstage, the Noah Junior Regulars were in the comment booth, and YO-HEY was saying that he wanted to challenge HAYATA for the belt, and therefore if HAYATA was listening, then...HAYATA walked in and shoved YO-HEY by the shoulder and said the next challenger was him. Then it was kind if like old times as there wasn't really any malice or hatred between them. YO-HEY thanked HAYATA for letting him challenge, and when HAYATA had gone (he had that look that he used to have when YO-HEY chattered on) Kotoge and Yoshioka agreed with YO-HEY, they too wanted belts. GHC Junior title match has been set for the 25th September in Nagoya. 

MATCH FOUR

Kongoh (Masakatsu Funaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Shuji Kondo) vs Masa Kitamiya, Alejandro and Mohammed Yone

In a rare moment, Katsuhiko Nakajima actually joined in with a Kongoh pose. One of the commentators likened his gown to being something out of the underworld. He and Shuji Kondo had a stare off before slowly shaking hands and then finally looking away.  

Nakajima is forever on the hunt, and basically hunted Masa Kitamiya, who had no time for such games, but whatever it was that Nakajima was up to and had hinted at, we weren't to find out in this match as the focus was very much on Masa Kitamiya and Masakatsu Funaki. 

WINNER: Katsuhiko Nakajima with the Vertical Spike on Mohammed Yone (13 minutes, 14 seconds)

Despite his teammates trying to stop him, Funaki got in the ring to fight Kitamiya. Kitamiya gave him a Saito Suplex and a rare brawl broke out among the heavyweights with even Hajime Ohara running in to try and get Kitamiya off of Funaki. In the end, it took Nakajima and Kondo combined to subdue Kitamiya and throw him from the ring. Alejandro (of all people) had to handle him. Backstage, Kitamiya challenged for the GHC National, which has been set for the 30th September. 

MATCH FIVE

Takashi Sugiura & Satoshi Kojima vs Shuhei Taniguchi & Yoshiki Inamura

There was a moment of comedy when Shuhei Taniguchi instigated the pec flexing, but he did it at Takashi Sugiura. Satoshi Kojima was not to be outdone, and knocked him down. Sugiura did not join in, I think he might have done once, but not now. I think we will know we are starting to get the old Sugiura back when he does. 

Yoshiki Inamura gave a display of strength, by lifting and walking Takashi Sugiura into a brain buster, while his his partner Shuhei Taniguchi, is somehow becoming very much like Akira Taue (another hint of Noah nostalgia, was the commentators mentioning Rikio in conjunction with Inamura). 

Sugiura and Kojima fell apart when Sugiura accidentally caught Kojima with a big boot and Kojima shoved him, naturally, the opponents capitalized, after that the two fought as one man armies, Sugiura even breaking a pin so he could stamp on Kojima.

WINNER: Satoshi Kojima with the Western Lariat on Yoshiki Inamura (13 minutes, 9 minutes)

The two made a seemingly uneasy alliance at he end, Sugiura clapping Kojima's win and neither brawled thereafter, but Sugiura did turn and point when leaving the ring. Backstage, they planned to team again and have even challenged Timothy Thatcher and Hideki Suzuki for the GHC Heavyweight Tag Titles. They are both the same age, born in 1970, and have been tentatively called the "SugiKoji" tag thanks to Kojima calling Sugiura "Sugi" and Sugiura asking if he could call him "Koji" in that case. Title match has been set for the 25th September in Nagoya. 

MATCH SIX 

Dragon Bane vs Alpha Wolf

The Lucha Brothers had a showdown. Best friends and biological brothers, they went to war, in a match where they blended their own Lucha with an adopted Noah style, so the fusion worked very well. As promised, they did not go easy on each other.

WINNER: Dragon Bane with the Poison Bane (18 minutes, 20 seconds)

MATCH SEVEN

Naomichi Marufuji, Go Shiozaki, Masato Tanaka & Masaaki Mochizuki vs The Sugiura Army (Kazuyuki Fujita, Kendo Kashin, El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr & Timothy Thatcher)

The opposition (minus Naomichi Marufuji) all decided they wanted Kendo Kashin, probably because everyone but Naomichi Marufuji has beef with him, Marufuji told him to get lost as he wanted Timothy Thatcher but Kashin hung around and then after a while tagged in Thatcher, which is probably a good idea. There were a lot of grudges left over from the N-1 here, and Timothy Thatcher was holding the fort by himself that evening as Hideki Suzuki is in the main event. Kashin fortunately managed to stay in the ring, and not do anything too out there as he normally does, although poor Masaaki Mochizuki (and his legs) got caught up in a comedy spot. Go Shiozaki and Thatcher were in the ring, while everyone else was brawling outside of it. Shiozaki went for the top turnbuckle brain-buster as he had done on Suzuki, fortunately, he did not botch it this time. 

WINNER: Timothy Thatcher with the Fujiwara Armbar on Go Shiozaki (18 minutes, 28 seconds)

Unfortunately, Go Shiozaki left the ring with an ice pack held to his shoulder and in a lot of pain. Noah later announced that he would be absent for the foreseeable future while the injury was investigated. Daisuke Harada will also be absent for an unknown length of time. 

MATCH EIGHT

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag

STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & Chris Ridgeway) vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (Eita & Kotaro Suzuki)

Today Yoshinari Ogawa celebrates thirty-seven years in wrestling. Naturally he spent it quietly and with very little fuss (I don't even think there were flowers in the lobby), but he spent it in a suitable way as the playing field against Perros Del Mal De Japon had evened out now, and he wanted revenge and to do that he was going to choke with towels, move turnbuckles out of the way (this backfired) and take Perros to school when it came to playing dirty. Ogawa didn't really need these things as Eita found out when he wrapped his leg around the ropes and his opponents afterwards attacked it viciously, and I mean viciously, Chris Ridgeway even removed Eita's kneepad and drove his knuckle into the bone. Ridgeway seemingly had a thousand hands, each time anyone tried a move, he always had a hand to catch them in and reverse their moves with.  It was no wonder by the end of the match that Eita was limping, and Ogawa took exquisite pleasure in locking in a figure four, and pulling Eita slowly back from the ropes at the very last moment.  

WINNER: Chris Ridgeway with The Ridgeway Clutch II on Kotaro Suzuki (19 minutes, 24 seconds)

The match ended with Kotaro submitting while Eita was hung up on the ropes by his knee. Ogawa took his belt which was finally his, and taunted Eita in the same way he had once done to him. The champions had no time to rest as their next challengers, Atsushi Kotoge and Seiki Yoshioka, came to the ring to challenge. Kotoge made the challenge, or at least started to

"I am here to take back the belt you took in Ryogoku in April! Yoshioka and I...!"

He got no further as STINGER knocked them down with the tag belts and then left the ring making dismissive motions. Despite this, the challenge has been set for 25th September in Nagoya.

 

MATCH NINE

Great Muta's farewell to Osaka

Kongoh (Kenoh, Manabu Soya & Tadasuke) vs Great Muta, Great-O-Khan & NOSAWA Rongai

Kenoh came to the ring armed to fight three demons with a bamboo sword. Salt might have been better in that case, but Kenoh kept both the belt and the sword with him, which the referee managed to remove as The-Great-O-Khan laughed evilly in the background. The belt being removed from Kenoh and given to the non threatening Ally (the Japanese ring announcer/timekeeper), meant that O-Khan could steal it, which he did. Kenoh threw a tantrum and then after an opening period of belt snatching, yelling, and Kenoh swearing, O-Khan tagged in Muta and Kenoh tagged in Soya. Great Muta didn't really have very much to do in this match, it is quite obvious now that Keiji Mutoh's condition is deteriorating, but Muta did have his moments such as wandering off into the crowd to look for something, and scared some people before stealing a little plastic hand fan from a lady. Mutoh did say that Muta wasn't too familiar with modern day technology, but he seemed to like this. O-Khan once again, could be heard in the background chuckling evilly.

NOSAWA was up to his usual tricks, asking Manabu Soya for a handshake. Soya (probably because he's a heavyweight) accepted or perhaps he was confident in his weight vs NOSAWA'S because despite the attack, Soya got the upper hand. NOSAWA also started the use of weapons by attacking Tadasuke with a chair, Tadasuke got the brunt of it initially, being choked by Muta with a cable. 

Chaos broke out when the ref was knocked down which was a signal for Kenoh to burst into the ring and beat O-Khan with his bamboo sword, then Hajime Ohara practically fell in to hand Kenoh a lighter, to which Muta gave him a fireball before giving the red mist to Soya. The Three Demons attacked Tadasuke and the ref recovered enough to count O-Khan's win

WINNER: The-Great-O-Khan with The Eliminator on Tadasuke (22 minutes, 13 seconds)

Muta gave the green mist to O-Khan, signifying to him that there would be no alliance between them and that the demon realm belonged to him and him alone (although Katsuhiko Nakajima and NOSAWA probably have some kind of share in it) and then he turned and walked up the ramp and into the mist, bidding farewell to Osaka for the final time. O-Khan left crawling like something infernal on all fours and screaming loudly. 

MAIN EVENT

N-1 VICTORY 2022 CHAMPIONSHIP

Hideki Suzuki vs Kaito Kiyomiya

The first part was Hideki Suzuki's mat wrestling, which Kaito Kiyomiya had to take care not to be drawn into. If the first part of the match was very much to Suzuki's style, the second was Kiyomiya's and was a bit more Noah. Kiyomiya continues to evolve, even in small ways, this time it was during a fight outside the ring in which he ran down the ramp in order to dropkick Suzuki. A small thing perhaps, but a new thing.    

Kiyomiya did not keep to his no Keiji Mutoh promise however, and Suzuki caught him on the second Shining Wizard, and dragged him to the middle of the ring and locked in a submission. Kiyomiya dragged himself to the ropes, but Suzuki dragged him back and locked in a stretch that immobilized Kiyomiya. The applause rose to a roll of thunder, no one wanted to see Kiyomiya quit. Kiyomiya could be seen gritting his teeth and inching his body forward, the applause grew louder as he reached the ropes.  With the crescendo of the match, The Shining Wizard, The Frankensteiner and The Tiger Driver in succession, the crowd could not be silent 

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with a modified Shining Wizard (33 minutes, 32 seconds)

After screaming, "I won the N-1", Kiyomiya called Kenoh to the ring. Kenoh (still looking a little green from earlier), came to the ring. He looked somewhat proud that Kiyomiya had won, and silently held up the belt to him before leaving. 

However, backstage he branded him a "useless N-1 champion" and a "handsome wrestler with a cool face". In the ring, Kiyomiya promised the crowd that neither himself or Noah would ever betray them and vowed that from now on, he would "create Noah". Title match will take place in Nagoya on the 25th September.

Noah's next event: STAR NAVIGATION 2022, Thursday September 15th, Korakuen Hall (live on WrestleUniverse)

GIF taken from WrestleUniverse