(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: STAR NAVIGATION 2022 (Thursday September 15th, Korakuen Hall)

"I will support him with all my strength, hoping that he will shine like an emerald and become a wrestler who will fascinate us Ark fans"

"Noah's future, do your best."

Today was a very special day in Noah as their sixteen home grown talent (Noah Born) made his debut. Fans bought their own signboards for Taishi Ozawa, and Noah gave their own out in the lobby. The official Twitter account posted messages from fans, and messages were posted on the big screen at Korakuen. Messages flooded in from all over Japan. 

Yuya Susumu will be absent from Noah for about four or so events due to a neck sprain, so he was absent from Noah tonight. Also absent due to injury are Go Shiozaki (shoulder), Kinya Okada (jaw) and Daisuke Harada (neck). 

The event was originally streamed on ABEMA, but is available to watch on WrestleUniverse. You must be a subscriber to view. 

MATCH ONE

Yoshiki Inamura vs Taishi Ozawa

Taishi Ozawa (who came to the ring with a red mark on his chest from training for his debut) was presented with flowers by the president of The Leave, and had a commemorative photo taken. Later on, Noah handed out free facemasks with his name on them as fans left the hall. I am not sure that any trainee before him has had such a celebration made. 

Fans were eager to see what Ozawa could do. While his move-set was elementary as he is only a complete rookie, he gave indications of what he may become; his height is almost the same as Yoshiki Inamura's (he is 181 and Inamura is 182) and I would imagine that he probably will have Inamura's size too. He was technically sound, as Noah do not allow their trainees to debut until they are ready, and Yoshinari Ogawa teaches Giant Baba's philosophy that no one is ready unless they have mastered the basics. You could also hear Baba's "sound" too. Ozawa has a background in gymnastics, and it is rare to see a heavyweight (at least in Noah) throw dropkicks. 

Inamura's job here was to make Ozawa look good, which he did, but he didn't really need to do that. Naomichi Marufuji said that when he debuted (again going back to Baba, to whom all roads lead in Noah), it was up to the senior in the match to make the rookie look good and they would be scolded if that was not the case. It's hard to imagine that anyone found fault with Ozawa or Inamura today.

Winner: Yoshiki Inamura with a body slam (6 minutes, 31 seconds)

MATCH TWO

Super Crazy vs Kai Fujimura

Kai Fujimura has suddenly stopped wrestling like a young boy and has gained the experience to start wrestling as someone with more focus, awareness and who is more comfortable with his surroundings.

For example, his dropkick from the railings and the fact that normally he would have been pounded into the mat in short order, as there is before now a match may not have gone on for this length or have been like this with Fujimura so dominant. Sadly for Fujimura, his opponent was Super Crazy of Perros Del Mal De Japon, whose opponents require them to have eyes in the back of their heads. 

WINNER: Super Crazy with the Moonsault Press (7 minutes, 45 seconds)

MATCH THREE

Naomichi Marufuji & Mohammed Yone vs Masato Tanaka & Shuhei Taniguchi

Naomichi Marufuji bounced into the ring and eyed his opponents. Throughout the match he would be more interested in fighting the reset Shuhei Taniguchi, who was fighting quietly but strongly in the mid card. Probably not the ideal place for him to be, but a sensible fight was what his seniors asked for. Taniguchi, aware of who he was now and probably remembering his disapproving seniors when he was the funky king of yore, watched Mohammed Yone dancing to the clapping of the crowd,  who gave him a look to ask whether he might join in or not. He didn't. Taniguchi was particularly vicious when wrestling Marufuji, and practically wrenched his arm. I think the important thing was that he was using both his body and his mind, and because of this, the monster was able to advance on his senior with an evil smile and even cleared the ring of them. It took a lot of hook kicks and knees from Marufuji to knock Taniguchi down. 

WINNER: Masato Tanaka with the Sliding D on Mohammed Yone (12 minutes, 34 seconds)

Note: during the match, a phone in the audience rang. Naomichi Marufuji said loudly that someone's phone was ringing. 

MATCH FOUR

Dragon Bane, Alpha Wolf, Xtreme Tiger & Alejandro vs Kongoh (Shuji Kondo, Tadasuke, Hajime Ohara & Hi69)

Alpha Wolf started the match against Shuji Kondo, which was like a collision of mountains. Being the nice guy that he is Alpha Wolf asked for a handshake. Shuji Kondo answered in true Kongoh fashion (or perhaps Junior fashion, and not just in Noah), with the middle finger. After their interactions throughout the match, Kondo left putting Alpha Wolf on notice that this was not over between them. 

The aerial team blended their high flying with Noah style, fans loved the spots that they treated them to such as the triple top rope somersault, and the Dragon Bane and Alpha Wolf combo which almost got them the win. Xtreme Tiger used a double hurracanrunna and a double dropkick, for which he was punished by Kongoh. He almost stole the win too, which could have been very embarrassing to Kondo as he is always scolding the Noah Juniors for inviting him in and then failing to win. Kondo might not have been pinned, but the victory that night was not Kongoh's. 

WINNER: Xtreme Tiger with the Reverse Face Bomb on Hajime Ohara (13 minutes, 17 seconds)

Backstage, Kondo was once again angry about being invited in and the team failing to win. 

MATCH FIVE

The Sugiura Army (Hideki Suzuki, Timothy Thatcher & El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr) vs The Born in 1970s trio (Takashi Sugiura, Satoshi Kojima & Masaaki Mochizuki)

This was a nice taster of Takashi Sugiura vs Timothy Thatcher in both their upcoming singles match and their title challenge. It was nice in this match to see Takashi Sugiura gradually come out of his shell a little, and doing things like looking at his opponents when fighting El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr to send a message, and of course the falling out with Satoshi Kojima. In a match characterized by brawls (and Timothy Thatcher using his granite head to counter Kojima's punches and then work in his hand), Sugiura managed to catch Kojima again by accident, and the two fell apart with Kojima shoving him, which gave their opponents an advantage. I seem to remember Noah's last dysfunctional tag team being Minoru Suzuki and SUWA. 

WINNER: Satoshi Kojima with the Western Lariat on El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr (15 minutes, 36 seconds)

Takashi Sugiura grumpily had his arm raised, and the ever affable Satoshi Kojima offered him a handshake. By this time, Sugi was on the apron and so, like a petulant child, Sugi gave him a finger to shake. 

Backstage, Hideki Suzuki burst in on their promo, and chased them off with the chair he was carrying. 

MATCH SIX

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

STINGER came out in the usual fashion and contrasting strongly with their animated and colorful opponents, i.e. dressed in dark clothes, silently and entirely unanimated. The bell rung after hostilities had commenced i.e. a typical Noah Junior match where fights break out the moment the the two teams in the ring. In this case it was STINGER who were attacked by the Noah Junior Regulars. Their attack was so sudden, that the tag champions did not have time to even take their belts or their jackets off. During the match, HAYATA even lost a shoe and was wrestling in one sneaker and one black sock. 

YO-HEY and HAYATA had very little interaction compared to the pre match of STINGER vs Atsushi Kotoge and Seiki Yoshioka. HAYATA seemed to take pleasure in preserving YO-HEY in mint condition and beating up on Kotoge and former friend, Yoshioka. Chris Ridgeway had said he was going to hurt them for interrupting the moment of their win in Osaka. Yoshioka got the brunt today. 

WINNER: HAYATA with the 403 Impact on Atsushi Kotoge (16 minutes, 35 seconds)

The match ended inconclusive for everyone. YO-HEY attacked HAYATA after the match, enraged he did a dropkick to the side of HAYATA'S head. 

He then took the belt and stood over him holding it. This was not the pranks of yesteryear when he challenged while they were teaming together, or even their last title challenge, there was no feeling either of the lingering closeness between then when HAYATA had nominated him his challenger. After a while YO-HEY folded the belt up and put it over HAYATA before leaving. He turned back and looked at the ring as he walked to the back, looking demonic. 

YO-HEY later said that in attacking HAYATA, he felt like a switch had flipped. He didn't know if it was good or bad, only that "there will be no next time". 

MATCH SEVEN

Kongoh (Kenoh, Masakatsu Funaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Manabu Soya) vs Kaito Kiyomiya, Jack Morris, Masa Kitamiya & Daiki Inaba

Normally it's Kenoh who starts yelling at Kaito Kiyomiya when the two of them are in the ring, but today it was actually Kaito Kiyomiya who got in his face by shoving Kenoh (albeit politely). Kenoh looked like he couldn't quite believe this, but okay if he wanted to fight, then the two of them would start the match. 

Masa Kitamiya and Masakatsu Funaki slapped the hell out of each other before Funaki took him down to the mat. Later after being slammed by Kitamiya, Funaki said backstage that he was never going to take another one. 

Despite the GHC Heavyweight pre match and the GHC National pre match, the loudest applause was reserved for Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Daiki Inaba. The fans had been waiting for this. Nakajima, however, had other plans and soon tagged Manabu Soya in via Misawa flash tag. Nakajima, however wasn't above taking a few pot shots at Inaba and then no selling him. Jack Morris also stirred the pot with Nakajima by doing something that no Noah wrestler has ever done, and that was to shove Nakajima off the ropes during the Shutter Chance. Morris paid for this, Nakajima savoring every moment, even if his prey was fighting back.

The final of the match came down to Kenoh and Kiyomiya. Kenoh blocked the Shining Wizard and then did his own, pulling Keiji Mutoh's pose. The crowd screamed as he almost pinned Kiyomiya with it. Kenoh then rubbed it in by using the moonsault, but Kiyomiya moved. Later Kiyomiya would counter the PFS by a dropkick, and do two Shining Wizard's on Kenoh before using his own as of yet unnamed variation for the win.    

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Transformed Shining Wizard (20 minutes, 10 seconds)

Kiyomiya got into a dazed Kenoh's face in the ring, while Nakajima basically patted Inaba in the chest 

and walked off while Soya helped Kenoh out. 

Nakajima later posted on Twitter about Jack Morris, leaving any interactions with Inaba out. He did mention him, but just as a footnote. As all this was happening, Kiyomiya spoke on the mic

"Kenoh! I have been chasing you all this time! You are the opponent I am the most aware of. I don't want to lose to Kenoh and on the 25th September, I will wear Kenoh's belt in Nagoya! There will be a pre-match at Korakuen tomorrow, so please come and watch me!"

Night 1 at Korakuen Hall was over. Night 2 would be all about revenge. 

 

Attendance: 538 (Noah are not selling seats at full capacity yet)

With thanks to: Metal-Noah

GIF taken from WrestleUniverse