(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: SUNNY VOYAGE 2022 (Yokohama Radiant Hall, Monday September 19th)

The autumn typhoon was rolling in as fans ran late to arrive at the arena due to problems with the trains, they just managed to arrive in time just before the bell went. The most anticipated match of the evening was Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Daiki Inaba. Ultimately, Noah announced an attendance of 269. 

Although no Noah Junior was on the card tonight, the Noah Juniors came to sell tickets for the N-INNOVATION. They were also seen watching the show.

Event was streamed live on WrestleUniverse. Please note because of the size of the venue it is static cam, and there is no commentary, English or Japanese. You must be a subscriber to view.

MATCH ONE

Masa Kitamiya vs Taishi Ozawa

The match started off with a handshake between rookie Taishi Ozawa and his senior (and probable trainer) Masa Kitamiya. Ozawa managed to get a few moves in to keep Kitamiya down, mainly dropkicks and slams, of which the fans applauded each one. 

WINNER: Masa Kitamiya via Boston Crab submission (5 minutes, 51 seconds)

Masa Kitamiya left straight afterwards and bluntly said he had nothing in particular to say about Ozawa when asked. 

MATCH TWO

Masato Tanaka vs Yoshiki Inamura

Yoshiki Inamura is becoming harder and harder to beat as Masato Tanaka said himself, and as he came to the ring, Tanaka kept his eye very firmly on his young nemesis. The last match between them came to a draw, it wasn't a win, but it also wasn't a defeat. Fans were hoping for a Yoshiki Inamura victory tonight. 

Inamura and Tanaka knew in equal parts that attempting a quick win would never work, they had to wear each other down and so this was very much a stiff as hell heavyweight match - elbows, tests of strength, grapples etc with the audience groaning along at the exchange of elbows in which Tanaka knocked Inamura down. 

WINNER: Masato Tanaka with The Sliding D (15 minutes, 35 seconds)

There was a groan from the crowd at Inamura's loss, but he himself was gracious enough to shake hands with Tanaka, with the promise that there would be a next time. 

MATCH THREE

The Sugiura Army (Hideki Suzuki & El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr) vs Takashi Sugiura & Shuhei 

Taniguchi

While Takashi Sugiura and Hideki Suzuki mat wrestled, El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Junior and Shuhei Taniguchi were a little less technical, exchanging slams and shoulder tackles. El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr, even shoved Taniguchi's head at one point. He was on form this evening, triggering a brawl when he got into the ring and hook kicked Taniguchi in the face and then doing the same to Sugiura when he got in the ring. The two went into the crowd following a dive. 

WINNER: Hideki Suzuki with The Royal Stretch on Shuhei Taniguchi (13 minutes, 24 seconds)

MATCH FOUR

Katsuhiko Nakajima vs Daiki Inaba

Daiki Inaba came here tonight for revenge, Katsuhiko Nakajima cane here tonight to kick him around as Inaba had wanted this match to him. W-1 probably meant as much to Nakajima as it had at that time, very little. 

Inaba was like a fury, attacking Nakajima with endless rounds of punches and elbow drops. The crowd screamed as Nakajima bounced back with a running kick from the apron, and then he sat down and waited for Inaba to get up, the referee told him to get back in the ring, so helpfully he went to kick Inaba and throw him into the ring post while he was at it, and throw him back in when the count reached 19, only to restart the count right away by throwing him out, which he kept doing repeatedly, by this time the grin was back.  Inaba dragged himself to his feet, refusing to be kicked around, too bad for him as Nakajima kept doing that. I think the crowd screamed as much as Inaba did. In the build up to the end, Nakajima used one of his massive slaps on Inaba, he refused to be pinned by this. The soccer ball kicks, he refused to be pinned by too, so Nakajima stole his soul with the Vertical Spike.

WINNER: Katsuhiko Nakajima with The Vertical Spike (18 minutes, 4 seconds)

Nakajima then tried to do the same pose he did in W-1, but Inaba used whatever strength was left to nudge him away. Nakajima left smirking.

MATCH FIVE

Kongoh (Kenoh & Manabu Soya) vs Kaito Kiyomiya & Jack Morris

Kaito Kiyomiya came to square up to Kenoh, who walked away initially, then the two silently glared at each other. There was no shoving or trash talking between Kenoh and Kiyomiya (who can't trash talk in any case, Noah Born generally can't as they raised to be very polite, so they don't really know how as in any case this was never a part of Baba's All Japan or Misawa's Noah), so they did the majority of their talking in the ring. Starting with exchanging Shining Wizards, Kiyomiya even pulling out Mutoh's flashing elbow. Then Kiyomiya kind of did a Toshiaki Kawada when Kenoh patted his head, in that he didn't react straight away before losing his temper. Kenoh by this time was outside of the ring, and as Kiyomiya was ignoring both the referee and himself, Soya booted him off the apron to get back in as he was still the legal man. In a sulk, Kiyomiya tagged Jack Morris in. Kiyomiya got his chance to revenge himself on Kenoh, as while Morris fought ultra-heavyweight Manabu Soya, he and Kenoh got into a brawl outside the ring, which soon everyone in the match was joining in with. Kiyomiya even tried to jump Kenoh, who walked off, meaning that Kiyomiya landed a little comically into an empty chair. The crowd kind of half groaned and half laughed. It took the young trainees at ringside to restore order. 

The Shining Wizard was not the only Keiji Mutoh move that Kenoh used, he used the Dragon Screw and event went for the Figure 4 (which he said he had been training in, even posting a video on YouTube) and countered Kiyomiya's Shining Wizard with his own foot lock. I think Kenoh had a slight message to Kiyomiya here to imitate all you want, but do what feels right for you. 

Soya and Morris had an equally good fight, albeit without the all complex emotions that comes with Kenoh and Kiyomiya, fans I think would like to see more of them as the adaptable Morris worked very well against Soya, even seeming as strong as he did at times. 

WINNER: Jack Morris with The Tiger Driver (16 minutes, 10 seconds)

Morris and Kiyomiya had a fist bump before Kenoh got in the ring and held the belt up to Kiyomiya, pulled Mutoh's pose, kissed it, put it to Kiyomiya's lips and then made an explosive motion when he threw the kiss away. The bell started ringing for them to stop fighting as Kiyomiya's polite indignation exploded into total fury and Kenoh once again tasted Kiyomiya's knee in his face as Kiyomiya hit him with a Shining Wizard before draping the belt over him (Kenoh) and leaving.  

MATCH SIX

Timothy Thatcher vs Satoshi Kojima

Timothy Thatcher proceeded to tie Satoshi Kojima into knots, and slammed him around the ring. Kojima for much of the match looked as if he was trying to fight a man made of granite, or perhaps a newer and updated cyborg model, and I do wonder how much his hand stung after giving Thatcher the Machine Gun chops. Takashi Sugiura (in a Kazushi Sakuraba "Great Saku" shirt) watched the carnage from ringside, he evidently was not going to be accused of being the one who was late to help. 

WINNER: Timothy Thatcher with the Fujiwara Armbar (16 minutes, 17 seconds)

Sugiura went to shake hands with Thatcher who put him in a Fujiwara Armbar, while Suzuki slammed Kojima, the bell rang and Timothy Thatcher's drama music played in the background giving the scene a feeling of chaos (i.e. like a barfight in a movie or gunplay in a western). When the music stopped, Suzuki addressed their fallen opponents/unit member Sugiura, with his usual sarcasm;

"Sugi, no Taka, are you okay? Koji, no Koji Sato, are you okay? Next is finally the title match in Nagoya, and it appears that everyone who has come here, will come. Taka & Satoshi's playfulness makes me feel like they can't beat us, so let's do it with that goofiness". 

The heavyweights (aside from Masa Kitamiya that is) had their last pre matches tonight (the Juniors will have theirs on Wednesday) and now they turn towards the upcoming title matches on the 25th September in Nagoya. 

Noah's next event: N-INNOVATION (Shinjuku FACE, Wednesday September 21st) 

GIF taken from WrestleUniverse