(NOAH) NOAH WEEKLY NEWSLETTER VOL.187 ~ 29TH SEPTEMBER 2022


NEWS

Kaito Kiyomiya is the new GHC Heavyweight Champion, nominates Kazuyuki Fujita as challenger
Following provocation by Kenoh not only saying that he was going to be the one to inherit Keiji Mutoh's Shining Wizard and the memory of Keiji Mutoh himself (and the outright claim that Kiyomiya would simply forget about Mutoh once Mutoh had retired, which Kiyomiya didn't even bother responding to), Kenoh went one step further at their last pre match on the 19th September by pulling Keiji Mutoh's pose, kissing his hand, putting it to Kiyomiya's lips and then exploding it. Kiyomiya erupted in fury at this, it was far more than any verbal provocation of Kenoh's, which I guess he has learned to ignore over the years. They fought for the GHC Heavyweight in Nagoya on September 25th, with Kiyomiya emerging victorious following a modified Shining Wizard. As Kenoh left it was like a spell was broken. Kenoh went backstage and muttered about Kiyomiya being the company favorite and in his interview the day after winning the title, Kiyomiya said nothing about Keiji Mutoh. Mutoh as we know had been a focus of both Kiyomiya and Kenoh leading up to the title match. 
Back in the ring, Kiyomiya called out his next opponent. Kazuyuki Fujita. Fujita came to the ring, carrying a can of beer which he swigged from. Getting in the ring he circled Kiyomiya and took off his t-shirt. Kiyomiya said that he was expecting a fight, but Fujita did something that no other Noah wrestler had (or perhaps would) do, and that was to throw himself at Kiyomiya and then make nuzzling motions against his head, while he licked the belt. Kiyomiya pushed him off, and Fujita retaliated by pouring beer over his head. 


Kiyomiya screaming that he hated beer was met with Fujita toasting him from the ramp and yelling "Kampaiii" ("cheers") after a fight had broken out, and Kiyomiya threw him from the ring. 

Backstage, Kiyomiya said his reason for nominating Kazuyuki Fujita as his challenger was that he had never been defeated for the GHC Heavyweight. Fujita had to give up the belt due to Coronavirus. It has been a recurring theme of most of the GHC Heavyweight champions since Go Shiozaki, that Fujita has been the man to beat in order to cement yourself as champion. Kiyomiya was picking up that torch. 
As for Fujita, he played it as if he was a Casanova and had been asked out on a date by warning Kiyomiya that when you experience Fujita, you can never go back because you were never going to be the same. He was going to "make it a night to remember". He sipped his beer, and licked his lips afterwards. 
Title match has been set for Noah's return to Ariake on the 30th October.  
 
STINGER lose, Noah Junior Regulars win, enter Tadasuke (with a chair)
Following a period of brutal attacks on Seiki Yoshioka (by the end of the match he could hardly use one side of his body) and a title challenge where Atsushi Kotoge was bloodied up, The Noah Junior Regulars emerged victorious and bought the tag titles home to their unit. They had very little time to celebrate their win and put ice on their wounds, when Tadasuke burst in and attacked Atsushi Kotoge with a chair while Hi69 beat up on the already incapacitated Seiki Yoshioka. Tadasuke (wild grin on his face) got on the microphone and made a challenge for the tag titles. Then Tadasuke wiped the blood from Kotoge that had got on his hands on his hair, leaving red streaks in the peroxide. Tadasuke was even waving the bloodied seat of the chair, which had detached during the attack, around backstage. 
Title match will be on the 30th October when Noah return to the Ariake complex.  


Takashi Sugiura and Satoshi Kojima, Noah's most dysfunctional tag team, win the GHC Heavyweight tag titles
It must be said that with the combined efforts of Satoshi Kojima and Hideki Suzuki, we almost have our Sugi back. 
At the press conference/title match signing, Sugi and Kojima appeared dressed in suits and wearing dark glasses. They looked something between The Men In Black and "Dangerous Detectives" (as Tokyo Sports called them  which stems from a Japanese TV show). Hideki Suzuki was on form, not only mistranslating Timothy Thatcher and stating at one point that Thatcher said he came to Japan to "beat you up" and being rude to a journalist for being overfamiliar with his "punk mouth", the highlight of the press conference was his long close up stare at Sugi, who was trying not to laugh. 


The dysfunctional team won the titles in Nagoya on the 25th September, and despite their falling out during the match, Sugi actually gave Kojima a proper handshake. Then they went back to squabbling backstage over Kojima talking on the mic when it was Sugi who got the win. No challengers have come forward as of yet. 

HAYATA retains the GHC Junior, Ninja Mack makes his long awaited challenge
It had been an emotional match for YO-HEY, and for fans. Cutting out the aerial techniques that had characterized their earlier matches, both he and HAYATA demonstrated how much they had both evolved by concentrating on a more Noah based ground attack with submissions. YO-HEY might have failed in the challenge, but he had at least gotten one win over HAYATA in the pre-match. He knew the title match would be different and he would need to level up, and afterwards he reflected and said he would start from rock bottom in order to make his next challenge. What fans had noticed that while things had changed between them, some things were the same, such as YO-HEY coloring his hair, his tongue (and even his boxer shorts) purple, which is HAYATA's color, and HAYATA not speaking as much as he has done in previous title challenges, as he is content to let YO-HEY talk. After the match, Ninja Mack came to challenge. HAYATA accepted by saying, that he was "finally interested in the belt" and acknowledging him as challenger. Title match will of course be on the 30th October. But HAYATA is not immediately going into a fallout match with Ninja Mack at Noah's next event on the 30th, but is having a tag match against YO-HEY. 

Keiji Mutoh's Retirement Road
Keiji Mutoh has been very busy. 

The Great Muta made a surprise appearance in AEW to rescue Sting, who had been tied to a chair by Buddy Matthews (Sting was teaming with Darby Allin). Muta came to the ring, advanced on Sting and then turned and spat green mist into the face of Matthews and then reunited with Sting. Keiji Mutoh announced that Sting would attend Muta's retirement on the 22nd in Yokohama, but has not said in what capacity, although it is assumed that they will tag. Regarding any further appearances in America, Mutoh said he didn't think it was likely, but did warn that The Great Muta may pop up somewhere as you never knew where he would turn up next. 


25th September: Keiji Mutoh Retirement Road: Love Forever 2 
Keiji Mutoh teamed with his junior Kazuyuki Fujita to take on Mutoh's classmate, Masakatsu Funaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima, who Mutoh has known since he was a boy, and still calls affectionately "Katsuhiko". Nakajima said he was going to break up this class reunion, and while Mutoh did get kicked (Nakajima smirked and said it was fun when Mutoh later complained his leg still hurt) but it was Fujita who got the worst of it. During the match, Nakajima pulled out Mutoh's Space Rolling Elbow. Mutoh was initially not pleased, but then he became very happy to see it and said that he thought that "Katsuhiko" did it because he had some small measure of feeling for him. I think had Nakajima been a more acrobatic wrestler, Mutoh might have handed it to him. Mutoh won the match with The Shining Wizard, pinning Nakajima. This was Mutoh's farewell to Nagoya, his classmate, his junior and Nakajima. 


26th September: Hiroshi Tanahashi comes to the press conference and a tag match is announced
Hiroshi Tanahashi presented 38 roses to Mutoh when he came to the press conference. Each rose symbolizes a year of Mutoh's career. Mutoh joked that he should have laid them at his feet, as had happened in boxing recently. Tanahashi said he wasn't good at ad-libbing, and then introduced himself as "one of the greatest New Japan talents in the past one hundred years". During the press conference, a tag match was announced. New Japan's Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe and Honma Tomoaki will team together against the team of Naomichi Marufuji, Keiji Mutoh and Keiji Mutoh. This will take place on the 30th October. Mutoh has not given up hope of appearing one final time in the New Japan ring. 


16th October: A new match is announced 
Noah announced that due to fan demand, Keiji Mutoh will be appearing in Fukuoka. He will tag with Ninja Mack and Satoshi Kojima against Naomichi Marufuji, HAYATA and Jack Morris. Satoshi Kojima is of course connected to Mutoh through All Japan and New Japan, Naomichi Marufuji has wanted a match against Mutoh (he will be tagging with him as we know on the 30th October) and HAYATA has been a big fan of Mutoh for a while, as he has influenced a lot of his style and persona. HAYATA thinks of himself and The Great Muta as "The Phantom Team". Muta doesn't like to speak and HAYATA said, neither does he. 


Naomichi Marufuji and Katsuhiko Nakajima head overseas
Naomichi Marufuji and Katsuhiko Nakajima will appear for Evolution Pro Wrestling in New York for their anniversary show on November 12th. Marufuji's match is yet to be announced, but Nakajima will take on Josh Alexander. Alexander has said he wonders how Nakajima is going to kick after he snaps his ankle. They will also appear at King of Indies in San Francisco on November 19th. While they are in the US, an open tryout will be arranged with the winner appearing in Noah. 

NOSAWA vs Katsuhiko Nakajima (and Kenoh)
After being beaten up by Katsuhiko Nakajima who gave him some pretty stiff soccerball kicks outside the ring at Korakuen Hall recently, (although he would tell you that Nakajima tried to beat him up), NOSAWA Rongai has been on a quest to face Nakajima in a match. Then he threw in Kenoh, so it could be himself and Eita versus Kongoh. Hideki Suzuki told him that he was probably going to die, but NOSAWA has taken no notice and kept on with his demand. His demand has not been met because rather than facing Nakajima and Kenoh, Noah have booked him against rookies Yasutaka Yano and Kai Fujimura. NOSAWA thinks he is having to go through some kind of trial. 

ELSEWHERE IN NOAH
- Hideki Suzuki has hinted that perhaps Takashi Sugiura might like to get back online. 
- Yoshiki Inamura and YO-HEY continued their guild, despite the fact that YO-HEY said someone attacked and burned their castle down. A picture was taken of YO-HEY and Inamura playing the game, with YO-HEY seated cross legged on Inamura, who was doing a bridge in the ring. We have seen Inamura used as a weight, but is he now used as furniture? 
- Noah's Director, Narihiro Takeda, wrote on a Noah Note that he would like for Darby Allin to come to Noah one day. 
- Tadasuke got a match thrown out by ripping off Alejandro's mask. Tadasuke did not care, and did not even respond when Alejandro asked if he wanted a mask for himself? 
- Daiki Inaba had his long awaited singles match with Katsuhiko Nakajima, but failed to revenge himself for Nakajima's behavior in W-1. Nakajima even went for the cocky pin by grinning and leaning on Inaba. 
- There was usual chaos at the Noah Junior Space sessions as Daisuke Harada is not there to take control. Atsushi Kotoge seems to be the main culprit, forgetting to invite Seiki Yoshioka in and at one time even failing to press record. 
- It's probably best that Daiki Inaba, who apparently likes to be in the nip backstage, was not present when Noah was at Differ. It was bad enough that Sugi used to wander around naked...I often wonder what people driving past used to think.
- Mitsuharu Misawa wrote in a diary entry for 2006 about filming an advert for THE LEAVE, and having to sing first thing in the morning while they were filming. Probably due to the fact that he had a problem with his throat anyway, was a heavy smoker and had taken "so many chops and kicks" to it in his career, he said he sounded very hoarse. 

EVENT RECAPS AND POST MATCH PROMOS

SUNNY VOYAGE - September 19th 

N-INNOVATION - September 21st 

GRAND SHIP 2022 IN NAGOYA/KEIJI MUTOH RETIREMENT ROAD - September 25th

CURRENT CHAMPIONS

GHC Heavyweight Champion: Kaito Kiyomiya
Challenger: Kazuyuki Fujita
[Muto Retirement Road] ABEMA presents Ariake Gaisen-THE RETURN-PRO-WRESTLING LOVE FOREVER . 3 ~TRIUMPH~ Sunday 30th October, Ariake Arena, Tokyo

GHC Junior Champion: HAYATA
Challenger: Ninja Mack
[Muto Retirement Road] ABEMA presents Ariake Gaisen-THE RETURN-PRO-WRESTLING LOVE FOREVER . 3 ~TRIUMPH~ Sunday 30th October, Ariake Arena, Tokyo

GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions: KojiSugi (Satoshi Kojima & Takashi Sugiura)
Challengers: TBA

Challengers: Kongoh Juniors (Tadasuke & Hi69)
[Muto Retirement Road] ABEMA presents Ariake Gaisen-THE RETURN-PRO-WRESTLING LOVE FOREVER . 3 ~TRIUMPH~ Sunday 30th October, Ariake Arena, Tokyo

GHC National Champion: Masakatsu Funaki
Challenger: Masa Kitamiya
SUNNY VOYAGE 2022 - Friday September 30th (Bandaijima Multi-Purpose Square Ogama)
(This event will not be broadcast live, but hopefully this match will be shown via Instagram)   

THIS WEEK IN NOAH

Friday, October 7th 
STAR NAVIGATION 2022 - Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
Time: 18:30 JST
Broadcast: WrestleUniverse/ABEMA (live)

Saturday, October 8th
STAR NAVIGATION 2022 - Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
Time: 18:30 JST
Broadcast: WrestleUniverse (live)

Note about broadcasts
Unless you are living in Japan or have a VPN you know is compatible with ABEMA, please do not subscribe to the service. For fans living outside of Japan, a subscription to WrestleUniverse would be better as they show more Noah shows than ABEMA, and usually the events get uploaded very quickly. ABEMA broadcasts are only in Japanese, you can only watch them live, and this is the only Noah they show. They do not broadcast old shows as these belong to Samurai TV.

BIRTHDAYS & ANNIVERSARIES
Wednesday, 5th October: Keiji Mutoh debut anniversary (38)
Wednesday, 5th October: Seiki Yoshioka debut anniversary (14)

LINKS
BOOK CORNER

With thanks to: Metal Noah
GIF taken from WrestleUniverse & Noah Official YouTube
Picture credit: YO-HEY & Noah.co.jp

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