(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: [Muto Retirement Road] ABEMA presents Ariake Gaisen-THE RETURN-PRO-WRESTLING LOVE FOREVER . 3 ~TRIUMPH~

Pro Wrestling Noah made a homecoming today when they sailed back in to the port they had first sailed from twenty-two years ago, Ariake. The Ariake that they knew had changed beyond all recognition. The dojo, the dormitories, the offices and even the beloved old arena had gone. Built over it was now an Olympic village with an Olympic sized stadium. It was going to be a night of new memories for a new generation, and very fitting that Noah should be the first to hold a wrestling event there. The event can be viewed on WrestleUniverse. 

As fans arrived, Kazuyuki Fujita and Hideki Suzuki were doing a sparring session in the ring. Afterwards, Fujita produced his box of Red Viper and handed one to Hideki Suzuki, with whom he drank down a bottle with and then he handed out bottles to the announce team and downed another bottle with them. The crowd applauded, and then remembered they could cheer. 

Following the dark match of Kai Fujimura vs Taishi Ozawa, Go Shiozaki made an appearance to a huge cheer.  In a very emotional moment he addressed the crowd from a microphone set on a stand at the top of the ramp. He didn't say anything about his return however, although his t-shirt hinted at it.

"Noah has returned to Ariake! And everyone's voices have returned to Noah! After two and a half years, the time has come to shout out loud together. I will shout these words from now on. Everyone, from the bottom of your hearts, please shout. I will start... "I AM NOAH!"

The crowd responded each time to "I AM NOAH!" with "WE ARE NOAH!"

Following a hoss fight opener, and a wild match between YO-HEY and Dante Leon (plus two staid heavyweights) where YO-HEY was just as vocal as the crowd and Dante Leon said afterwards he was challenging the winner of HAYATA vs Ninja Mack, it was time for the very bitter STINGER  (Yoshinari Ogawa, Chris Ridgeway & Yasutaka Yano) vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (NOSAWA Rongai, Eita & Super Crazy). Perros did the usual thing on the top of the ramp telling the camera to come close so they could shill their merchandise. 

Young boy Yano ran to the ring, while Ogawa and Ridgeway, his seniors, followed at a more sedate pace and as soon as they got through the ropes, a brawl broke out straight away. Ogawa driving Eita up the walkway. The referee left them to it, while the others fought. Ogawa was not concerned about the others, only Eita. NOSAWA's screams of "Eita! Eita!" ended their rampway brawl when a disheveled looking Eita ran back to the ring to help him as Ridgeway was twisting NOSAWA'S ankle into shapes that bones and cartilage do not allow. There was a loud "OGAWA" call when he finally tagged in. Eita's ankle was not spared however, as Ridgeway even attacked him while he was leaning over the barrier and clinging on to the announce table. For reasons known only to himself, NOSAWA bought in weapons. Namely a trash can and lid. Ogawa ducked him and Eita got hit with it. Ogawa followed this up by attacking him with the lid. It came as no surprise that Eita was bloodied. 

NOSAWA eventually got the match thrown out thanks to use of weapon, but the chaos continued as Ogawa wanted to punish Eita, which he did by putting the trash can over his head and attacking him.

Afterwards, while Yano very politely carried the trash can backstage, NOSAWA declared a final battle and all out war next, and said he would call up some old friends to finish this, which included Kotaro Suzuki who we have not seen in Noah recently. 

El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Junior was the only member of the Noah roster to get into the Halloween spirit, by wearing a pumpkin style mask, complete with little green stalk to the ring. Hideki Suzuki told the ref to check the stalk...

Between the end of the first half the card and the start of the title matches in the second, Noah made a big announcement. The Great Muta would face Shinsuke Nakamura at The Nippon Budokan at the traditional New Year's Day event.  

The GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag started off with an attack so vicious by Kongoh (Tadasuke and HI69) that Seiki Yoshioka had to drag a semi conscious Atsushi Kotoge to the corner in order to tag him in. While Kotoge recovered his wits, Tadasuke attacked Yoshioka's knee, even headbanging while twisting it around. Kotoge, however, recovered and came back in usual style to heroically win the match, with a little help from a well timed kick from Yoshioka. The battered champions had no time to rest, and Kotoge practically fainted after the match. Tadasuke and HI69 might have failed, but Kongoh had two more juniors, Hajime Ohara and Shuji Kondo, Kondo said briefly, "Hey! We are the next challengers", and they attacked the champions. A masked man ran to the ring soon after, and chased Kongoh from it.

He looked very familiar, and as he removed his mask, everyone could tell it was Haoh. He had changed his look, grown his hair longer and put it into cornrows which suited him, and was wearing blue long pants. 

Tadasuke, who had been the one who made Haoh leave Noah, yelled out "Wait, wait wait! You are Haoh! Didn't I banish you? Stop fucking about!" The mysterious man spoke, "To all the Noah fans, and Tadasuke. Nice to meet you. My name is Amakusa. In order to stand at the top of Noah's juniors, let's start with Tadasuke." 

Backstage, Shuji Kondo proposed that whichever team lost the title challenge would have to do one hundred push ups. Hajime Ohara, who lives in terror of his senior, said he felt sick as he remembered those days well... 

Amakusa also spoke, he reiterated what he had said about going to the top of the Noah Juniors and about Tadasuke, but he also made himself sound as if he was going to be a lone wolf. It should also be mentioned that the reason for Haoh's apparent vanishing act, was because he quietly slipped away to Mexico to the training camp where Junta Miyawaki currently is (credit Metal Noah)      

Daisuke Harada appeared on commentary for the GHC Junior match. Despite his injury, Harada has remained as active as he can in Noah, even appearing to do autographs. This is not something you usually see from injured wrestlers (although Takashi Sugiura did it when he had his heart problems), but I don't think Harada likes to be away from even ringside if he can help it. 

Ninja Mack started with a loud "Ninja" chant and then went on to embarrass HAYATA (who started pulling his hair) by avoiding all of his initial moves with aerial techniques. No matter what HAYATA did he was humiliated as Ninja, like water, kept on finding a way through. HAYATA had fought opponents more powerful, those that had changed from what he knew, but rarely anyone who he couldn't pin down. The match went to the apron where Ninja did the Ninja bomb on HAYATA. HAYATA'S left elbow hit the concrete just beyond the crash mat, and after that he couldn't get to his feet (I think he may also have fainted for a few seconds before the pain kicked in). The referee checked on him and then stopped the match. Ninja Mack became the next champion, and backstage he was challenged by Dante Leon. Title match will take place on the 10th November at Korakuen Hall. 

HAYATA was helped out by one of the seconds and the medic. Chris Ridgeway said that his elbow was popped back in in "real time" by the paramedics and that HAYATA was "one tough motherfucker". However, he has sustained an injury and one that will keep him out of action for a while, as Noah announced he has a dislocated fracture of the left elbow joint, which means the dislocation occurred the same time as the fracture.  

The GHC National was fought under GHC Martial Arts rules (i.e. no pins, only submissions or TKO, being outside the ring would mean a foul was awarded as was eye gouging and three such fouls would forfeit the match). For this, Masakatsu Funaki even wore shorts that adhered to UWF specifications. The man who had refereed their match fifteen years ago, Yuji Shimada, came back to do this one. Noah had warned that you needed to watch as it could end very suddenly, and the match ended in 3 minutes and 19 seconds via the Ninja Choke (which Kazushi Sakuraba had spoken of being aware of) and the title was retained by Funaki. Funaki had now cleared his debt to himself fifteen years ago, and had surpassed Sakuraba. His next opponent came forward backstage. It was El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Junior. He does not speak much Japanese, and Funaki does not speak much Spanish, so El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Junior simply motioned to the belt, pointed to himself and the two shook hands. Title match will take place on the 10th November at Korakuen Hall. Funaki called Wagner Junior's challenge "Japan vs Mexico".  He would like to fight all the challenges like this, but, he understood that the rules weren't going to be understood by everyone. 

For the GHC Heavyweight Tag, the champions made their own chaotic entry in that Satoshi Kojima had now his own "Satoshi" belt, and as soon as they got in this ring, this was yet another thing to make Kenoh yell at them. I think that with Kenoh's general rage and fixation upon the "Dangerous Detective" parody, he probably quite liked that show. There was no Yuki Nagata however. Takashi Sugiura was seen to be wearing some old school ringwear for the Ariake occasion.

The match was wild and initially the champions were run roughshod by their challengers, who had no time for their "Dangerous Detective" antics. The crowd did though and called back "Kojima" each time Sugiura called "Satoshi". Despite this, the "old men playing at being detectives" as Kenoh called them, can be dangerous and this chaotic match saw Kenoh breaking a pin with the PFS, Kenoh countering Kojima's chops with kicks and screaming "Let's go mutherfucker!", and it was almost like a junior match in that all four at one point laid in the ring after taking each others moves, but the old men prevailed and Kojima won. 

The last time we had seen Funky Express, Akitoshi Saito had said that Tamon Honda had given permission for his move "Dead End"to be used, Mohammed Yone said that with this they could go to the tag front, and today they "two of the funkiest people in the world, had come to challenge for the titles".  Sugiura had no problems doing it, but naturally he also deferred the question to Kojima, who yelled "Let's go motherfucker!". Title match will take place on the 10th November at Korakuen Hall.  

The semi main was Keiji Mutoh's retirement road match, which took the form of Noah (himself, Naomichi Marufuji and Yoshiki Inamura) facing off against New Japan's Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Mamabe and Tomoaki Honda. Marufuji (who was wearing the original Noah armbands from twenty-two years ago in Differ Ariake) bounced into the ring and faced up with Tanahashi. However, Tanahashi was not to be his target, as the match settled into Tanahashi vs Mutoh, Makabe vs Inamura and Marufuji vs Honma (they had a chop war and Marufuji cut him open). All of the New Japan team would experience Inamura's power, as he slammed all of them, even spin slamming Tanahashi. When Mutoh entered, the crowd (led by Funky Kato on commentary) sang along with Mutoh's theme music. 

The match started with Tanahashi and Mutoh, and ended with Mutoh getting the Dragon Screw from Tanahashi. They would finish this later, but for now, Inamura and Makabe would fight. Makabe and Inamura developed an instant rivalry, Makabe was not going to avoid him. Inamura was going to make sure he knew his name. 

The match was won by Naomichi Marufuji, who used the Shiranui on Honma. Following this Mutoh and Tanahashi recreated a famous scene where they sat together outside of the ring, watching what was going on in it. They were ignoring the row of photographers however and praising Yoshiki Inamura, who was having a fight with Makabe. The bell was ringing to stop the fight, and the trainees were trying to pry them apart. When they eventually did, Inamura gave Makabe a show of his muscles. 

When Tanahashi and Mutoh got back in the ring, Honma tried to hug Mutoh, who accepted it once but when Honma tried to follow him for more, told him to get off!

Backstage, Tanahashi said that the result of Mutoh's assessment that he wanted Tanahashi to do in order for him to have one last match in New Japan was successful and he wanted to involve him in a big match there. They also discussed Inamura, with Makabe saying "Should I send him to New Japan for training, or should I come here and beat him down?". Honma said this wasn't over with Marufuji and he would "follow him there", meaning he would follow him to Noah. Marufuji scoffed at the video of a move done by Honma posted on Noah's official Twitter, saying it was something he did as a trainee. 

For the main event, Noah ran a video that was like a Halloween mini movie, It involved Kaito Kiyomiya, walking along a deserted street, bathed in a green light when he came across a giant monster who was bathed in the light of the moon and glowing with a blue light (which is the color of the underworld). The monster of course was Kazuyuki Fujita, who was grinning at him evilly and blocking his path. Kiyomiya apparently continued his stroll, looking behind him as he walked. 

Kiyomiya wasn't as scared coming to the ring as he was in the video. He debuted both new ring wear and new theme music, "Explosion Soul". Personally, I think he had outgrown the "Supernova" theme music, which became increasingly unsuitable for him, as he was no longer the idealistic young boy the music seemed to suggest. 

Fujita was brutal, wearing Kiyomiya down by working on his legs, prolonging the torture by kicking Kiyomiya in the head and then putting him in a submission, The Fujita Bomb and the audible blows which echoed around the already wound up crowd. Attacks on Fujita by Kiyomiya only made him mad, and when it looked like Kiyomiya was getting a headway by attacking Fujita's head, The Beast bounced back angrier and stronger than ever. Kiyomiya even pulled out a moonsault from the top turnbuckle to the outside, and did some soccer ball kicks of his own. It was at this point that Fujita became really mad and the straps came down. Kiyomiya went for a desperation move by using the good old reliable Frankensteiner that Keiji Mutoh (and Takashi Sugiura for that matter) had both used to win titles and matches, for the win. Fujita reacted in rage, shoving the referee down. As he left in disbelief, shaking his head, Kaito Kiyomiya's next challenger came to the ring. 

Timothy Thatcher, who was accompanied by his "interpreter", Hideki Suzuki. 

Thatcher told Kiyomiya that he was here to challenge the "top guy in Noah" for the GHC Heavyweight. Title match has been set for the 10th November at Korakuen Hall. 

When Timothy and Hideki had gone, Kiyomiya gave a bit of a rambling speech on the mic. 

"Thank you! Thank you very much! Timothy, okay, I will take Timothy's challenge. Anyone, no matter who challenges, no matter what kind of guy comes, yeah, it's okay. So everyone, come and challenge me! Thank you everyone in Ariake! I was really happy to hear everyone's cheers, and I was able to stand up many times. Thank you. I'm still challenging myself. The audience who watched me today might have thought, "What the heck is Kiyomiya?" You may have thought that today, but I will definitely lead Noah, so please watch me! Please come and see me! Thank you!" 

Full Results

MATCH ONE (DARK MATCH)

Kai Fujimura vs Tashi Ozawa

WINNER: Kai Fujimura via Missile Kick (6 minutes, 8 seconds)

MATCH TWO

Shuhei Taniguchi, Alejandro & Xtreme Tiger vs Kongoh (Manabu Soya, Shuji Kondo & Hajime Ohara)

WINNER: Shuji Kondo with the King Kong Lariat on Alejandro (9 minutes, 8 seconds)

MATCH THREE

Daiki Inaba & YO-HEY vs Jack Morris & Dante Leon

WINNER: Dante Leon with the Inferno on YO-HEY (11 minutes, 4 seconds)

MATCH FOUR

STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa, Chris Ridgeway & Yasutaka Yano) vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (NOSAWA Rongai, Eita & Super Crazy)

Match was thrown out thanks to NOSAWA using a weapon (13 minutes, 15 seconds)

MATCH FIVE

Hideki Suzuki & El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr vs Masa Kitamiya & Masato Tanaka

Winner: El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr with the Wagner Driver on Masa Kitamiya (11 minutes, 54 seconds)

MATCH SIX

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match

The Noah Junior Regulars (Atsushi Kotoge & Seiki Yoshioka) vs Kongoh Juniors (Tadasuke & HI69)

WINNER: Atsushi Kotoge with the Water Wheel Drop (also known as "Bat Hanging) (13 minutes, 8 seconds)

MATCH SEVEN

GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship Match

HAYATA vs Ninja Mack

WINNER: Ninja Mack due to match stoppage as HAYATA was injured (11 minutes, 23 seconds)

MATCH EIGHT

GHC National Championship Match

(Fought under GHC Martial Arts Rules)

Masakatsu Funaki vs Kazushi Sakuraba

WINNER: Masakatsu Funaki with the Ninja Choke (3 minutes, 19 seconds)

MATCH NINE

GHC Heavyweight Tag Championship match

Satoshi Kojima & Takashi Sugiura vs Kongoh (Kenoh & Katsuhiko Nakajima)

WINNER: Satoshi Kojima with The Western Lariat on Katsuhiko Nakajima (21 minutes, 23 seconds)

MATCH TEN

PRO-WRESTLING LOVE FOREVER . 3 ~TRIUMPH~

Keiji Mutoh, Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshiki Inamura vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma

WINNER: Naomichi Marufuji with the Shiranui on Tomoaki Honma (20 minutes, 32 seconds)

MATCH ELEVEN

GHC Heavyweight Championship Match

Kaito Kiyomiya vs Kazuyuki Fujita

WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with The Frankensteiner (24 minutes, 6 seconds)

Attendance: 3739

Noah's next event: SUNNY VOYAGE 2022, Thursday 3rd November, Korakuen Hall

GIF taken from WrestleUniverse