(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: SUNNY VOYAGE 2023 (Kobe Sambo Hall, Sunday May 21st)

"There are so many different scenes at today's NOAH Kobe show that it's hard to catch up!!"

Noah have two events left in May; the 28th in Niigata (will be streamed at a later date) and the end of month event, "SUNNY VOYAGE 2023" at Shinjuku FACE. In June we have "ALL TOGETHER AGAIN", "GREEN JOURNEY 2023 IN NAGOYA" and Kenoh's 15th anniversary show, so tonight was definitely the wind churning the waves beneath The Ark. When fans arrived at the venue (after queuing for tickets which went around the perimeter), Kendo Kashin and Kazuyuki Fujita were warming up in the ring. I'm not sure what Kashin did, but there was some comedy for the fans who had arrived. He would be up to his usual tricks later as we will see. 

AXIZ came out to sign autographs and pose for pictures, and the queue went round the hall. Go Shiozaki noticed that one fan had come wearing a Jay Brisco memorial t-shirt. The queue for autographs went on for a long time, and people were still queuing as the time for the event to start approached. 

MATCH ONE

Alejandro & Super Crazy vs Kongoh (Hajime Ohara & Hi69)

Winner: Hajime Ohara with the Mui Bien on Alejandro (8 minutes, 5 seconds)

MATCH TWO

HAYATA, Dragon Bane & Lanzelot vs Dante Leon, Xtreme Tiger & Alpha Wolf

Dante Leon grinned and put the belt on his shoulder when outside the ring to wind HAYATA up, this worked and a fight broke out. 

Winner: Dragon Bane over Alpha Wolf with the Frankensteiner (11 minutes, 14 seconds)

After the match, STINGER stormed the ring and attacked HAYATA. It was unusual to see Yoshinari Ogawa wearing anything other than black or white, but the deep red he was wearing matched his mood this evening. Dante smirked when STINGER burst in, and for some reason removed the belt so they couldn't hit HAYATA with it, and Ogawa caught him doing it and challenged him to get in the ring if he thought he was going to take them on. HAYATA was dragged out of the ring by Ogawa and slammed to the floor. Daga trod on him to get past and go backstage. 

MATCH THREE

THE TOUGH (Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura) Shuhei Taniguchi & Daiki Inaba vs Kazuyuki Fujita, Kendo Kashin, Dave The Clown & Masato Tanaka

Noah changed the card without telling anyone and a new face appeared in Noah. This was Dave The Clown from AAA, who made a surprise appearance teaming with Kazuyuki Fujita, Kendo Kashin and Masato Tanaka (who appears to have shaved off what remains of his hair). Kashin, who had for some reason Yasutaka Yano, Yuji Nagata and Kinya Okada's pictures on his chest, wandered around ringside handing out what looked like either flyers or vouchers (I would be suspicious of both) while Kazuyuki Fujita had a box of his VIPER drink, which his team downed. Naturally, Kashin made a beeline for Shuhei Taniguchi, and the two vanished to the back of the hall, Kashin managing to knock over a merchandise table by throwing Taniguchi into it on the way out. The fight then went down the stairs and into the lobby and then outside the building, where Kashin choked Taniguchi with a poster. Taniguchi returned the favor, but back in the ring he went on the rampage and slammed everyone.

Winner: Dave The Clown with the Package Pile Driver on Daiki Inaba (14 minutes, 5 seconds)

MATCH FOUR

Kaito Kiyomiya, AMAKUSA & Junta Miyawaki vs STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & Chris Ridgeway) & Sean Legacy

Yoshinari Ogawa's bad mood continued, and this time he got spiteful, as he decided to pull Kaito Kiyomiya off of the turnbuckle soon after Kiyomiya entered the ring. This led to some shoving between the two teams. Junta Miyawaki debuted a new costume, which hopefully does not threaten to fall down around his ankles. 

Winner: Sean Legacy with Shambles on Junta Miyawaki (14 minutes, 28 seconds)

MATCH FIVE

Eita vs Daga

Poor Eita had to endure pretty much the same match that he did when he faced Yoshinari Ogawa in a singles match, but even worse for him, HAYATA couldn't come to help for a while, and this was his hometown. Eita had promised he was going to "drown Daga in a sea of blood" but unfortunately he was helpless against the circling sharks of Ogawa and Ridgeway who dragged him out of the ring to beat him up and even distracted the ref so Eita could be double teamed. No wonder Eita's home crowd loudly booed Daga (and the others) for this. 

WINNER: Daga with the Diablo Wings (8 minutes)

STINGER stayed around to beat Eita up even more. HAYATA came out for the rescue, knocking Chris Ridgeway and Daga out of the ring, and then getting into a punch flurry with Yoshinari Ogawa before getting rid of him. HAYATA spoke on the mic, more to Ogawa than to anyone else, "From here on, this is our time". 

HAYATA repeated this again backstage. Daga said that naturally, Eita had no chance against him (conveniently forgetting it was three on one), and that HAYATA had something he wanted. Namely, the GHC Junior. He cannot challenge for it now. so he hinted he would be challenging the winner of HAYATA vs Dante Leon in June. 

MATCH SIX

AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima) vs Kongoh (Masakatsu Funaki & Shuji Kondo)

The fans who had been so vocal the match before, where quiet with a kind of nervous tension when Masakatsu Funaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima faced off and then grew loud when Funaki and Go Shiozaki got into a chop war. Shiozaki ended the match with purple welts on his chest thanks in part to this and the Kongoh version of Endless Love. Funaki seems to have targeted Nakajima, as the two were fighting outside the ring when the match ended.

Winner: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan Lariat on Shuji Kondo (11 minutes, 50 seconds)

Backstage, Nakajima said that AXIZ were getting better day by day. 

MATCH SEVEN

Good Looking Guys (Jake Lee, Anthony Green, YO-HEY & Tadasuke) vs Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura, Atsushi Kotoge & Seiki Yoshioka

Takashi Sugiura and Jake Lee bowed to each other, in the Jake Lee style. But this was probably the only nicety between them as things got out of hand later when Sugiura gave Jake a massive elbow, which knocked him down on the walkway. More came after the match, and Jake was to find out just why Sugiura had warned him about his presence in Noah.  

WINNER: YO-HEY with the dropkick on Seiki Yoshioka (17 minutes, 27 seconds)

When the winning team were posing with their belts, Sugiura gave Jake another taste of his elbow, or rather elbows, and another fight broke out. Sugiura then baited Jake with the belt, before handing it back to him, and Jake actually may have lost his temper as the two had to be separated. Jake left screaming in rage. Backstage he had regained his composure, and was telling himself to calm down. Sugi wrote on Twitter that he was going to shake him up even more. YO-HEY (who had been cut open during the match) said he envied Jake for how intense his fight was and asked his own challengers, Seiki Yoshioka and Atsushi Kotoge, to please do the same for himself and Tadasuke. 

MATCH EIGHT

All Japan World Heavyweight Tag

Kongoh (Kenoh & Manabu Soya) vs Voodoo Murders (Suwama & KONO)

Suwama entered the arena to a chorus of boos and considering the hatred between the two teams, it was no surprise that the referee had to hold them back. Suwama liked being booed and his behavior grew even more wild and he put a trash bag over Kenoh's head, got some kind of cable from under the ring to choke him with, and even used the steel barriers. 

Winner: Manabu Soya with the Jumping DDT on KONO (21 minutes, 12 seconds)

Fans were very happy that Soya's presence was increased by his getting the win. Suwama left muttering the that the referee was useless. Kenoh got on the mic and told Suwama not to fuck with him, they had won, and if he wanted to come back and challenge then he was welcome to. They would take anyone on. Fans were of the opinion that the next challengers were probably going to be the Saito brothers, but no one came forward. Kenoh carried on speaking, saying that today's journey had been an hour and a half, and he was looking forward to seeing everyone here ("all you fuckers") in Tokushima for his 15th anniversary show. 

Backstage, Suwama once again confronted Kenoh and Soya and claimed that Noah's refereeing was "half-assed". Kenoh told him to quit his whining and if he wanted another match, then it would be in Noah. Suwama refused and said that it would be in All Japan and with a referee that he trusted, Kyohei Wada. Suwama took a shot at DragonGate's TwinGate Championship, telling Kenoh not to bring that belt with the extra belt, to which Kenoh told him not to make fun of DragonGate here in Kobe. 

With thanks to: Ikkyunikukyu, Kei, K@KE, Haruka OGI, En & Witan

Picture credit: BBM Mobile

Attendance: 891 (Full)

Noah's next event: SUNNY VOYAGE 2023 (Niigata/Bandaijima multi-purpose plaza, Sunday May 28th) - broadcast at a later date