NOAH EVENT RECAP: SUNNY VOYAGE 2023 (Bandaijima Multipurpose Plaza "Ookama", Sunday May 28th)

Noah announced an attendance of 582 people today. One fan said that it feels like more than last time, and it was by 66 people as the last time they were here was September 2022 with 516. Sadly, no one went in the canal this time as far as I know. 

Naomichi Marufuji did a video before the event showing the exercise equipment set up around the bus. As the venue is so big, the crew love it as the buses can be driven in and parked (no "Demon Staircase From Hell" here) He later took a video of Takashi Sugiura training. 

Which looked absolutely terrifying. 

Event will be broadcast on WrestleUniverse from 6pm JST on May 31st. You must be a subscriber to view. 

MATCH ONE

Hajime Ohara vs Taishi Ozawa

Winner: Hajime Ohara via Boston Crab (6 minutes, 13 seconds)

MATCH TWO

HAYATA & Lanzelot vs Dante Leon & Super Crazy

Winner: Dante Leon via Dante Driver on Lanzelot (9 minutes, 11 seconds)

Dante took the win as a win over HAYATA, and HAYATA was not impressed when Super Crazy handed the GHC Junior Heavyweight belt to Dante. 

MATCH THREE

Kongoh (Kenoh, Manabu Soya & Hi69) vs Sean Legacy, Xtreme Tiger & Stallion Rogers

Sean Legacy taunted Kenoh with his pose, he was quickly beat down by Kongoh and Kenoh did his pose over him

Winner: Hi69 with the Stuka Splash on Xtreme Tiger (13 minutes, 18 seconds)

After the match, Kenoh went into one of his angry rants about the All Japan World Heavyweight Tag championship, which will be fought on the 29th. Kenoh demanded that when Kongoh win, Suwama stand in front of himself and Manabu Soya and say, "Kenoh-san, Soya-san, I won't stand before you anymore. I was too weak. I am sorry." Kenoh then also demanded that when he gets in the ring, Suwama thanks him, addressing him as "Kenoh-sama" (a very high form of address, usually used in business between a junior and a very high executive) and thank him, "before you start complaining". 

MATCH FOUR

Naomichi Marufuji & Mohammed Yone vs THE TOUGH (Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura)

Mohammed Yone and turned and looked at the crowd while Naomichi Marufuji and Yoshiki Inamura were fighting as there was a lot of calls for Inamura. Inamura delivered a massive Musou to Marufuji, but it was Yone who was going to get one. 

Winner: Yoshiki Inamura with the Musou on Mohammed Yone (13 minutes, 21 seconds)

MATCH FIVE

STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa, Chris Ridgeway & Daga) vs AMAKUSA, Junta Miyawaki & Alejandro

From what I understand, the "new STINGER" are even worse than the old one. The old one would hurt you, but this one will not only hurt you, but sweep your legs out from under you from the apron and attack you outside or inside the ring even more than the last group did, as happened to AMAKUSA and Junta Miyawaki variously. 

Winner: Chris Ridgeway with a sleeper hold on Junta Miyawaki (16 minutes, 44 seconds)

MATCH SIX

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

During the match there may have been some kind of misfire between Seiki Yoshioka and Atsushi Kotoge again, I'm not sure of the details but it involved a YO-HEY dropkick to Yoshioka's face. Kotoge got revenge however, by keeping YO-HEY away from helping his team when Takashi Sugiura had Anthony Green in the Front Neck Lock by giving him the three knee strikes and the Killswitch. 

Winner: Takashi Sugiura with the Front Neck Lock on Anthony Green (18 minutes, 15 seconds)

After the match, Takashi Sugiura went on a bit of a rampage. He trapped Jake Lee in the Front Neck Lock after Jake kicked him to let go of Anthony. Afterwards, when he had been pried off by Shuhei Taniguchi, Sugi sarcastically threw the belt to Jake who was outside the ring, saying "You forgot". 

As for Atsushi Kotoge and Seiki Yoshioka, Kotoge mentioned today's incident, but sounded what is probably a bad omen for his team and their title challenge, especially considering how volatile the Noah Junior's can be, when he said the words, "the ability to believe in your partner." 

MATCH SEVEN

AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima) vs Kaito Kiyomiya & Daiki Inaba

Winner: Go Shiozaki over Daiki Inaba with the Gowan Lariat (18 minutes, 44 seconds)

After the match, Go Shiozaki spoke on the mic to say "I am NOAH! We are NOAH! And we are AXIZ", which the fans joined in with. As per tradition, when Noah are in Niigata they are presented with a large bale of rice, as Niigata is Japan's rice growing heartland, and Shiozaki said that Nakajima would be eating 70% of the rice. As the bale is very big and heavy, the only people to have carried it back from the ring are Yoshiki Inamura (who usually is in charge of bringing it into the ring) and Kaito Kiyomiya. Kiyomiya carried it back once as he wasn't going to be outdone by Inamura. Today, Go Shiozaki tried to lift it and found he couldn't. Katsuhiko Nakajima also tried. Couldn't. The pair of them lifted it between them and walked backstage, as they walked Go Shiozaki was shouting "I am NOAH! We are NOAH! And we are AXIZ". 

Backstage, Kenoh cut into the middle of their promo, and glared at Nakajima, who smirked back. They didn't even speak to each other and Kenoh withdrew angrily.

Noah's next event: SUNNY VOYAGE 2023, Shinjuku Face, Wednesday May 31st

Picture credit: Noah Global (Twitter), Pro Wrestling DX, Weekly Pro

With thanks to: Kei, Saku_Dragonfly, K-nyanszanmai