NOAH EVENT RECAP - SUNNY VOYAGE 2023, Shinjuku Face (Wednesday May 31st)
Noah announced a sold out crowd of 455 people. Tickets were sold out via reservation a few days ago, and they sold out the remaining same day tickets today. Fans said they were amazed by the queue of people who were waiting outside. Inside, Katsuhiko Nakajima was training in the ring and Jake Lee (who was not on the card) was on autographs.
Event can be viewed on WrestleUniverse.
MATCH ONE
Manabu Soya vs Taishi Ozawa
The crowd were oohing at Taishi Ozawa's gymnastics and dropkicks, however Ozawa dodging him only made Manabu Soya mad, and he went for some desperation pins which Ozawa kept kicking out of. It was also noted that Ozawa has started to incorporate knee strikes, but there could only be one outcome to this match.
Winner: Manabu Soya with the Double Chop (1 minute, 28 seconds)
MATCH TWO
STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa, Chris Ridgeway & Daga) vs Kongoh Juniors (Shuji Kondo, Hajime Ohara & Hi69)
Chris Ridgeway and Shuji Kondo faced up as soon as Ridgeway got into the ring and made his way over to him. Daga and the ref had to get between them a little. Ridgeway and Kondo started the match as Ridgeway had motioned that it was him that he wanted and Kondo proceeded to throw STINGER around the ring, and in some cases almost through it. Although STINGER did not use much or any of their usual shark like heel tactics tonight, they were up to their standard tricks such as when Kondo threw Ogawa in the air to break the pin, and Ogawa being Ogawa simply landed back on him and tried again. Daga and Ridgeway worked together using nasty tandem moves such as a drop toe hold on Hi69 into a Ridgeway knee and a nasty looking tandem Piledriver for the win. I got the impression that they would be taking their team to the next level, this match was a warning to the winners of the GHC Junior Heavyweight tag tonight
WINNER: Daga with a Piledriver on Hi69 (7 minutes, 51 seconds)
After the match as Kondo and Ohara were leaving, Hi69 stopped them and then grabbed the mic and said today he was quitting Kongoh. His reason, he wanted a change. He thanked the stunned Kondo and Ohara before leaving. Backstage he elaborated a little further on his decision; he had been in Kongoh for about three or four years, but he hadn't got any results. He realized his actions were selfish, and he knew that his former teammates would be angry and so he said he wanted a singles match with each one to close out everything so to speak. He also kind of hinted that his career was winding down. With Hi69 the latest member to leave Kongoh, they are down to five; Kenoh, Manabu Soya and Masakatsu Funaki and the two juniors, Shuji Kondo and Hajime Ohara. Considering that Kondo and Funaki are freelancers and not always in Noah, this leaves only Kenoh, Soya and Ohara as rostered members.
MATCH THREE
Sean Legacy vs Stallion Rogers
Noah have hyped this rivalry with a video about Stallion Rogers apparently stalking Sean Legacy around Japan (and I mean literally because wherever Legacy went, Rogers appeared a few moments later), but the video may also mean that Rogers is in Legacy's head and following him wherever he goes, no matter how much he tries to leave him behind. The match started off with a massive slap from Rogers, which Legacy returned. You could hear the sting behind it echo round the hall. The two went then aerial and into the crowd. The match was a blend of American style and Japanese style, and the crowd loved it.
Winner: Sean Legacy with Shambles (8 minutes, 53 seconds)
MATCH FOUR
HAYATA & Eita vs Dante Leon & Junta Miyawaki
Naturally, as HAYATA is the GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion and Dante Leon his nominated challenger, the two started the match with dueling crowd chants for both of them. Later the calls for Eita would almost drown out the ones for Junta Miyawaki. Eita was Eita again, as he humiliated Junta by stepping on his face, which made Junta fight back with a scream, and he even hooked Dante's legs off of the mid turnbuckle which caused him to bounce backwards and spring neck first off of the ropes in a whiplash motion. Despite all the attacks that Junta was put through he did manage to successfully take on HAYATA, although HAYATA did eventually get the win over him in the end and had also put a stop to him being flippy by sneaking up behind him, grabbing his hair and throwing him face first into the turnbuckle.
HAYATA pinned Junta staring at Dante who was struggling against Eita, who was holding on the apron. The two faced off, HAYATA taunting Dante with the win. Dante did not blow a kiss to HAYATA as he had done earlier. Backstage, it was very funny to hear Eita say that he wasn't saying much today, as HAYATA was doing the speaking. HAYATA only spoke a sentence though, to tell Dante that there was nothing to lose.
MATCH FIVE
Go Shiozaki, Kaito Kiyomiya, THE TOUGH (Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura) & Daiki Inaba vs Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura, Shuhei Taniguchi & Funky Express (Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito)
You would have thought that the wildest match on the card tonight would be a Noah Junior one. Instead the wildest match on the card came from the heavyweights. Normally, the heavyweights, who have more of a senior/junior hierarchy than their wild cruiserweights, don't act in the way that they did today, but today the card was seniors against juniors and led by Mohammed Yone (of all people) a mass brawl broke out and everyone started getting into melee fights at ringside.
Naomichi Marufuji discovered that he and Go Shiozaki seemed to have switched positions in that rather than Shiozaki chasing him for a win, he is now chasing Shiozaki for it. They even had a repeat of their "Chop Competition", with Shiozaki even lifting Marufuji's chin. Mohammed Yone had a grudge going with Yoshiki Inamura, as he remembers what happened the last time he and Inamura were in the ring, so Inamura gave him a refresher and threw him around.
The star of the match, and in a way that no doubt pleased his seniors (and Kenta Kobashi) was Shuhei Taniguchi. The monster awakened and demanded that Takashi Sugiura get in the ring so he could "Sugi Bomb" him on to Daiki Inaba. Sugi did, and then Taniguchi demanded that Marufuji get in the ring so he could do the same! Marufuji did and then took the matter up with Sugiura outside the ring. Fortunately, Akitoshi Saito was spared this, as Takashi Sugiura grabbed hold of his leg making sure that he couldn't get in the ring.
WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with The Shining Wizard on Akitoshi Saito (17 minutes, 19 seconds)
Kiyomiya had defeated the seniors on behalf of the younger generation of Noah, but that was not his focus. Backstage he said that he was only focusing on Kazuchika Okada. Okada was all he could see. For the record, Okada has said nothing about his team or his opponents, Yuma Aoyagi thinks he is going to be the one to hold everyone together and take the lead, Kaito Kiyomiya said today that was going to be him, and Kenoh has basically run down his opponents, forgot about Aoyagi and told Okada that he had something to say to him and "the rest of you bastards". This bodes well.
MATCH SIX
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match
Good Looking Guys (YO-HEY & Tadasuke) vs Atsushi Kotoge & Seiki Yoshioka
No team could get the advantage, no matter how much they tried; Wild Tadasuke doing what Wild Tadasuke does, Atsushi Kotoge somersaulting over the top rope and on to GLG, and this was while Seiki Yoshioka was on the apron, Kotoge utilizing both Daisuke Harada's knee strikes and the Katayama German Suplex. Kick outs at what can only be described as 2.59 of a count or else someone made the save.
WINNER: Tadasuke with the Good Looking Pile Driver (13 minutes, 47 seconds)
As the champions celebrated, STINGER (Chris Ridgeway and Daga) slid out from the shadows and challenged for the belts. Daga sarcastically congratulated them on their defense, but said that they were better and therefore the "neuvo rudo STINGER" (new heel STINGER) would be challenging for those belts. Tadasuke granted their request and acknowledged that "a very very strong team" had arrived. Ridgeway was not as complimentary, backstage he said "Good Looking Guys? Tadasuke always looks like he's drunk, and YO-HEY looks like a goat", and if anyone was "Good Looking Guys", then it was them. Title match has been set for Korakuen Hall on the 22nd June.
MAIN EVENT
Kenoh vs Katsuhiko Nakajima
Katsuhiko Nakajima came to the match wearing a Kongoh t-shirt, which made fans gasp when they saw him. Kenoh glared, but he understood, especially when Nakajima took it off and symbolically folded it and laid it at Kenoh's feet. The match started in very MMA style (Nakajima has a background in this, and Kenoh's Nippon Kempo is very similar, which enables him to fight MMA style when needed i.e. against Kazushi Sakuraba for example). This later turned back into a wrestling match and then the kick war broke out with a stand up/sit down competition. At one point later in the match, Kenoh launched Nakajima into the turnbuckle with a kick, and the second time out of the ring, although I think this might have been Nakajima being a little dramatic.
During the match, Nakajima would take two PFS, one was to the outside of the ring. Kenoh, not to be cheated of a pinfall victory, threw Nakajima back in the ring. Nakajima being irritating, rolled out of it. Kenoh in his infinite mercy gave Nakajima until the count of eight before throwing him back in before attempting the pin. However, Nakajima had been playing for time, and delivered a Vertical Spike. Half an hour was approaching, and the match should have finished several times over, but it did not and despite the fact that both were growing more and more exhausted somehow they kept finding their third and fourth wind.
Result: Time out draw at 45 minutes (note, both their other matches has ended the same way)
No members of the dwindling Kongoh where at ringside and Go Shiozaki stayed away for Nakajima and Kenoh to fight. Nakajima dragged himself up and the two glared at each other.
Nakajima bowed to Kenoh and then left. Backstage, Kenoh was saying that he would always be after Nakajima's head and he would beat him any time, when Go Shiozaki approached and asked Kenoh for a 
singles match. Kenoh released his vitriol and told Shiozaki that this was what he hated about him. Did he really think that he could defeat him so soon after returning to Noah? Kenoh then stated that he had been the one to lead Noah, while Shiozaki was "lazing about at home". He was going to hammer that into him. Shiozaki nodded and then asked for a handshake. Kenoh brushed him off telling him not to be pretentious as his handshake was "lukewarm" and he characterized AXIZ as being like a "boys love" romance novel. Shiozaki left after meeting Kenoh's glare for a while, and quite naturally, Kenoh complained that he didn't want to talk as it was making him angry as his head hurt. Nakajima also spoke, he was less vitriolic than Kenoh and simply thanked him for him and reflected that the time allotted to the match was not enough. He said he would do it again any time. Later, Kenoh, seemingly recovered from his grumpiness filmed an episode of the Kenoh channel while driving home, and said that he and Nakajima had it all out in the ring, in what he termed as a "conversation". The match with Go Shiozaki will take place on the 17th June in Nagoya.
Next event: ALL TOGETHER AGAIN (If you have energy, you can do anything!" (9th June 2023)
Noah's next event: SUNNY VOYAGE 2023 (Yokohama Radiant Hall, 10th June) Broadcast TBA
With thanks to: Gong EX, Metal Noah
Picture credits: Pro Wrestling DX, BBM Mobile
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