(NOAH) NOAH NEWSLETTER VOL.204 ~ 26TH JUNE 2023


NEWS

Naomichi Marufuji announces his 25th anniversary show, "True Flight"
On the 20th June, Naomichi Marufuji announced that he would be holding his 25th anniversary show, "True Flight" on the 17th September at Korakuen Hall. Compared to his 20th anniversary (and his 20th anniversary year) his 25th anniversary is somewhat more low key, he is a lot calmer in what he wants to achieve, the venue is smaller and aside from an opponent who he says will "fill out Korakuen with one match", he's not really doing much other than perhaps some merchandise, which he wants to leave to Noah to sort out. No other card details have been announced, but there has been speculation that this opponent will be Will Ospreay. Ospreay fueled the speculation on the 26th June by saying that he wanted to fight Marufuji (who he called his "idol") during Marufuji's anniversary year. The two then had a Twitter exchange with Marufuji asking him to "give me my dream match". Nothing further has been announced at the time of writing, but Ospreay has said "the ball is in Noah's court" and Marufuji has hinted that something may well be announced soon.

Related articles


Kento Miyahara and Katsuhiko Nakajima to clash for the first time in ten and a half years
At GREEN JOURNEY 2023 in Nagoya, Katsuhiko Nakajima challenged Kento Miyahara to a singles match. The two attended the press conference about their fight, which will take place at "One Night Dream" on the 15th July at Korakuen Hall. At the press conference, Miyahara (who wore the habitual scowl he wears when confronted with either Katsuhiko Nakajima or Masa Kitamiya) said that he would only be talking about the match then and there and not anywhere else, but he was willing to discuss with Nakajima one crucial detail, the match would be no time limit. Afterwards, when they both got up to pose for press pictures, Miyahara delivered a massive slap to Nakajima and knocked him to the floor. Yelling, "This is my greeting!" he walked off. 

Related articles
Jimmy Yang and daughter make their Noah debuts
Noah made a couple of announcements regarding matches at "One Night Dream" (other than the above), other announcements are discussed below and later. One of the announcements was that Jimmy Yang will be coming to Noah for the first time, as will his daughter, Jazzy Yang, who will be taking part in a four woman Joshi match.  

Yu Owada to debut
Yu Owada will graduate Noah's dojo at "One Night Dream". He will make his debut against Kai Fujimura. Owada is 22 years old and comes from Sapporo, Hokkaido. At debut he weighs 85kg and has a height of 178cm. His birthday is August 12th 2000, which means he was born seven days after Noah's very first show.  


Yota Tsuji invades Noah
Kaito Kiyomiya has stated repeatedly that the only person he cares about in A Block of the G1 Climax is SANADA, who is the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, Yota Tsuji (and Shota Umino) aren't even worth his attention. Uncharacteristically, Kiyomiya made further scathing remarks about Tsuji, labelling him an "inexperienced green boy" and sniffing that his title matches meant nothing to him. Tsuji commented that if Kiyomiya was going to make insults "like an eighth grader in middle school", then he was going to call Kiyomiya "a green matchstick". By this he doesn't mean that Kiyomiya is inexperienced, he means that he is Noah green, tall and thin (think beanpole) and with his head of blonde hair, looks like a lit match. Not getting any response from Kiyomiya, Tsuji turned up at Korakuen Hall on the 22nd June (and yes, he even photographed himself buying a ticket, even though Kenoh wasn't aware of this) and sat in the front row, grinning, wearing sunglasses and an L.I.J t-shirt. Kaito Kiyomiya took no notice, except to grimace and flounce off after the match. Tsuji said he came to Korakuen to "watch the match of the green matchstick", and sarcastically said that Kiyopi (a nickname Noah fans have given him) was "the hottest guy in New Japan now". But his sarcastic promo ended with asking what was the difference between them? 


N-1 VICTORY Participants announced

There will be 16 participants, who will both be split into two blocks of eight men. As per tradition, the final night will be in Osaka. Naomichi Marufuji decided in May after losing in the GHC Heavyweight match, that he would not be appearing. Takashi Sugiura is injured and will be out indefinitely and none of the other seniors are appearing, which gives the league a fresh young feel. 

BLOCK A
Jake Lee
Kenoh
Masa Kitamiya
Jack Morris
Yoshiki Inamura
Timothy Thatcher
Adam Brookes (Australian Indie Wrestler)
Yuki Yoshioka (DragonGate)

BLOCK B
Go Shiozaki
Katsuhiko Nakajima
El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr
Manabu Soya
Daiki Inaba
Saxon Huxley
Lance Lance Anoa'i (MLW)
Yuma Anzai (AJPW)

Adam Brookes said that not only was he ticking off wrestling in Japan off his Bucket List, he was going to win the tournament while he was at it. Brookes will come to Noah before the N-1 begins, and will make his debut on the 9th July tagging with Ninja Mack against Dante Leon and Stallion Rogers. 


Kongoh split
Kongoh not only lost the DragonGate Twin Gate, but on the 15th June Kenoh and Manabu Soya lost the All Japan World Tag to Kento Miyahara and Yuma Aoyagi. Worst was to come, but not in a bitter or acrimonious way, when at his anniversary show in Tokushima on the 24th June, Kenoh announced that Kongoh were disbanding. From an original line up of Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya, Atsushi Kotoge and Yoshiki Inamura in 2019, only Kenoh was left. Their split was not because of dissention in the ranks, Kenoh felt that the time had come to let Kongoh go (although he did add "for now") as "if you want stability, there is no evolution", and Kongoh had originally been formed to rage against the authority of whoever owned Noah (mainly LIDET, but this carried through to Sanshiro Takagi and DDT afterwards), but now there was no one to rage against as things had changed in Noah. Manabu Soya wept at the news, which Kenoh found a little odd as there was no bitter split, but he said that from here on the final members; himself, Hajime Ohara, Manabu Soya, Masakatsu Funaki and Shuji Kondo, would continue to fight with what they believed in. 

Manabu Soya is finished with All Japan
After fighting his former tag partner, Takao Omori, on the 26th June (and appearing with his appearance radically altered to black pants and hair), Manabu Soya announced that he wouldn't be appearing in All Japan anymore. He wanted to concentrate on Noah and the N-1. He wanted to look to the future now, not the past. 

Takashi Sugiura injured
Following the event in Nagoya, and after Osaka the next day, Noah announced that Takashi Sugiura would miss an unspecified amount of time due to an eye injury. Basically, Sugiura will undergo surgery for a lens detachment that has occurred behind one of his eyeballs. 

TITLE NEWS

GHC Heavyweight Champion: Jake Lee
Challenger: TBA

Following his defense of the title against Takashi Sugiura at GREEN JOURNEY 2023 in NAGOYA, Jake has not been challenged yet by anyone. Kaito Kiyomiya did give some slight indication, but naturally he is more concerned with the G1 Climax, so it was more likely he was targeting Jake to send a message to SANADA.

GHC Junior Champion: HAYATA
Challenger: TBA

Sadly, Dante Leon's statement that he would fight the title match in his own style at GREEN JOURNEY 2023 in NAGOYA, meant that he fought HAYATA in a hardcore match, using chairs and ladders (of which I am amazed that HAYATA agreed to do, having said once he never would again), in a match that unfortunately became very dull. HAYATA retained, but as of the time of writing, no challenger has come forward. HAYATA says he wants an overseas wrestler, or else the champions from ALL TOGETHER, but it looks as if YO-HEY might have an interest.

GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions: REAL (Saxon Huxley & Timothy Thatcher)
Challengers: TBA

Sadly, THE TOUGH did not take the titles off of the wild champions, when Masa Kitamiya was pinned by Saxon Huxley at GREEN JOURNEY 2023 in NAGOYA. For THE TOUGH, the fact that Yoshiki Inamura had beaten the champions and made the challenge, but Masa Kitamiya was the one pinned, is a growing storyline for the future, as the pupil is now exceeding his master. For REAL, this was a time to go wild, and they appeared roaring their way through the comments area. Their next challengers (although nothing official has been said) could be said to be AXIZ, as both Katsuhiko Nakajima and Go Shiozaki, pointed to the belts following their match in Tokushima at Kenoh's anniversary show.

GHC Junior Tag Champions: STINGER (Chris Ridgeway & Daga)
Challengers: TBA

Jake Lee praised the efforts of YO-HEY and Tadasuke for trying to hold on to the belts in what can only be described as a grueling match at Korakuen Hall on the 22nd June, which ended with YO-HEY tapping to Daga, as Chris Ridgeway practically shoved Tadasuke (who he had in an ankle lock) in YO-HEY's face. The new champions started as they meant to go on with swearing at the camera and beating up one of the trainees at ringside. Ridgeway said they have had no challengers, as everyone is afraid of them.

Related articles

GHC National Champion: El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr 
Challenger: AMAKUSA
Title match: SUNNY VOYAGE 2023 (July 9th, Tokyo Tama Mirai Messe)

AMAKUSA gave the first indication of challenging when he targeted El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr in Osaka at the Nagoya fallout show on the 18th June. He was defeated, and Wagner Jnr stood with the belt over him. AMAKUSA challenged when after a match where he went for the win on June 22nd at Korakuen. AMAKUSA (not really known for his comedy) even tried to scoop slam Wagner during the match, but the crowd were behind him as he used momentum to get the win. AMAKUSA challenged in his usual Heian style, challenging "Lord El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr" for what he called "The Red Treasure". AMAKUSA becomes the third Noah Junior to challenge for the GHC National - Minoru Tanaka being the first when he challenged Takashi Sugiura, and Daisuke Harada the second, when he challenged Kenoh. 

EVENT RECAPS AND POST MATCH PROMOS

GREEN JOURNEY 2023 in NAGOYA (June 17th, Aichi-Nagoya International Conference Center Event Hall)

SUNNY VOYAGE (June 18th, Osaka ATC Hall (ATC Museum *B2 Floor)

STAR NAVIGATION (June 22nd, Korakuen Hall)

Kenoh Channel Presents Kenoh Debut 15th Anniversary (Saturday June 24th, Tokushima City Gymnasium)

ELSEWHERE IN NOAH
- While Chris Ridgeway stayed true to the most reclusive/anti-social unit in Noah by saying he was wrapping up the tour by home to going to watch NETFLIX. Daga broke with tradition and said he was going out for a drink, a dance in a club and to the beach. STINGER do not socialize.
- Masakatsu Funaki says he will keep wearing the Kongoh red.
- Kaito Kiyomiya has a new finisher, which is basically a double arm lock which he used on Tadasuke. The move is yet unnamed. 
- Kazuyuki Fujita seems to be an unofficial member of REAL. He joins in with a wild bouncing huddle (which looks like a rugby celebration), and after downing Fujita's notorious RED VIPER tonic, the four bounce round and then attack their opponents at a signal from Fujita. The fourth in this group is Shuhei Taniguchi, who seems a lot happier. One commentator described their attack and the subsequent wildness of the match as "a Safari park".
- The team of Naomichi Marufuji and Eita did not work well. Eita was thrilled and the fact that Marufuji didn't like him or trust him (and said so), and even wiped his hands on his pants after a forced handshake, and berated him for being rude to a senior, was lost on Eita.
- Go Shiozaki, the man who lists his hobbies as "giggling" is appearing on a variety show where the celebrity contestants are graded on their abilities in different genres. 
- Kenoh paid out of his own pocket for students to get into his anniversary show free.
- Rey Escorpion, who we last saw threatening to stalk Dralístico all over the world, returns to stalk him at One Night Dream. 
- HAYATA has gone back to letting someone else (Eita in this case) do the speaking. Kaito Kiyomiya had to practically pull him over and place his hand on Eita's shoulder when the group posed with El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr in the ring. The photograph of the group came out with HAYATA hiding behind Eita. 
- Kenoh will be teaming with Kaito Kiyomiya at Kiyomiya's farewell match! 

THIS WEEK IN NOAH

SUNNY VOYAGE 2023
Date: Sunday, July 7th
Venue: Tokyo Tama Mirai Messe
Start time: 16:00 JST 
Broadcast: WrestleUniverse (Live)

(Following this event, Kaito Kiyomiya will be absent from Noah until after the 27th August as he will be concentrating on competing in New Japan's G1 Climax) Noah will be holding a farewell autograph session with him). 

Birthdays & anniversaries
July 6th: Chris Ridgeway (30)

OTHER LINKS

NOAH FROM THE VAULT
"Poop jokes are not dirty jokes to me"

With thanks to: Metal-Noah
Picture credits: Pro Wrestling DX & Pro Wrestling Noah

Comments

Post a Comment

Spam will be deleted immediately