(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: MONDAY MAGIC, EPISODE 2 (Monday 23rd October, Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo)

The show opened with what looked like the return of the mummy from the last episode, shuffling his way down to the ring. However, it turned out only to be NOSAWA. NOSAWA said that as Satoshi Kojima had destroyed the dreams of little children and made them cry by taking off the mummy mask, he would never forgive him, and was recruiting wrestlers to come to MONDAY MAGIC and wear the mummy costume, which he himself had resurrected for the Reiwa era. The mummy, plus NOSAWA opening the show, seem to have become formulaic of the event. Former Noah wrestler (who did hint of a comeback earlier this year), Hitoshi Kumano, asked if it was for active wrestlers only... 

Once NOSAWA had vanished, all of Good Looking Guys appeared. They came out and stood on the platform before the ramp and did Jake's pose with him, and shot at the ring. Then after gracefully making their way down, Jake spoke on the mic and said that as since all six of them were here tonight, and this being the place where LJ Cleary joined, how about they have a match against each other? He didn't get much further as a group of angry wrestlers (Kaito Kiyomiya, Dragon Bane, Alpha Wolf, Manabu Soya and Masa Kitamiya), stormed the ring led by Ryohei Oiwa. The upshot was, that Jake challenged them to a elimination match. 

MATCH ONE

Daga vs HAYATA

Daga came to the ring smirking and started the initial stages of the match laughing loudly, did a hip swivel and even the cocky pin. He was dominant and was able to read and anticipate HAYATA to some effect, and at one point even reversed the dreaded Headache. But, HAYATA did not spend time at Yoshinari Ogawa's side without picking up a thing or two about deception, and he used the old tactic of luring an over confident opponent into frustration. Daga stopped looking smug and resorted to roughing up the referee and complaining of the count, and they both used the ropes to their advantage. 

WINNER: HAYATA pinned Daga with his (Daga's) legs on the ropes (5 minutes, 53 seconds)

Daga left humiliated and protesting HAYATA'S win. HAYATA backstage said he was smarter than Daga. 

A few weeks ago, NOSAWA Rongai and a MMA fighter called Ulka Sasaki (he was with UFC since 2014, and RIZIN since 2018), did an interview for Weekly Pro. The interview was meant to be about "MONDAY MAGIC", but was more really about Sasaki, who has been training at the Noah dojo. In the ring tonight he introduced himself to the fans, and said that he was going to make his pro wrestling debut at MONDAY MAGIC Episode 3, which will be on the 13th November. He also said that he has been watching wrestling since he was young, backstage he elaborated on this, and stated he was inspired by Keiji Mutoh.

MATCH TWO

REAL (Saxon Huxley & Shuhei Taniguchi) vs Yuu Owada & Kai Fujimura

On entry, REAL chased the young boys out of the ring and then did their bounce, the ref told them to stop messing around, and the young boys attacked dropkicking Shuhei Taniguchi, but then ran up against Saxon Huxley. Huxley threw the boys around and the two of them got savaged by REAL

Winner: Saxon Huxley with the Neck Hanging Bomb on Yu Owada (5 minutes, 22 seconds)

REAL celebrated their victory in usual chaotic fashion, even though during the match, Taniguchi managed to get a little banged up. 

MATCH THREE

X-Treme Tiger, TERRY YAKI and El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr vs Junta Miyawaki, Alejandro and Naomichi Marufuji

Naomichi Marufuji made his MONDAY MAGIC debut tonight, and wore a signed t-shirt (probably himself and his teammates), which he threw into the crowd. Usually, Marufuji is more interested in the newcomers to Noah, but it was actually El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr, he wanted. Well, if Wag-chan (as Noah fans call him) can pose, than so can Marufuji, and there was a slight handshake before the chop war began. Well, it took a small detour first as Wagner Jnr fooled Marufuji by preparing him for a chop, and then poking him in the eye. Later, he would bite Marufuji's fingers. The junior element of the match was naturally wild. 

Winner: TERRY YAKI with the Yaki Crusher on Junta Miyawaki (16 minutes, 14 seconds)

Noah then ran an advert for the upcoming Episode 3, as well as the aforementioned debut of Ulka Sasaki making his debut, there would also be a women's match taking place, Haruka Uresaki vs Miyuki Takase. There was also one last announcement. Funky Kato, who is the ambassador of the event, came to the ring, and called out that The Great Muta had arrived. Great Muta came out dressed in a mixture of a western suit and Japanese formal wear. As Kato cowered in the corner, Muta came to the ring and stood focused with his back to him. Funky Kato nervously approached and asked if he could find out what the purpose of Muta's visit was? Muta gave him the green mist in response and then produced a can of spray paint and wrote "daughter" in the ring, before vanishing back to the demon realm, leaving everyone to wonder as to what this meant.  

MATCH FOUR

GHC HARDCORE CHAMPIONSHIP

Ninja Mack vs Masato Tanaka

Ninja Mack's mystery opponent was revealed to be none other than Masato Tanaka. The original rules of the GHC Hardcore were to survive for a certain amount of time, but tonight as there was a use of light hardcore items such as trash cans, canes and even tables and chairs, the rules have perhaps changed into as hardcore as Noah will allow. 

Winner: Masato Tanaka with the Sliding D (15 minutes, 19 seconds)

This is Tanaka's first Noah singles title, and with this win he becomes the first GHC Hardcore Champion in fourteen years since the belt fell from favor. No challenger has come forward as of yet. Backstage Tanaka said he was going to start building the history of this belt, and yes, he probably will do it in a hardcore way considering the cheers of the crowd. He sent out a message to his next (and any other challengers) that if they want to come for the belt, then they can do, but they had better come prepared and if they could show something better than today, then anyone was welcome to come. 

MAIN EVENT

ELIMINATION MATCH

Los Golpeadores (Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf), Ryohei Oiwa, Kaito Kiyomiya, Manabu Soya & Masa Kitamiya vs Good Looking Guys (Jake Lee, Jack Morris, Anthony Green, LJ Cleary, YO-HEY and Tadasuke)

As you can imagine, the match started in a huge brawl, the chaos was added to by the people at the side of the ring having to move and there not being much space to do it, but things quietened down, although the occasional melee fight did break out from time to time. 

During the match; 

- Ryohei Oiwa naturally was Jake's target as he was the one who had barged in and then started all of this. The Noah ring was the site of a clash between all three promotions of Noah, New Japan and All Japan as a result, with the All Japan Pureblood who is the Noah GHC Heavyweight Champion, fighting a New Japan Young Lion. Jake also pretended that he couldn't see Oiwa, as Oiwa is smaller than him.

- Anthony Green threw his t-shirt at Kaito Kiyomiya, who politely threw it back before attacking him. Green was then given a massive bearhug by Manabu Soya.

- Jack Morris flicked sweat at Masa Kitamiya

- Wild Tadasuke was wild even before the match began, and was the first one out. 

Eliminations

1. Tadasuke was eliminated by Kaito Kiyomiya (Shining Wizard, 6 minutes, 19 seconds)

2. Alpha Wolf was eliminated by Jake Lee (FBS, 9 minutes, 19 seconds)

3. Ryohei Oiwa was eliminated by Anthony Green (BLF, 14 minutes, 23 seconds) - huge revenge for Green

4. Anthony Green was eliminated by Masa Kitamiya (Saito Suplex, 17 minutes, 9 seconds)

5. Masa Kitamiya was eliminated by YO-HEY (Over the top rope, 18 minutes, 20 seconds)

6. Dragon Bane was eliminated by YO-HEY (Hurracanrunna, 19 minutes, 8 seconds)

7. YO-HEY was eliminated by Manabu Soya (Trajectory, 19 minutes, 40 seconds)

8. LJ Cleary was eliminated by Manabu Soya (Trajectory, 20 minutes, 36 seconds)

9. Kaito Kiyomiya was eliminated by Jack Morris (Over the top rope, 23 minutes, 50 seconds)

10. Jack Morris was eliminated by Manabu Soya (Over the top rope, 24 minutes)

11. Jake Lee eliminated Manabu Soya (Over the top rope, 28 minutes 55 seconds)

Winner(s): Jake Lee & Good Looking Guys (28 minutes, 55 seconds)

Good Looking Guys rushed to the ring to celebrate with Jake. This was however, more of an adoration than a celebration, as YO-HEY and Tadasuke literally dropped to their knees at his feet, which kind of gave the impression of worshipping at an altar. 

Then someone arrived to crash the party, and Jake stopped still and listened to the horribly familiar music as Kenoh, who hadn't been on tonight's card, walked out of the curtains. Kenoh was dressed in a suit, and not to fight, but he was nonetheless here expecting some kind of skirmish as after doing his fist pose, he walked down to the ring swearing to himself about them. Good Looking Guys, in particular the zealot YO-HEY and Tadasuke, formed a barrier in front of Jake, and Kenoh tried to wave them away. Jake pushed through them to hold the GHC up to Kenoh, who clapped sarcastically. 

Since Kenoh had crashed the party, Jake's face had become stony, and he glared down at Kenoh. Kenoh then offered a handshake, and was knocked down with the belt. Jake, however, likes to maintain that he is a gentleman, and would not lower himself to anything further (such as swearing, posing with his foot on his chest like Kenoh had done), and so looking like he was trying to restrain himself from doing more, he walked away. Kenoh was left in the ring crumpled, and the seconds rolled him out. Backstage Jake's message was clear, an eye for an eye. 

Noah's next event: SUNNY VOYAGE 2023 (Hiroshima Prefectural Hiroshima Industrial Hall West Exhibition Hall, Thursday October 26th) - event will be broadcast at a later date