(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: MONDAY MAGIC EPISODE FINAL (Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo - 18th December 2023)

The final night of this wild series (with a sold out crowd) can be viewed on WrestleUniverse. There were some glitches in the broadcast, I personally experienced frames jumping forward and currently the stream does not start unless I refresh my browser, but this seems to be something affecting a lot of streams on WrestleUniverse recently. 

The show started with the hapless Funky Kato coming to the ring. Usually his appearance on the show heralds him getting hit in the face with something, and today was no different when he was interrupted by the two mummies who lumbered down to the ring bearing gifts as soon as they heard him say it was his birthday. They offered him a mummy mask (which he declined) and a Tiger Mask, which he was very happy with. Then because it is lore that he get something thrown in his face, he also received a handful of tomb dust. The lights then dimmed and Saxon Huxley and Timothy Thatcher came to the ring and attacked them. A referee got into the ring and moved the presents out.    

MATCH ONE

REAL (Saxon Huxley & Timothy Thatcher) vs Great Mummy & Great Mummy 

(Fans believe that one of these mummy's is Gedo)

During the match Saxon Huxley had a mummy mask put on his head and Timothy Thatcher had a present box put on his. When Thatcher removed his, he found that the mask was slowly taking over his tag partner, and he rescued him by pulling the mask off of his head before he could be taken over. Then the two of them stamped on it for good measure.

WINNER: Saxon Huxley with the Neck Hanging Bomb on one of the mummies (6 minutes, 9 seconds)

A promo package for the upcoming Ariake Arena was hijacked by the Great Sakuya. She unmasked but her face remained in shadow, we could see that it was painted however. She remained in the shadows spitting green mist and dancing with a fan.  

MATCH TWO

Alejandro, Titus Alexander, TERRY YAKI & Masato Tanaka vs Good Looking Guys (Tadasuke, LJ Cleary, Jake Lee & YO-HEY)

Yesterday in Hamamatsu, YO-HEY (in honor of his fifteenth anniversary in wrestling this month), gifted his teammates one of his "Flying Playboy" t-shirts. Jake said his was too small, but evidently YO-HEY had gotten a bigger size. Immediately sparks flew between Jake Lee and Masato Tanaka, this turned into a blaze as Jake bowed sarcastically to him. 

Winner: Jake Lee with the FBS on TERRY YAKI (10 minutes, 34 seconds)

At the end of the match, as Tanaka was helping TERRY YAKI out of the ring, he gave Jake a sarcastic bow. Backstage, Jake said that Tanaka's bow was "dirty" and if the chance ever came round again, he would give him a lecture on how to bow.    

MATCH THREE

Haruka Umesaki & Miyuki Takase vs Nagisa Nozaki & Arisa Nakajima

With the exception of Arisa Nakajima, this was a pre match without The Great Sakuya, who will team with Nagisa Nozaki against Miyuki Takase and Haruka Umesaki. The fight got vicious, with the girls brawling into the crowd

Winner: Miyuki Takase with the La Mihastral on Nagisa Nozaki (10 minutes, 11 seconds)

The fight carried on at the end of the match between Nozaki and Takase, as Nozaki seemed to snap.

Noah then ran a video package for the next season of MONDAY MAGIC. The show will return in April 2024, and run for the 1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd. NOSAWA made a further announcement later in the show. While Noah ran this video there was a slight glitch by whoever was running it as the audience and everyone at home saw the file folder and a mouse pointer. Everyone in the venue cheered however.  

MATCH FOUR

Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba & Manabu Soya vs Kenoh, Ben-K and Kota Minoura

After the match in Hamamatsu, Kenoh had thought there were only two more matches left with Manabu Soya, but another one occurred tonight. Even with the presence of the DragonGate boys, whose home promotion can be as chaotic as the Noah Juniors, this match was somehow the least wild on the card. 

Winner: Kenoh with the F.B.S on Daiki Inaba (12 minutes, 5 seconds)

Kenoh, who termed Minoura, the "cute Minoura" showed coldness to Ben-K throughout the match, and even refused to acknowledge him afterwards, leaving and gathering up his belt. Backstage, Kenoh reiterated that Minoura "was still very cute", and as for Ben-K, he was "ugly". Ben-K told him to shut up.

MATCH FIVE

HAYATA & Yoshinari Ogawa vs Eita & Gedo

HAYATA entered first and then stood on the ramp waiting for his partner, who took his sweet time, and then emerged looking crosser than usual. According to Eita, normally it's everyone waiting for HAYATA. When their opponents emerged, it was hard to work out who Ogawa was most angry with or about, but at least it unified him somewhat with HAYATA. Unification did not last long as HAYATA and Ogawa started arguing when Eita pushed HAYATA into him. Eita was however more unified with HAYATA despite being on opposite teams as he proved when Gedo bought in a chair and Eita prevented him from using it on HAYATA. He then turned on Gedo. 

Ogawa snatched the chair and used it on Eita and HAYATA, and then Gedo snatched it back and used it on everyone and he and Ogawa got into a brawl.

Winner: The match was thrown out as the referee was assaulted by Gedo (12 minutes, 44 seconds)

Ogawa and Gedo got into a brawl on the ramp which went backstage leaving HAYATA and Eita alone in the ring. They had both agreed that they didn't trust each other entirely, but Eita had saved HAYATA and it seemed that Eita's action had kind of strengthened their bond. Before they could do anything, Ogawa frogmarched Gedo back and a melee brawl broke out between everyone, or rather Gedo vs Ogawa, and Ogawa vs HAYATA and Eita and Gedo vs HAYATA and Eita. 

MATCH SIX

Kaito Kiyomiya vs Ryohei Oiwa

During the period when Go Shiozaki had mentored Kaito Kiyomiya, the two tagged together and had a singles match before a tag title match. Shiozaki had made the comment that in order to tag together, you had to fight each other. Shiozaki almost decimated Kiyomiya, and while that wasn't true with this match, you could tell in it how much Kiyomiya has been influenced by New Japan, and he showed some very Keiji Mutoh like mannerisms.  

Winner: Kaito Kiyomiya with a Japanese Leg Roll Clutch (14 minutes, 52 seconds)

In a recent interview with "Weekly Pro", NOSAWA had said that the last episode of "MONDAY MAGIC" would be like stepping on a "landmine". He appeared at the end to announce some very big news regarding the future of the show. Pointing at the camera and saying, "You want to see me step on a landmine? This is a landmine!" 

He announced that not only would MONDAY MAGIC be returning in April, but it would also be moving to a larger venue, that is a much larger venue, on Saturday May 4th a huge super show would be held at Ryogoku Kokugikan as pay-per-view. NOSAWA told the fans (who he still said he hated) to basically put their money where their mouths were and to buy tickets, and using that money he would funnel it back into the ring.

Noah's next event: STAR NAVIGATION 2023 (Wednesday, December 20th - Korakuen Hall, Tokyo). Live on ABEMA.

Picture credit: BBM Mobile