(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: SUNNY VOYAGE 2024 (Tokyo Tama Mirai Messe, Sunday January 21st)

Noah did an autograph and photo session beforehand, which lasted a couple of hours before the show started. There where the usual staples; fans kneeling at Naomichi Marufuji's feet, Jake Lee towering over fans and pretending to scruff them by holding up their hoods, and the seniors teasing their juniors, such as when Yu Owada was told by Naomichi Marufuji to write "Fighting Spirit Style". 

Today's event will be broadcast on WrestleUniverse on the 25th January from 18:00 JST. The semi main and the main event were broadcast on Noah's official YouTube. I am not sure how long this link is going to be valid for though. 

MATCH ONE

*Taishi Ozawa send off match 2*

Ryohei Oiwa vs Taishi Ozawa

Winner: Ryohei Oiwa with a German suplex hold (8 minutes, 40 seconds)

Having seen how far Oiwa has progressed and how little progression he himself thinks he has made, Ozawa vowed to make his time overseas count. 

MATCH TWO

HAYATA, Dragon Bane & Ninja Mack vs Eita, Alpha Wolf & Alejandro

Typically chaotic match from start to finish. Ninja Mack ran inside the barrier to slap hands with the fans in the front row, and then butted heads with Alpha Wolf once he got in the ring. Then of course everyone started diving over the top rope on everyone else, leaving the hapless Eita to announce that he was going to do the same. In an unsurprising combination of Eita being Eita and the law of the universe when it comes to Eita, he got as far as bouncing off the ropes and had his feet pulled out from under him.

Winner: Dragon Bane with the TwisterBane on Alejandro (10 minutes, 3 seconds)

MATCH THREE

Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura, Ulka Sasaki & Yu Owada vs TEAM NOAH (Mohammed Yone, Akitoshi Saito, Atsushi Kotoge & Hi69)

Winner: Ulka Sasaki with an armbar on Hi69 (15 minutes, 19 seconds)

As one fan put it, Takashi Sugiura went to hug Ulka Sasaki (who is now "Uru-chan" to Noah fans) with "the force of a tackle. Sugi looked very happy. Humbly, Sasaki credited his win to Sugi's advice. 

MATCH FOUR

Kenoh, Hajime Ohara & Super Crazy vs El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr & Yoshinari Ogawa

It is ultra rare to see Yoshinari Ogawa and Kenoh in the ring together, but I am unsure of how much they actually interacted. In any case, Kenoh's main focus was on his challenger for the GHC Heavyweight, El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr, who met Kenoh in the ring by squaring up to him, although they did shake hands in a semi aggressive manner. Later they both would imitate each others poses. I am unsure of what happened in the match to anger Kenoh so much (then again, it could have been very little), but Wagner did attempt to use a Michinoku Driver on him...this of course relates to Kenoh's home promotion, Michinoku Pro. 

Winner: Daga with the Diablo Wings on Hajime Ohara (15 minutes, 19 seconds)

Daga finished the match with one boot on Ohara's back, while grinning and holding up the belt. 

Backstage, El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jnr agreed; he was a Mexican cabrón (bastard), and in Sendai he would win the GHC Heavyweight and become the first Mexican to be the champion. Kenoh once again screamed "Cabrón" about him. Hajime Ohara, humiliated by Daga, requested a singles match in Yokohama on Tuesday 23rd, (at the time of writing, neither of them appear to be on the card), while Daga boasted that he was the "greatest champion of all time", and appeared to hint that he wanted to beat the record of defenses. 

MATCH FIVE

Go Shiozaki vs Shuhei Taniguchi

This was both a Noah Born and a former partner showdown. Go Shiozaki (who celebrated his birthday today), came to the ring accompanied by Mohammed Yone and Akitoshi Saito, who are ironically the former unit of Shuhei Taniguchi. The match itself had the elements of a brawl, and Taniguchi when given the opportunity, can rise to the occasion, even kicking Shiozaki outside the ring a couple of times and kicking out of the Go Flasher. 

Winner: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan Lariat (13 minutes, 22 seconds)

Afterwards, Shiozaki seemed thoughtful and stood over Taniguchi for a while. Backstage he reflected that they needed more people to join, and it had been a while since he had fought Taniguchi. He termed the match as one only a heavyweight could have. 

MATCH SIX

Best of three

Good Looking Guys (YO-HEY, Tadasuke, Jack Morris, Anthony Green, LJ Cleary & Jake Lee) vs 

Kaito Kiyomiya, Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba, Junta Miyawaki & Shuji Kondo

After some usual squaring up between both teams, the match started with Kaito Kiyomiya and Jake Lee. Jake also did a favor for his junior tag champions (YO-HEY and Tadasuke), by softening up Shuji Kondo so they could double team him. He also played mind games with Kiyomiya, deliberately making sure that he was a distraction each time Kiyomiya was in the ring, and Jake was on the apron, however the first round was won by Kaito Kiyomiya using the Shining Wizard on Tadasuke.

Kaito Kiyomiya with the Shining Wizard on Tadasuke (11 minutes, 45 seconds)

Shuji Kondo was tagged in, and after beating him up, he stood with his boot on Tadasuke's face. It was then that Junta Miyawaki was tagged in, and GLG (marking him as the runt of the litter), took care to take out his teammates when the tide turned between himself and YO-HEY, and YO-HEY got the upper hand. Jake won round two with a massive slam on Junta. 

Jake Lee with a backdrop on Junta Miyawaki (4 minutes, 39 seconds)

With both teams having a win and drawing, the match entered into its final round with a feeling of desperation. Junta managed to survive the onslaught that followed, and tagged his bigger, harder seniors in, and later on, he and Kondo revealed the new technique that Kondo had mentioned yesterday, which was Junta flipping from his shoulders on to YO-HEY. Unfortunately, Tadasuke broke the pin. 

 

Winner: YO-HEY pinned Kondo with an assist from Tadasuke (6 minutes, 31 seconds)

Jake threw himself at YO-HEY and embraced him as GLG all piled on in celebration (and they even did a bounce in the same style of REAL). YO-HEY was then hoisted on to the shoulders of Anthony Green and Jack Morris, and paraded around the ring. An exuberant YO-HEY closed out the show saying that their teamwork was great and they were able to win thanks to GLG and everyone who supported GLG, and then he handed the mic to Jake. Jake said that he wasn't interested in fighting Kiyomiya anymore, unless of course it was for their common goal, the GHC Heavyweight, which was what he was interested in. He commented on the atmosphere in pro wrestling at the moment, and said that he didn't think it was a good one (i.e. Kazuchika Okada's departure from New Japan, the turmoil in All Japan), but he win the title again, steer The Ark and make things better.

Backstage, YO-HEY reflected that the win today on Kondo was easy, but he was still a threat. Miyawaki was one thing, but both he and Tadasuke might not stand a chance against Kondo alone. They would work harder to improve their teamwork, and make sure that they kept the titles. As for the losing team, everyone but Manabu Soya was swearing, with Kaito Kiyomiya vowing that it wouldn't end between himself and Jake like this.  

With thanks to: Teshi, Metal-Noah, Rie, MIZUKI(garniss), Pearl_for, Abeshin

Picture credits: BBM Sports

Noah's next event: SUNNY VOYAGE 2024 (Tuesday, January 23rd - Yokohama Radiant Hall) - broadcast live on WrestleUniverse