(NOAH/ALL JAPAN) The July 2000 Super Action Series Cards

Noah joined the tour for the following four dates; 

- 13th July in Matsuyama (Matsuyama ITEM) - attendance 2,850

- 15th July in Nanao, Ishikawa (Nanao Citizen Gymnasium) - attendance 2,300

- 17th July in Toyama (Toyama Techno Hall) - attendance 2,400

- 20th July in Hakata (Hakata Starlanes) - attendance (estimated) 3,300

Although the tour itself ran for fifteen dates (1st July until the 21st) and ran Korakuen Hall twice (plus big cities such as Osaka), Noah only appeared at much smaller country venues for four dates. I can imagine how Mitsuharu Misawa must have felt being told that the tour was going to start in Ariake, which was to become Noah's home for the next sixteen years, but you can understand why he didn't want to wrestle in Tokyo (or another big city) until the Noah launch that September. Mohammed Yone (as mentioned in a previous article) is also on the cards for the All Japan side, he would join Noah the following year, as would Scorpio. 

 

In short, Misawa was told that he (and the others who had walked out of All Japan with him), would have to participate. This was both for legal reasons (contracts), honoring the tour promoters (who had already advertised their appearances) and of course the fans who had paid money to see them. The tour itself (although for Noah small) was not without its difficulties. Noah and All Japan refused to mix, each had their own bus, hotels and dressing rooms. As you can see, Noah only fought Noah and All Japan only fought All Japan. Toshiaki Kawada was apparently heard to say that he didn't see why Noah where here as they were unnecessary, and Steve Williams was said to have taunted Misawa backstage at some point, and much to his credit, Misawa ignored him. Attendances (although they may have been inflated somewhat as they were during that period) where generally very good and pulling in over a thousand. Today's fans may be wondering how that was possible in Hakata Starlane, remembering the size of the venue in recent times, but by the time Noah held their final show there before the building was torn down due to damage from seismic activity and obsolete building materials in 2019, it was not as small as it became. 

While Noah's card doesn't change much, (naturally Misawa booked Noah, there would have been no way he would have ever allowed All Japan to do it), there are huge changes to the All Japan card from what Weekly Pro had advertised in their July 11th 2000 issue, and to what actually happened. For example, Johnny Ace (John Laurinaitis) was said to be appearing, but he never actually appeared at all. I have cross referenced the cards given by Weekly Pro and the cards given on Cagematch, and noted the changes.   

13TH JULY IN MATSUYAMA

Masanobu Fuchi & Ryuji Hijikata vs SHINOBI & Yuto Aijima

Haruka Eigen, Jun Izumida & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs Makoto Hashi, Mitsuo Momota & Rusher Kimura

Akira Taue & Kentaro Shiga vs Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Mitsuharu Misawa, Masao Inoue & Yoshinari Ogawa vs Takao Omori, Takeshi Morishima & Yoshihiro Takayama

Giant Kimala & Wolf Hawkfield vs Mike Barton & Shigeo Okamura

Jinsei Shinzaki, Maunakea Mossman & Toshiaki Kawada vs Johnny Smith, Scorpio & Steve Williams

15TH JULY IN NANAO

Masanobu Fuchi & Wolf Hawkfield vs Giant Kamala & Yuto Ajima

Ryuji Hijikata vs Scorpio

Kentaro Shiga, Mitsuo Momota & Rusher Kimura vs Haruka Eigen, Takeshi Rikio & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi

Shigeo Okamura & Steve Williams vs Jinsei Shinzaki & Mohammed Yone

Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama vs Akira Taue & Masao Inoue

Mitsuharu Misawa, Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshinari Ogawa vs Jun Akiyama, Jun Izumida & Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Maunakea Mossman & Toshiaki Kawada vs Johnny Smith & Mike Barton

*Weekly Pro printed Wolf Hawkfield & Johnny Smith vs Rusher Kimura & Scorpio, this never happened. 

*Weekly Pro printed Shigeo Okamura & SHINOBI vs Ryuji Hijikata & Yuto Ajima, this was changed

17TH JULY IN TOYAMA

The card advertised by Weekly Pro was;

Maunakea Mossman & Mohammed Yone vs Johnny Ace & Mike Barton

Masanobu Fuchi & Kamala vs Shigeo Okumura & Yuto Ajima

Johnny Smith vs Ryuji Hijikata

Mitsuharu Misawa, Yoshinari Ogawa & Naomichi Marufuji vs Akira Taue, Masao Inoue & Kentaro Shiga

Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama

Rusher Kimura, Mitsuo Momota & Takeshi Rikio vs Haruka Eigen, Jun Izumida & Tsuyochi Kikuchi 

However, it was massively changed to; 

Scorpio vs Shinobi

Mitsuo Momota, Rusher Kimura & Takeshi Rikio vs Haruka Eigen, Makoto Hashi & Tsuyochi Kikuchi

Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama vs Jun Akiyama & Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Akira Taue, Kentaro Shiga & Masao Inoue vs Mitsuharu Misawa, Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshinari Ogawa

Giant Kimala & Mike Barton vs Mohammed Yone & Shigeo Okumura

Johnny Smith, Steve Williams & Wolf Hawkfield vs Jinsei Shinzaki, Maunakea Mossman & Toshiaki Kawada

20TH JULY IN FUKUOKA

The card advertised by Weekly Pro was;

Toshiaki Kawada & Masanobu Fuchi vs Johnny Smith & Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Johnny Ace, Mike Barton, Wolf Hawkfield vs Steve Williams, Giant Kimala & Scorpio

Jinsei Shinzaki & Maunakea Mossman vs Shigeo Okumura & SHINOBI

Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs Akira Taue & Masao Inoue

Jun Akiyama & Jun Izumida vs Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama

Rusher Kimura, Mitsuo Momota & Takeshi Rikio vs Haruka Eigen, Kenta Kobayashi* & Tsuyochi Kikuchi

Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takeshi Morishima vs Kentaro Shiga & Naomichi Marufuji

The card was changed to;

Jinsei Shinzaki, Maunakea Mossman & Yuto Ajima vs George Hines, Scorpio & Shigeo Okumura

Takeshi Morishima & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs Kentaro Shiga & Naomichi Marufuji

Mitsuo Momota, Rusher Kimura & Takeshi Rikio vs Haruka Eigen, Kenta Kobayashi & Tsuyochi Kikuchi

Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama vs Jun Akiyama & Jun Izumida

Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa vs Akira Taue & Masao Inoue

Giant Kimala & Steve Williams vs Mike Barton & Wolf Hawkfield

Masanobu Fuchi & Toshiaki Kawada vs Johnny Smith & Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Young Kenta Kobayashi (KENTA) made his one and only appearance on this show. Afterwards, the tour done, Misawa took Noah back to Differ and did not wait until the show had finished. Ironically, Noah would hold the title match for the vacant GHC Heavyweight here, the day after Misawa died in 2009. Go Shiozaki was crying before the match, and Takashi Sugiura (who made his debut for Noah in December 2000, but may have come on this tour as a second), told him that "If you want to cry, cry at the end. Here is a place full of memories".   

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