(NOAH): "In this day and age, there are a lot of young people in leadership positions" (Momota) ~ And he won by a landslide victory over the WEW champion.

Weekly Pro

22nd August 2000 (Issue 991)

SKY PerfecTV [Samurai!] will broadcast the two consecutive Noah inaugural shows on PPV. For details, see the margins*!

The first two matches were tag-team matches between Family Gundan and Bad Guy Company.* Rusher Kimura, Haruka Eigen and Mitsuo Momota are the elders of Japanese wrestling, and who have chosen their own path and boarded the Ark. Also, they are people of the same generation. Momota commented, "I'm happy when you go all out. I'll be your guide, and fight back with all my might, but you can't just have fun." One of the roles of a wise man is to pass on what he has learned to the young crew of the Ark, who are pushing their own ideals. Jun Izumida* emphasized the importance of "learning from the past for the new" in his comments before the match, as nothing new can be achieved without reference to the old. 

"Until now, we've been busy with our own concerns, but at this age, we have to think about the whole picture", Momota said, as if he had reached a certain state of mind...but he ended up getting pinfall on WEW Tag Team Champion Yoshinobu Kanemaru.

Notes

The margin notes: The blurb at the bottom of the page read that Samurai TV would broadcast the event for the first time from 7pm until 9pm on August 12th, and the second event on August 13th from 6pm until 9pm. PPV fee was 100 yen, but those that subscribed to Samurai would view it for free. 

Family Gundan and Bad Guy Company: All Japan era stables, usually used in All Japan as a match before the intermission. They changed their names in Noah, and while they were used until the retirement of Rusher Kimura (Family Gundan), the afterwards the units basically consisted of the singular Momota and Eigen. 

Jun Izumida: Ironically, he cannot possibly be called in any way, shape or form, "a wise man". While his onscreen persona was of a jolly old comedy wrestler, behind the scenes he was a very bitter man, and one with an obsessive jealousy (that turned into hatred) of Noah's general manager, Ryu Nakata. Izumida wrote a "tell all book", which contained the kernel of truth about the ticket scandal, which almost destroyed Noah, and exaggerated fantasies about Nakata. He himself was the victim of extortion (see article "Former Noah Wrestler, Jun Izumida, Dead At 51"), and died of a heart attack. Ironically, like everyone else implicated in the scandal did. While Nakata and Eigen (Haruka) are both still mentioned by Noah fondly from time to time, Izumida has been wiped from the record.

Notes from the picture captions

- Haruka Eigen did his usual spit into the crowd, Weekly Pro thought it was amusing to see a young female fan who was not used to it "freeze up and look stunned" (personally, I always found this disgusting). 

- Rusher Kimura debuted new music, it was from the 70s period drama "Doushinbeya Goyocho Edo no Senpuu", Weekly Pro said it "started with a thrashing guitar, which is still super cool to listen to"

- On the first night, Momota had commented "In terms of knowledge, I'm sure I'll be able to give advice to the younger wrestlers, and I'll probably be in a leadership role a lot" (he was, and left after Misawa's death). Weekly Pro warned not to underestimate the power of the seniors, especially as in this match, as Kanemaru was pinned by Momota. 

- "What's that? Is that supposed to hurt?" Momota to his opponent (Eigen)

- After the match, Rusher Kimura took the mic and said that Eigen had bought new tights, and he had never seen him look so happy, but he had been waiting for this day. He also thanked all the fans for coming to the venue, and for supporting Noah, which he/they were extremely grateful for. 

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