We’re in between events for NOAH! Hisame brings us updates, need to know information, and of course RATEL’S stuff!

CURRENT TOUR RECAP
The new owners of NOAH seem to have done away with NOAH giving names to their interim tours, and these will now be known as “NOAH The SPIRIT”.

The interim tours between Global Tag League and Global Junior Tag League starting will run for three dates only – the 11th & 12th May and then the the final date on May 19th in Gunma.

NOAH are currently in the grip of an injury bug (three people out, please see below for updates\news), so the cards were changed accordingly with Keisuke Ishii and Kouki Iwasaki being drafted in.  

RATELS and Stinger (without YO-HEY) faced off again, with Tadasuke getting his second win over The Stinger team, this time over Kotaro Suzuki on the 12th by reversing The Endless Waltz into The Pac. Tadasuke, being Tadasuke, became manic saying that he “can’t control myself” and posting the crazy face icon.

In a more sedate tone, Yoshinari Ogawa tried the handshake again with Daisuke Harada on the 12th May event. I am afraid that I don’t know whether Harada took it or ignored it.

Due to his title challenge for the GHC Heavyweight title (9th June) and for the GHC Heavyweight Tag titles (13th June), Takashi Sugiura is now feuding with three people – AXIZ (Go Shiozaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima) and Kaito Kiyomiya. Sugiura and Shiozaki beat the hell out of each other on the 11th May, and there was an equally intense match against Katsuhiko Nakajima on the 12th. Neither the challenger or the champions, however, got the direct win over each other. 

Regarding the title challenges, Sugiura said he is blessed as a wrestler to have them, and even more so that these will take place at the Mitsuharu Misawa memorial shows at Korakuen Hall and Osaka.

Much to their dismay, Kongoh (the new unit of Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya, Yoshiki Inamura and Atsushi Kotoge) lost their debut match on the 11th against Kaito Kiyomiya, Minoru Tanaka and Hi69. Kenoh and Kiyomiya made a beeline for each other, with Kenoh sticking his fist in Kiyomiya’s face (they didn’t roll around fighting in the streamers like two kids fighting in the playground this time).

Takashi Sugiura (intent on winding Kenoh up online, although aside from calling him a “thoughtlessly stupid old man”, Kenoh seems to be ignoring him now), said that their loss was due to having a comedy wrestler (Kotoge was pinned by Kaito Kiyomiya with the Tiger Driver).
Kotoge, however, had other issues other than Kongoh.

His former tag team partner in “The Revolutionary Cloak Heroes”, Mitsuya Nagai, was furious that Kotoge had apparently ditched him for his new crew, and vowed revenge in their singles match which fans had named, “The Revolutionary Showdown”. Making small children cry, Nagai threw Kotoge into the crowd using both the “robber cloak” that Kotoge had given him and the chain that Kotoge had tried to remove from him. Kotoge was given the beat down of a lifetime.

Nagai says he “feels relieved” he doesn’t have to wear the cloak again. 

Kongoh debuted their tandem move on the 12th May, whereby Kitamiya (with the assist from Inamura) slam their opponent from the top turnbuckle, with Kenoh following up with the Diving Footstamp for the win.

After the match, Kenoh got on the microphone and started yelling about not being a “yes-man” to LIDET.

Normally, he would point to their banner, but he found that there wasn’t one in the arena today, and Kenoh being Kenoh (half paranoid, mostly angry), decided that they hadn’t put it up deliberately due to his angry ranting at it.

EVENT RECAPS
Saturday May 11th 2019, Ryumioka Kaikan, Ozaki City
Sunday May 12th 2019: Esupowaru Isanuma, Saitama

Post match promos: Ryumioka Kaikan, Ozaki City

NEWS

COME AT ME YOU BASTARDS (Kenoh’s column)Although the interview was done after KAIOH’S loss at Global Tag League, and Kenoh’s subsequent screaming fit at Kiyomiya leading to the dissolution of their team, Kenoh was actually quite restrained, and not spewing fire against the “22 year old 3 year career boy” as he termed him. Kenoh’s column veered between sounding like a concerned older brother, recounting happier times with him, and a dose of paranoia and anger towards LIDET.

YO-HEY UPDATE
YO-HEY was discharged from the hospital earlier in the week, and told that he must work on building up his strength, and not rush back to work. Various NOAH wrestlers (and others) had visited him in the hospital, with YO-HEY giving them hospital department names (Jiro Ikemen was from proctology and Atsushi Kotoge from mental health). The majority of wrestlers who visited played with the iron grabbing claw that YO-HEY had used to reach for things as he was bed bound with a tube in his lung, and most of the time YO-HEY found himself being pinched with it.

YO-HEY wants to make it clear that he is not returning to RATELS, he will be teaming with HAYATA as a member of Stinger, while HAYATA will remain with RATELS. He says he will address the situation on the May 19th in Gunma. He won’t be wrestling though. YO-HEY, however, did acknowledge that for Global Junior Tag league he wanted to reunite with HAYATA, if only for that event in the future.

Interestingly, there has been no mention of Stinger ever visiting him, while RATELS did (Tadasuke taunted him with cigarettes), but ultimately this may mean nothing.

NAOMICHI MARUFUJI INJURED
NOAH announced at the start of “NOAH the SPIRIT 2019” that Naomichi Marufuji would miss the tour with a lower lumbar back hernia. So, while everyone went off with NOAH, Marufuji was left bored at home in Tokyo (no wrestling and no socializing). He was unable to sleep for the first two nights due to pain, but considered it his body adjusting to the condition when he was finally able to snatch a few hours. I think this injury is probably a left over from his manic year in 2018, although he has taken it easier this year, not appearing in any other promotions, and not participating in Global Tag League. Naturally, he got defensive when asked to take it easy and not rush back.

Although he is undergoing treatment, he has said that he will be back for the big match on the 28th May at Korakuen Hall where he will team with Jinsei Shinzaki and Daisuke Harada against Kenoh (who was Jinsei Shinzaki’s student), Masa Kitamiya and Atsushi Kotoge. The worrying thing is that even if he is not ready to come back, he will for this match, no matter the cost, and most likely the singles match with Go Shiozaki at the Misawa Memorial show on the 9th.

Given that Daisuke Harada and Marufuji can be childish when tagging together (like doing things to wind each other up like wanting to use the same turnbuckle to stand on during an entrance, not tagging each other in, and Harada not letting Marufuji join in with RATELS handshake, and then Marufuji refusing to let them leave by a certain exit), plus Kenoh’s hatred of Marufuji – Shinzaki may well find himself playing the adult. 

Marufuji has also hinted (normally at 1.30am JST) that he is looking for a tag partner…

CURRENT CHAMPIONS

• GHC Heavyweight Champion: Kaito Kiyomiya
• GHC Junior Champion: Minoru Tanaka
• GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions: AXIZ (Go Shiozaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima)
• GHC Junior Tag Champions: Stinger (Kotaro Suzuki & Yoshinari Ogawa)

TOUR TIDBITS
~ Fans were greeted in Saitama by 50 Funky Powers disco ball spinning
~ Yoshinari Ogawa gave RATELS the finger
~ Apparently Kenoh & HAYATA sang an anime theme (translated into “Southern Country Boy”) for Tadasuke, who was planning to sing it on a show “Matsuko Deluxe”, but it was never aired.
~ Kinya Okada (whose nickname is apparently “Chunky”), is working towards his return, although no date has been given as of yet. Takashi Sugiura took a picture of him looking glum on the bus and said he was growing tired of looking at his “steep face”.
~ Two new trainees have been seen at ringside, naturally, we will not know the name of these boys until they debut (and of course, if they debut).
~ Kenoh said that when he used to second Jinsei Shinzaki, he would chant a sutra from Shikoku (his home island, and a sacred place for pilgrimages), that the monks would chant for protection on their travels.

BROADCASTS
The first night of Global Junior League will be broadcast live on G+ on May 28th 2019 at 6.30pm JST.

The 9th June show (the Misawa Memorial from Korakuen Hall, Tokyo and the second to last night of Global Junior Tag League) will be broadcast by G+ on Thursday 13th at 8pm JST.

LINKS
Reiwa’s Pro Wrestlers: Kaito Kiyomiya
Takashi Sugiura to challenge for the title on Misawa Memorial night in JuneTakashi Sugiura’s double GHC challenge at the two Misawa Memorial eventsDouble challenge for the GHC titles, Sugiura’s peak at 49 years old“NOAH The Spirit 2019” autograph scheduleAkitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue “Moving Centre” with a resurrection of The Dark Agents

PICTURE CREDITS: Noah GHC, PKDX, Tadasuke
Newsletter written by Hisame

CURRENT TOUR RECAP
NOAH held the last three dates of “Global Tag League 2019” in Yokohama on the 29th and 30th April, with the final night being on the 4th May, and an event “Navigation to a New Era” to celebrate the new Reiwa era on the 2nd May.

It had been a grueling tour with two injuries, and four consecutive days in a row, with a day off and then a day on. Not surprisingly when they returned home after the event on the 30th April, their Twitters went dead (aside from Masa Kitamiya who had slept on the bus, couldn’t sleep afterwards, and ate a double helping of a rice and curry dish at 4am).

Happily, NOAH managed to sell out both nights in Yokohama, the event in Fuji Messe, and had the greatest crowd at Korakuen Hall (sold out too), with the best crowd they had ever had since 2015.

True to his new persona, Naomichi Marufuji took to winding up Kenoh (by holding the ropes open for him, and also pretending not to see him when Kenoh decided to menace him by holding his fist in his face), but saved most of it for Daisuke Harada on the 30th April.

Marufuji and Harada decided that they were both going to climb on the same turnbuckle to do Tadasuke’s pose and they got into a tussle (which made them look like Sideshow Bob and Sideshow Cecil fighting over the bunk-bed), and later in the match, Harada refused to tag in Marufuji. Harada tagged in HAYATA, who (not being bothered by such pettiness), tagged in Marufuji. However, Harada wasn’t finished being childish, and wouldn’t let Marufuji join in with the RATELS handshake at the end of the match and kept turning his back on him, or else kicking him away. Eventually Harada threw him out of the ring, and Marufuji (after slapping the apron in an anger), went over to where the belts where, and lightly touched the IPW Junior Heavyweight title.

Later RATELS had to find another way back to the locker room, as Marufuji had decided to stand in the doorway to one of the exits.

Naturally, with YO-HEY being injured in Yokohama (see the entry below), whatever was meant to happen between RATELS and Stinger at Korakuen Hall didn’t, with Atsushi Kotoge taking YO-HEY’s place in the subsequent card change. A nice set up was made for Global Junior Tag League though, with Tadasuke pinning Yoshinari Ogawa.

Hideki Suzuki and NOSAWA Rongai (“The Sugiura Army”) took on Naomichi Marufuji and Junta Miyawaki at the final night of Global Tag League at Korakuen Hall. Although Miyawaki lost (albeit to some very near falls), he said he wants a singles match with Hideki Suzuki.

Suzuki, however, is far more interested in facing Naomichi Marufuji, or as he put it, someone with a belt.

Kenoh’s simmering resentment and jealously finally boiled over in Yokohama on the 30th April when Kaito Kiyomiya was counted out by Masao Inoue clinging on to him and preventing him from getting in the ring, meaning that Kaioh were knocked out of Global Tag League 2019. The Dark Agents actually did better than anyone expected in the league, especially compared to previous years.

Kenoh grabbed Kiyomiya’s hair and screamed at him before getting on the microphone and screaming at him that “tonight, we are done” among other paranoid ramblings about Kiyomiya only speaking words that the company had told him, and that he wasn’t going to do that, no he was not going to be “the company dog” to bark, wag and fetch when the company demanded. Then, in true Kenoh fashion, he finished his tantrum by throwing the microphone at Kiyomiya before stalking off.

Kiyomiya (although he had said they were never friends and probably wouldn’t be, looked upset) and said that the words he spoke were his own and told Kenoh not to be “silly”, and if Kenoh wanted to fight him, instead of stand by him and create a new NOAH, then so be it.

On the 2nd May in Fuji Messe, after the match with THE TOUGH, Kenoh seemingly formed an alliance with them when the three of them stood staring at each other, and Kenoh backed off still staring and pointing his fingers, backstage he hinted at a possible alliance.

At the final night of Global Tag League, this was confirmed when Kenoh announced the formation of a new unit called “Kongō” (the name means “Diamond”), and called out the wrestlers who were dissatisfied with the new company. Yoshiki Inamura (who is only joining as he cannot be separated from Masa Kitamiya at the moment just like Kaito Kiyomiya was with Go Shiozaki this time last year), and the aforementioned Masa Kitamiya were already in the ring, but Atsushi Kotoge came out. Kotoge’s participation is a little bizarre considering that he has joined with Mitsutya Nagai as “The Revolutionary Cloak Heroes”, but this could be the meaning of his vague “Revolution”. Kotoge, however, says he will do things his own way.

After he and Kenoh had yelled at each other from the ring and apron, Kaito Kiyomiya, started an alliance with Maybach Taniguchi, who had now “rebooted” himself as he said he would on the 2nd May, and had gone back to his old name and persona of “Shuhei Taniguchi”.

Fans have cautioned Kiyomiya not to trust him, as (somewhat like Kenoh), Taniguchi has betrayed pretty much every partner he has ever had…but for now Taniguchi seems to be pretty faithful, warning Kongō that he is going to show them “what a company slave can do”. 

Masa Kitamiya (who fell to Taniguchi’s new submission of a chicken wing camel clutch), said that between them, it isn’t over….

AXIZ & The Sugiura army clashed twice, first in Yokohama on the 29th April in a vicious match, which started with Takashi Sugiura standing and staring at them and not moving a muscle (Kaioh had the sense to back off when they saw him do it at the start of their match). 

The two teams met in the finals of Global Tag League, whereby Sugiura made Nakajima tap out to the ankle lock. AXIZ it seemed, had been hoping to get rid of such a team like “The Sugiura Army” quickly, except now they found they were going to be facing them in the finals.

Takashi Sugiura said that he was now going after two belts, the GHC Heavyweight Tag and the GHC Heavyweight single. No formal challenge has been made yet for the GHC Heavyweight single.

Yoshiki Inamura picked up his first win by using the “Oklahoma Stampede” (which was a move used by Dr Death Steve Williams) over Masao Inoue.

At the final night of Global Tag League, Inamura had a singles match against Yuji Hino, who praised him after the match.

Sadly, there has been no announcement of when Kinya Okada will return to the ring.

The Backbreakers ended their tag team in Yokohama on the 30th, with Hajime Ohara later joining The Sugiura Army after the event in Fuji Messe on the 2nd May (he wishes to become dominant in the Junior League, and he feels that Takashi Sugiura is the best person to learn this from), and Hitoshi Kumano looking towards the singles league. Kumano said he wanted to thank Ohara for all the experience he had gained by tagging with him, so aside from the singles match they had on the 2nd, there seems to be no further bad blood between them.

EVENT RECAPS
Yokohama 29th April 2019
Post match promos ~ 29th April 2019

Full show of 30th April in Yokohama
Yokohama 30th April 2019
Post match promos ~ 30th April 2019

“Navigation to a New Era” ~ May 2nd 2019
Post match promos ~ “Navigation to a New Era”

Final night of Global Tag League 2019 
Post match promos ~ Global Tag League 2019

NEWS

“NOAH THE SPIRIT 2019”

NOAH has a small tour in between the end of “Global Tag League 2019” ending, and “Global Junior League 2019” starting.

Saturday 11th May 2019 (17:00): Okazakishi Tatsumigaoka Hall, Aichi
Sunday 12th May 2019 (15:00): Esuporu Iseuma, Saitama
Sunday 19th May 2019 (17:30): YAMADA Green Dome, Maebashi Sub Event Arena

GLOBAL JUNIOR TAG LEAGUE
Global Junior Tag League will run the following dates:

Tuesday May 28th 2019, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo – 18.30
Thursday May 30th 2019, Hiroshima Industry West Hall Exhibition Hall, Hiroshima – 18.30
Friday May 31st 2019, Yonago Convention Centre BIG SHIP – 18.30
Saturday June 1st 2019, Osaka World Hall – 17.00
Sunday June 2nd 2019, Act City Hamamatsu, Shizuoka – 18.00
Saturday June 8th 2019, Yokohama Radiant Hall – 17.30
Sunday June 9th 2019, Tokyo Korakuen Hall – 11.30 (Mitsuharu Misawa memorial)
Thursday June 13th 2019, Osaka Edion Arena – 18.30 (Mitsuharu Misawa memorial)

In a long awaited happening, it has been announced that Chris Ridgeway will participate in this years league, teaming with Hitoshi Kumano. He says that it has long been a life goal to wrestle in Japan, and also for Pro Wrestling NOAH. Ridgeway is of course no stranger to NOAH, albeit in the UK and not in Japan, having wrestled Kenoh for Frontline’s opening night, and Daisuke Harada in the IPW Junior Heavyweight Tournament.

The teams announced for the tournament are:

Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki (current champions)
YO-HEY* & HAYATA
Hajime Ohara & NOSAWA Rongai
Hi69 & Minoru Tanaka
Daisuke Harada & Tadasuke
Hitoshi Kumano & Chris Ridgeway
Seiya Morohashi & Junta Miyawaki

YO-HEY & HAYATA 
Sadly on the second night in Yokohama (the 30th), YO-HEY picked up an injury to his left lung. If you watch the match you can see him clutch his lower rib-cage and speak to the ref, ironically this worked out quite well as given Stinger’s heel tactics, it looked as if he was hamming it up while his teammates beat up on the opponents outside the ring.

Sadly, this was not a work, and after the match, YO-HEY said that he didn’t feel well and was taken to hospital. Hooked up to various machines (plus a tube in his lung), he was visited in the hospital by various NOAH wrestlers (and other friends like Jiro Ikemen, who YO-HEY said was “the twink from the proctology department”), officials, and his old friends in RATELS. Daisuke Harada and Go Shiozaki played with an iron grappling claw (by making it pinch YO-HEY), one of the trainers bought him erotic books, Tadasuke bought him cigarettes (which he couldn’t smoke),  and on a couple of occasions, people bought him MacDonalds. Interestingly, although YO-HEY seems to have documented most of his visitors (including Atsushi Kotoge who has been the most recent visitor, who YO-HEY said had come to give him a psych evaluation, and the first day YO-HEY has left his hospital room), at the time of writing, Stinger, apparently have not.

Although he was in a lot of pain when the tube was first put into his lungs, the tube has since been removed (which he described as “severe pain” unsurprisingly), YO-HEY appears to be on the mend, although no date has been set for his return.

YO-HEY’S first visitor was HAYATA, which was surprising as both RATELS and Stinger were at war with each other. Following this, YO-HEY said in a tweet and later an interview, that he wanted ti team with HAYATA for the third year in Global Junior League.

“After all, this tag league follows the two consecutive wins with HAYATA. Although I will be with Stinger, and HAYATA with RATELS, I think I want to aim for the third consecutive victory with YO-HEY & HAYATA, my feelings on this are strong…I don’t know what he thinks, or Ogawa and Kotaro from Stinger, and I don’t know what RATELS think either, but if HAYATA is good, I want to go into the tag league with HAYATA and aim for the third win in a row!”

When asked about it, HAYATA just walked off. This isn’t anything to be read into though, this is just HAYATA being HAYATA. YO-HEY later posted about their teaming again with delight, ending the post with “thank you wife”.

CURRENT CHAMPIONS

• GHC Heavyweight Champion: Kaito Kiyomiya
• GHC Junior Champion: Minoru Tanaka
• GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions: AXIZ (Go Shiozaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima)
• GHC Junior Tag Champions: Stinger (Kotaro Suzuki & Yoshinari Ogawa)

TOUR TIDBITS
~ Kenoh & Takashi Sugiura had a Twitter war over “Kongoh”
~ Tadasuke celebrated his 14th anniversary in wrestling, while Atsushi Kotoge celebrated his 12th.
~ Mohammed Yone’s afro has reached mighty proportions apparently
~ Naomichi Marufuji (who may have been a little drunk) tweeted about looking for a tag team partner, Takashi Sugiura said that he sounded lonely, so maybe he should join Kongoh…
~ Minoru Tanaka & Hi69 photobombed Kaioh when they pulled their pose with Tanaka pulling a face and Hi69 giggling
~ NOAH’s new boy is still at ringside
~ Katsuhiko Nakajima asked the audience if AXIZ would show them a new “symbol of strength” when they faced Takashi Sugiura, and the audience said “NO!”.
~ Yoshinari Ogawa has been wrestling in three of Japan’s eras, he spent his early career in All Japan during the Showa Era (he entered the dojo very young at only about 16 or 17 years old), NOAH was born during the Heisei era in 2000, and now Japan is in the Reiwa era.
~ Atsushi Kotoge made HAYATA do the “Revolutionary Fist Pose”.

BROADCASTS
The final night of Global Tag League will be broadcast on May 11th at 10pm JST on Samurai TV
The first night of Global Junior League will be broadcast live on G+ on May 28th 2019 at 6.30pm JST.

The 9th June show (the Misawa Memorial from Korakuen Hall, Tokyo and the second to last night of Global Junior Tag League) will be broadcast by G+ on Thursday 13th at 8pm JST.

LINKS
Kenoh formed a new unit “Kongoh”, Kaito Kiyomiya teams with Maybach Shuhei Taniguchi
Sugiura’s team defeat the GHC Tag Champions in the Global Tag League War
Kenoh launches a unit of dissidents “We won’t be obedient to the company”
Takashi Sugiura targets GHC tag and single full of Noah love
GHC Heavyweight champion Kaito Kiyomiya, builds a “Golden Age”
Terminator theme for when Noah live streams mute “When Love Comes To Town” for Takashi Sugiura

GIF OF THE WEEK

PICTURE CREDITS: Noah GHC, PKDX
Newsletter written by Hisame