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Andrew’s Ratings & Analysis: NOAH New Sunrise 1.4.2020

The flagship show of NOAH’s double header against Wrestle Kingdom! Did it flop or fly?

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The flagship show of NOAH’s double header against Wrestle Kingdom! Did it flop or fly?

So the first big positive was that Korakuen Hall was sold out to No Vacancy for this show. Yes that means there’s still standing room only/general admission, but the seats being sold was a big surprise. English and Japanese fans alike weren’t sure if this was taking too big of a gamble, but so far so good.

Four pivotal championship matches and a special singles with Michael Elgin makes the second half of this card pretty damn stacked.

Kiyomiya could continue to be NOAH’s new shining light, or Shiozaki might get one more shot at greatness. The main event should be special.

Let’s get to the show.

Ratings:

  • 50 Funky Powers (Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm) vs Dark Agents Return (Masao Inoue & Akitoshi Saito): Inoue wins via Head & Arm Cradle @8:00 – **
  • RATEL’S (Tadasuke & YO-HEY) vs Hitoshi Kumano &Seiya Morohashi: Tadasuke wins via Outkast @7:55 – ** 3/4
  • Daisuke Harada & Shuhei Taniguchi vs El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr & Hajime Ohara: Harada wins via German Suplex Hold @10:40 – *** 1/4
  • KONGOH (Kenoh & Yoshiki Inamura) vs Hideki Suzuki & Kinya Okada: Kenoh wins via KO @9:50 – ** 1/2
  • Naomichi Marufuji & Minoru Tanaka vs Chris Ridgeway & Doug Williams: Williams wins via Chaos Theory German Suplex @13:20 – ***
  • Michael Elgin vs Katsuhiko Nakajima: Elgin wins via Elgin Bomb @11:55 – *** 1/2
  • GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: STINGER (Atsushi Kotoge & Kotaro Suzuki) (c) vs KONGOH (Hao & Nio): Kotoge retains via Tiger Driver/Killswitch Combo @10:35 – ***
  • GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship: HAYATA (c) vs Yoshinari Ogawa: Ogawa wins via Figure Four Cradle @20:45 – ****TITLE CHANGE!!
  • GHC National Championship: Masa Kitamiya vs Takashi Sugiura (c): Sugiura retains via Avalanche Olympic Slam @20:30 – *** 3/4
  • GHC Heavyweight Championship: Kaito Kiyomiya (c) vs Go Shiozaki: Shiozaki wins via Moonsault Press @27:40 – *****TITLE CHANGE!!!!

 

Analysis:

50 Funky Powers (Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm) vs Dark Agents Return (Masao Inoue & Akitoshi Saito) –  Hey, Inoue’s not complete comedy. For being two teams of more veteran wrestlers, this was a fun match. Funk Powers had some nice tandem moves, Inoue still had a few moments of dawdling comedy, but the fact that his endless array of roll-ups and cradles actually worked…this new year is starting out well for Inoue. Decent opening match.

RATEL’S (Tadasuke & YO-HEY) vs Hitoshi Kumano &Seiya Morohashi – Morohashi shows up every so often since he has history in NOAH. Most recently splitting time between NOAH, DDT and BBJ, Morohashi is nothing to be taken lightly. YO-HEY seems excited to exchange some moves with Seiya, but then, when is YO-HEY not excited? We get a solid match where the RATEL’S guys hit a lot of their signature stuff. Gamen G combos lead to a pin break up, but Tadasuke puts the match away with Outkast. Coming off his first title reign in NOAH, Tadasuke could be positioning for a bigger push in the future.

Daisuke Harada & Shuhei Taniguchi vs El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr & Hajime Ohara –  Even though Shuhei isn’t a part of RATEL’S, he’s recently coming off an issue with Takashi Sugiura, so joining up against two members of Sugiura-Gun makes plenty of sense.

Shuhei and Wagner actually have a few nice power spots. Shuhei batters Wagner with headbutts and lariats, but Wagner manages to get an opportune strike and Missile Dropkick to bring in the two Junior Heavyweights. Ohara and Harada are just smooth as butter with everything they do. Ohara hits a few backbreakers and a couple submissions before attempting his Muy Bein, but Shuhei breaks up the submission. Great back and forth, Rolling Cradle attempts and Harada goes into a few signature maneuvers like his delayed Knee Lift, Release German Suplex, and when that doesn’t finish the match, Harada hits the German Suplex Hold for the victory. A lot of good stuff, but the final portion with Ohara and Harada is where the energy picks up and the match switched gears a bit.

KONGOH (Kenoh & Yoshiki Inamura) vs Hideki Suzuki & Kinya Okada –  This feels like a match that is setting the table for something more. When Kenoh comes in, he wants Suzuki, but Okada tries to prove himself. Kenoh no sells everything and just relaxes in the corner while the younger wrestler tries to inflict damage. Eventually, Kenoh just walks Okada back to his corner, puts Suzuki’s hand on the kid’s head and steps back like “Was that so damn hard”. Kenoh lit up Suzuki, Inamura even got some decent bumps out of Suzuki before Okada came back in. We get one more exchange with Kenoh and Suzuki which is honestly just Kenoh lighting him up with Palm Strikes and kicks, Okada tries to do something and Kenoh knocks him out with a few quick smacks and a High Round Kick to the head. Not a particularly great match, but amusing and seems to have more on the horizon.

Naomichi Marufuji & Minoru Tanaka vs Chris Ridgeway & Doug Williams –  Marufuji and Williams start, and we get some solid World of Sport style wrestling. Tanaka and Ridgeway turn things up nicely with the Junior style, Tanaka even pulls off a Shooting Star Press. Let’s remember Tanaka is 47 years old, so it’s not just a run of the mill move. Could’ve been paying homage in his own way to Liger since this show was going on at the same time as Wrestle Kingdom. The fact that Doug Williams came out of retirement and goes over with his Chaos Theory is a great touch to stuff. Pretty good match before intermission.

Michael Elgin vs Katsuhiko Nakajima –  Elgin comes in looking to rebound from his loss to Sugiura, and Nakajima still has the loss to Shiozaki hanging over his head. So both are in a position to need the win, but who will get the momentum?

The pace to this match is pretty quick, which is to be expected from it’s placement on the card. Coming on after intermission puts you in the “main event” half of the show, but we’re not going to get 25 minutes of refires and comebacks. Elgin’s power faced Nakajima’s kicks head on, and got the best of the brash tag team champion. Nakajima was able to stave off Elgin a few times, but it was just delaying the inevitable when he finally grabbed him and hit the Elgin Bomb. This was a good match, and might put Elgin in a position to face the winner of the GHC Heavyweight match.

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: STINGER (Atsushi Kotoge & Kotaro Suzuki) (c) vs KONGOH (Hao & Nio) – Good work from everyone in this match, but the crowd seemed a little flat. Could be the Hao and Nio are freshly repackaged, so this title shot felt a little rushed. Suzuki is a technical master, Kotoge is always fun to watch, but again, this felt like a match that never got out of first gear. Not a bad match, but a little underwhelming for a title match.

GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship: HAYATA (c) vs Yoshinari Ogawa –  This was a clash of styles, but done very well. Ogawa is in his 50s, but a very proficient technical wrestler, where HAYATA is the young flashy typical junior style. This also continues the STINGER and RATEL’S rivalry, so there’s a lot of build here.

Ogawa does a good job at focusing HAYATA’s left leg. Ogawa proceeded to slap on a few Figure Fours and Indian Death Locks. HAYATA showed his resolve and championship pedigree by fighting through the pain and putting together most of his effective offense. The finish was great when HAYATA went for Headache (Snap Frankensteiner on a kneeling opponent), but Ogawa blocks it, crosses up the legs and pins HAYATA for the upset victory.

GHC National Championship: Masa Kitamiya vs Takashi Sugiura (c) – Suspension of disbelief is a hard thing with Masa Kitamiya matches. He tends to often get positioned as a contender, but he rarely wins any matches that truly matter.

The match starts with a few minutes of both men exchanging Shoulder Tackles. Now I get that they’re both beefy guys and this is more of an establishing their dominance moment, but it didn’t work at all for me. It was slow, redundant and went too long. Suigura often had the advantage, and the few times Kitamiya got offense it was usually a counter or just whatever he could get a hold of. They traded stealing one another’s moves, but again, Kitamiya needs to be booked stronger to make me care here. The National title has turned into the equivalent of  New Japan’s NEVER Openweight, where it’s just strong strikes and inflicting pain.

Thankfully as the match went on, things got better, but again…I never saw Kitamiya having a chance. Suigiura needing the Avalanche Olympic Slam to put him away is basically his strongest finisher, so it still protects Kitamiya a little…but I can’t really believe him in any title scene for a while.

GHC Heavyweight Championship: Kaito Kiyomiya (c) vs Go Shiozaki – Shiozaki earned this opportunity after a decent run in the N1, and a few key wins, most notably against Katsuhiko Nakajima during the 15th anniversary match. Kiyomiya has carried the belt for a little over a year, while establishing himself as the face of the new NOAH. From an emotional standpoint, Shiozaki is someone that many consider the true soul of NOAH. Student of Kobashi, came up while Misawa was still around, and still carries himself from the Golden Era. The biggest question mark with Shiozaki is; will the fans finally accept him as champion?

This was a fantastic match. Kiyomiya showed his determination to remain champion by going after Shiozaki’s bad elbow and trying to work whatever advantages came his way. Shiozaki on the other hand, summoned a lot of NOAH’s history to power him through points of the match. Kobashi’s Machine Gun Chops, Misawa’s Rolling Elbow to interrupt Kiyomiya’s offense, and Vader Hammers to disorient the young champion. Kiyomiya did his best to stave off the challenger, even using Misawa’s Emerald Flowsion for a near fall. Shiozaki pulled out plenty of tricks and tributes as the veteran challenger should, and this was fantastic to watch. Shiozaki winning with the Moonsault is great since it’s a tribute to Kobashi to begin with, and it was the move that got him this opportunity anyway.

Kobashi presenting him with the GHC Heavyweight Championship was just a nice moment to cap it all off.

Overall Score: 8.5/10

Wow, this was an epic card that started a little slow, but nothing was even close to bad. The last 3 matches arguably held up against most of the Wrestle Kingdom big matches.No one knew how this experiment was going to end. Running a show at the same time as Wrestle Kingdom worked out fairly well for NOAH. Korakuen was packed, the fans seemed to really be into the show, and all of the important players from 2019 had a role to play.

Also very cool to see Shiozaki get a chance to redeem himself. Referred by many as a Fallen Ace, the fans seemed generally receptive of him during the match and the victory, so maybe Go will finally get the reign he deserves, with adulation instead of insults. Oh! Ogawa continues this current trend of old champions. It is however cool to note, this is Ogawa’s first reign as GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion. Even though he’s always been considered a Junior, he got a run as GHC Heavyweight Champion, long before his first GHC Junior run. Life’s funny sometimes, right?

Pro Wrestling NOAH starting off strong. Great show.


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Mitchell’s ROH Death Before Dishonor Results & Report! (7/26/24)

YEEHAW!

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The word of the day is, “Gold!”

ROH brings Death Before Dishonor to Texas, and makes it bigger than ever! SIX championship matches, how drastically will the landscape change?

OFFICIAL RESULTS

  • Zero Hour – MXM Collection VS Spanish Announce Project; wins.
  • Komander VS The Beast Mortos; wins.
  • Texas Deathmatch: Leyla Hirsch VS Diamante; wins.
  • ROH World Six Man Tag Team Championship Qualifier: Dustin Rhodes & The Von Erichs VS The Dark Order; wins and advances to Battle of the Belts 11.
  • ROH World Tag Team Championships: The Kingdom VS Tomohiro Ishii & Kyle O’Reilly; win(s) and
  • ROH World Television Championship Survival of the Fittest: Atlantis Jr. VS Lio Rush VS Shane Taylor VS Johnny TV VS Lee Johnson VS Brian Cage; wins and
  • ROH Pure Championship: Wheeler Yuta VS Lee Moriarty; wins and
  • ROH Women’s World Television Championship: Billie Starkz VS Red Velvet; wins and
  • ROH Women’s World Championship: Athena VS Queen Aminata; wins and
  • ROH World Championship: Mark Briscoe VS Roderick Strong; wins and

PLAY BY PLAY

[Due to scheduling conflicts, coverage will be on delay]


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Andrew’s TNA iMPACT! Results & Match Ratings: 7.25.2024

Slammiversary Fallout! Where do things go on the way to Victory Road?

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Well now we start the fall out of Slammiversary. Josh Alexander in his bad bitch summer, X-Speedball legacy, ABC got the t-a-g and Jordynne is still in charge of the Knockouts division. Like I said at the end of Slammiversary, all of the champions being Babyfaces is stupid. They need to drop a couple titles fairly quickly, because I don’t care what some people say, Nic Nemeth ain’t gonna bring any eyes to the brand. He’s about as hot as day old Hamburger Helper over a camping sterno.

We’ll probably open with the luke warm champion, so tune in like 10 minutes late for anything of substance to be happen.

https://x.com/i/status/1816629254349533588

Ratings:

  • Steve Maclin vs Cody Deaner: Maclin wins via KIA – *
  • AJ Francis w/Rich Swann & Josh Bishop vs Sami Callihan: AJ wins via Down Payment – **
  • Hammer Your ASH (ASH by Elegance & Alexander Hammerstone) vs JuggerYoung (Jordynne Grace & Eric Young): Hammer Your ASH wins via Torture Rack – ** 1/2
  • The System (Eddie Edwards, Brian Myers & JDC) w/Alisha Edwards vs Matt Hardy & The ABC (Ace Austin & Chris Bey): Broken Alphabet wins via Twist & Splash – ***

 

Results:

Nemeth gives the ole “I’ll be a fighting champion…blah blah” promo and drops the “any company” line that we’ve already understood what that means. Campaign Singh cuts him off…and I never thought I’d be happy for Campaign Singh to walk out and say anything…ever. And…Mustafa’s promo is worse than Dolph’s. He’s gone from parody to caricature even saying “it was the biggest screw job Montreal ever saw”. Like some of these lines are cheap heat, but most are just brain dead comments that wouldn’t get a reaction out of anyone (and the crowd was silent for that comment). Mustafa gets caught in an Archer “phrasing” moment about getting screwed hard, but this is painful. Promos written by 14 year olds everyone…

This ends with Ali challenging Nemeth for the World Title. While I’m not against walk up challenges, I watch Japanese wrestling, I don’t really get the point aside from doing it just to do it. 

ABC and Matt Hardy have a small promo, and I’m still not really a fan of Unbroken Matt Version 6.0. The floating between Broken voice and his normal voice sounds amateurish.

OH LOOK, finally a match 20 minutes into the show. And it’s my son Steve Maclin! OH CHRIST he’s facing Deaner. This has been 25 minutes of talking followed by the worst god damn attempt at a gimmick. Deaner’s little “Papa Santino told me I can wipe my ass only if the crowd agrees”. This gimmick should die in a fire.

Steve Maclin vs Cody Deaner

Deaner started off quick because Maclin was in disbelief that Deaner was actually gonna fight him. Maclin dodges a Crossbody, Busaiku Knee, and just starts beating on Deaner for fun. And this is fun, maybe Maclin can make sure Deaner gets stretchered out and written off forever. How do you call for an ambulance in French? Maclin with the old Back Breaker into a stretch. Deaner tries to nerd rage up, breaks the Back Breaker Stretch, his punch combo, into a Manhattan Drop and Bulldog. Deaner hits the Crossbody, but Maclin kicks out. This is entirely too competitive.

Deaner goes for the Deaner DDT, blocked, Olympic Slam into Splashing Deaner into the corner, Caught in the Crosshairs, K-I-A, thanks for coming you damn dweeb. Stay in Canada and don’t travel Deaner, please.

https://x.com/i/status/1816633784537874761

AJ Francis w/Rich Swann & Josh Bishop vs Sami Callihan

As the bell sounds, Sami knocks Rich off the apron, Low Bridges AJ, does the Beats of the Bodhran on AJ and then AJ eats the offense and strategizes with his crew. Bishop and Rich swarm the ring, Sami allows himself to get distracted so AJ slides in and starts beating on Sami. AJ throats Sami across the middle rope and Rich makes his presence felt, AJ distracts the referee and Rich gets in a lot of cheap shots. Bishop throws Sami back in the ring, and AJ keeps up the pressure. Lots of 5 count chokes and leverage moves. After the commercial break ends, Sami dodges a Tennessee Whiskey Knee, gets in a few shots before Rich trips Sami as he’s setting up a Dive, and then AJ takes advantage of the position and hits the goofball knee strike.

AJ calls for his Chokeslam, Sami tries to break it with Axe Handles, then claws the eyes. Sami goes for a Scoop Slam, gets him part way up and then falls over. AJ Chokeslam again, but he bites his hand and starts fighting back. Launches himself at AJ, sends him bouncing off the ropes and uses the momentum to hit that Scoop Slam that was teased earlier. Sami goes for a Western Lariat but eats a Big Boot. AJ does a little Hulk Hogan pose to signal a Leg Drop, but Sami dodges and then connects on a Sliding Lariat. Thumbs Up, Thumbs….interference. Rich distracts the ref, Bishop lays out Sami, AJ connects with the Down Payment.

Hammer Your ASH (ASH by Elegance & Alexander Hammerstone) vs JuggerYoung (Jordynne Grace & Eric Young)

ASH and Jordynne exchange slaps and then Jordynne starts to out muscle ASH. Spinebuster from Jordynne, Juggernaut Driver attempt, but ASH fights off, rope run, Sattelite DDT into both tagging out. EY does the Flair corner flop, slides back in between Hammer’s legs, and connects on a Neckbreaker. EY is the quicker of the two, but Hammer finally gets his hands on him and a Release Belly to Belly into a full mount raining of fists, then a near fall. Hammer smashes EY in a corner, Arm Wringer into an Irish Whip across, but EY moves and Hammer tags out to ASH. ASH levels Jordynne, peppers EY with a few shots and pulls him back to their corner and starts some tandem offense with Hammerman. Hammer Guerilla Presses ASH and throws her into EY for a near fall. Hammer looks to aim for either a Powerbomb or Nightmare Pendulum, but EY drops it into a Small Package, pinfall kick out, they both run, Double Lariat spot. The Knockouts get tagged in.

Jordynne is in control early, World’s Strongest Slam into a Vader Bomb. Juggernaut Driver attempt, but ASH fights it off and tags out to Hammer. Jordynne and EY do some schoolyard stuff with the old Push while Jordynne is down to trip Hammer. All four get in, ASH gets leveled, EY gets leveled, Hammer and Jordynne have a brief face off, but Hammer throws Jordynne to the apron and ASH connects with a Meteora from the apron. Death Valley Driver from Young on Hammer, ASH stares in shock, EY tells her to get, ASH runs away. EY goes up for his Macho Elbow, and ASH causes him to fall to Hammer’s feet, Torture Rack, and EY submits.

Josh Alexander comes out, with new heel music. And it’s not that bad, definitely better than some other people’s new music. Josh yells at the crowd a bit, says he can’t wait til he’s back in a real Canadian town, like his home of Toronto. Then he drops the mic in lieu of an explanation. The crowd chants him off with the “Nah Nah Nah Nah, Hey Hey Hey”. 

https://x.com/i/status/1816647373654724937

The System (Eddie Edwards, Brian Myers & JDC) w/Alisha Edwards vs Matt Hardy & The ABC (Ace Austin & Chris Bey)

JDC and Hardy start, but JDC quickly tags out to Myers and that doesn’t go well. Hardy grabs a hold of Myers, a few Delete chops, drags him to his corner and they all get in a few shots punctuated with Hardy getting tagged back in and an Elbow into Myers’ extended and worked on left arm. Myers stays isolated, back into the corner, Boot to the gut, Ace tags in and wallops Myers. Ace connects on Double Kicks, into Russian Leg Sweep and his half of Click Click Boom, for a 2 count. Myers finally gets free with a Jaw Breaker and tags out to Eddie. But The System gets no momentum, Ace stifles Eddie’s offense and starts a few quick tags with him and Bey for tandem offense. Moose finally comes down the ramp as Eddie kicked out of yet another pinfall attempt because The System has had nothing going for them. Eddie finally gets some offense since Moose was a big enough distraction.

Eddie thinks they have a spot, so he tags back in JDC, but The ABC stop him cold, tag in Matt Hardy, and Matt walks down JDC, but JDC Low Bridges. Matt is on the outside, so all of The System surrounds Hardy, then Joe Hendry’s music hits! That stops the heel beatdown, and we follow Hendry’s entire entrance. So that proves Hendry is bigger than the 8 other people in this frame. Not really sure if that’s optics you want to push along. Ace and JDC try to remind people there’s wrestling going on, but JDC thumbs the eye to get a little something going. Vertical Suplex for a near fall, tag out for Eddie and Eddie lights up Ace with some of those NOAH Chops. Ace retreats to the ropes and Alisha chokes him with the ropes while the ref is distracted.

Myers gets tagged in, Ace tries to use the crowd energy, Myers stops it at first but then Ace slips a Scoop Slam and tags out to Bey. Hot tag, strike rush, Double Stomp, educated feet, Leap Frog to the corner but Lish climbs on the apron and yells at Bey which stops his rhythm. Myers kicks his feet out and causes Bey to crash. Eddie tags in for a few shots, then to JDC and Slingshot Knees, Wringer Snapmare, Bow and Arrow Submission, and JDC is just doing solid wrestling work right now. Uppercut between the Shoulder Blades as Bey tries to get out, tag to Myers and Bey is still eating offense. Eddie tags in, Bey tries the Sunset Flip, but Eddie tags out before going over, so Myers folds up Bey for a near fall and then tags out to JDC who connects on a Standing Suplex, slams Bey’s face into the corner, Eddie tags in, and Bey finally fights up to his feet, Eddie just flatten Bey’s comeback, tries a Tiger Driver but eats an Enzuigiri for a simultaneous tag. JDC and Hardy come in, JDC tries to exit halfway in, but Hardy is wrecking shop. He disposes of Eddie, Myers slides in but eats a tandem Neckbreaker/DDT from Hardy. Face team does the Delete Corner Face Smashes. Poetry in Motion into a Side Effect into Corkscrew Swanton for only 2 since Myers breaks it up! Everyone throwing hands, referee is distracted, Moose comes in to Spear Hardy, but Hardy dodges and throws him into JDC (I get the call back), Hendry then lays out Moose with the big Lariat. Twist of Fate from Hardy, Splash from Bey, Broken Alphabet wins!

 

Overall Score: 4/10

Ugh, cliche promos, too damn much talking, a competitive squash match with an imbecile as our first “match”, into an overbooked and slow heel match, finally a decent tag match (with the right team going over), into another overbooked match with a “tease” for the mystery backup being more obvious than Jericho’s WWF debut.

Aside from the afore mentioned tag match, The Rascalz promo and The System Promo; this was hard to watch. A lot of cornball promos, Rosemary licks her conspiracy board, storylines got zero traction. Whoopity Doo, Ryan Nemeth got a match next week and we get an undead wedding.

While this was a bad episode, it was bad by at least new standards. We’re not back in the TNA Dark Days again, but this was…a useless show.


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