YO-HEY returned from sternum injury to have his first Global Junior League match of 2020 against Hitoshi Kumano in his hometown of Yabu, Hyogo at The Yuka General Gymnasium on the 19th January 2020. I am afraid that I don’t have too much information about the show, but it doesn’t appear that any title matches were made, and nothing of note really happened among the heavyweights.
As Quiet Storm is leaving NOAH at the end of the month, NOAH have stopped booking himself and Yone into too many tag matches, and Quiet Storm is having a lot more singles matches than he did before, facing El Hijo de Dr Wagner Jr today, who won with a moonsault. 50 Funky Powers will team for the final time at the end of the month.
Kotaro Suzuki was defeated by Tadasuke in a six man tag (which saw heavyweight Kaito Kiyomiya team with HAYATA, Tadasuke and Daisuke Harada), which sets up their Global Junior League match even further to be explosive.
With the focus being on the juniors, the results of Global Junior League from today, are this:
NOSAWA Rongai turned up for the match (had Ogawa not, he probably wouldn’t have either), and defeated Junta Miyawaki. NOSAWA now has two points, but having faced all three opponents and lost, sadly, Junta’s Global Junior League is over for 2020.
NOAH relaxed the paper tape ban for YO-HEY, and he was given a shower of streamers. He defeated Hitoshi Kumano and gained two points. For Kumano, this defeat is unfortunate as having now one win and one loss, he really needed today to be a win. Unlike Junta Miyawaki it doesn’t mean that he is out of the league, its just going to be difficult for him to proceed.
Event recaps & post match promos
12th January 2020, post match promos: Act City, Hamamatsu
19th January 2020: Yoka General Gymnasium, Yabu, Hyogo
NEWS
TOKYO SPORTS AWARDS
Kaito Kiyomiya won the “Fighting Spirit Award” for the second time in as many years. The only NOAH winner this year (although others were nominated), he gave an emotional speech saying that he can now see the light for NOAH, having come here before at a time when there was no hope. He also said that while NOAH’s goal is to go to the Budokan, his own personal goal is The Tokyo Dome.
I think this means that NOAH are considering their big 20th anniversary event of this year to be there, before (hopefully), running the Budokan next year. He also spoke of doing some dates abroad in the future.
The biggest news coming out of The Tokyo Sports Awards comes from not NOAH, but rather New Japan’s Kazuchika Okada. Okada said that he didn’t want Puroresu to lose out to the Tokyo Olympics, and this was the perfect time to show the world the up and coming next generation of Puro, which included Kaito Kiyomiya, by having an All Star show. Kiyomiya himself seemed to hint that something was up by posting pictures with Kento Miyahara (All Japan) and Kota Ibushi, and wondering what kind of match he and Ibushi would have….
The picture of All Japan’s Kento Miyahara and NOAH’s Kaito Kiyomiya sitting together, struck me as so iconic, that I have included it as a postscript in my article about the difficult history between NOAH and All Japan, and how they can now look forward to a better future than the one that so blighted their seniors; “Four Days in April: All Japan, NOAH, and their troubled history”
ELSEWHERE IN NOAH
~ Takashi Sugiura joked that he is going to turn up at an autograph signing that KENTA is doing in February.
~ Go Shiozaki was spooked by an automatic door at a fan event, which kept opening and closing so much, that he thought the building was haunted before he was clued in that it had a motion sensor.
~ Atsushi Kotoge says his hobby is playing the drums.
~ Akitoshi Saito will be the next one day manager at Yoneya
CURRENT CHAMPIONS
- GHC Heavyweight Champion: Go Shiozaki
Challenger: none as of yet - GHC Junior Champion: Yoshinari Ogawa
Challenger will be the winner of Global Junior League 2020 - GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions: MM (Naomichi Marufuji & Masaaki Mochizuki)
No challengers as of yet - GHC Junior Tag Champions: STINGER (Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Kotoge)
No challengers as of yet - GHC National Champion: Takashi Sugiura
No challengers as of yet - IPW Junior Heavyweight Champion: Daisuke Harada
BROADCASTS
Samurai TV will air the 24th February NOAH show live (event starts at 5pm JST)
No other live shows or streams have been announced at the time of writing
THIS WEEK IN NOAH
Tuesday 21st January: Go Shiozaki (38)
Tuesday 21st: Global Junior League & Fan Fes in Fukuoka
Wednesday 22nd: Global Junior League, Fukuoka
Thursday 23rd: Global Junior League, Kochi
Friday 24th: Konogh talk event – Craftbeer Tavern (18:30)
Saturday 25th: Global Junior League and Fan Fes in Osaka
Sunday 26th: Naomichi Marufuji vs Kazuki Hirata (DDT)
LINKS
“With Gratitude” Pro Wrestler YO-HEY’S Hometown match
Fan event in Osaka ~ Kaito Kiyomiya at the Puroresu Bar Count 2.99
Atsushi Kotoge on FM Cocolo “Saturday Magnificent Camp”
Global Junior League 2020 “Great Forecast” ~ who is the winning wrestler as predicted by Kiyomiya and Taniguchi
“I can see the light. The goal is The Tokyo Dome” Kaito Kiyomiya wins “Fighting Spirit Award”
“Showing a new view with the personal goal of The Tokyo Dome” Kaito Kiyomiya wins Fighting Spirit Award for the second year in a row
Marufuji reluctantly accepts single match with Hirata
Marufuji starts a serious invasion of other promotions
Kaito Kiyomiya revives overseas expedition at The Wrestling Awards
AXIZ Fan event at Lake Hamana
PICTURE CREDIT: PKDX, Kaito Kiyomiya
