NOAH WEEKLY NEWSLETTER VOL.84 ~ 24TH MAY 2020

Apologies that there was no newsletter last week, as my computer had to go to the shop for repairs.

NEWS

OFFICIAL NOAH TWITTER HACKED
It was announced on the 19th May that there had been an attempt to hack into the official NOAH GHC Twitter account, and therefore while the staff get it sorted, which could take over a week, NOAH were looking to their fans to distribute any news and retweet wrestler tweets. Takashi Sugiura had his Twitter hacked in January 2020, and has never gotten back into it, instead creating the rarely used Sugiura Army Twitter. Kenta Kobashi was hacked in 2018, with the spammers sending out junk through his account.

GHC HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE CHALLENGE

Go Shiozaki announced that he would be returning to the ring on June 14th following his emergency appendicitis operation. He was immediately challenged for the GHC Heavyweight title by Akitoshi Saito who came to the ring in full “Anti Wrestlers Alliance” costume and waving their flag. In true Heisei era style, Saito bought out a handwritten letter, and read it to Shiozaki outlining his intentions. Shiozaki agreed to the match, saying that they would make it one that “only we can do” and setting it for his return of June 14th.

June 14th is of course a poignant date for this match as Mitsuharu Misawa passed away in 2009 on the 13th, and Go Shiozaki won the GHC Heavyweight the first time from Takeshi Rikio on the 14th. It was not an inauspicious time for either Shiozaki or Saito when they faced each other for the title that September, and so now is their chance to recover what that match should have been.

“I WANT TO EXPERIENCE THE RAINMAKER“, KAITO KIYOMIYA WANTS KAZUCHIKA OKADA

Kaito Kiyomiya announced after his match against Rene Dupree at Day One of “NOAH NEW HOPE” that he had two ambitions, the first was the one he had often spoken of, facing Keiji Mutoh in a singles match, and his new ambition in facing Kazuchika Okada. After saying this Kiyomiya stretched his arms out and stood in the Rainmaker pose. Naturally these are early days, and nothing has been announced as of yet, and fans are undecided as to whether or not this will actually happen, but it seems that Kiyomiya himself has doubts too.

New Japan and NOAH have had a bad relationship since the debacle of the Suzuki Army in 2017, but with the rise of the younger generations who want their dream matches and don’t want to be held back by issues that affected their seniors, it looks like the walls of puro are being broken down – belts are even changing design for the young, and we will see another shift in how Puro was and how Puro will be.

EVENT RECAPS & POST MATCH PROMOS
POST MATCH PROMOS: MUTA FANTASIA (May 10th 2020) 
“NOAH NEW HOPE” ~ DAY 1

ELSEWHERE IN NOAH

• Go Shiozaki got in trouble with the nurse when the day after his appendicitis operation he refused to stay in bed, and walked up and down the 1st to 6th floor stairs. He said it was because he couldn’t bring his dumbbells (like Kenta Kobashi did).
• Daisuke Harada claimed that he never saw HAYATA laugh as he did when he won the belts with STINGER. Said he wasn’t interested in Atsushi Kotoge, and didn’t see FULL THROTTLE as a team.
• Kenoh said he watched the Marufuji & Eddie Edwards talk with his hand over Marufuji as he didn’t want to see him, so it made Eddie look like he was talking to himself. Marufuji kept asking Kenoh to say something if he was watching. You can find a recap of this talk in the link list at the end of this article.

CURRENT CHAMPIONS

• GHC Heavyweight Champion: Go Shiozaki
  Challenger: Akitoshi Saito (June 14th 2020) 
• GHC Junior Champion: Kotaro Suzuki
• GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions: The Sugiura Army International (El Hijo de Dr Wagner Jnr & Rene Dupree)
• GHC Junior Tag Champions: STINGER (HAYATA & Yoshinari Ogawa)
• GHC National Champion: Katsuhiko Nakajima
• IPW Junior Heavyweight Champion: Daisuke Harada
  NOSAWA Rongai has announced an open challenge for the belt. Harada is screaming that he won’t do it, but no one as of yet has come forward to challenge for it.

THIS WEEK IN NOAH
Thursday 28th: Kenoh and Nio will be doing an online internet signing
Sunday 31st: Takashi Sugiura (50)

UPCOMING EVENTS
ABEMA TV will broadcast “NOAH NEW HOPE DAY 2” at 19.00 JST. The event will be worldwide and free to view and after broadcast available for the next seven days.

LINKS
“The amount of heat that cannot be beaten by anyone”, Kaito Kiyomiya’s “New Hope” to evolve Noah
YO-HEY’S Whimsical Column, “I will dare touch on this, but after all, it is about him…” 
Kaito Kiyomiya becomes a dream match making machine
Shiozaki looks at his return match, Kobashi style “In House Training” 
Notes from Kazushi Sakuraba & Wataru Miki’s “39 Channel” talk
Popular unit RATELS disbands…the reason and the “hatred”, interview with Daisuke Harada
Noah dojo’s Chicken Salt Chankonabe Recipe 
The GHC Heavyweight Championship, the soul of Noah’s Founder, Mitsuharu Misawa