Andrew’s Pro Wrestling NOAH N-1 Victory Results & Match Ratings: Day 2

Pro Wrestling NOAH bringing us day 2 action of their round robin tournament! Naomichi Marufuji gets his first match and Kazushi Sakuraba looks to start off by bending Mochizuki into a pretzel!

With Takashi Sugiura getting the main event tonight, he’s looking to be the first one to 4 points! Can Shuhei Taniguchi stifle the Killing Machine?

Let’s find out!

Ratings:

• B Block: Naomichi Marufuji vs Yoshiki Inamura: Marufuji wins via Tiger King @12:23 – *** ¼
• A Block: Manabu Soya vs Masa Kitamiya: Soya wins via Neck Crank @12:56 – ****
• A Block: Masaaki Mochizuki vs Kazushi Sakuraba: Sakuraba wins via 39 Locks @8:28 – *** ½
• B Block: Takashi Sugiura vs Shuhei Taniguchi: Sugiura wins via Hurricanrana @21:57 – *** ¾

Results:

B Block: Naomichi Marufuji vs Yoshiki Inamura

Marufuji starts off the match by out wrestling the young tank. We see a few Key Lock attempts and good focus on Inamura’s head and arms. Once Inamura fires up, Marufuji realizes he’s going to need to use some veteran savvy cause power is off the table.

In an impressive display of fighting spirit, Inamura eats Marufuji’s corner combination, when Marufuji goes for a KO-OH, he catches him like a baby, flips him over his shoulder and crushes him with a Running Power Slam. Marufuji staggers, Inamura does his Sumo Style charge, connecting on the double palm strike sending Marufuji hurdling into the corner. A Diving Shoulder Tackle gives Inamura a near fall, but that would be the end of Inamura’s legitimate chances.

Marufuji manages to connect on a few KO-OHs and finish things off with Tiger King. The youngster put up a hell of a fight, but Marufuji now has scored his first points since the tournament was rebranded to N-1 Victory.

A Block: Manabu Soya vs Masa Kitamiya

Two of the big boys of KONGO have to face off. Soya looking to rebound from his loss to Shiozaki, and Kitamiya with his first action of this year’s tournament.

This was a titanic bout between two heavyweights. There was lariats, clubbing, standing and taking punishment; everything you could ask for from two power wrestlers. Both trying to get the other to budge with Shoulder Tackles and displays of power that fizzled at the force of the other.

Realizing that the power was very close to equal between the two, Soya broke out a kneeling Neck Crank variation to get Kitamiya to tap. This was a great win for Soya since it helps stabilize him in the tournament; it was inner faction, so it gives him personal bragging rights and hopefully leads to more with him. Kitamiya however, tends to struggle quite a bit against other power wrestlers.

A Block: Masaaki Mochizuki vs Kazushi Sakuraba

A time limit draw started Mochizuki’s tournament off a little awkwardly, but now he’s got a big test. Kazushi Sakuraba is a well know submission artist and fairly accomplished professional MMA star in his own right. Do we see a striker finally beat the submission specialist?

Mochizuki attacks Sakuraba early, and has him on his heels for a while. But like the wiley mat genius he is, Sakuraba finds ways to spin on his back and pick ankles with his foot, and just hunt for a joint lock. Sakuraba even takes the old Inoki posture on his back while Mochi throws a few kicks.

This was a solid clash of styles, but Sakuraba’s skill shines through beautifully. He grabs a hold of Mochi’s arm, throws on the 39 Locks and gets Mochi to tap out. Fun match.

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見逃し配信スタート！『N-1 VICTORY 2020』
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ノアヘビー最強を決める"N-1リーグ"公式戦2日目！
『N-1 VICTORY 2020』高崎大会を配信！
桜庭がついにN-1初エントリー。
GHCタッグ王者となった桜庭はシングル戦線でも結果を残すか！？#noah_ghc #n12020 #ddtpro #wrestleUNIVERSE pic.twitter.com/tqhIjybXZx

— WRESTLE UNIVERSE (@W_UNIVERSE2020) September 20, 2020

B Block: Takashi Sugiura vs Shuhei Taniguchi

For those who were unaware, back when Sugiura was GHC National champion, he and Shuhei had a great feud. It was bloody, it was brutal, and it reminded us how good Shuhei was outside of the Maybach gimmick.

A quick brawling start leads to Taniguchi taking some measure of advantage when things were on the outside early. Shuhei fought through a lot of Sugiura’s early offense, to hit most of his signatures. Chokeslam, a  Maybach Bomb Zwei, and went for the Maybach Splash, but Sugiura got his knees up.

These two would just not stop hitting each other. It was a beautiful brawl, where you could see Taniguchi wasn’t going to go down so easily. So Sugiura shocked me out of my shoes (and Shuhei) by hitting a Hurricanrana for the surprise pinfall. Barely a three, so Shuhei wasn’t hurt at all, and it was damn surprising.

エルボー合戦！！
少し揺らいだ谷口へ厳しい一発！！#noah_ghc #n12020 pic.twitter.com/PB5yWLA6Sb

— プロレスリング・ノア (@noah_ghc) September 20, 2020

Overall: 8/10

What a great day of quality and just fun entertaining matches! With only Marufuji’s match being predictable, everything else hit the mark and then some. Soya showing such a big level of elation for his win, Sugiura with a pinfall via a surprising manner and Sakuraba putting on a clinic, there’s just so much good stuff; AND IT’S ONLY THE SECOND DAY!

Sugiura comes out of the first two days looking the best, but no one is safe yet. With 5 matches a piece, you’ve got to assume 4 wins is the magic number. So a second loss is nearly an elimination; a very tight tournament with only 12 participants.

A Block:

1. Go Shiozaki: (1-0) – 2 Points
2. Manabu Soya: (1-1) – 2 Points
3. Kazushi Sakuraba: (1-0) – 2 Points
4. Kaito Kiyomiya: (0-0-1) – 1 Point
5. Masaaki Mochizuki: (0-1-1) – 1 Point
6. Masa Kitamiya: (0-1) – 0 Points

B Block:

1. Takashi Sugiura: (2-0) – 4 Points
2. Naomichi Marufuji: (1-0) – 2 Points
3. Katsuhiko Nakajima: (1-0) – 2 Points
4. Kenoh: (0-1) – 0 Points
5. Yoshiki Inamura: (0-2) – 0 Points
6. Shuhei Taniguchi: (0-1) – 0 Points