NOAH WEEKLY NEWSLETTER VOL.110 ~ 24TH NOVEMBER 2020

Hisame drops all the NOAH updates from the 11.22 show! Kicking off with a recap of the MoTY candidate Shiozaki vs Nakajima!

NEWS

Go Shiozaki retains against Katsuhiko Nakajima, had been waiting for the “next challenger to finally come”.

The emotional title match between the former AXIZ came to a head on the 22nd November at the Yokohama Budokan.

The match had a slow build, as its early stages consisted of Nakajima refusing to lock up and kicking Shiozaki. Then he started being irritating, refusing to get in the ring and wandering around the outside. Both inside and outside the ring, Nakajima enjoyed finding ways to torture Shiozaki’s arms, even bending them over the steel barriers much to Kenoh’s enjoyment, and making Jurina scream when he kicked the barrier. It was the ref who had to throw Shiozaki back in the ring as the count got to 19 (I don’t think Shiozaki realized and was probably meant to get in before then, either that or he fainted). Nakajima had inflicted so much damage on Shiozaki’s arms that it was difficult for him to do the Machine Gun Chops at first, but he is Kenta Kobashi’s pupil, and nothing was going to stop him. Shiozaki’s arms did let him down again during the match when he had to delay a pin after a moonsault because of them.

Nakajima dominated a lot of the match, catching Shiozaki in midair with a kick after bouncing him off the ropes, and even with his big grin told Shiozaki to “hit me” and then no sold him. But as ever, Nakajima gets cocky and his opponents start fighting back, and that is when the smile snaps off, he seems to grow fangs and his eyes take on a white angry flame like glow. No matter what he did, Shiozaki would not go down and stay down; kick vs chop war, Nakajima countering Shiozaki’s lariats with kicks to the arm, using submissions like stretching his arms out, and then putting his knees up as Shiozaki went for the moonsault a second time.

Nakajima’s evil smile came back then when he rolled over to look, and the match seemed won a few moments later when Nakajima hit a massive knock out kick to Shiozaki. Shiozaki dropped to the mat and didn’t move, despite the referee bending over him, but as ever in this match, no matter what Nakajima threw at him, he struggled to his feet, and finished the match with a barrage of short range lariats in 42 minutes and 35 seconds.

Takashi Sugiura came to the ring to challenge for the GHC Heavyweight belt, telling Shiozaki that he could say “I am Noah” after he had beaten him. Shiozaki was full of praise for his next challenger and said that he had been waiting for Sugiura, someone he classed as “a man who deserves to be GHC Heavyweight Champion” to come.

Title match has been set for 6th December at “NOAH the BEST: THE FINAL CHRONICLE 2020” at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium (No. 2 Gymnasium). Kenta Kobashi will be on commentary. Kobashi said he is looking forward to seeing both Shiozaki’s defence, and the fight of Takashi Sugiura, who although he is 50, “continues to evolve”.

Kenoh nominates his own challenger

After Go Shiozaki had defeated Katsuhiko Nakajima, both Takashi Sugiura and Kazushi Sakuraba came to the ring. Kenoh (who had defeated Kaito Kiyomiya earlier in the night), had been growling on commentary about the match, and he had left his seat to see to Nakajima. However, his attention was diverted by The Sugiura Army, who he started swearing at. Stamping over to square up to Sugiura, Sakuraba stood in the way, to which Kenoh took to mean he wanted to challenge him for the GHC National, and so nominated him as the next challenger.

Title match has been set for 6th December at “NOAH the BEST: THE FINAL CHRONICLE 2020” at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium (No. 2 Gymnasium).

STINGER back again

STINGER were out for revenge against Momo No Seishun, and attacked the moment the bell went. Atsushi Kotoge got the worst of what STINGER dished out, his arm attacked and bent into positions which made the match look like a torture session. Kotoge refused to give up, but he didn’t need to, Ogawa got the quick pin and STINGER regained the GHC Junior Tag Championship belts.

Kotaro Suzuki might not have made himself a nuisance during the match, but he was determined make himself a nuisance after it. Coming to the ring with his new partner (sadly the  X was not Chris Ridgeway, Minoru Tanaka, or Ricky Marvin but rather a mysterious masked wrestler called Sarubahe de Oriente), he challenged for the tag titles. Kotaro has a way of looking innocent, but Ogawa slapped that butter which wasn’t melting out of his mouth after he told him that “since you are weaker than Miyawaki, you can’t refuse my challenge, so can you accept it?” (this phrase “weaker than Miyawaki” was used ironically by Hajime Ohara, who is one of the nicer Noah juniors, and now seems to have caught on). After a short scuffle, HAYATA accepted the challenge in his usual two word fashion, which will take place on the 6th December at “NOAH the BEST, THE FINAL CHRONICLE 2020” at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium (No. 2 Gymnasium). Expect Kotaro to keep irritating Ogawa until the title match, but also remember that two can play at that game; and Ogawa is the master of winding people up.

Kongoh announce full card for “Diamond3“

• Junta Miyawaki vs Yasutaka Yano
• Manabu Soya vs Tadasuke
• Go Shiozaki & Naomichi Marufuji vs The Anti Wrestlers Alliance (Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue)
• Katsuhiko Nakajima & Masa Kitamiya vs Yoshiki Inamura & Kinya Okada
• Haoh vs Nioh
• Kenoh & Jinsei Shinzaki vs Kaito Kiyomiya & Daiki Inaba

Naomichi Marufuji says he feels sorry for Masao Inoue’s chest. “Poor sad middle aged Inoue” as Tokyo Sports call him, will be the one who gets it the worst from his opponents.

Katsuhiko Nakajima and Masa Kitamiya were in a tag team known as “THE AGGRESSION” before they fell apart at Global League in 2018, and Nakajima went to form AXIZ with Go Shiozaki soon after. I don’t know whether the team will be revived, or whether this will be a one night thing as the team with Kitamiya and Manabu Soya is taking off.

Jinsei Shinzaki, the President of Michinoku Pro and Kenoh’s trainer, will take part in the produce. Kaito Kiyomiya said that he couldn’t stop smiling when he saw the card.

ELSEWHERE IN NOAH

~ Takashi Sugiura is working on new theme music

~ STINGER did not attend the pre Yokohama press conference, claiming illness…an illness that would clear up by the 22nd November.

~ It is thought that the mysterious Salbahe de Oriente is FREEDOMS Yuya Susumu

~ Masahiro Chono unsuccessfully tried to recruit Jurina Matsui (and Keiji Mutoh) into The Sugiura Army, which ended with Jurina going along with it and then slapping him. In the post match interview with the M’s Alliance she said she would start training and get back in the ring, she already had a rival in mind. Naomichi Marufuji said that to do it in Noah would be difficult, but a produce show was discussed.

~ Yoshinari Ogawa approached something like a laugh when told that Kotaro said he would crush STINGER.

~ Keiji Mutoh says if he is going to challenge for the GHC Heavyweight, it will probably be next year.

~ Hajime Ohara said that FULL THROTTLE should have another 3-way match to decide the leader, YO-HEY said he was the best choice and launched into a crazy promo about eating noodles, having a blue tongue and being easygoing; Seiki Yoshioka said that all sounded (crazily) familiar.

EVENT RECAPS & POST MATCH PROMOS

NOAH THE CHRONICLE VOL 4: Event recap (Yokohama Budokan, 21st November 2020)

NOAH THE CHRONICLE VOL 4: Post match interviews (Yokohama Budokan, 21st November 2020)

CURRENT CHAMPIONS

• GHC Heavyweight Champion: Go Shiozaki
  Challenger: Takashi Sugiura (6th December 2020, Yoyogi National Gymnasium (No. 2 Gymnasium)
• GHC Junior Champion: Daisuke Harada
  Challenger: Tadasuke (19th December, The GIFT 2020 in NAGOYA)
• GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions: The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura and Kazushi Sakuraba)
  Challengers: None
• GHC Junior Tag Champions: STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA)
  Challengers: Kotaro Suzuki & Sarubahe de Orient (6th December 2020, Yoyogi National Gymnasium (No. 2 Gymnasium))
• GHC National Champion: Kenoh
  Challenger: Kazushi Sakuraba ((6th December 2020, Yoyogi National Gymnasium (No. 2 Gymnasium)

THIS WEEK IN NOAH

Wednesday 25th November: Go Shiozaki & Shuhei Taniguchi will be doing an online signing session via the official Noah YouTube (18:00 JST start).

Friday 27th November: PREMIUM PRELUDE 2020 (Tsukuba Capio, Ibaraki, 18:30 JST)

Saturday 28th November: NEW HOPE (Club Citta, 18:00 JST)

Sunday 29th November: Takashi Sugiura and NOSAWA Rongai appear in Blast Koshien (in an First-ever aerial bomb & electric blast bat death match featuring Atsushi Onita, Takashi Sugiura’s long term rival as an opponent)

BROADCASTS

The Noah event on the 27th November will not be broadcast live as it is not a metropolitan area event (i.e. Tokyo etc) and will be relayed on WRESTLE UNIVERSE on Monday 30th November.

Kaito Kiyomiya’s NEW HOPE will be a live stream (WRESTLE UNIVERSE)

Blast Koshien will be live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE from 1pm JST.

LINKS

“My mixer naturally bred love with a woman” Kenoh preaches a natural “Mixer” to Kaito Kiyomiya, who exchanged contacts with announcer, Ayaka Hironaka

“It’s my destiny to keep the title…I will take it all and win”, Go Shiozaki vs Katsuhiko Nakajima, 22nd November Yokohama Budokan

“Find the quickest way to win” Keiji Mutoh’s first single match with Shuhei Taniguchi, 22nd November at the Yokohama Budokan

Event recap: Junta Miyawaki and Naomichi Marufuji, idol camp in Shinjuku

The “Phantom Single” with Misawa, overlapping Keiji Mutoh; interview with Shuhei Taniguchi

Picture credit: Noah GHC

GIF Credit: ABEMA