It’s been a quiet week in NOAH, so the newsletter today is a little shorter than usual.

NEWS

NOAH “BACK TO THE BUDOKAN” POSTER RELEASED

The poster for NOAH’s first Budokan event, was released earlier this week. The poster is dominated by the heavyweights; the GHC Heavyweight champion, Go Shiozaki, the GHC National Champion Kenoh, one half of the GHC Heavyweight tag team Takashi Sugiura, Naomichi Marufuji (who has hinted at a singles match with Masakatsu Funaki at The Budokan), and Katsuhiko Nakajima. Keiji Mutoh is not shown, and Daisuke Harada, the GHC Junior Heavyweight champion, is the only NOAH junior featured. The GHC Junior Tag Champions, STINGER, are not on the poster either. Fans are wondering if the fact that Harada is the only junior featured among the heavyweights, means that he is going to join the division. Personally, I think that while one day that will happen, Harada is on the poster as the current GHC Junior champion and the equivalent of the GHC Heavyweight champion.

So far, the only card that has been announced is Go Shiozaki vs Keiji Mutoh for the GHC Heavyweight, and aside from the GHC Heavyweight tag titles and the GHC Junior (which will be challenged for on the 19th December in Nagoya), all the other belts remain without challengers.

The Sugiura Army PPV

After their produce on the 29th December, ABEMA will host The Sugiura Army’s aftershow party in the form of a live PPV which will start at 18:00 JST and end at about 19:30. This is the first time that Noah have ever done anything like this, and it may well end in chaos as Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kendo Kashin, Kazuyuki Fujita, and NOSAWA Rongai, will be drinking alcohol and answering fan questions. The ever bouncy Kuniko Yamada will act as the moderator (seriously, someone is going to need to stay sober and in control). Added to all of this there will be a goods auction in which fans will have the opportunity to win personal items of each of the wrestlers, plus the custom made “SAKU” belts of Takashi Sugiura and Kazushi Sakuraba (this tells me that they may not be retaining the belts on the 19th).

The event will be broadcast live, but it will be pay-per-view through ABEMA only, which means that if you are outside of Japan, and unless you are sure that your VPN works and you want to pay for it, you are not going to see it.

ELSEWHERE IN NOAH

~ Go Shiozaki listed his hobby\special skill in the “Weekly Pro” Yearbook 2020 as “giggling”. I can’t think why….

~ Naomichi Marufuji and “Golden Era” gaijin wrestler, Michael Modest, messaged each other about NETFLIX. Marufuji reflected that Modest would fit just as well into today’s NOAH as he did then.

~ Yuya Susumu has history with every single Noah junior wrestler, except of course Yasutaka Yano and surprisingly, Daisuke Harada. In an interview he said that he would like to face Harada one day, ideally for a belt. He also hinted at a possible shift in the NOAH juniors due to his closeness with both HAYATA and Seiki Yoshioka, which stems from their days together in WrestleGate.

~ Yoshiki Inamura was compared to Steve Williams by Kenta Kobashi and commentator Junji Shiono

~ Someone put Daisuke Harada on the front of a tub of Häagen-Dazs ice cream. His older brother, Akio, said it would taste absolutely unpleasant.

~ Kaito Kiyomiya and Yoshiki Inamura were seen visiting Pony Canyon (it’s a major music company in Japan and the leader in the industry). Hopefully they went to check out some theme music for their team, and not record a single.

THIS WEEK IN NOAH

• Thursday 17th December: NOSAWA Rongai (44)
• Saturday 19th: Nioh celebrates 20 years in wrestling
• Saturday 19th: NOAH’s last proper show of 2020, “THE GIFT 2020 in NAGOYA” (starts 17:00 JST)
• Sunday 20th: Akitoshi Saito celebrates 30 years in Pro Wrestling

CURRENT CHAMPIONS

• GHC Heavyweight Champion: Go Shiozaki
  Challenger: Keiji Mutoh (12th February 2021, Nippon Budokan)
• 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: Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura (19th December, The GIFT 2020 in NAGOYA)
• GHC Junior Tag Champions: STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA)
  Challengers: None
• GHC National Champion: Kenoh
  Challenger: None

BROADCASTS

NOAH have not announced a broadcast (either live or to be shown at a later date) for “THE GIFT 2020 in NAGOYA” on the 19th December.

LINKS

Wearing “Mitsuharu Misawa’s color”, NOAH’s Go Shiozaki from a “frustrating existence” to his 6th GHC Heavyweight defense as a symbol of “prestigious reconstruction”

Weekly Pro Yearbook – 2020

The reasons for choosing STINGER in the Noah Juniors: interview with “Oriente” Susumu

“No longer a wreck”, Yoshiki Inamura’s strong tackle, “Musoi” unleashed. Kenta Kobashi reacts, “This is the move that caught me at The Budokan”

Picture credit: Noah.co.jp