Cyberfight Festival on the way, a few title matches and even a NOAH youngster literally chasing a veteran across promotions. Hisame explains it all!
NEWS
GHC Junior Heavyweight, GHC Junior Tag, GHC National and GHC Heavyweight Tag signings
NOAH held the remaining GHC match signings in Tokyo on the 25th May 2021. However, it was only in the case of Takashi Sugiura and Kazushi Sakuraba, where both champion and challenger turned up. Yuya Susumu was absent as he is a freelancer and had another engagement, STINGER didn’t want to and so didn’t, although they did sign the contract beforehand and no one expected them to attend anyway, THE AGGRESSION didn’t even give an excuse and Mohammed Yone was “busy on a funky errand” according to Shuhei Taniguchi.
Atsushi Kotoge said he would inflict great damage on Yuya Susumu, even if it meant sacrificing himself at times, and acknowledged he would have to be wary of Susumu’s crossface which he knew he could do at any time and place.
Daisuke Harada and Hajime Ohara (Harada had knocked Yoshinari Ogawa out in the final pre-match in Niigata), have vowed to take the GHC Junior Tag from their hated opponents. Harada because this is an accumulation of what Ogawa has put him through these past few years, and for Ohara, who has no quarrel in particular with Ogawa aside from the belts, swore revenge on HAYATA for always standing in his way especially after taking the junior heavyweight from him in 2018. However, Ohara says that the tag with Harada changes nothing of their rivalry as singles competitors, and he still wants to defeat him in that. Ohara also spoke of the long absent SUWA, saying that SUWA always said “I want to repay Misawa”, and on SUWA’S behalf he hopes to do this at the Misawa Memorial when he goes to the ring with that in mind.
Ironically, it is not the ever chaotic NOAH juniors who cause trouble at press conferences, that sphere belongs to the heavyweights (usually Kenoh), and while there was no violence between them today, there was antics. Shuhei Taniguchi turned up in the funky shades and big yellow boa, and cut a rambling promo, which included talking about the martial problems he is having with his wife over being “funky”.
In true Sugiura Army style, Takashi Sugiura and Kazushi Sakuraba had a drinking contest. However, Sugi bought nonalcoholic beer, which Sakuraba didn’t like and refused to chug. Sakuraba said that perhaps if it was a Highball or Shochu he would have done, but there was too much there and he didn’t like the froth. Sugi couldn’t quite understand why Sakuraba said he wouldn’t chug it, especially given his image in PRIDE and induction into UWF. Friendliness and jokes aside about Sakuraba chugging Shochu or Highball after the match, or this being Sugi’s win celebration, or Sakuraba saying it was his, neither had any illusion that come to the match on the 31st they would stop being friends and become rivals.
Chasing Tanaka, Yoshiki Inamura to participate in ZERO1’s Fire Festival
Yoshiki Inamura will participate in A block of the ZERO1 Fire Festival 2021 alongside Hartley Jackson, Masato Tanaka, Fuminori Abe, Tsugutaka Sato and Shinjiro Otani. Inamura stated his reasons are to “chase Masato Tanaka”, which is why he came to the Festival as he not only wants a match with him but he is also in search of strength.
ZERO1 have announced the schedule as being: 11th July, 17th July, 21st July, 22nd July and 24th July. The finals will be held on the 1st August. NOAH have events on both the 11th and the 22nd, so depending on how Inamura does he may miss a couple of events.
NOAH have announced the full card for CyberFight 2021, this will be the NOAH participation:
Junta Miyawaki, Kinya Okada & Yasutaka Yano vs Yuki Iino, Keigo Nakamura & Toui Kojima.
Atsushi Kotoge, Daisuke Harada & Hajime Ohara vs STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa, HAYATA & Seiki Yoshioka)
Super Sasadango & Danshoku Dino vs ?? (Negotiations with The Sugiura Army in process*)
Kongoh vs DDT (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Masa Kitamiya, Manabu Soya, Haoh, Nioh & Tadasuke) vs DDT (Sanshiro Takagi, Akito, Kazusada Higuchi, Yukio Sakaguchi, Naomi Yoshimura, Yukio Naya & Hideki Okaya)
Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura vs Konosuke Takeshita & Yuki Ueno
GHC Heavyweight Championship: Keiji Mutoh vs Naomichi Marufuji
Keiji Mutoh and Naomichi Marufuji will headline the event as the GHC Heavyweight Championship is the oldest belt among the attending promotions.
*Takashi Sugiura is still very firmly telling Super Sasadango Machine to stay away from him, The Sugiura Army and NOAH. NOSAWA has half threatened to send Kendo Kashin in.
Full card can be found here
EVENT RECAPS & POST MATCH PROMOS
Post match promos: “ALL OUT ATTACK” Night 2 (22nd May, Yokohama Radiant Halls)
Post match promos: “ALL OUT ATTACK” Night 3 (23rd May, Bandajima Multipurpose Plaza Daikama, Niigata)
ELSEWHERE IN NOAH
~ The moping Kaito Kiyomiya is being trolled by Takashi Sugiura. When his upcoming radio interview was announced, Sugi said you could listen to his sorrowful voice.
~ This week the Friday YouTube featuring the NOAH Dojo, went into Yoshiki Inamura’s room. It looks like Kinya Okada has now moved out, and Inamura shares a room with one of the trainees. Next week, Inamura will make Chankonabe.
~ Keiji Mutoh says he wants to be an inspiration for all the old bald men who come to CyberFest and wonder at this bald man who isn’t yet sixty
~ NOAH have released a Mitsuharu Misawa figurine for sale on the official NOAH shop. It’s only 50,000 yen…
~ Kenta Kobashi will be a special guest commentator at the Mitsuharu Misawa Memorial.
CURRENT CHAMPIONS
- GHC Heavyweight Champion: Keiji Mutoh
Challenger: Naomichi Marufuji (6th June 2021, “CyberFight Festival”) - GHC Junior Champion: Atsushi Kotoge
Challenger: Yuya Susumi (Monday May 31st, “Mitsuharu Misawa ~ Forever in Our Hearts 2021”) - GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions: The AGGRESSION (Katsuhiko Nakajima & Masa Kitamiya)
Challengers: Funky Express (Mohammed Yone & Shuhei Taniguchi) (Monday May 31st, “Mitsuharu Misawa ~ Forever in Our Hearts 2021”) - GHC Junior Tag Champions: STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA)
Challengers: Momo No Seishun (Daisuke Harada & Hajime Ohara) (Monday May 31st, “Mitsuharu Misawa ~ Forever in Our Hearts 2021”) - GHC National Champion: Takashi Sugiura
Challenger: Kazushi Sakuraba (Monday May 31st, “Mitsuharu Misawa ~ Forever in Our Hearts 2021”)
THIS WEEK IN NOAH
Monday 31st May 2021: Mitsuharu Misawa Memorial (event officially starts at 18:30 JST, but the first two matches will start from 18:00)
Monday 31st May 2021: Takashi Sugiura (51)
Thursday 3rd May 2021: Memorial: Atsushi Aoki (2019)
Sunday 6th May 2021: CyberFestival 2021 (WrestleUniverse, 2pm JST)
The Mitsuharu Misawa Memorial will be streamed on the following platforms
ABEMA
NOAH\ABEMA are saying this is a free broadcast, but I am unable to say whether or not this means in Japan or worldwide. Please note you will not be able to watch any replays if you do not catch the show live as ABEMA have changed their policy on this and you will need to be a subscriber. Something I do not advise anyone outside of Japan does. I would advise that you subscribe to WrestleUniverse to catch up on any replays.
Commentary will be in Japanese.
WRESTLE UNIVERSE
English commentary.
FITE TV
You can buy the PPV for $19.99. English commentary.
*I am not sure that due to time and the pacing of the event, plus the issues with Coronavirus, having the whole roster around the ring, and the fans throwing tape etc, whether the tradition of welcoming Mitsuharu Misawa’s spirit to the ring will still be held, or whether there will be another version.
LINKS
Glittering master of technique, who is the man acknowledged by Mitsuharu Misawa & Keiji Mutoh?
Four wrestlers show their usual joint practice ahead of the match against DDT, Kiyomiya anguish…
“Misawa’s story continues within me” ~ Naomichi Marufuji
With thanks to: Metal-NOAH
Picture credit: Pro Wrestling DX
GIF taken from the Official NOAH YouTube
