NOAH WEEKLY NEWSLETTER VOL.164 ~ 16TH MARCH 2022

NEWS

Earthquake strikes Japan, Tokyo aftershock warning

A 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck Japan on Wednesday 16th March. Although Tokyo shook, primarily it was the Fukushima/Sendai areas that received the Tsunami warning. However, the aftershocks are expected in a 98% chance to be severe in Tokyo over the next two days. NOAH’s next two shows are in the south of Japan, which has not been affected so far, but this could change depending on what happens over the next couple of days.

Takashi Sugiura & Hideki Suzuki, new GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions

The tag title tournament to crown the new GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions, was held at the Yokohama Budokan on March 13th, and was won by The Sugiura Army. In the first round, Hideki Suzuki had won over Masakatsu Funaki via Double Arm Suplex Hold, and in the main Takashi Sugiura choked out Daiki Inaba and the match went to referee stop. No challengers have come forward as yet, but Hideki Suzuki has challenged Masakatsu Funaki for the GHC National. Title match will take place on the 24th March at Korakuen Hall.

As for the three losing teams; Naomichi Marufuji lost to Daiki Inaba, who reversed the Shiranui to pick up the win for himself and Kaito Kiyomiya. Inaba has asked for a singles match with Marufuji. Marufuji has granted it, but said nothing about it. This isn’t a good sign for Inaba as Marufuji likes to talk about everything. As for Kaito Kiyomiya, he has gone back to training like a fury.

Kongoh, or Kenoh in particular, did not take their loss well. Kenoh was seen to be berating Masakatsu Funaki before he left the ring, leaving Funaki to follow on behind.

Far behind.

The M’s alliance announce hiatus

After their loss in the tag tournament, Naomichi Marufuji announced that the M’s alliance were going on hiatus. The reason was not the loss exactly, but more the fact they where so fractured; Keiji Mutoh is long term injured, Masato Tanaka is doing his own thing chasing the GHC Heavyweight, Yuko Miyamoto has gone awol and Jurina Matsui is not around. They will regroup when they are all back together again. Symbolically, Marufuji and Masaaki Mochizuki put their M’s alliance armbands on the floor and walked off.

Kazuyuki Fujita & Masato Tanaka

Kazuyuki Fujita made a dignified entrance for his first appearance as the GHC Heavyweight Champion. He was also wearing green. The one and only pre match between them ended in a stalemate after Fujita pinned Yoshiki Inamura. Afterwards he bowed to all four corners of the ring, leaving the one where Tanaka was standing on the apron until last. When it came to that, Fujita (deliberately as Masato Tanaka suspected), backed himself into the corner and bowed. He ignored Tanaka. Tanaka even tried to get his attention. Fujita ignored him at first, and then turned and bowed. Tanaka’s face had a big “Really?” written all over as Fujita took the belt and slowly left the ring.

Backstage he surprised Tokyo Sports by “being polite” and Kendo Kashin for refusing beer. Kashin muttered he had become too NOAH. Masato Tanaka was not impressed by Fujita’s display, and felt that he was being made fun of.

Eita wins his first NOAH singles championship & further woe for the NOAH Junior Regulars

The Yokohama Budokan was a good night for Perros Del Mal De Japon, but a frustrating one for the NOAH Junior Regulars. Kotaro Suzuki destroyed YO-HEY in a singles match, and later told Eita, who is also due to have a singles with him, that he had destroyed “80%”. NOSAWA Rongai defeated Atsushi Kotoge in a tag, and Eita took the GHC Heavyweight Junior from Daisuke Harada. Eita had initially used his rough style of wrestling, eye rakes and even at one point biting Harada’s hand, but the match had settled down and Eita won with the Numero Uno, making Harada tap.

As Eita celebrated his first win, Harada (for whom this was the shortest title reign at only 63 days) said only “Shit!” as his post match promo. Eita has had no challenger so far, but he has stated that he will not accept challenges from any of Perros Del Mal De Japon.

Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima 

Katsuhiko Nakajima returns to NOAH on Sunday 20th. He is in much the same situation that Go Shiozaki was in; returning after injury and following a GHC Heavyweight belt loss. Shiozaki says that this is the best Nakajima to fight, especially as he is in “a bad mood” and will have accumulated anger during his absence. Neither of them now have a belt to come between them, so this could be a chance to clear the air.

Referee Fukuda to retire

One of NOAH’s referees, Akihiko Fukuda, has announced he will be retiring from active refereeing. Fukuda was originally part of All Japan, and like referee Shu Nishinaga, has been with NOAH since the walk out with Mitsuharu Misawa. He will not leave NOAH though and will take a role backstage where he will do duties such as driving the bus (probably the equipment truck, the merchandise van or else covering for Orange-san on occasions who drives the NOAH bus) and working backstage.

EVENT RECAPS AND POST MATCH INTERVIEWS

 Great Voyage in Yokohama 2022 (Yokohama Budokan, Sunday March 13th)

Event recap

Post match interviews

ELSEWHERE IN NOAH

– Kotaro Suzuki described the NOAH Junior Regulars as “a trash can for guys leaving their teams”, while Perros Del Mal De Japon called YO-HEY “the traitor”. Not that YO-HEY betrayed them as he was kicked out by them, but more to their minds that he joined The NOAH Junior Regulars and took the tag belts that he wanted to take with Perros.

– Kazuyuki Fujita refused beer from Kendo Kashin. He says he is NOAH now and he is dignified, Kendo Kashin muttered he was too NOAH. Fujita should spend some time with Tadasuke…

– Naomichi Marufuji debuted a new ring costume in Yokohama on the 13th March. The jacket pays tribute to Hayabusa, who Marufuji says he will honor the memory of later this month in Hayabusa’s hometown of Kumamoto.

– Kendo Kashin got into a scuffle with King Tany by dragging him to ringside, later Yoshiki Inamura flattened him after Kashin went to do his slow motion chops.

– One fan took a video of the damage the earthquake had caused, and quipped that as expected the “strong arm” Go Shiozaki picture did not fall down.

– Kenoh says that as he celebrates fifteen years in wrestling next year, the majority of which he has spent in NOAH, he wants to be GHC Heavyweight Champion.

CURRENT CHAMPIONS

• GHC Heavyweight Champion: Kazuyuki Fujita
  Challenger: Masato Tanaka, “Great Voyage in Fukuoka 2022”, Fukuoka International Centre, March 21st
• GHC Junior Champion: Eita
  No challenger as of yet
• GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions: The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura & Hideki Suzuki)
  No challengers as of yet
• GHC Junior Tag Champions: The NOAH Junior Regulars (Atsushi Kotoge & YO-HEY)
  Challengers: Perros Del Mal De Japon (NOSAWA Rongai & Kotaro Suzuki), “Great Voyage in Fukuoka 2022”, Fukuoka International Centre, March 21st
• GHC National Champion: Masakatsu Funaki
  Challenger: Masakatsu Funaki, JUST FINE 2022!, Korakuen Hall, March 24th

THIS WEEK IN NOAH

(March schedule)

JUST FINE! 2022

Sunday March 20th

Kumamoto City Distribution Centre, 17.00 JST

Broadcast: WrestleUniverse

*This will be broadcast on Wednesday 23rd March at 18:00 JST*

GREAT VOYAGE 2022 in FUKUOKA

Monday March 21st

Fukuoka International Centre, 15:00 JST

Broadcast: WrestleUniverse. English language commentary available.

JUST FINE! 2022

Wednesday March 23rd

Korakuen Hall, 18:30 JST

Broadcast: ABEMA

JUST FINE 2022!

Thursday, March 24th

Korakuen Hall, 18:30 JST

Broadcast: WrestleUniverse

Sunday March 27th: Kenta Kobashi (55)

Tuesday March 29th: Kai Fujimura (27)

Note about ABEMA broadcasts

ABEMA is usually free & worldwide, but you can only watch this live. Please do not subscribe to ABEMA unless you have a compatible VPN, but if you are watching for NOAH only you would be better off just subscribing to WrestleUniverse.

LINKS

“Follow me you bastards” – Kenoh talks about why anniversaries mean little to him

Go Shiozaki costume research

GIF taken from WrestleUniverse

Picture taken from Weekly Pro (many thanks to JenJ for sending me the NOAH coverage)