NOAH WEEKLY NEWSLETTER VOL.168 ~ 17TH APRIL 2022

GHC Heavyweight Match signing: Fujita’s apology

At the press conference/match signing held in Tokyo on the 13th April, Kazuyuki Fujita decided to apologize to Go Shiozaki for going berserk after drinking Highballs, by standing and bowing his head. He held this for fifteen minutes, and after Shiozaki left, sat down and drank more beer. Shiozaki, who answered the best he could the questions that the reporters asked, despite the looming presence of Fujita next to him, eventually got up bowed and exited. Later he said that he didn’t know if Fujita meant his apology or not, but he wasn’t going to tolerate a repeat of what happened in the title match. If Kendo Kashin was going to be Fujita’s second, then his luggage and anything he bought to ringside, needed to be searched.

“To be clear, I have no intention of wrestling a good match. I’ll just destroy HAYATA thoroughly, and protect this belt” – Eita

HAYATA actually attended the match signing for the GHC Junior Heavyweight, and spoke only to say “The next champion is me.” Eita, infuriated by the fact that “this hypocrite” wasn’t talking, vowed to destroy HAYATA on the day of the match.

“Stop the old men” Kenoh, The Sugiura Army, Katsuhiko Nakajima and the GHC Heavyweight Tag Match signing

In typical style, Kenoh met with his opponents at the match signing, and proceeded to call Takashi Sugiura “an old man who jokes around”, although he did admit that he was strong. Kenoh had good reason to say this after losing the pre match singles to him, something with Katsuhiko Nakajima reflected that they had both lost, Kenoh to Sugiura and himself to Hideki Suzuki. Hideki Suzuki pointed out to Kenoh that while four champions in NOAH might be considered “old men”, he himself was in fact the youngest in The Sugiura Army, something he wanted his young opponents to mindful of. Sugiura and Suzuki probably reinforced to Kenoh just what he was saying as by the end of the match signing, they mimicked Kenoh and Nakajima by saying “What he said” just as Kenoh and Nakajima had done themselves.

Kenoh’s YouTube Channel

Kenoh announced that he has started his own YouTube channel. He says he has done this as a way to reach young people (who he says do not Google things anymore as they want to watch videos) and to introduce both himself and to NOAH. His other reason for doing this is that he says he has been censored in interviews by stating facts that make people uncomfortable, and he wants his own platform where this will not happen. His other ambitions are to get more followers than the NOAH official YouTube and to “overthrow” Logan Paul. You can find Kenoh’s YouTube channel here.

Ultimo Dragon announces Mexican training camp

Ultimo Dragon has announced that he will be opening a training camp in Mexico for both NOAH’s young wrestlers and DragonGate’s young too. He won’t be teaching, more overseeing operations, but he may teach if he finds someone who inspires him. NOAH’s Director, Narihiro Takeda, says they have a candidate in mind and will set the wheels in motion this spring. Ultimo Dragon hopes that as both NOAH and DragonGate will be working very closely with each other both at the training camp (and in reality) that something good will be born of this. The name of the camp will be “Toryumon CASA”.

The last pre matches before Sumo Hall

The last event before Sumo Hall was held on the 17th April in Niigata. As Kazuyuki Fujita and Eita where absent the GHC Heavyweight and GHC Junior have fought their last pre matches, and it was only the GHC Junior Tag and GHC Heavyweight Tag who finished off tonight.

The GHC Heavyweight tag pre match (which combined the Haoh and Nioh argument), was fought between Takashi Sugiura, Go Shiozaki, Masa Kitamiya and Haoh vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Manabu Soya and Nioh). It was won not by Haoh or Nioh or Sugiura, Kenoh or Nakajima, but by Go Shiozaki with a massive lariat on Nioh. Nothing is left now, but the title match.

The final GHC Junior Tag pre match was usual chaos (not to mention Yoshinari Ogawa debuting his new long leather jacket which sent fans into meltdown), with Atsushi Kotoge attacking before the bell. He might have prolonged the inevitable, but the inevitable came with his knee being attacked by Yoshinari Ogawa, and as fans said was left in a bad way. YO-HEY it seems has picked up a slight injury whether by accident or STINGER design, to his wrist, but is looking on the bright side about it. The match was won by Atsushi Kotoge pinning Yasutaka Yano, and with YO-HEY covering Yoshinari Ogawa.

Non title match feuds included Kotaro Suzuki defeating Yuya Susumu with the Tiger Driver (and saying “a pathetic guy like you, could never defeat me”), and  an interesting Haoh vs Nioh development….

Haoh & Nioh – the match has now become loser loses both name and hair

Nioh, who had failed to defeat Haoh in any of the pre matches, added a further condition to the match at Sumo Hall on the 29th. The loser would not just lose his name, in shame he would also lose his hair too. Haoh said the stipulation to lose your name would be enough, but if Nioh also wanted to bet hair as well, then he would do it.

 Simon Gotch

Simon Gotch will challenge Masakatsu Funaki for the GHC National at Sumo Hall heavyweight night, “Majestic 2022” on the 30th April.

 X

NOAH have announced that Naomichi Marufuji will bring a mystery partner to Sumo Hall to face Kaito Kiyomiya and Yoshiki Inamura on the 30th April. Naomichi Marufuji says he does not know who it is either. Pro Wrestling DX have called this person “the biggest in the history of X (mystery wrestlers)”. Fans are speculating that this could well be KENTA (who posted he was getting on a plane), Jun Akiyama, Kota Ibushi, Eddie Edwards or even Takeshi Morishima.

EVENT RECAPS AND POST MATCH PROMOS

REAL OVERTURE 2022 in NIIGATA (Bandaijima Multipurpose Plaza Large Kama, Sunday April 17th)

Event recap

ELSEWHERE IN NOAH

– Mohammed Yone did some social outreach for NOAH in tackling fraud.

– On April 23rd, NOAH will hold an meet and greet event before Sumo Hall, in which King Tany will hold a talk to try and solve peoples problems. You just know this is going to get crashed by Kendo Kashin. Yuya Susumu appears to be the only member of STINGER taking part in the meet & greet.

– THE LEAVE (NOAH’s long term sponsors) have filmed a couple of new adverts. One of them appears to take place at the NOAH dojo, and features NOAH’s uncles, Akira Taue and Toshiaki Kawada.

CURRENT CHAMPIONS

• GHC Heavyweight Champion: Kazuyuki Fujita
  Challenger: Go Shiozaki, “MAJESTIC 2022”, Sumo Hall, Saturday 30th April
• GHC Junior Champion: Eita
  Challenger: HAYATA, “MAJESTIC 2022 – N-Innovation”, Sumo Hall, Friday 29th April
• GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions: The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura & Hideki Suzuki)
  Challengers: Kongoh (Kenoh and Katsuhiko Nakajima), “MAJESTIC 2022”, Sumo Hall, Saturday 30th April
• GHC Junior Tag Champions: The NOAH Junior Regulars (Atsushi Kotoge & YO-HEY)
  Challengers: STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & Chris Ridgeway), “MAJESTIC 2022 – N-Innovation”, Sumo Hall, Friday 29th April
• GHC National Champion: Masakatsu Funaki
  Challenger: Simon Gotch, “MAJESTIC 2022”, Sumo Hall, Saturday 30th April

THIS WEEK IN NOAH

(April schedule)

Friday, April 29th 2022

ABEMA presents MAJESTIC 2022 ~ N Innovation ~, Sumo Hall (Tokyo)

Starts: 17:00 JST

Broadcast: ABEMA & WrestleUniverse

*English commentary available on WrestleUniverse

*This will also be Tadasuke’s 15 year debut anniversary

Saturday, April 30th 2022

WRESTLE UNIVERSE presents MAJESTIC 2022, Sumo Hall (Tokyo)

Starts: 15:00 JST

Broadcast: WrestleUniverse

Note about ABEMA broadcasts

If you are not a subscriber to WrestleUniverse, you can watch night 1 of the two Sumo Hall events on ABEMA, but this will not have English commentary and you can only watch it live. Unless you are resident in Japan, I do not recommend subscribing to ABEMA due to the problems with finding a VPN that works. If you do have a VPN that works and you are subscribing only for NOAH, a better subscription would be to WrestleUniverse, as ABEMA do not broadcast them as often and all ABEMA shows end up eventually on WrestleUniverse.

LINKS

“NOAH Juniors are three low elements, just like national traitors” Shun Skywalker – poisonous words before entering the war of the 29th

Costume research: Alejandro

Haoh “Still on the way”, Nioh “It’s not me that ends” – press conference of loser changes name match

Ahead of the “Junior Ryogoku” event on April 29th at Ryogoku Kokugikan, three of the NOAH Junior Regular Army, Daisuke Harada, Atsushi Kotoge & YO-HEY, hold a press conference in Tokyo on the 13th

GIF credit: NOAH Official YouTube

Picture credits: NOAH GHC, WrestleUniverse & Pro Wrestling DX

With thanks to: Metal-NOAH