NOAH WEEKLY NEWSLETTER VOL.175 ~ 5TH JUNE 2022

NEWS

Yoshiki Inamura vs Kazusada Higuchi

At a sold out Club Citta, Yoshiki Inamura and Kazusada Higuchi had their own pre match before the CyberFight Tag. Higuchi has tended to distance himself from his partners, refusing to work together with them, and concentrating on winning the match. The clash between two former sumo at Club Citta on the 30th May, was everything fans hoped it would be. Even going so far as to hope the ring and/or the building fell down. It didn’t go quite that far, and ended in a time out draw after the two fought Sumo style. I’m sure I don’t need to talk about the crash impact after the initial charge. Backstage, Inamura used Sumo phrases to describe the bout, and termed that the end of this and the start of the match on the 12th June, was the period when two Sumo wrestlers are given water between matches.

Junta Miyawaki leaves for Mexico

Junta Miyawaki wrestled his farewell match at Club Citta on 30th May against his senior and friend, Kaito Kiyomiya. In a match that fans are saying was Miyawaki’s best, Kiyomiya won however, by pinning him with the Tiger Suplex Hold. Afterwards, Kiyomiya said on the mic that he should always come at that level, and he would be waiting for him to return in a big way to the NOAH that Kiyomiya will become.

Prior to this, Miyawaki had also done a live Twitter Space, which wasn’t so civil. Everything had been going fine, Miyawaki was answering questions, and revealing that he had been taught some Spanish by Xtreme Tiger and El Hijo De Dr Wagner Jnr. Then in the last few minutes, some of the NOAH Junior Regulars arrived. Chatterbox YO-HEY, sensible Haoh and Atsushi Kotoge, who must have stopped off at a bar en route while walking his dog, as he sounded drunk. NOAH could not get Kotoge and YO-HEY off the air and so, with Miyawaki answering their questions politely (including Kotoge warning him about “weird powder” and telling him not to show his wallet to anyone who wants to see it), the stream overran by twenty minutes which held up Yoshiki Inamura’s talk which was coming next, and so NOAH forcibly terminated the stream.

Kenoh vs Daisuke Sasaki match development

The moment Kongoh entered the ring at Club Citta, they were attacked by Damnation. Kenoh who was furious at the very sight of Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul and KANON felt he had to yell at the from the top of the stairs, was made even more angry during the match when he was attacked with chairs. Sasaki not only won the match, which for Kenoh was humiliating enough (Sasaki made Hi69 tap to the Mystica Cross Face Lock), but worse was to come. While Kenoh was fighting with KANON after the match, he said he felt a shock go down his back. Sasaki had zapped him with the stun gun. This wasn’t going to be the last time that Kenoh was to experience this however.

At the CyberFight press conference on the 2nd June, Kenoh declared that since Sasaki relied on using weapons, probably because he was scared of the power of a true wrestler like Kenoh who wrestles full time and not just at a school fete, the match at CyberFight Festival would be a no DQ hardcore match. Sasaki had also not turned up to the press conference, but Kenoh wasn’t the imposing figure that he imagined Sasaki was scared of, when Sasaki crashed his live broadcast of The Kenoh Channel, and attacked him with the stun gun.

Sasaki later played mind games with Kenoh, by threatening to turn up at NOAH’s event in Niigata (he said that Yamato had called a taxi), but in the event of things he didn’t. Kenoh is now calling DDT a promotion that does stage wrestling, and has vowed to destroy both them and Sanshiro Takagi.

Shinjiro Otani Aid

To assist Shinjiro Otani with his medical costs, ZERO-1 held a benefit show on the 4th June, which NOAH wrestlers took part in. The junior match ended in chaos with a melee brawl between Daisuke Harada, Kinya Okada, Junya Matsunaga and Takumi Baba. Yoshiki Inamura and Kaito Kiyomiya defeated Shoki Kitamura and Tsugutaka Sato, with Kitamura saying he wants to get stronger and come back to NOAH. Kongoh also participated, with Kenoh yelling loudly at Koji Kanemoto after a team of old men (including Kenoh’s nightmare, Kendo Kashin) defeated Kongoh.

Takashi Sugiura, lost the ZERO-1 World Heavyweight to Masato Tanaka. This was not the ideal title match that either had wanted to ever be in such a situation, but in the circumstances, fans knew there would only be one outcome, and it was for the best. Backstage, Sugiura said that it wasn’t just Otani’s injury that he felt guilty for, but also the stress it was putting on Otani’s family. Anything that could be done to help Otani, he would do. After the event, NOAH wrestlers assisted in collecting donations.

Triangle Gate Challenge first and only pre-match

The Triangle Gate one and only pre match took place in Niigata on the 5th June. It started with Yoshinari Ogawa jumping NOSAWA on the ramp and hitting him with the tag belt as Perros Del Mal made their entry. A bloodied up NOSAWA never got to the ring as Kotaro Suzuki was destroyed by a Buzzsaw kick from Seiki Yoshioka and pinned in three minutes and twenty-three seconds. NOSAWA had has revenge later in the evening, when he crashed Yoshinari Ogawa’s tag match. However, it didn’t work well for him as he was attacked both by STINGER and by The NOAH Junior Regulars, who were teaming with Kaito Kiyomiya, who also hates him. Harada, YO-HEY and Kiyomiya (as far as I know) didn’t join STINGER in beating down NOSAWA and Kotaro. Harada has vowed to smash Perros, which caused a backstage brawl to break out when a bloodied up and swearing loudly NOSAWA threw a barrier at him. NOSAWA has vowed that he will deliver Ogawa “the greatest humiliation” during the title match.

In a recent interview regarding the title challenge, Yoshinari Ogawa says that should they win he will nominate Daisuke Harada, Atsushi Kotoge and YO-HEY as their challengers. Regarding the GHC Junior Tag Titles, nothing can be done until Chris Ridgeway returns, and so when he does Ogawa wants to hold a rematch in Ota between himself, Ridgeway, Yuya Susumu and Seiki Yoshioka. He doesn’t think that STINGER need split this time.

Heartbreak Mosh live

Kenoh’s theme music, Heartbreak Mosh, will be performed live by PETA (from The Garlic Boys) at CyberFight Festival. Kenoh called him personally on the Kenoh Channel live feed. Fortunately, this was before Daisuke Sasaki’s intrusion.

Naomichi Marufuji’s absence

Naomichi Marufuji will be absent from NOAH for the foreseeable future due to pain, inflammation and difficulty with flexion in his knee. A hospital investigation revealed the cause to be osteoarthritis. He will have another hospital appointment on the 6th June and will know more from there. He has vowed to return to the ring as soon as possible, but this does mean that he will have to miss CyberFight Festival.

Enter Katsuhiko Nakajima

With Naomichi Marufuji injured, his place has been taken at CyberFight Festival by Katsuhiko Nakajima. Not that anyone asked Nakajima. Nakajima walked in at the CyberFight Festival press conference, smiling evilly,  and told Atsushi Kotoge, that he would be taking Marufuji’s place. He then told Kotoge that he basically thought he was pathetic. He had been reading what Kotoge said about Jun Akiyama, and would he quit living in the past? Nakajima also termed Higuchi as a “washed up sumo”. Tetsuya Endo as a “Suckerfish” and Jun Akiyama as “The Great Gerontocracy” (when these remarks were repeated, Akiyama had no problem with being called this as he only repeated what Higuchi had been called). He then fired Kotoge up by getting into a slap war. After this, he produced a knife from his pocket, a DDT logo on a board from the bag he had been carrying, and stabbed it. Ripping it in half and throwing it on the floor, Nakajima said that he was the knife to DDT, and he would do this over and over again until DDT never wanted to experience NOAH again.

Having dealt with Atsushi Kotoge, Nakajima turned his attention to Yoshiki Inamura, who he faced in a tag match on the 5th June in Niigata. Knocking Inamura around throughout the match (one fan wondered how Inamura had teeth) he pinned him after repeated strikes and then loomed over him after the match.

ELSEWHERE IN NOAH

– Square Enix have announced they will be doing Yoshiki Inamura’s new theme music, to be debuted at CyberFight Festival on the 12th June.

– Kinya Okada, in typical NOAH Born manner, tried to pester his CyberFight opponents, Toui Kojima and Yuya Takashita into coming to the NOAH dojo to do joint practice. They didn’t want to and didn’t see why they should. Okada didn’t take no for an answer, and when they persistently refused his offer, walked off.

– Kenoh has been appointed the Director of Public Relations for the CyberFight Festival. He says that this “proves that Sanshiro Takagi is incompetent”

– Masa Kitamiya calls himself, Michael Elgin and Yoshiki Inamura “THE TOUGH Trio”

– In response to Satoshi Kojima telling Go Shiozaki to look him up on Wikipedia if he wants to know more about him. Shiozaki remarked drily that he didn’t need to.

EVENT RECAPS & POST MATCH INTERVIEWS

Event recap: NOAH Sanctuary (Club Citta, Monday 30th May)

Post match interviews: NOAH Sanctuary (Club Citta, Monday 30th May)

Event recap: Sunny Voyage 2022 (Sunday 5th June, Aore Nagaoka, Niigata)

CURRENT CHAMPIONS

• GHC Heavyweight Champion: Go Shiozaki
  Challenger: Satoshi Kojima, CyberFight Festival, Sunday June 12th
• GHC Junior Champion: HAYATA
  Challenger: TBA
• GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions: Masa Kitamiya & Michael Elgin
  Challengers: TBA
• GHC Junior Tag Champions: STINGER (Chris Ridgeway & Yoshinari Ogawa)
  Challengers: TBA
• GHC National Champion: Masakatsu Funaki
  Challenger: TBA

THIS WEEK IN NOAH

(June schedule)

STAR NAVIGATION 2022

Tuesday, June 7th (Korakuen Hall, Tokyo)

Starts: 18:30 JST

Broadcast: ABEMA

Wednesday, June 8th (Korakuen Hall, Tokyo)

Starts: 18:30 JST

Broadcast: ABEMA

CYBERFIGHT FESTIVAL 2022

Sunday, June 12th (Saitama Super Arena, Saitama)

Starts: 14:00 JST

Broadcast: WrestleUniverse

(Keiji Mutoh will be making a special announcement)

Monday, June 13th

In Memory Of Our Misawa

This will not have a WrestleUniverse or ABEMA broadcast, although we will see parts on YouTube.

Please note this is a fan event and will not have any matches.

Note about broadcasts

Unless you are living in Japan or have a VPN you know is compatible with ABEMA, please do not subscribe to the service. For fans living outside of Japan, a subscription to WrestleUniverse would be better as they show more NOAH shows than ABEMA, and usually the events get uploaded very quickly. ABEMA broadcasts are only in Japanese, you can only watch them live, and this is the only NOAH they show. They do not broadcast old shows as these belong to Samurai TV.

LINKS

Takashi Sugiura’s backstage comments (Shinjiro Otani aid)

BOOK CORNER

Donmai-Donmai (Mitsuharu Misawa’s diary)

GIF taken from WrestleUniverse, NOAH’s Official YouTube & The Kenoh Channel

Picture credit: NOSAWA Rongai