NOAH WEEKLY NEWSLETTER VOL.177 ~ 21st JUNE 2022

NEWS

Keiji Mutoh’s retirement

Keiji Mutoh gave further information on his retirement at the press conference NOAH held on the 17th June in Tokyo. The dates will be as follows, however please note with the amount of people asking for a match with Mutoh (Hiroshi Tanahashi is one of them), Mutoh admits that there may be more dates than the ones announced. Whether or not Mutoh will be able to carry them all out, depends on his physical condition and the opinion of his doctor.

KEIJI MUTOH FINAL COUNTDOWN SERIES

• July 16th 2022, Nippon Budokan
• September 25th 2022, Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium
• October 30th 2022, Ariake Arena, Tokyo
• January 22nd 2023, Yokohama Arena (Great Muta Final “Bye-Bye”)

*Date and venue of final match is to be announced

While Kenoh has sworn revenge on The Great Muta before the gates of The Underworld close for the last time (and I wonder if we will see Naomichi Marufuji’s demonic incarnation, Magical Immortality, one last time here as Marufuji has said he hopes to be involved in a match in some way), Kaito Kiyomiya is a more pressing concern.

Kiyomiya will have his final singles match, and final chance to best Mutoh on July 16th at The Nippon Budokan. Mutoh wants Kiyomiya to wrap everything up here, and not go throughout his career being “haunted by the ghost of Keiji Mutoh”. Mutoh also does not want Kiyomiya to hold back, and used the Samurai term “assistant” and said that there was no way he was going to let Kiyomiya be his.

Regarding his final match and therefore his retirement event, Mutoh hasn’t arranged anything although he said that getting everyone together would be difficult as all his friends and students are spread out over not just various promotions, but also the world. There is also no “same generation” for him, He also seemed more in favor of having a smaller venue for the event (Club Citta was mentioned), although NOAH’s director Narihiro Takeda said they were looking at a “Dome class” venue.

Note

The term “assistant” refers to the one who takes the head off the Samurai who is committing Seppuku in order to end his sufferings. There is no equivalent in English and “Executioner” is far too a clumsy word, “Mercy Killing” could be used, but it lacks the true significance, anyhow Kiyomiya did not understand what he meant. Fans said it was very generational.

Seiki Yoshioka & Yuya Susumu fall out – even further than before

Following their falling out at Korakuen Hall on the 8th June, Seiki Yoshioka entered the match in Kobe on the 19th June dressed in his former ring-wear. Yuya Susumu offered a handshake both before the match and after the match, to which Yoshioka refused. Violently.

After the match (which was won by Susumu making Kai Fujimura tap), Susumu said that Yoshioka needed him, as in he needed Susumu next to him, and if he didn’t understand that now he certainly would at the N-Innovation singles match on the 23rd June.

HAYATA looks to next challenger, Hajime Ohara’s “mock exam”

HAYATA got a quick win over Hajime Ohara in Kobe on the 19th by reversing the Mui Bien and pinning him in under five minutes. HAYATA brushed off Ohara’s challenge saying that he was looking to the next challenger, and interestingly he mentioned Ninja Mack (amongst “foreign wrestlers” and “champion class from other promotions”), Ohara (ever the student) said this was simply a “mock exam” which gave him time to reflect and this next challenger that HAYATA was speaking about, would be coming looking for him (Ohara) as he would be the one wearing the belt.

NOAH Junior press conference

The NOAH Juniors will hold their own press conference on the 22nd June on NOAH’s official YouTube the day before the N-Innovation at Shinjuku FACE. Broadcast begins at 19:00 JST. Expect the kindling to be lit before the bonfire as the event itself will feature the Open The TriangleGate championship match (Eita has already claimed credit for the event being almost sold out), The Loser Leaves NOAH match between Haoh and Tadasuke, HAYATA vs Hajime Ohara for the GHC Junior Heavyweight, and of course the ongoing STINGER saga of Seiki Yoshioka vs Yuya Susumu.

Masakatsu Funaki retains the GHC National, “Power Fighter” wanted for next opponent

Masakatsu Funaki retained the GHC National against Masato Tanaka in their first “normal” singles match (the last was a hardcore blast) via referee stop when he choked him out. No challenger came forward, and still has not at the time of writing, but Funaki said he wants someone like a “power fighter”, preferably foreign given the amount of foreign talent coming to NOAH recently, as he wants to see how well this transfers to wrestling.

Katsuhiko’s comeback and the mystery of Kenoh’s Rainmaker

Since the incident with Tetsuya Endo at CyberFight and Jun Akiyama’s scolding afterwards, Katsuhiko Nakajima went dark on social media. He gave no rebuttal to Akiyama’s words, he gave no interviews, and made no mention of it entirely. At Kobe on the 19th, he sent a clear message to not just Akiyama but to everyone, by striking Daiki Inaba in the same way and even posing with his foot on his chest. Afterwards he posted a picture of Kongoh together with the caption, “After all, wrestling is good”.

Kenoh’s first pre match with Satoshi Kojima in the same match, contained an element of mystery when Kenoh did Kazuchika Okada’s Rainmaker pose. When asked about it afterwards, Kenoh said evasively that he would let people imagine for themselves what it meant. Fans wonder whether this means a clash between Kenoh and Okada, or else Kenoh is simply sending a message to Kojima. The first pre match was won by Go Shiozaki who lariated Hi69, not by the champion or his challenger. Backstage, Kenoh vowed to send Kojima back to New Japan.

Yoshiki Inamura to participate in ZERO1’s Fire Festival 2022

After having to leave the 2021 event due to a hip injury, Yoshiki Inamura returns to take part in the 2022 tournament. He will compete in Block B against;

• Masato Tanaka
• Takafumi
• Hide Kubota
• Nagao Satsuki
• Fuminori Abe

Inamura’s first match will be against longtime rival, Masato Tanaka, on the 1st July. Tanaka has praised Inamura and said that each time he faces him he is harder and harder to beat. I can see Inamura’s participation being a yearly event.

ELSEWHERE IN NOAH

– Super Crazy will partner with NOSAWA Rongai against Masato Tanaka and Rob Van Dam in the hardcore match at The Nippon Budokan on the 16th July. Aside from NOSAWA, this makes it an ECW reunion.

– Winning the DragonGate Open The TriangleGate titles has meant more to YO-HEY than anyone else, especially being announced as the champion in Kobe, which is DragonGate territory.

– Simon Gotch paid tribute to Kazushi Sakuraba by revealing he was wearing his orange during their singles match. He has also been training at Sakuraba’s Natural9 gym.

– YO-HEY and Atsushi Kotoge appeared on the radio show that Kuniko Yamada and Naomichi Marufuji do. Between YO-HEY and Kuniko, no one could get a word in. As the studio has a glass front and looks out on to a public area, YO-HEY posed for the fans afterwards.

– Naomichi Marufuji has come through his knee operation well, and has been out and about, including getting lost when trying to find somewhere two minutes from the station and wandering half an hour away. NOAH have not given a time for his return to the ring as of yet. Masakatsu Funaki hinted that he may have been his next challenger.

– Although Junta Miyawaki has not posted anything about his time in Mexico so far, he has been pictured looking radiantly happy and also appearing for WLS.

EVENT RECAPS & POST MATCH INTERVIEWS

BACK IN THE KOBE! – LIVE 2022 – (June 19th, Hyogo/Kobe Sambo Hall)

Event recap

Post match interviews

CURRENT CHAMPIONS

• GHC Heavyweight Champion: Satoshi Kojima
  Challenger: Kenoh, “ABEMA presents DESTINATION 2022”, Nippon Budokan, 16th July
• GHC Junior Champion: HAYATA
  Challenger: Hajime Ohara, N-INNOVATION, Shinjuku FACE, 23rd June
• 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

N-INNOVATION

Thursday, June 23rd (Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo)

Starts: 18:30 JST

Broadcast: WrestleUniverse

SUNNY VOYAGE 2022

Friday, June 24th (Yokohama Radiant Hall)

Starts: 18:00 JST

Broadcast: WrestleUniverse

LINKS

Five Star for the win! RVD promises to return to Japan in July

Satoshi Kojima’s CyberFight backstage promo

Kenoh glares “Kojima’s expiration date” expired, Kojima all smiles “Adding color to Mutoh” – signing ceremony for The Budokan GHC match

How Kenoh took NOAH back to The Budokan

BOOK CORNER

Donmai-Donmai (Mitsuharu Misawa’s diary)

– 2005 is now complete.

GIF taken from NOAH Official YouTube and Shibuya Cross FM.

Picture credit: Pro Wrestling DX, Yuya Susumu