NOAH WEEKLY NEWSLETTER VOL.179 ~ 6TH JULY 2022

NEWS

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Championship Postponed 

Due to Chris Ridgeway being unable to get a Visa in time for the Nippon Budokan event on July 12th, the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Championship match has been postponed. Therefore, Yoshinari Ogawa and Yuya Susumu will team together against Eita and Kotaro Suzuki. Susumu says he knows he cannot replace Ridgeway, but will fight with him in mind.

Seiki Yoshioka attacks HAYATA (repeatedly)

Following his GHC Junior Heavyweight challenge to HAYATA, Seiki Yoshioka turned the tension up a notch by fighting with HAYATA after the match in Fukushima on the 2nd (HAYATA had made him bleed) and introducing him to his new superkick, and then intruding on the match in Yamagata on the 3rd, which got the match thrown out. Poor HAYATA had been kicked in head quite a few times over the course of the two days, and so was not in any position to speak. Seiki Yoshioka was though, he had taken the belt backstage, and holding it up the camera announced that he was putting everything on the line to win, and he would knock HAYATA out again at The Budokan. Yuya Susumu later posted on his Twitter that he felt he had to apologize for how Yoshioka was behaving.

Speaking of STINGER (HAYATA, Yoshinari Ogawa & Yuya Susumu) came out wearing the green NOAH baseball shirts in Yamagata for the match against Perros Del Mal De Japon (Kotaro Suzuki, NOSAWA Rongai & Super Crazy). They never explained why they were wearing green, and fans were left to speculate that either they were showing their solidarity as NOAH Juniors to Perros, or it was an Ogawa mind game to remind Kotaro where he came from and who he belonged with. The singles match between Kotaro and Ogawa on July 2nd was naturally ruined by Perros who got the match thrown out by intrusion. Given NOSAWA’S comments backstage to Kotaro about “trying harder”, I am wondering how long Kotaro is going to put up with this.

Kenoh, Kojima (and Kobashi)

Following two frustrating pre matches in which neither the champion or the challenger won over the other, and an escalation in “competition” where Kenoh did press ups backstage next to a fallen Satoshi Kojima in Fukushima, and Kojima demonstrated Lion press ups to Kenoh in Yamagata (who comically appeared in front of him and then attacked him screaming about “The Mark of The Lion” and how if he missed it so much he should wear his new t-shirt), Kenoh sought advice from the master of the lariat, Kenta Kobashi by making a first visit to his gym. Lariats are not something Kenoh has used before, so it will be interesting to see if the teaching he got from Kobashi was how to throw them or how to withstand them.

GHC Heavyweight Tag Champion Humiliation

Satoshi Kojima might have had a frustrating stalemate, but at least Kojima was spared the humiliation that the GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions endured, when again they lost via Masa Kitamiya submitting to Hideki Suzuki in Yamagata. Suzuki had said he was doing a kind of scouting mission as he wanted to know their strengths and weaknesses and the strengths and weaknesses of their techniques. Timothy Thatcher was given a firsthand look, when the champions demonstrated their new tandem move, a double powerbomb, to win the match.

Go Shiozaki & Shuhei Taniguchi miss events

Go Shiozaki was absent from the 2nd and 3rd July weekend events due to being a close contact with someone with Coronavirus. This necessitated a card change as it was almost last minute. What was last minute (as in about seven minutes before the event started) was Shuhei Taniguchi being withdrawn from the event due to mild heatstroke.

Yoshiki Inamura’s Fire Festival 2022

Although Yoshiki Inamura did not defeat Masato Tanaka, his Fire Festival opened with a time limit draw at thirty minutes. Inamura didn’t feel that he had approached Tanaka with this, but has sworn to beat everyone else and return to NOAH with the sword.

ELSEWHERE IN NOAH

– Tadasuke is wondering why there has been no comeback from the NOAH Junior Regulars regarding his banishment of Haoh (who seems to have vanished off the face of the earth). I think Tadasuke will get his answer when NOAH are back in Tokyo.

– Alejandro greeted the Yamagata crowd as the Fukushima one, to be scolded by Hajime Ohara for his mistake.

– Kenoh’s Michinoku Pro rival, Fujita “Jnr” Hayato, made his return to the ring following a five year absence due to cancer. He named two people he wanted to fight, Hiromu Takahashi and of course, Kenoh. Kenoh says that he should fight Hayato first. Not only did Hayato mention him first, but even by the Japanese (gojūon) syllabary Kenoh (i.e. KE) comes first. Kenoh then returned to his preoccupation that seems to be obsessing him these days, “The Lion Mark” (New Japan logo).

– Kenoh grumbled that he preferred the sea to rivers just before he posted a video of himself doing Lion Push ups by one.

EVENT RECAPS AND POST MATCH INTERVIEWS

• SUNNY VOYAGE 2022

Fukushima Big Palette (Saturday, July 2nd)

Event recap

Post match interviews

• Yamagata Big Wing (Sunday, July 3rd)

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: Seiki Yoshioka, “ABEMA presents DESTINATION 2022”, Nippon Budokan, 16th July
• GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions: Masa Kitamiya & Michael Elgin
  Challengers: The Sugiura Army (Hideki Suzuki & Timothy Thatcher), “ABEMA presents DESTINATION 2022”, Nippon Budokan, 16th July
• GHC Junior Tag Champions: STINGER (Chris Ridgeway & Yoshinari Ogawa)
  Challengers: Perros Del Mal De Japon (Eita & Kotaro Suzuki), Postponed, replacement date to be advised
• GHC National Champion: Masakatsu Funaki
  Challenger: TBA

THIS WEEK IN NOAH

(July 2022 schedule)

• YOSHIKI INAMURA FIRE FESTIVAL 2022

Friday, July 8th: vs Hide Kubota

July 9th: Road to Nippon Budokan special autograph session

Sunday, July 10th

Venue: Fujisan Messe, Shizuoka

Time: 13:00 JST

Broadcast: WrestleUniverse (event will not be streamed live)

LINKS

“Fire Festival 2022” Press Conference B Block – Yoshiki Inamura comments

“I AM NOAH Ring Announcer”

Keiji Mutoh Final Countdown Series

BOOK CORNER

Donmai-Donmai (Mitsuharu Misawa’s diary)

GIF taken from NOAH Official Twitter & NOAH Official YouTube