(NOAH) NOAH WEEKLY NEWSLETTER VOL.185 ~ 7TH SEPTEMBER 2022

NEWS

Kaito Kiyomiya wins N-1 VICTORY

Kaito Kiyomiya overcame Hideki Suzuki to win his first N-1 VICTORY. Hideki Suzuki had terrified him, as he remembered how it was the last time they fought soon after Kiyomiya had returned from excursion. Kiyomiya had said in the press conference in response to Suzuki’s “he’s obsessed with Mutoh” that he wouldn’t use any of Mutoh’s moves in the match, but this was indeed how he won it. With his win, Kiyomiya could now challenge Kenoh for the GHC Heavyweight title.

Kenoh (looking half amused and a bit proud of Kiyomiya), came to the ring and silently raised the GHC Heavyweight. Backstage, he was not as quiet, saying that Kiyomiya was “a handsome wrestler with a cool face”, but he wasn’t happy with Kiyomiya’s somewhat dazed promo and branding him the “Useless N-1 Champion”.

HAYATA nominates his next challenger, YO-HEY

YO-HEY had been saying for the past few weeks that he was going to be aiming at HAYATA. The expected title challenge didn’t happen earlier as the last time YO-HEY and HAYATA were in the ring together, Perros Del Mal De Japon ruined any chances. HAYATA took matters into his own hands following the match in Osaka on the September 3rd. The way YO-HEY was nominated was done in a way that could only be done between the two of them, with HAYATA walking in on the NOAH Junior Regulars while they were in the comments booth, and nominating YO-HEY then and there.

STINGER victorious, new challengers emerge

STINGER ground Perros Del Mal De Japon practically into the ground in the title match in Osaka, Eita getting the brunt of the attack. Chris Ridgeway at one point taking off Eita’s kneepad and grinding his knuckles into the bone. It was no wonder that by the end of the match, Eita was walking with a noticeable limp. As Perros Del Mal slunk away to lick their wounds, STINGER were faced with their new challengers, Atsushi Kotoge and Seiki Yoshioka of The NOAH Junior Regulars. Kotoge got about half of a sentence out about challenging for the belts, taking them back, teaming with Yoshioka, when STINGER had had enough of him/them, and hit them both in the face with their belts and then walked off making dismissive motions. Despite this, their challenge has been accepted.

Satoshi Kojima and Takashi Sugiura

Understandably subdued at the moment and not himself, Takashi Sugiura came out of his shell a bit when he and Satoshi Kojima teamed together in Osaka on 3rd September. At first their partnership was stormy, a missed spot which involved an opponent ducking and a mistimed spot resulted in an argument and Sugiura deliberately breaking a pin, which meant that fans suspected a rivalry. However, backstage Satoshi Kojima had a different idea, how about the two of them team up? Sugi wasn’t too sure, but Kojima persuaded him saying that they were both the same age (Sugiura is four months older) and it was hard to find someone as contemporary as Sugiura now. Sugiura said he would give it a go, and much to fans surprise, the two have challenged for the GHC Heavyweight Tag Titles.

Masa Kitamiya

With the N-1 over and Masakatsu Funaki saying that he wanted to put the belt up against the three people he lost against, Masa Kitamiya, Kaito Kiyomiya & Satoshi Kojima, fans were the most interested in seeing Kitamiya challenge. Following a tag match in Osaka, Kitamiya and Funaki got into a rare melee brawl after the match, which involved Kitamiya slamming him and Katsuhiko Nakajima having to throw Kitamiya from the ring. Backstage, Kitamiya announced his challenge and the title match has been set a little later the others (I think due to Funaki’s schedule) for the 30th September.

Kenoh vs The Makai Alliance

The short lived Makai Alliance of NOSAWA Rongai, The-Great-O-Khan and The Great Muta (I say short as Muta turned on O-Khan and gave him the Green Mist at the end) took on the might of Kongoh. Tadasuke was the target for the three demons, while Kenoh battered O-Khan with his bamboo sword (O-Khan posted pictures of the welts later) and while attempting a fireball, got a lick of flame from Great Muta. Sadly, Kenoh did not set himself on fire in the match and do any flaming kicks. Manabu Soya was given the red mist. Following Muta’s betrayal, O-Khan has vowed revenge and while he was crawling backstage and then rolling around on the floor, Muta hinted that perhaps he might be turning up in New Japan, or perhaps America?

DragonGate

Following NOAH’s Osaka event, The NOAH Junior Regulars (YO-HEY, Atsushi Kotoge, Alejandro and Seiki Yoshioka) turned up at DragonGate’s event and saved Natural Vibes from Z-BRATS. Kzy couldn’t quite believe it and asked what they were doing there, to which a joint performance (or “festival”) was suggested. Seiki Yoshioka wanted to fight YAMATO, while Alejandro wanted to team with “the skillful, crazy and cool” DragonKid. Nothing more has been said about the date, the venue or the card, but expect announcements in the coming weeks.

NOAH’s new debut

NOAH have announced that a trainee will graduate from the dojo on the 15th September. Taishi Ozawa is twenty-five years old, has a background in gymnastics, and comes from Shizuoka. He will be the first debut since Yasutaka Yano in about two years. His first NOAH match will be against Yoshiki Inamura, following this he is expected to join the heavyweight division.

Go Shiozaki injured

Go Shiozaki was injured in the match in Osaka, and was helped backstage by the trainees and officials, an ice pack on his arm. NOAH have not announced the extent of the injury yet or for how long Shiozaki will be absent only that he is pending further investigations.

ELSEWHERE IN NOAH

– Seiki Yoshioka has done a weight challenge which involved other wrestlers sitting on him while he does push ups; Alejandro was the easiest because he’s the smallest and lightest, Daiki Inaba was doable, Go Shiozaki giggled and fell off and Yoshiki Inamura squashed him flat.

– Stallion Rogers and Anthony Greene left NOAH to return to the USA. Anthony Greene was very emotional, stating how much he was going to miss Japan and how he looked upon The Ark, as home.

– Kenoh says he doesn’t care about O-Khan, his goal is another New Japan wrestler. He doesn’t say who though.

– Daiki Inaba has a singles match with Katsuhiko Nakajima coming up, this will be his chance to avenge himself for the W-1 championship belt.

– We mercifully never found out just where Kendo Kashin had vanished to after the match.

– Kaito Kiyomiya has taken up surfing in his new channel videos, while Kenoh informed us all that “The Beast” is not simply a name for Kazuyuki Fujita to scare his opponents with, which Kenoh found out when kicking him in the thigh.

EVENT RECAPS AND POST MATCH PROMOS

– N-1 VICTORY 2022 GRAND FINAL & GREAT MUTA OSAKA FINAL (Edion Arena Osaka First Stadium, Saturday September 3rd)

Event recap

Post Match Interviews

CURRENT CHAMPIONS

• GHC Heavyweight Champion: Kenoh
  Challenger: Kaito Kiyomiya, [Muto Retirement Road] GRAND SHIP 2022 in NAGOYA PRO-WRESTLING LOVE FOREVER.2 ~OUT BREAK~ Sunday September 25th, Dolphin Arena (Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium)
• GHC Junior Champion: HAYATA
  Challenger: YO-HEY, [Muto Retirement Road] GRAND SHIP 2022 in NAGOYA PRO-WRESTLING LOVE FOREVER.2 ~OUT BREAK~ Sunday September 25th, Dolphin Arena (Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium)
• GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions: The Sugiura Army (Hideki Suzuki & Timothy Thatcher)
  Challengers: KojiSugi (Satoshi Kojima & Takashi Sugiura), [Muto Retirement Road] GRAND SHIP 2022 in NAGOYA PRO-WRESTLING LOVE FOREVER.2 ~OUT BREAK~ Sunday September 25th, Dolphin Arena (Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium)
• GHC Junior Tag Champions: STINGER (Chris Ridgeway & Yoshinari Ogawa)
  Challengers: The NOAH Junior Regulars (Atsushi Kotoge & Seiki Yoshioka), [Muto Retirement Road] GRAND SHIP 2022 in NAGOYA PRO-WRESTLING LOVE FOREVER.2 ~OUT BREAK~ Sunday September 25th, Dolphin Arena (Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium)
• GHC National Champion: Masakatsu Funaki
  Challenger: Masa Kitamiya, SUNNY VOYAGE 2022 – Friday September 30th (Bandaijima Multi-Purpose Square Ogama)

* This event will not be broadcast live, but hopefully this match will be shown via Instagram

 THIS WEEK IN NOAH

(September 2022 schedule)

– Wednesday 15th September

NOAH will hold a press conference/match signing live on their official YouTube at 5pm JST. Keiji Mutoh will give further details about his retirement road plans, while the title matches are expected to be signed for.

LINKS

Muta & O-Khan make a shocking agreement, with the offering of “Makai Cake” at the historic alliance talks

Dragon Bane and Alpha Wolf both declare victory in Osaka for the Lucha Brothers showdown

Ahead of The Muta & O-Khan battle, holding a bamboo sword Kenoh does a furious interview, not giving up on GHC Heavyweight counter-attack

Suzuki “Best fight in the world”, “Win or die”, “No more chances” – Kiyomiya also has his back to the wall, press conference just before the N-1 championship match

GHC Champion Kenoh Makai Empire Alliance “Purification”, declares “Compulsory Elementary School Education For O-Khan”

Moving away from mentor Keiji Mutoh as champion! Kaito Kiyomiya submits “Graduation Thesis” by swearing to win the N-1 for the first time

ALL JAPAN YOSHINARI OGAWA ARTICLES FROM 1986

An Unknown Trainee 

Yoshinari Ogawa’s Volume 

BOOK CORNER

“Donmai, Donmai” – Mitsuharu Misawa’s diary

With thanks to: Metal-NOAH

GIF taken from WrestleUniverse & Seiki Yoshioka’s TikTok