CORONAVIRUS
EVENT RECAP
“NOAH The Chronicle Vol.1” ~ Nagoya International Convention Centre Event Hall (24th February 2020)
Post match interviews
Kinya Okada and Junta Miyawaki put on a slightly clumsy opening match, in which Miyawaki got a singles win. However, it was a win over a rookie, and not a senior.
Naomichi Marufuji made his return from knee surgery, tagging with Masaaki Mochizuki & Minoru Tanaka vs The Sugiura Army (Kazushi Sakuraba, Hajime Ohara & NOSAWA). He squared up to Sakuraba the moment he got in the ring which later on in the match culminated in Sakuraba complaining about Marufuji chopping him, and then even lifting up his shirt to show the fans at ringside the marks. The match itself was not a particularly serious one with Marufuji & NOSAWA comedy, and one of those long headlocks where everyone in the ring joins in until being knocked down. It was Mochizuki who got the win over Hajime Ohara, who later told Marufuji that since he won today, it is his turn to win their tag title match with the Shiranui.
Akitoshi Saito celebrated his 30th anniversary in wrestling by teaming with Shiro Koshinaka, Masashi Aoyagi & Masao Inoue vs Kongoh (Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya, Haoh and Nioh). He said he chose them as opponents as when he himself was younger, he too was in a rebellious group and he identifies with them.
A special guest was also at ringside for the match, The Great Kabuki, who had been part of Heisei Ishingun with Saito and the others. Although Kabuki looked very frail, he could still do his nunchuck entry as well as ever. He didn’t get involved in the match though, but he did throw a punch at ringside at Nioh; and then helped his team get the win (again at Nioh’s expense) when he blew poison mist at him.
Backstage it was Daisuke Harada who changed things, saying that he wasn’t going to put the IPW Championship up against Ogawa. Ogawa insisted that the match would be belt for belt.
Kazuyuki and Go Shiozaki faced off in their final pre-match before the now cancelled Yokohama event; but failed to get the pin on each other. It was a brutal match, which left Shiozaki looking dazed. The match was lost by Shuhei Taniguchi, who tapped out to Hideki Suzuki who was using a technique that stretched his injured ribs. Furious at being cheated out of the win, Shiozaki got in the ring and lariated both Fujita and Suzuki; before taking the mic, holding the belt up over Fujita and saying that he would defend the belt, and (in English), “I am NOAH!”.
On commentary Naomichi Marufuji said he was not surprised, after all, they did call Minoru Tanaka “the belt collector”.
NEWS
“Otaku History”
Hajime Ohara appeared at MEGARAGE in Kawasaki on the 26th February; and touched briefly on NOAH’s annual summer Kawasaki event (which he is involved in the planning of); but spent most of the rest of the time talking about his love of computer games, anime and manga. Ohara described himself as being “physically weak” as a young child and he spent a lot of time in hospital where his greatest friend became his GameBoy; and whether it was on the Gameboy, PS2, Sega MegaDrive, Nintendo or any other console; Ohara loved computer games and you name it, chances are he probably played it.
Katsuhiko Nakajima in WRESTLE-1
Katsuhiko Nakajima (true to form) expressed no form of surprise or remorse when told about W-1 shutting down (money problems) by grinning and saying; “What are you talking about?”.
Kaz Hayashi has been sidelined with a rupture of biceps femoris muscle; but is still determined to compete in the match; something which Nakajima said was stupid and he asked how Hayashi thought he was going to beat him in that condition? Nakajima also asked if there was anyone else in W-1 who could face him? There apparently wasn’t; and Nakajima said he was looking forward to the “perfect champion vs challenger”.
Hayashi’s response was to call him “rude” and say that he was looking forward to the match, which he was determined to be in 100% condition for.
At the time of writing, the event on the March 15th in Ota is still scheduled to go ahead; but this may change due to the Coronavirus.
Takashi Sugiura in Real Japan Pro
Bought in by Kazuyuki Fujita as a reliable man he could trust. Takashi Sugiura will compete for Real Japan Pro on the 19th March facing Super Tiger and Daisuke Sekimoto. Sugiura delivered a burn to Super Tiger; ignoring his existence when he said that he was looking forward to facing Sekimoto again.
ELSEWHERE IN NOAH
- Kinya Okada has holed himself up in the dojo. He says he does not want to go outside.
- Takashi Sugiura & Masato Tanaka (“The Dangan Yankees”\”The Bullet Yankees”\”The Two Tanned Old Dads”) won their match in ZERO-ONE on the 1st March, when they drew with Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Okabayashi.
(Note the word “Yankee” means something like badman, tough, hooligan etc. It comes from the advent of American cinema, mainly mob films, to Japan in the 1940s during the American Occupation). - AXIZ have branded their merchandise, and created a new logo.
- Atsushi Kotoge has written in his online diary about creating a NOAH band. He plays the drums, but the only other musical people I know of in NOAH would be Katsuhiko Nakajima who played guitar; and Mohammed Yone who had his own album out.
- Yoshiki Inamura made a tense appearance on Battlemen (Akira Hyodo next to him looked just as tense). Yuji Hino has not seen Inamura since early 2019 when Inamura teamed against Hijo’s group; “The Hooligans” to help rid NOAH of them, and said he had changed. This was Inamura’s first solo outing without either Kongoh or Masa Kitamiya, and naturally he was a little nervous.
CURRENT CHAMPIONS
- GHC Heavyweight Champion: Go Shiozaki
Challenger: Kazuyashi Fujita (TBA) - GHC Junior Champion: Yoshinari Ogawa
Challenger: Daisuke Harada (TBA) - GHC Heavyweight Tag Champions: MM (Naomichi Marufuji & Masaaki Mochizuki)
R.E.D (Takashi Yoshida and Diamante), DragonGate, March 5th at Korakuen Hall - GHC Junior Tag Champions: STINGER (Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Kotoge)
Challengers: RATELS (YO-HEY and HAYATA) (TBA) - GHC National Champion: Takashi Sugiura
Challenger: Minoru Tanaka (TBA) - IPW Junior Heavyweight Champion: Daisuke Harada
BROADCASTS
The cancelled show from the 8th March will be rescheduled, with G+ saying that they will broadcast it (not live) on Monday March 23rd. There has been no word as to when the show will be rescheduled for though.
As NOAH shows are being uploaded to DDT Universe, please consider subscribing. Please do this on the 1st of the month as you will be charged twice otherwise.
THIS WEEK IN NOAH
- Monday 2nd March: Kenoh celebrates 12 years in wrestling
- Monday 2nd March: Kaito Kiyomiya starts a monthly radio call in for FM Hi; where he will answer callers questions (he will also be the TV and radio in Gunma earlier that day)
- Tuesday 3rd March: Yoshiki Inamura vs Daichi Hashimoto ~ Big Japan “Strong Climb” (event will be broadcast on March 10th)
- Thursday 5th March: Naomichi Marufuji defend the GHC Heavyweight tag titles in Dragon Gate
- Friday 6th March: Masao Inoue (50) ~ expect increased harassment from Takashi Sugiura; who is now stalking him through the Sugiura Army Twitter account (Kinya Okada has also joined in).
LINKS
“I’m interested in The Sugiura Army”, Josh Barnett’s landing remark is about NOAH
“There was always hope” ~ Dreaming of being a pro wrestler (Interview with Kenta Kobashi Part 1)
Fist of Youth “Fight Hard, Believe in Yourself” (Interview with Kenta Kobashi Part 2)
GIF credit: Samurai TV
Picture credit: Yahoo Japan