Written by Hisame https://twitter.com/Hi5ame, originally on her blog, used on Puroresu Gate with permission
“The tension rises just by entering”
The rain did not put off the 3,215 people who came to The Budokan today for what was one of Noah’s biggest events. You can view this (with English commentary, plus Kaito Kiyomiya doing English commentary) on WrestleUniverse.
While fans played (and swapped) gatcha, and the Noah’s Ark Fan Club members sold out the special lottery that was held for them, Kazuyuki Fujita was seen to be warming up in the ring. GLEAT (aka Lidet) who had done so much to get Noah back to The Budokan, sent flowers which were displayed in the lobby.
Mohammed Yone, Akitoshi Saito and Naomichi Marufuji were on commentary, joined by special guest Jushin Liger (who had high praise for HAYATA). Liger now seems to be a fixture on commentary at Budokan shows.
MATCH ONE
Noah Junior Regulars (Daisuke Harada, Atsushi Kotoge, YO-HEY & Xtreme Tiger) vs Kongoh (Shuji Kondo, Tadasuke, Hajime Ohara & Hi69)
Tadasuke entered wearing new clothes; red long pants and a kind of rhinestone jacket with tassels, that had an image of him on the back.
He later revealed that the pants were in fact the kind that strippers wear. It was apt that he did it to YO-HEY. YO-HEY had new gear too in purple and white, I think he looked a lot more comfortable wearing material in the summer that didn’t have copious amounts of faux fur.
Daisuke Harada started with a glare to Shuji Kondo, but Harada as we will discover, was not Kondo’s target that evening, although neither could stay away from each other. Good opener, typical Noah junior melee brawls breaking out from time to time, but the chaos of the evening was to be the heavyweights.
WINNER: Shuji Kondo with the King Kong Lariat on Daisuke Harada (11 minutes, 17 seconds)
While the Noah Junior Regulars (minus Daisuke Harada) discussed their loss and wished Xtreme Tiger well, and for him to come back to Noah (he leaves today), Kongoh were having a bit of a comical moment. It turned out that Shuji Kondo had bought Kongoh Financiers (a type of French cake) but hadn’t bought one for Tadasuke…
MATCH TWO
Team Noah (Kinya Okada, Daiki Inaba, Shuhei Taniguichi, Masaaki Mochizuki & Kazushi Sakuraba) vs Team North America (El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Junior, Rene Dupree, Simon Gotch, Stallion Rogers & Anthony Green)
Rene Dupree entered wearing new ring wear. It’s not many who could pull off a white Stetson and a long white robe, but it seemed to suit him. Stallion Rogers and Anthony Greene tonight made their Noah Budukoan debut, in a match that was somehow more wild than the juniors before them.
On the opposition, Shuhei Taniguchi looked far more animated than he has been for a long while.
The somewhat scruffy looking Kazushi Sakuraba started against Simon Gotch. Sakuraba remains a rival and Gotch exploited this, hitting Sakuraba with his (Gotch’s) boot, Sakuraba complained that Gotch had hurt his head and tagged in Daiki Inaba.
As the Noah team were made up of either veterans or other experienced wrestlers, Kinya Okada became their focus, and they encouraged him as much as they could. Sadly, Okada’s climb remains frustrating.
WINNER: Anthony Greene with the Walkin’ Talkin’ Flyin’ on Kinya Okada (13 minutes, 29 seconds)
Backstage, the leader of Team North America, Rene Dupree, issued a challenge to any team in Japan to come and fight them.
MATCH THREE
STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa & Yuya Susumu) vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (Eita & Kotaro Suzuki)
This was one of the uglier matches on the card, while the last two had contained a feeling of rivalry, this was dyed in a feeling of hate. Even Yuya Susumu, a member of STINGER and with someone with enough reasons to hate Perros Del Mal De Japon, felt like he was an outsider in the drama between Yoshinari Ogawa, Eita and Kotaro Suzuki.
After Ogawa had exchanged a stiff handshake with Jushin Liger at ringside, back in the ring Kotaro was not not happy with Susumu starting, he wanted Ogawa and soon after punched Ogawa on the apron.
Eita naturally took the chance to attack Ogawa too while Susumu was busy in the ring. The match soon deteriorated into a brawl, with Eita flinging water everywhere and Susumu bloodied up and got as wild as expected. Things went up another notch when Eita and Kotaro hit Ogawa with their devastating double move, Kotaro hit the Blue Destiny and Eita an Imperial Uno kick.
Winner: Eita with the Imperial Uno on Yoshinari Ogawa (5 minutes, 38 seconds)
Susumu came to check on Ogawa, but then things got so heated that Kotaro threw the referee from the ring and with Susumu knocked down, Ogawa was tortured by Eita and Kotaro. Eventually they left, but not before posing over Ogawa with the tag belts which they took backstage. Eita commented that as defeating Ogawa was so easy, this might as well be his belt right now.
MATCH FOUR
Ninja Mack vs Dante Leon
Dante Leon made his Noah debut this evening, facing his old rival, Ninja Mack. While Ninja might have had the advantage when it came to speed, Leon broke sudden sharp moves out of nowhere to catch him off guard. Fans are looking forward to seeing him against the Noah Juniors.
WINNER: Ninja Mack with the Ninja Bomb (14 minutes, 24 seconds)
MATCH FIVE
HARDCORE TAG MATCH
Rob Van Dam & Masato Tanaka vs Perros Del Mal De Japon (Super Crazy & NOSAWA Rongai)
Masato Tanaka said that he wanted The Budokan to feel like the ECW Arena, and while it may have been without a few elements (the raucous crowd and Joey Styles), the atmosphere was redolent of those bygone days. Rob Van Dam had said that the ECW wrestlers knew how to construct a hardcore match, and they did, because instead of launching straight into attacking each other with chairs (NOSAWA bought a signed one by Sabu to the ring), they waited to use weapons. Including NOSAWA’S favorite guitar shot.
Tonight somehow the spirit of the old ECW had come to the most unlikely place, a Noah ring in The Nippon Budokan.
WINNER: Rob Van Dam with the Five Star Frog Splash on NOSAWA Rongai (10 minutes, 46 seconds)
There had been no blood (or in true ECW style some guys charging the ring to beat up on one of the teams and then getting beat down themselves by some other team) but the match didn’t need that and wasn’t about that. The three ECW wrestlers, and NOSAWA (who would have loved to have been in ECW I think) celebrated in the ring together. Backstage, NOSAWA said he wanted to do more hardcore and was even thinking about inviting Sabu. RVD laughed and warned him to be careful what he wished for.
MATCH SIX
Go Shiozaki, Takashi Sugiura & Kazuyuki Fujita vs Kongoh (Masakatsu Funaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Manabu Soya)
From hardcore, to hoss fight.
Takashi Sugiura came out carrying a replica of the ZERO-1 World Heavyweight. He is no longer the champion (Masato Tanaka is), but he carries it with him to always remember Shinjiro Otani.
There wasn’t really very much to say about the match. Sugiura and Masakatsu Funaki fought MMA style, the former AXIZ (Go Shiozaki and Katsuhiko Nakajima) faced off and Manabu Soya and Kazuyuki Fujita paired off like that generally. Sugiura’s focus was glaringly on Funaki, but no one challenged for the GHC National, which fans feel has had its momentum killed.
WINNER: Kazuyuki Fujita with the Power Bomb on Manabu Soya (12 minutes, 59 seconds)
As Katsuhiko Nakajima piggybacked Manabu Soya away, in the ring Go Shiozaki and Kazuyuki Fujita shook hands. Shiozaki said nothing backstage about them tagging however although there was a slight impression of that, Shiozaki was concentrating on winning the upcoming N-1 Victory 2022. The participants will be announced tomorrow.
MATCH SEVEN
PRO-WRESTLING LOVE FOREVER. 1
~ THE FINAL COUNTDOWN ~
Keiji Mutoh vs Kaito Kiyomiya
All the weeks of preparation and all the times he had tried to defeat Keiji Mutoh, had led Kaito Kiyomiya to this moment at the Nippon Budokan. He couldn’t quite believe that this was it, this was his last chance, this was his final singles match with Mutoh. He had always thought (as had everyone and Mutoh himself) that Mutoh would be around for years. Mutoh’s doctor thought differently, and time had now run out. To both Mutoh and Kiyomiya, this was a match that would pass the torch from one generation to the next. Mutoh had seen Kiyomiya as something more than just a young rival, he had been a Misawa generation mentor to the boy, alternately comforting and scolding him, and he had also seen Kiyomiya as the son who went into wrestling, not into an office. Kiyomiya had dreamed of having a match with Misawa, the closest he was going to get was Mutoh. Mutoh had dreamed of having a match with his son, the closest he was going to get was Kiyomiya, who was the same age. So it worked for both of them. Nostalgia and sentiment aside, Mutoh had said that he didn’t want Kiyomiya to be haunted by the ghost of Keiji Mutoh, but neither did he want Kiyomiya to put the old man out of his misery (rough translation for the assistant who helps the Samurai committ Seppuku, for which there is no equivalent in English).
The rest had done Mutoh good as he was more agile than he had been in months, and even did a hurricanrunna off the top turnbuckle, but this does not mean it is a pattern he can ever sustain. One day it will be Kaito Kiyomiya in this situation, but for now with all that in the future, it was a combination of past experience and studies that paid off as he was able to reverse some of Mutoh’s moves. Mutoh himself worked on Kiyomiya’s knee, effectively affecting his chances of doing a Shining Wizard. Kiyomiya himself was not above attacking Mutoh’s bad knees, but this seemed to have no effect on Mutoh’s ability to perform the Shining Wizard and Kiyomiya still kicked out of two of them, the third be blocked. Kiyomiya found that if Mutoh couldn’t be pinned, then maybe, just maybe if he kept working on his knees, he could combine that with a win by submission. Satoshi Kojima had advised Kiyomiya that the key to defeating Mutoh was to think of what you are doing, not what Mutoh is doing and so perhaps with this, experience and research, Kiyomiya finally triumphed over the man who was more than just a rival.
WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya with the Figure Four Leg-Lock (26 minutes, 28 seconds)
Mutoh left quickly after he had submitted, but Kiyomiya wasn’t going to let him get away so easily and chased after him. Kiyomiya bowed deeply and Mutoh gave him a quick, but fatherly, hug. Backstage, Kiyomiya said he would now go forward from today incorporating what he learned from Mutoh. Mutoh couldn’t believe he had lost, but in recognition of Kiyomiya’s win he was passing the torch to him and bequeathed the use of The Shining Wizard and The Figure Four.
MATCH EIGHT
GHC Tag Team Championship
THE TOUGH (Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura) vs The Sugiura Army (Hideki Suzuki & Timothy Thatcher)
To explain quickly, this match was meant to be between Masa Kitamiya & Michael Elgin vs Hideki Suzuki and Timothy Thatcher. But, following Elgin being announced to be absent from the fan event on the 9th and then in Fujisan Messe on the 10th, Noah later announced that “due to various circumstances”, the belts would be vacated and Yoshiki Inamura would join his old partner, Masa Kitamiya in fighting for them. Noah have not announced just what the situation is with Elgin, and he himself has not made any statement.
All four had great chemistry together, so much so it was hard to believe that Thatcher hadn’t been in Noah for years. Masa Kitamiya was busted open during the match, but this always seems to fire him up, but tragically when THE TOUGH came close to the win, Kitamiya could do nothing to prevent Thatcher from pulling Inamura off of Suzuki.
WINNER: Hideki Suzuki via referee stop due to a sleeper-hold on Yoshiki Inamura (20 minutes, 38 seconds)
After a few moments of lying immobile on the mat, Inamura attacked Suzuki and a heavyweight brawl broke out and bodies tumbled everywhere.
Once order was restored, Suzuki swore in Inamura’s face and THE TOUGH limped off. Kitamiya was screaming in rage, backstage he turned on his tag partner and walked off swearing in anger. Inamura protested, “I tried my best!”. For Suzuki and Thatcher, they are looking forward to who the future is going to bring.
MATCH NINE
GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship Match
HAYATA vs Seiki Yoshioka
This wasn’t really a STINGER argument, more one between the Hiroshima Boys. Yuya Susumu joined HAYATA at ringside and probably out of habit, was seen checking on both HAYATA and Yuya Susumu following Yoshioka’s moonsault to the outside when he collided with the guardrail.
The match was not as easy as Yoshioka thought. HAYATA did manage to prevent the kicks, which probably stopped him from being knocked out too soon, but Yoshioka waged war on HAYATA’S head, finding different ways. The irony was that Yoshioka had given an interview saying that it would be a “critical strike” finisher that would win him the title, when it was HAYATA who won it in that way.
WINNER: HAYATA with The Headache (20 minutes, 45 seconds)
Shuji Kondo came to the ring to challenge for the title, and loomed over HAYATA. Fans have called this HAYATA’S most serious challenge so far. Kondo did not mince his words, asking HAYATA if he knew the significance of his coming to stand in the ring, but then again, HAYATA didn’t speak, did he? He reminded HAYATA of the fact that he was once a GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion (September 2012) and he wanted that belt back.
HAYATA snatched the mic from Kondo and swore he would defeat him and raise the value of the belt. Backstage, Kondo said he was surprised that HAYATA could and did speak, while HAYATA (not looking into the camera but from side to side) said that he was happy that others had come from other promotions for the belt, but it would be himself who would defend and raise the value. Noah have not announced a date for the title match at the time of writing.
MATCH TEN
GHC Heavyweight Championship Match
Satoshi Kojima vs Kenoh
Big match SFX were used for the entrances. They might not have been as elaborate as CyberFight Festival, but they were just as effective; Kenoh walked down the ramp lit by smoke and fire, while Satoshi Kojima had a curtain of sparks.
After a brief moment of comedy at the opening of the match, involving Kojima flexing his pecs and Kenoh doing it back, it was down to business. Kenoh had both a dream and an ambition. His dream was to win the GHC Heavyweight at the Nippon Budokan and leave the ring last. His ambition is to clear a path for the young in Noah (Kenoh does not consider himself to be young now as he will be 38 in January 2023) and “break the curse of the old men”. For title matches Kenoh will always go the extra mile, entering to special theme music, pulling out acrobatic moves, although it seemed he did not use the lariat he had visited Kenta Kobashi about. There was too much at stake for him to lose to Kojima, his dreams, Noah’s future and that of Noah’s young. Kenoh hung on just as much as Kojima did through everything they had to throw at the other, Kojima even taking numerous PFS. It took the special one on an worn down Kojima for Kenoh to become the 40th GHC Heavyweight Champion and usher in his second reign.
WINNER: Kenoh with the Moonsault Double Knee Attack (28 minutes, 17 seconds)
Kenoh gave a long winning speech. He thanked Kojima, and admitted that he had found some fun (even though he said it was small and even held up his finger and thumb to show how miniscule it was) in their program together. He might have fulfilled his promise of taking Noah back to the Budokan after years of saying it (about four years) but he wasn’t satisfied with that. He was still developing, as was Noah, and he would develop that scenery and make it the best in Japan. So therefore, “all you fuckers, follow me, the GHC Heavyweight Champion. Kenoh”.
Kenoh struck his pose in the ring as golden streamers fell down, he then made his dream walk back along the ramp and pulled his pose again at the end. Backstage he admitted he had learned a lot from Kojima, and why not? Hadn’t he said he was still developing? Tonight he had not only defeated New Japan’s Kojima, in a way he had defeated New Japan too. Kojima praised Kenoh, saying that Noah had a bright and safe future in Kenoh’s hands, and he would have the younger roster to support him. He wasn’t going to retire or vanish completely, but a supporting role was okay and would suit him. Kenoh was a master on the mic and a master in the ring. It was almost as if he was saying, “The future is bright. The future is red”, which is how fans felt on leaving The Budokan that evening.
Puroresu Gate 