Written by Hisame https://twitter.com/Hi5ame, originally on her blog, used on Puroresu Gate with permission
(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: SUNNY VOYAGE 2022 (ACT CITY HAMAMATSU – SATURDAY, JULY 30TH)
Tonight’s event will be delivered on WrestleUniverse from 18:00 JST on 2nd August. You must be a subscriber to view.
There was a lot of news outside of Noah during today’s show. So while in Hamamatsu, Kenoh signed autographs and was challenged by local fans to Rock-Paper-Scissors, which he lost as he kept choosing rock (as it looks like a fist), over in DragonGate, Perros Del Mal de Japon lost the Open The TriangleGate to M3K and later attacked Ultimo Dragon, and Keiji Mutoh made a surprise appearance as Stalker Ichikawa’s mystery partner and defeated him with the Shining Wizard. Later in the show, Ultimo Dragon presented him with flowers. In Zero-1, Daisuke Sekimoto won A Block and will face Yoshiki Inamura tomorrow in the Fire Festival Finals. Go Shiozaki told Inamura after the main event today, to win.
MATCH ONE
Hi69 vs Kai Fujimura
Hi69 made his usual entry, Kai Fujimura I think was a little more polite than Super Crazy and did not tap his wrist at him to hurry up.
WINNER: Hi69 with the Boston Crab (8 minutes, 51 seconds)
MATCH TWO
Funky Express (Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito) vs Masa Kitamiya & Kinya Okada
Mohammed Yone once said that it seemed to be the role of Funky Express to bring up the younger guys. This was the way it was once of course in Noah, as brutal as they were with Kinya Okada (Yone, irritated with the upstart, threw him into the railings after being kicked and Okada roughed up by a tough attack from Saito and Yone), he fought back as best as he could. Masa Kitamiya, however, was naturally a far different prospect.
WINNER: Akitoshi Saito with the Running Suikurudesu on Kinya Okada (12 minutes, 12 seconds)
MATCH THREE
Alejandro vs Dante Leon
Fans were excited for this match as it was a continuation of the Noah Junior Regular high flying competition.
WINNER: Dante Leon with the Crucio Cutter on Alejandro (7 minutes, 59 seconds)
I think Alejandro may have left, warning Leon he had scored the first mark, but this wasn’t over.
MATCH FOUR
STINGER (HAYATA, Yoshinari Ogawa & Yuya Susumu) vs The Noah Junior Regulars (Daisuke Harada, YO-HEY & Seiki Yoshioka)
Naturally, even before the bell went, STINGER attacked the Noah Junior Regulars. Yoshinari Ogawa (who is probably both angry with Seiki Yoshioka and taking out all his anger over Perros Del Mal and their humiliation of him) laid into Yoshioka, even perhaps ignoring the referee and some tags I believe. For the most part, STINGER were not interested in YO-HEY or Daisuke Harada, their focus was purely on Yoshioka, and taking out Yoshioka’s knees which they did relentlessly. Yoshioka’s main target was HAYATA, as he is still on the path back to that belt. Ogawa was convinced he was going to get the win using a Figure 4, but Yoshioka managed to get the ropes. He looked like he kind of wanted to say, “I used to be one of you, so I know how you assholes think”. Mercifully, he managed to tag in Harada soon afterwards.
Bodies flew everywhere when YO-HEY got into the ring, and he and Yoshioka worked in tandem with a double top rope somersault onto Ogawa and Susumu. Perhaps, STINGER’s attacks on Yoshioka’s knees weren’t as effective as they thought as he took the win with a sound like a gunshot.
WINNER: Seiki Yoshioka with the Buzzsaw Kick on Yuya Susumu (16 minutes, 49 seconds)
Yoshinari Ogawa kept attacking Yoshioka’s knee after the match, triggering another brawl. Finally, when STINGER had gone, the Noah Junior Regulars posed together with Seiki Yoshioka with a slight smile as he and YO-HEY shook hands. Elated with how today had gone, the three of them posed together in front of the curtain and backstage YO-HEY said he felt they had good communication and was looking forward to the future. He and Yoshioka left as if they were old pals.
MATCH FIVE
Takashi Sugiura, Shuhei Taniguchi & Stallion Rogers vs Satoshi Kojima, Daiki Inaba & Anthony Green
N-1 grudge match with Satoshi Kojima and Takashi Sugiura starting off, but before that it appeared that another Pec Flashing Competition broke out. Kojima sent a signal to Sugiura, but Shuhei Taniguchi did it instead. I think Kojima might have comically fallen to the floor in response.
It wasn’t just Sugiura and Inaba fighting over the N-1 (and the unspoken unfinished business of Sugiura defeating Kojima in 2015’s Global League), Daiki Inaba attacked as if he was in the league. If he couldn’t be in it, he could at least fight as if he was. Stallion Rogers left the match with a red chest courtesy of Kojima and with the taste of lariat in his mouth.
WINNER: Satoshi Kojima with the Western Lariat on Stallion Rogers (10 minutes, 52 seconds)
MATCH SIX
Kongoh (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Manabu Soya, Tadasuke & Hajime Ohara) vs Go Shiozaki, Kaito Kiyomiya, Yoshiki Inamura, Atsushi Kotoge & Ninja Mack
Fans were worried about Go Shiozaki’s neck, as they know what he is like, but he seemed to be okay, okay enough to win the match by giving ultra-heavyweight Manabu Soya the Gowan Lariat.
Kenoh and Yoshiki Inamura have lit a feud, and were even fighting after the match had finished. Forget Kinya Okada, Kenoh’s focus is strongly on Inamura and I do wonder whether or not Inamura wins Fire Festival or if Kenoh wins the N-1 VICTORY, Kenoh will nominate him as a challenger further down the line. Katsuhiko Nakajima joined in with attacking Inamura, while Ninja Mack was the focus for all of Kongoh. Kenoh especially who seems irritated by him. Then again, Kenoh is irritated by most things. Poor guy also had Manabu Soya attack him too.
WINNER: Go Shiozaki with the Gowan Lariat on Manabu Soya (23 minutes, 54 seconds)
After the match, Shiozaki spoke on the mic and told Inamura to win The Fire Festival tomorrow (Inamura said yes), he might have finished his speech with “I AM NOAH”, and at one point he also told Kiyomiya that he would be the one to win N-1. As a result, Kiyomiya did not go to the backstage promo afterwards with the others.
(NOAH) EVENT RECAP: MIDSUMMER CLASH 2022 (ISHIKAWA INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION HALL NO. 3, SUNDAY JULY 31ST)
Today’s event was not only the last event before Noah’s 22nd birthday on 5th August, but the last event of July. With DEPARTURE and the N-1 in August, we now head into the autumn schedule. You can watch today’s show on WrestleUniverse from 3rd August at 18:00 JST. As the event was not broadcast (aside from Noah putting the semi main live on Instagram), I have more information on some matches than others, and practically nothing on the main event.
Fans arrived at the arena to find Kazuyuki Fujita and a mysterious masked man practicing, whoever it was looked like a larger version of Alejandro, turned it out it was Kendo Kashin probably wearing an Alejandro mask.
“I feel that these two are already in a teacher-apprentice relationship. The weight is different if you teach the technique directly rather than just handing it over”
What fans didn’t see was that earlier Keiji Mutoh had been teaching Kaito Kiyomiya The Shining Wizard (which he looked to be practicing on Yasutaka Yano). Noah will make the video available in YouTube at a later date. Later, Fujita and Kashin were on autographs, so many people came that it threatened to delay the start of the event and Noah announced they would hold it afterwards
MATCH ONE
Mohammed Yone & Alexander Otsuka vs Akitoshi Saito & Kinya Okada
Winner: Mohammed Yone with the Kinniku Buster on Kinya Okada (11 minutes, 19 seconds)
Alexander Otsuka pulled a funky disco pose with Yone at the curtain
MATCH TWO
Atsushi Kotoge vs Kai Fujimura
Winner: Atsushi Kotoge with Bat Hanging* (9 minutes, 24 seconds)
(Note, this is a kind of Water Wheel Drop move)
I had wondered if this match was an assessment by Atsushi Kotoge, after the match he said that he was more confident in Fujimura following today.
MATCH THREE
Ninja Mack, Dante Leon & YO-HEY vs Tadasuke, Hajime Ohara & Hi69
Ninja Mack was once again the target for Kongoh, in particular it seemed Tadasuke. Ninja Mack had his revenge however, when he dived at them from the balcony.
WINNER: Ninja Mack with the Ninja Bomb on Tadasuke (12 minutes, 43 seconds)
I believe Hajime Ohara may have stayed near the entry following the dive and was helped out by a trainee, fans are worried he may have injured his shoulder.
MATCH FOUR
Masa Kitamiya & Stallion Rogers vs Daiki Inaba & Anthony Green
WINNER: Stallion Rogers with the Missile Headbutt on Daiki Inaba (13 minutes, 50 seconds)
Hiroshi Hase, the governor of Kanazawa, came to the ring and made a short speech. Keiji Mutoh came to the ring and he appointed him Tourism Ambassador for Ishikawa prefecture (what this means is he will do promotional activities) and then mentioned a participation in his retirement road. Hase was worried about participating as to how it might look to the people of the prefecture (“You are retiring? I can’t appear”), but Mutoh asked them to forgive him as today there was a good reaction, and he will adjust his schedule a little. Hase says he will have to train a little.
MATCH FIVE
STINGER (HAYATA, Yoshinari Ogawa & Yuya Susumu) vs The Noah Junior Regulars (Daisuke Harada, Seiki Yoshioka & Alejandro)
STINGER wore the green baseball jackets again. They usually do this when they want to make a point to someone. Today it was to Seiki Yoshioka, that they are the core of the Noah Juniors as they have the belts (except the one that Eita has stolen and is parading around DragonGate), not the Noah Junior Regulars. In a nice touch, after Harada’s entry, YO-HEY collected up the blue feathers and gave them to a fan.
During the match, HAYATA, with his sadistic smile, tore off Alejandro’s mask and put it on the corner post. Alejandro’s face was quickly covered by YO-HEY and Atsushi Kotoge, and for a while it came down to three on two as Alejandro went to get his spare.
WINNER: Yuya Susumu with the Cross Face Lock on Alejandro (13 minutes, 51 seconds)
Ogawa had no intention of giving the mask back, and a fight broke out when Daisuke Harada tried.
MATCH SIX
Go Shiozaki & Shuhei Taniguchi vs The Sugiura Army (Kazuyuki Fujita & Kendo Kashin)
Kendo Kashin, who had Yuji Nagata on his chest today, came to the ring carrying a small rice straw rice barrel model. Probably one he had stolen from the entrance and wasn’t meant to be removed. In the ring, he offered Shuhei Taniguchi a handshake. Which embarrassingly, Taniguchi took and ended up
being attacked. Kashin took Taniguchi to the side of the ring, and held him by the barriers (in the ring the referee held back Shiozaki) as Hase chopped Taniguchi. Taniguchi soon had his revenge by reversing this, and Kashin was the one who got chopped. He was also chopped by Shiozaki too. In true Kashin style, this was when he was doing a leg sub on Taniguchi. As was the double team with Fujita on Shiozaki.
It was a brutal fight between Fujita and Shiozaki, comedy between Kashin and Taniguchi although Taniguchi did have his moments when fighting Fujita.
WINNER: Kazuyuki Fujita with a Power Bomb on Shuhei Taniguchi (13 minutes, 57 seconds)
Kashin was attacking Shiozaki outside of the ring. It wasn’t a good idea (then again this is Kashin) as he was swiftly knocked the floor. After celebrating, Fujita got the beers out and gave one to Hase. The three of them chugged, Hase downing his (practically the whole can) in one go. Kashin’s mischief was not finished yet, and he got into a fight with Taniguchi backstage when he threw a bottle of water at him, and even Fujita joined in.
MATCH SEVEN
Kongoh (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Manabu Soya) vs Kaito Kiyomiya, Satoshi Kojima & Takashi Sugiura
WINNER: Kaito Kiyomiya on Manabu Soya, Noah did not mention the finisher (20 minutes)
Kiyomiya, (who was run over by The Great Muta the last time Noah were in Kanazawa) closed out the show by thanking everyone for their support, and their support during the N-1.
Puroresu Gate 