With their New Year’s Day blowout spectacular behind them and another crossover event with New Japan coming up, Pro Wrestling NOAH kicks off their 2023 today with a special doubleheader featuring a one-day scramble tag team tournament. Spread out between both events, the tournament is interesting in that teams are made up of one NOAH roster member and one Kongo member. While we won’t get Kaito Kiyomiya & Kenoh together aa a team, every pairing is something…Kenoh & AMAKUSA, the former Haoh who took Hi69’s old ring name and his hair before being banished from NOAH and returning under a mask and new identity, is intriguing. The first half main event will see the NOAH debut of Jake Lee, who showed up just hours after he left All-Japan Pro Wrestling when his contract there ended (he chose not to re-sign) and will face Yoshiki Inamura in his NOAH debut.
Today’s events will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and both can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. If there is commentary it will be Japanese only. You can also watch the first 3 matches of both events FOR FREE on YouTube. Based on the start times for both events they will be on a strict time limit, at least for the first event. I expect the first half to run 2 1/2-3 hours based on the number of matches. Note also that live results will only be posted for the first event and not the second, which is a 1 AM start for me.
Today’s lineup:
Masa Kitamiya & Daiki Inaba vs. Yasutaku Yano & Taishi Ozawa
Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. & Timothy Thatcher vs. Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito
Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Jack Morris
Yoshinari Ogawa & Eita vs. Junta Miyawaki & Alejandro
Scramble Shuffle Tag Team Tournament:
Naomichi Marufuji & Hi69 vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Seiki Yoshioka
Masakatsu Funaki & YO-HEY vs. Takashi Sugiura & Hajime Ohara
Kaito Kiyomiya & Tadasuke vs. Manabu Soya & Atsushi Kotoge
Satoshi Kojima & Shuji Kondo vs. Kenoh & AMAKUSA
Ninja Mack vs. Dante Leon
Yoshiki Inamura vs. Jake Lee
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 9:45 PM ET/6:45 PM PT.
9:45 PM ET UPDATE: Live streaming has started. We should go to the venue in the next 10-15 minutes.
9:50 PM ET UPDATE: Live updates begin now…
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. There is Japanese commentary, I didn’t catch their names.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. Vocal cheering is allowed so it’s reduced capacity. At the start of the matches it looked close to full so I’m estimating 650-700.
POST-EVENT UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 622.
The matches should begin in 10-15 minutes.
We have that annoying-looking English announcer G-man welcoming us at the top of the hour. Dude looks like he’s had too much plastic surgery. The opening video follows.
The matches begin at 10:05 PM ET. Note that all tournament matches will have no time limit.
Match 1: Masa Kitamiya & Daiki Inaba vs. Yasutaku Yano & Taishi Ozawa. 20 minute time limit
Result: Masa Kitamiya & Daiki Inaba beat Yasutaku Yano & Taishi Ozawa. Inaba beat Ozawa with an armlock.
Match 2: Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. & Timothy Thatcher vs. Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito. 20 minute time limit
Result: Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. & Timothy Thatcher beat Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito. Thatcher beat Saito with a Fujiwara armbar.
Match 3: Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Jack Morris. 30 minute time limit
Result: Jack Morris beat Masaaki Mochizuki.
The YouTube broadcast ends here.
Match 4: Yoshinari Ogawa & Eita vs. Junta Miyawaki & Alejandro. 30 minute time limit
Result: Junta Miyawaki & Alejandro beat Yoshinari Ogawa & Eita. Miyawaki pinned Ogawa with a rollup after an Eita dropkick attempt towards Miyawaki backfired and hit Ogawa instead. Afterwards, Miyawaki with microphone. As I was thinking might happen, challenge issued for the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship held by Ogawa & Eita. Ogawa left the ring before this and there were tensions with Eita. It sounds like Eita accepted the challenge. More as it becomes available.
Upcoming major events were announced, new additions are 4.16 in Sendai for ABEMA PRESENTS GREEN JOURNEY 2023 in Sendai and 5/4 at Ryogoku Kokugikan. On 2/12 at GREAT VOYAGE 2023 in Osaka Mexican sensation Dralistico makes his NOAH debut. After this the March & April schedule was announced on Twitter:
3/9-Korakuen Hall; 3/19-Yokohama Budokan (GREAT VOYAGE 2022 in YOKOHAMA); 4/8-Osaka ATC Hall; 4/9-Takaoka Ecole, Toyama; 4/16-Xebio Arena Sendai (GREEN JOURNEY 2023 in SENDAI); 5/22-Act City Hamamatsu, Shizuoka; 4/23-Kyoto KBS Hall, Kyoto; 4/29-Korakuen Hall.
Akitoshi Saito joins commentary.
Match 5: Scramble Shuffle Tag Team Tournament Quarterfinals: Naomichi Marufuji & Hi69 vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Seiki Yoshioka. No time limit
Result; Katsuhiko Nakajima & Seiki Yoshioka beat Naomichi Marufuji & Hi69. Yoshioka pinned Hi69. As a result, Nakajima & Yoshioka advance to the Semifinals at the second event later today.
Match 6: Scramble Shuffle Tag Team Tournament Quarterfinals: Masakatsu Funaki & YO-HEY vs. Takashi Sugiura & Hajime Ohara. No time limit
Result: Masakatsu Funaki & YO-HEY beat Takashi Sugiura & Hajime Ohara. YO-HEY pinned Ohara after a jumping double knee strike. As a result, Funaki & YO-HEY advance to the Semifinals.
Match 7: Ninja Mack vs. Dante Leon. 30 minute time limit
Result: Ninja Mack beat Dante Leon. Almost didn’t happen as Leon entered first but Mack ambushed him immediately and they went at it with weapons outside the ring for a couple minutes before it officially began. Leon unmasked Mack late but it turned out Mack had a second mask on underneath.
Match 8: Scramble Shuffle Tag Team Tournament Quarterfinals: Kaito Kiyomiya & Tadasuke vs. Manabu Soya & Atsushi Kotoge. No time limit
Result: Manabu Soya & Atsushi Kotoge beat Kaito Kiyomiya & Tadasuke. Kotoge pinned Tadasuke after a moonsault. As a result, Soya & Kotoge advance to the Semifinals.
Match 9: Scramble Shuffle Tag Team Tournament Quarterfinals: Satoshi Kojima & Shuji Kondo vs. Kenoh & AMAKUSA. No tlme limit
Result: Satoshi Kojima & Shuji Kondo beat Kenoh & AMAKUSA. Kondo beat AMAKUSA with a modified Figure 4.
Main Event: Yoshiki Inamura vs. Jake Lee. 1 Hour time limit. Lee came out to his previous All-Japan entrance theme.
Result: Jake Lee beat Yoshiki Inamura
The next event is later today. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 12:45 AM PT/3:45 AM ET.
