Tag: pro wrestling noah

Pro Wrestling NOAH continued the Dream On 22 Tour today with the second half of their Golden Week doubleheader, following yesterday’s event with a more regular show (no title matches, because I guess ABEMA gets preferential treatment).

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.

The announced paid attendance was 487.

Match 1: Slex beat Kinya Okada.

Match 2: Texano Jr. & Super Crazy beat Atsushi Kotoge & Haoh. Texano pinned Haoh after Road To Texas.

Match 3: Katsuhiko Nakajima & Hi69 beat Shuhei Taniguchi (apparently he’s not King Tany anymore?) & Mohammed Yone. Nakajima pinned Taniguchi after Vertical Spike.

Match 4: Extreme Tiger, Alpha Wolf, Dragon Bane & Alejandro beat HAYATA, Seiki Yoshioka, Yuya Susumu & Kai Fujimura. Bane pinned Fujimura after Alas De Kebradora (?). This was to have been Yasutaka Yano teaming with Stinger but Yano was out due to injuries.

Match 5: Naomichi Marufuji, YO-HEY & Ninja Mack beat Kenoh, Tadasuke & Hajime Ohara. Mack pinned Tadasuke after Ninja Bomb.

Match 6: Michae Elgin beat Manabu Soya.

Match 7: Simon Gotch, Yoshinari Ogawa & Chris Ridgeway beat Kaito Kiyomiya, Daisuke Harada & Junta Miyawaki. Ridgeway pinned Miywwaki with a package German suplex hold.

Match 8: Satoshi Kojima (New Japan) beat Yoshiki Inamura.

Main Event: Go Shiozaki, Masato Tanaka, Masa Kitamiya & Daiki Inaba beat Takashi Sugiura, Hideki Suzuki, Rene Dupree & Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. Kitamiya beat Wagner Jr. with Prison Lock.

After the event, the promotion announced it has signed Ninja Mack to an annual contract. He will be returning to the US for now but will return to NOAH at different times in the future, with his next tour scheduled to begin in July.

The next event is 5/14 at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama for this month’s N INNOVATION event. An event on Saturday at Big Palette Fukushima is still listed but has been CANCELLED due to the venue sustaining damage from a major earthquake in March.

As is typical after a major NOAH event, there is a lot of news/fallout to report:

First up, WWE Hall of Famer and ECW legend Rob Van Dam has been announced for CyberFight Festival 2022 on 6/12. More to come.

Keiji Muto will return on 5/21 at Ota City General Gym in Tokyo, He has been out almost all of this year so far due to injury. In his return match, he will team with Naomichi Marufuji & Satoshi Kojima to face Go Shiozaki, Kaito Kiyomiya & Masato Tanaka.

Satoshi Kojima, currently with New Japan Pro Wrestling, is likely going to work the entire May tour and through CyberFight Festival. New Japan is running their annual Best Of The Super Junior Tournament after tomorrow’s (5/1/22) blowout event so the bigger guys are likely going to be inactive for close to 2 months. Kojima is a former GHC Heavyweight Champion and one of extremely few wrestlers to complete the 21st Century Japan Triple Crown of winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, All-Japan Triple Crown and GHC Heavyweight Championship during their career. The others? Muto. I believe that’s it. 5/21 will be an English-only live broadcast on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.

The now-former Nioh, forced to change his ring name after losing a Loser Ring Name Deprivation Match & Hair vs. Hair Match to Haoh on Friday, will be changing his name to Hi69. This was his original ring name when he debuted in the small (and maybe now defunct) KAIENTAI DOJO promotion in the early 2000s before he later changed it to HIROKI, and then to Nioh upon joining NOAH in 2016. His NOAH website profile has been updated with the new name.

Pro Wrestling NOAH began the 2-day MAJESTIC 2022 blowout event today with the monthly N INNOVATION event, the new monthly series spotlighting the promotion’s deep Jr. Heavyweight division with their biggest event so far.

Today’s event was held at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in English. Remember there is now a new trial option that allows new subscribers to watch for 2 weeks FOR FREE! Cancel before the end of day 13 (Japan time) and pay nothing. Take advantage!

The announced paid attendance was 1585. There are still capacity limits in place but still, as has often been the case with their big shows lately, on paper that does not sound like a good number.

Match 1: Ikuto Hidaka beat Kai Fujimura by submission.

Match 2: Slex beat Yasutaka Yano.

Match 3: Kotaro Suzuki vs. Yuya Susumu went to a 20 minute time limit draw.

Match 4: NOSAWA Rongai, Texano Jr. & Super Crazy beat Tadasuke, Hajime Ohara & Shuji Kondo (Big Japan). Texano pinned Tadasuke after Road To Texas.

Match 5: In a Loser Ring Deprivation Match, also possibly a Hair vs. Hair Match as well, Haoh beat Nioh. As a result, Nioh loses his ring name, and possibly his hair. (Will verify when I watch a replay later today)

Match 6: Extreme Tiger beat Seiki Yoshioka.

Match 7: Shun Skywalker, H•Y•O & SB KENTo (Dragon Gate) beat Daisuke Harada, Alejandro & Junta Miyawaki. Skywalker pinned Alejandro after SSW.

Match 8: Ninja Mack beat Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane in a 3-way elimination match. Bane first eliminated Wolf, then Mack beat Bane.

Match 9: Yoshinari Ogawa & Chris Ridgeway beat GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Atsushi Kotoge & YO-HEY to win the titles. Ogawa & Ridgeway become the 50th GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Ridgeway beat Kotoge with a stretch muffler hold.

Main Event: HAYATA beat GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion Eita to win the title. HAYATA becomes the 49th GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion.

Detailed match recaps & grades will follow later today. But for now it’s all about Stinger as they have the belts back.

Day 2 is tomorrow with a regular event. And it’s now official-the main event will be Go Shiozaki vs. Kaito Kiyomiya for the vacant GHC Heavyweight Championship. Kiyomiya was to have been in a tag team match with Naomichi Marufuji, who will now have the vaunted TBA as a replacement. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin TONIGHT at 11 PM PT/2 AM ET. So you dedicated fans should stock up on caffeine now and, between WWE, AEW, Tokyo Joshi Pro and this, get ready for an all-night epic wrestling marathon!

The next N INNOVATION will be on 5/14 at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama. The first match was announced after today’s event, it’s Harada vs. H•Y•O.

Pro Wrestling NOAH announced a short time ago that Saturday’s MAJESTIC 2022 main event is off for now. GHC Heavyweight Champion Kazuyuki Fujita, who was to have defended against Go Shiozaki, has tested positive for the coronavirus. Replacement details TBA.

Updates to come…

UPDATE: The GHC Heavyweight Championship is now VACANT. Fujita has vacated the title. Determination match between Go Shiozaki & TBA on Saturday to crown a new champion will be the replacement. TBA will be announced Friday but Yahoo News Japan reports Kaito Kiyomiya wants to be the TBA even though he’s already in another match.