NOAH Bumper Crop in Sendai 2022
Streamed Live on Wrestle Universe on the 16th of January 2022
Attendance: 633
English Commentary team: Mark Pickering & Stewart Fulton.
Initial thoughts:
So this show was kind of sabotaged by Covid-19 and a tsunami warning was issued earlier in the day so the attendance was not that good.
Before the weekend it was also announced that ten wrestlers, who were scheduled to participate at this show had to step away from the show as a precaution because of showing covid symptoms or having been in close vicinity of someone that had tested positive.
But they still managed to put on a pretty good show despite that.
I feel I have to tell you guys before I get on to the card breakdown that this was the first time I was taking notes during watching the show live and I'm writing this right after the show has gone off the air.
Ok onto the Card Breakdown.
I DON'T CLAIM ANY RIGHT TO THE SCREENSHOTS USED HERE.
ALL RIGHTS GO TO:
https://twitter.com/noahglobal
And Wrestle Universe/Cyperfight.
Card Breakdown:
Match #1
Los Perros del Mal de Japón (Kotaro Suzuki, YO-HEY & NOSAWA Rongai) vs. Kongo (Aleja, Nioh & Haoh)
This is a rematch from Yokohama Radiant Hall on the 10th when YO-HEY pinned Aleja with a dropkick and NOSAWA took the mask of Aleja post-match.
It starts with a nice sequence between Aleja and Nosawa, before it becomes a normal jr heavyweight 6 man tag the means it was very hard to keep track of what was going on.
Anyways Aleja and YO-HEY are some of the most promising Jrs in NOAH and I see both of them having a good 2022.
The closing stretch of the match was chaos, Haoh thrust kicked Nioh by accident when he was holding YO-HEY then Haoh held up YO-HEY so Nioh could hit him with a lariat but YO-HEY moved out of the way a Nioh hit Haoh.
YO-HEY then hit Nioh with a thrust kick and followed up with a dropkick to Haoh and pined him for 3 to get the win for the Los Perros del Mal de Japón team.
It seems like there is some Kongo dissention, after the match with Haoh leaving the others in the ring and walking backstage alone. That would come into play later in the show.
*** on the Sondre rating.
Match #2
Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara vs. Yuya Susumu & HAYATA
It really was just a standard Jr tag liked everything with Kotoge since he is one of my boys.
Just like the previous match, this was action too quick to take notes but a fun match.
I liked when Kotoge hit three lariats in the corner followed by a running bulldog from the corner followed by a DDT and Yuya kicked out at two. Very cool near fall.
Kotoge wins the match with a killswitch to Yuya.
Hope this is a setup for a future Jr tag title match Kotoge/Ohara vs Stinger because Kotoge/Ohara is my favorite Jr duo in NOAH.
***1/4 on the Sondre rating.
Match #3
Daisuke Harada vs. Seiki Yoshioka
This was the 10th match of Harada in 2022 the man is a workhorse, this was also a rematch from last year's Budokan show where Yoshioka beat Harada.
Starts with action too fast to take notes on, Seiki is one of the fastest Jrs in NOAH.
Seiki moves out of the way when Harada goes for a suicide dive but Harada stops himself from diving by holding on to the rope's very cool spot.
Seiki hit a very cool sliding knee into Harada in the corner followed by a falcon arrow
Harada has one of the best belly-to-belly suplexes in the game.
Harada hits a double foot stomp followed by a brainbuster but Seiki kicks out, Harada then hits a German suplex followed by a lifting knee followed by a spinning forearm smash but Seiki still kicks out, so Harada then hits the Katayama German suplex to get the win.
Daisuke Harada is already my Jr heavyweight wrestler of 2022.
Highly recommend this match.
***3/4 on the Sondre rating
Haoh comes out after the match and states that he is leaving Kongo.
Words transcribed by the Twitter account: https://twitter.com/metal0515 (check him out a great follow)
Haoh says: "I want to go up. I want to change my environment. Harada-san, please let me join the regular army"
Harada accepts and they shake hands.
Nioh and Aleja come out and confront them
Nioh says: "Don't fuck with me, Haoh! You've never had any faith, huh?"
Harada then says that they should have an impromptu tag match. Kongo accepts and they attack Harada and Haoh and the bell rings.
Match #4
Daisuke Harada & Haoh vs. Nioh and Aleja
I loved this impromptu match and was so focused on it that I almost didn't take any notes.
It was a very aggressive start to this match, Haoh takes a lot of the beating.
At one point Harada goes into the ring without attacking Nioh and screams to Haoh that he needs to get into this he needs to show spirit.
Haoh and Nioh were really doing a lot of heavy strikes and moves in this.
Daisuke Harada wins the match with the Katayama german suplex to Aleja.
After the bell rings Nioh and Haoh continue fighting outside, Harada comes and gets Haoh out of it.
Then Harada and Haoh celebrate in the ring but Nioh attacks them from behind they run him off.
This is just the start of this Jr's feud and I'm hyped.
***1/2 on the Sondre rating.
Match #5
This match goes hard folks.
Before the match, Kendo and the rest of Sugiura-Gun hold King Tany against the corner but the ref was trapped behind King Tany so the bell didn't ring, King Tany manages to get out and the ref starts the match.
When the bell rings Go and Sugiura start meanwhile Kendo and Tany brawls backstage.
Go and Sugiura had a fun hard-hitting start with a lot of chops.
King Tany and Kendo Kashin return two minutes later still brawling and join the match again, a normal 8 man tag from there on, a hard-hitting match with some comedy bits.
Every bit of Sakuraba and Funaki in this match was really fun for a shoot-style/Pancrase fan like me.
I really liked when Fuitja had Yone in a single-leg Boston crab, Go walked in and started chopping him but Fujita said "COME ON". Go continues until Fujita releases Yone then Fujita hits him with a running lariat. Can I please get another staredown match between these two in 2022?
Sugiura and Yone had a good hard-hitting sequence at the end stretch.
Liked when Go tagged in and started chopping Sugiura after that he did the corner followed by the gowan lariat and pins Sugiura but Sugiura kicks out.
I really liked when Sugiura hit a second robe avalanche brainbuster on Go.
Fujita wins the match for Sugi gun with a powerbomb to King Tany
***1/2 on the Sondre Rating.
Match #6
GHC Tag Team title match.
The first 2-4 minutes of this match was both teams feeling each other out.
Kenoh and Marafuji had a great kick exchange that ends with Marafuji rolling out from the ring to catch his breath.
Really liked Soya's running shoulder tackle at Marafuji on the outside.
At the 10 minute mark, Soya and Marafuji had a hard-hitting chop battle, Soya was such a beast in this match.
Kenoh and Marafuji are some of my favorite wrestling compos they always have bangers.
The MOTHER FUCKER shining wizard to Soya was really cool as every MOTHERFUCKER shining wizard always is.
Muto's dragon screws are still as smooth as ever.
Really liked the headbutt to the back of Muto followed by a death valley bomb from Soya.
The match ends with a frankensteiner from Muto to Soya.
This match was really good but the finish holds it back a bit because it was kind of botched.
****1/4 on the Sondre rating.
"Main Event!!!"
GHC Heavyweight Title Match.
Masa Kitayama vs. (c) Katsuhiko Nakajima
The Aggression former tag champions implode in their highly anticipated rematch from the Cage Hair vs Hair match.
Both were trained by Kensuke Sasaki and I had goosebumps during the VTR.
I really love this story if you want a more detailed look at their history leading up to this check out this article: https://kickout299.wordpress.com/2021/12/26/noah-cage-war-2021-stipulation-matches-and-choosing-your-destiny/
And follow the author on Twitter: https://twitter.com/miIkystar
Onto the Match it started with a great staredown at the start followed by some feeling out-processing. Masa then dominated Katsuhiko very much on the outside
Masa spent most of the first 8 minutes in control and punishing Katsuhiko and was really going hard against him.
But Kastuhiko came back with a kick to the chest followed by a dropkick from the top, he then did the "Showtime" leg choke on both of the white corners.
Masa then came back and did Katsuhiko's "showtime" leg choke on him in the blue corner it was very great stuff.
This match was just a hard-hitting physical struggle for Katsuhiko so I was biting my nails and was really struggling with keeping notes. (Since Katsuhiko is probably my favorite wrestler right now)
A great moment was when Katsuhiko did repeating kicks to the back and chest of masa while he was sitting followed by a great PK.
Katsuhiko Nakajima is the best kicker in wrestling and we all know that right?
I liked when Katsuhiko countered the Saito suplex with a crossbody but Masa was quick to react hit him and delivered a piledriver and pinned him but Nakajima kicked out at 2.
Masa then puts him in the prison lock, Masa does a great prison lock because he keeps hitting the ones he has in it.
Masa then did the Saito suplex but Katsu kicked out at 2.9999999 such a close nearfall that I shouted "NO" followed by "YES KATSU FUCKING KICKED OUT". (I think it actually was 3 so won't be surprised if that shows up on botchamania)
To close the match Nakajima did some great slaps followed by the Spike Brainbuster and pinning Masa 1.2.3.
Great match ****3/4 on the Sondre rating. (Despite the Saito kickout botch sue me.)
Kazuyuki Fujita came out after the match and was eying the GHC title and It seemed like he will be the next challenger.
After that Katsuhiko took the mic.
Again thanks to metal-Noah for transcribing
Katsuhiko says: "I am honestly happy that we were able to hold the show here in Sendai today, and that everyone came here. Thank you! Noah will be fine, I am here.
And, we are NOAH!"
"We are NOAH indeed" - Sondre after this show. 
Summary:
This was a much better show than I expected, we had a lot of advancement in the Jr division and two great title matches.
NOAH is very much my cup of tea so I will always rate their stuff very high and I'm truly sorry for that.
Show grade: B+
Show score: 8.5
Feel free to follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SondreBjorn
And check out my 2022 spreadsheet if you like numbers: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bx3iY2upT3UAYjTD1LLOQEm1vG9M5O1AozcNdjhsDOY/edit?usp=sharing
Hope you enjoyed this review.
Hope to see you next time.
Bye <3
No comments:
Post a Comment