Tuesday the 7th of December, Pro Wrestling NOAH return to Korakuen Hall for “Man Crush 2021” – with all the fall out from their December 5th event, and to build to the Nippon Budokan on January 1st.
If you haven’t already seen it, I have a new weekly series on the history of NJPW vs NOAH. Part 1 is already up and Part 2 will follow this Friday.
The full card was only announced after the conclusion of Sunday’s show so please forgive me if this preview is on the brief side. Thank God you exclaim after seeing the War & Peace size novels I’ve done before.
This show will air live on NOAH’s streaming service Wrestle Universe with English commentary. If you pay for January today, you get the remainder of 2021 free with your Wrestle Universe subscription, which also features live events and the back catalogue for DDT, TJPW, and Ganbare.
The show starts at 6:30pm in Japan, that’s 9:30am in England, 4:30am East Coast USA and 1:30am West Coast USA.
Let’s get right into it!
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Photo credit Pro Wrestling NOAH
MAIN EVENT: Naomichi Marufuji vs Masato Tanaka
This is only the second time this singles match has happened. Global League 2015 saw both men in Block A.
Their match happened on Night 9 out of 11. Marufuji was leading the Block with 8 points but Takashi Sugiura, Chris Hero and Masato Tanaka were right behind him with 6.
Sugiura and Hero both won their matches to tie Marufuji and then, in the main event, Tanaka beat Marufuji after just 12 minutes in order to tie himself up in the lead too.
Marufuji would ultimately end up still winning the block on the final night, to then beat Shelton Benjamin in the finals – going on to reclaim the GHC Heavyweight Championship back from Minoru Suzuki.
Tanaka would return back to NOAH as part of the M’s Alliance in January. Tanaka said he came back as a member of M’s Alliance specifically because Marufuji asked him.
The two remain members of M’s Alliance, with Marufuji & Keiji Muto the current GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. On NOAH’s previous show, M’s Alliance of Marufuji, Muto, Tanaka & Masaaki Mochizuki defeated Funky Express to end their chances of challenging for the belts.
However a title challenge for Budokan was issued in the match’s aftermath, although it came from within M’s Alliance – Tanaka & Mochizuki.
Said match is now official for January 1st and with little time to spare we have two special singles matches between the two teams.
Muto faces Mochizuki in a first-time matchup earlier in the show, while in the main event Marufuji faces Tanaka.
On paper Tanaka has the advantage: he’s got more experience; he’s spent longer as a heavyweight; he’s won more World Title’s and he won their previous match.
Tanaka is going to be incredibly busy on January 1st. That same morning he faces Takashi Sugiura in a rematch for the ZERO1 World Heavyweight Championship at Korakuen Hall. Their last match went well over 40 minutes so he may be worse for wear coming into the Tag Title match.
Meaning he has to make a statement here by beating Marufuji again as he is potentially going to be disadvantaged on January 1st.
Photo credit Pro Wrestling NOAH
HAYATA & YO-HEY vs Yoshinari Ogawa & Daisuke Harada
Yes, you read that right. STINGER, the current GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, HAYATA and Ogawa, are on opposite sides.
HAYATA is also the current GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion and Ogawa is the one who made the challenge to him for NOAH’s Budokan show on January 1st. Backstage, Ogawa even attacked HAYATA to further put across how serious he was in challenging.
No, STINGER have not split up. Or at least I don’t believe they have. Attacking a tag partner would usually result in a split, however there is a deeper story here.
At the beginning of 2020, Ogawa beat HAYATA to become GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion. That was the only GHC Title in any weight division that Ogawa hadn’t held yet (discounting the National which had only just been created).
STINGER was Ogawa, Kotaro Suzuki, Atsushi Kotoge & Chris Ridgeway at that time. HAYATA was still a few months away from joining. Ridgeway was yet to have a global pandemic stop him from entering Japan. And Kotoge would leave STINGER upon HAYATA’s entry.
Ogawa had just made his first successful defense over Daisuke Harada on March 29th and after the match, Suzuki issued his challenge to Ogawa. But, to prove just how genuine he was in his challenge, Suzuki attacked Ogawa to ensure that the champion would accept the challenge.
On April 19th, Suzuki faced Ogawa for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Title. And Suzuki won. Ogawa failed in his second defense and Suzuki won the belt for the Fourth time.
Post-match, Ogawa and Suzuki were able to reconcile. The drama in STINGER was over… Until a few weeks later when HAYATA betrayed RATEL’S to join STINGER, Kotoge left in disgust and then by the end of October, Suzuki had been kicked out.
So, a bit of a chain reaction there that may or may not have been the result of that title change.
However that’s why I didn’t take Ogawa attacking HAYATA as the team splitting up. I saw that as Ogawa remembering what happened to him the last time a challenge came from within his own unit and he did the same to HAYATA.
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions together or not. Ogawa still wants that GHC Junior Heavyweight Title and he wants to take it on the biggest stage possible at the Budokan.
What’s even more intriguing is the partners. Ogawa & Harada? Not much history there – only ever as opponents. Realistically, both are ground-based, technical wrestlers so they should work well together to a point.
HAYATA & YO-HEY? Oh yeah there’s history. Drama too. They’ve known each other for almost a decade now: started teaming together in late 2013, freelanced through multiple promotions together until early 2017 and then both joined NOAH.
Them, Harada & Tadasuke all formed RATEL’S. The two were GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions together. And they were inseparable until HAYATA joined STINGER in May 2020. They faced each other on August 1st for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship and HAYATA retained – YO-HEY has not beaten HAYATA in over 5 years and never in a NOAH ring.
Will they be able to coexist? Or will Ogawa use everything that has happened between them in order to gain an advantage and a victory over HAYATA before the Budokan?
Photo credit Pro Wrestling NOAH
Kongo (Kenoh & Katsuhiko Nakajima) vs Go Shiozaki & Kaito Kiyomiya
Go Shiozaki made his in-ring return after 8 months off from injury in this exact same tag match just two days ago. He’d returned to NOAH just the week earlier to challenge Nakajima for a GHC Heavyweight Title match at the Nippon Budokan. Shiozaki and Nakajima seem more than ready for the Budokan and eager for another chance to face off with each other.
Speaking of ready for the Budokan, Kiyomiya pinned GHC National Champion Kenoh in that match just two days ago. Kiyomiya then issued a challenge for the Budokan and Kenoh accepted.
These two have a long history, but not as long as Shiozaki and Nakajima – which I wrote about in a preview for this exact same match two days ago.
That should get you up to speed somewhat if this is your first time watching NOAH. And with NJPW vs NOAH coming up on January 8th, the time couldn’t be any better to check NOAH out.
If you enjoyed the December 5th match, you’re bound to enjoy this. These Four are the very top of NOAH right now so this is the perfect match to check out.
Photo credit Pro Wrestling NOAH
Keiji Muto vs Masaaki Mochizuki
Another first-time singles match! Definitely something I never ever thought I’d see, not in my wildest dreams.
Muto has been the top man in NJPW in the 90’s, AJPW in the 00’s, Wrestle-1 in the 10’s and now NOAH in the 20’s. For many him, or his alter ego The Great Muta, has been the face of Japanese wrestling.
Mochizuki was the top man in both Toryumon Japan and Dragon Gate in the 00’s, Dragon Gate again in the 10’s, and just the other month he beat Takashi Sugiura for the GHC National Title.
You either love or hate Muto in 2021. Yes he’s 58 years old, limited by his ageing body and the wear and tear of almost 40 years of wrestling has had. But he uses those decades of experience to his benefit and wrestlers smarter for it.
Mochizuki is only 7 years younger, yet he wrestles like someone still in his 30’s rather than early 50’s. He has clearly found the fountain of youth to explain why he can still wrestle such hard-hitting, grueling matches.
This is going to be a match of Mochizuki’s kicks against Muto working the legs with dragon screws and the figure four leglock. Muto has only lost the one singles match in his NOAH run to date, the GHC Heavyweight Title match against Marufuji at the big Cyber Fight show, so don’t expect him to lose here. Still, stranger things have happened.
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Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kazuyuki Fujita & Kendo Kashin) vs Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba, Yoshiki Inamura & Kinya Okada
On January 1st the team of Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba & Yoshiki Inamura will face Sugiura, Sakuraba and the returning KENTA.
It will be a big match for all three of Kitamiya, Inaba & Inamura. The last two only made their wrestling debuts after KENTA had left NOAH in 2014. Kitamiya was still only just moving up to a heavyweight so only faced him in the one six-man tag team match.
But here in the right now, they’ve got a big task ahead of them facing Sugiura Army alone. Just two days ago Sugiura, Fujita & Kashin beat that exact same trio when Kashin tapped out Inaba.
Kitamiya is still locked in a back and forth with Sugiura which has lasted all year. Inamura has only just returned from injury and he is still yet to get any kind of victory over Fujita. Inaba was the one who again lost the match for his team.
Add in Sakuraba to strengthen the Sugiura Army team. And Kinya Okada to weaken Kitamiya’s team as he is still treated like a rookie despite only debuting a few months after Inamura and will be celebrating his third year anniversary this month.
So on paper the Sugiura Army team has a very one-sided advantage. It will take all the heart, determination and fire that Kitamiya, Inaba, Inamura & Okada hold in order to stay in the match.
Photo credit Pro Wrestling NOAH
Los Perros del Mal de Japon (Eita & NOSAWA Rongai) vs STINGER (Seiki Yoshioka & Yuya Susumu)
Two former GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions collide!
Eita & NOSAWA lost their belts to Ogawa & HAYATA via count out. They were never pinned or submitted. So they still have a claim to a title rematch in 2022.
Yoshioka & Susumu have not had the best time since they lost the belts in September. They’ve only teamed as a tag team once since then and it was a loss to Suzuki & YO-HEY.
On December 25th, Suzuki & YO-HEY are facing Harada & Kotoge to determine the number one contenders to the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title.
Eita & NOSAWA currently have the stronger claim to a title rematch due to the nature in which they lost the belts.
If Yoshioka & Susumu were to win this match, it would at least keep them in title contention. So expect this to be fast paced as both teams fight to stay in the title picture.
Photo credit Pro Wrestling NOAH
Kotaro Suzuki vs Atsushi Kotoge
This is only their third singles match against each other. Their first happened in June 2012 and Suzuki won.
Suzuki would leave NOAH not long after Kotoge joined full time. So we had to wait until Suzuki rejoined in late 2018 and then the two became teammates in STINGER.
Together they even held the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title’s from November 2019 to March 2020.
Kotoge would leave STINGER in May that year and would unsuccessfully challenge Suzuki for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship in June.
Suzuki himself would be kicked out of STINGER in late October and would find himself an original member of what would become Los Perros del Mal de Japon in June this year.
Los Perros del Mal de Japon are definitely the biggest rudo stable in NOAH. They are here to win matches, no matter what they have to do to win.
So this will be different to their past two singles matches, especially if Suzuki taps into his rudo side. The two will be meeting again on December 25th to determine the number one contenders to the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title’s so this match will give the victor an advantage heading into it.
Photo credit Pro Wrestling NOAH
Kongo (Manabu Soya, Tadasuke, Aleja, Haoh & Nioh) vs Funky Express (King Tany & Muhammad Yone), Hajima Ohara, Kai Fujimura & Yasutaka Yano
With Kenoh & Nakajima teaming together, the rest of Kongo are a united team against Funky Express, Ohara and the two rookies.
Tadasuke failed to beat HAYATA for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship and Funky Express could not beat M’s Alliance in order to make a challenge for the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Title.
Both teams are regrouping and trying to bounce back after losses. A Kongo team of Soya, Aleja, Haoh & Nioh did win on the last show, beating Fujimura & Yano in the process.
I would ordinarily be pretty confident in saying that the Kongo team should get another victory, however Funky Express has two heavyweights to Kongo’s one. Sometimes all it takes is just that little bit of extra weight to make the difference.
Thank you so much for reading this.
Take care and enjoy the show!
