NOAH The Chronicle Vol 3 Preview

NOAH is back on August 10th for NOAH The Chronicle Vol 3. This event will be held from the Yokohama Bunka Gym. This will be their last event from this arena before it undergoes renovations. The card for this show looks good with a good semi-main before a legendary main event for NOAH as it is a double title match.

The show will air live on ABEMA and free to view worldwide. The event will stay up for 7 days before going on to Wrestle Universe.

Bell time is 16:00 JST (3:00 EDT, 00:00 PDT, 8:00 BST).

Match 1

YO-HEY & Tadasuke

vs

Kongoh (Nioh & Haoh)

The former Ratels take on Kongoh’s juniors here in the opener.
Both will be looking to gain momentum to potentially challenge for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships.

YO-HEY and Tadasuke how have a record this year of 2 wins and 1 draw. With a combined of speed, power and craziness they can be a very good junior team. A win here will provide them with some good momentum.

Nioh and Haoh haven’t had the best record in 2020. Their record is 5 wins, 1 draw, 8 losses. They had a chance at Departure day 1 to go to the front of the line in the junior tag division if they had picked up a win against one-half of the champs. Unfortunately, they couldn’t. with Kongoh starting to pick up championships I wouldn’t be surprised if they win the titles before the end of the year.

This should be a good opener. This match could really go either way.

Match 2

FULL THROTTLE (Atsushi Kotoge, Seiki Yoshioka, Hajime Ohara)

vs

Stinger (Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki) & Kinya Okada

Now that FULL THROTTLE has their leader they are aiming for gold. Luckily for them in this match both the GHC Junior heavyweight and on half of the GCH Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions in this match.

FULL THROTTLE has a record of 1 win, 4 losses. This isn’t the best record but since they now have figured out the leader they have one loss. They will be targeting a victory over either Suzuki or Ogawa. With a win over either of those two, they would surely be at the front of the line in terms of a title shot.

Stinger will be looking to tighten their grip on the junior division. A win here would surely put daylight between any contenders. They have already put the former Ratels to the back of the line and Kongoh isn’t any closer to them. FULL THROTTLE would be the closest contenders in my opinion.

I think that FULL THROTTLE will win this match. Stinger doesn’t have any challengers for their belt. I think this will set up a challenge. If I had to guess, I think Ohara & Yoshioka will challenge for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship.

Match 3

M’S Alliance (Naomichi Marufuji, Masaaki Mochizuki & Yuko Miyamoto)

vs

Katsuhiko Nakajima, Shuhei Taniguchi, Mohammed Yone

The M’s alliance is back teaming together in NOAH. This will be Yuko Miyamoto’s second match as a member and first time teaming with the duo of Marufuji & Mochizuki as a trio. Marufuji who is coming of the back of an unsuccessful challenge for the GHC Heavyweight Championship. He will be looking to get back to winning ways. Mochizuki’s last time in a NOAH ring was a win against Yoshiki Inamura at the Kongoh produce show.

Across from them an unusually trio. Taniguchi usually teams with Kiyomiya and Inaba but with Inaba, not on the card and Kiyomiya is in a big singles match later on the card. Yone has been floating around the card since his 50 Funky Power tag partner left. He might be looking to try and force his way into the N1 Victory. Nakajima will be looking to get back to winning way. He lost his GHC National Championship and will surely be looking to win the N1 Victory.

This should be a good trios match with some good interactions between all 6 men. This match can really go either way. 4 of the men will have their eyes on the N1 Victory and will be looking to get as much momentum as they can going into it.

Match 4

IPW Junior Heavyweight Championship Match

Daisuke Harada (C)

vs

HAYATA

HAYATA made the challenge for Harada’s title after pinning him at Stay Together day 2.
The title is the property of IPW which closed last year. The title is basically meaningless.

HAYATA will be looking to beat Harada again and get one over his former stablemate. A win here will also mean that Stinger is in possession of every junior championship in NOAH. Meaning they have a stranglehold on the division. HAYATA’s record in singles matches this year is 1 win, 1 draw, 3 losses.

Harada will be looking to beat the traitor (that is what he has called HAYATA in the past). He is the only 2x champion is the belt’s history (there have only been 2 holders). Harada wants revenge and to keep the title although it is meaningless and holds no value. It’s more like a trinket. Harada’s record in 2020 is 6 wins, 3 draws,1 loss. He holds a win of HAYATA although that was via DQ.

This should be a good match but personally, I am not too invested in it. This has been billed as the end of the former Ratels/Stinger feud but I will believe it when I see it. It also is an empty title match. The title itself holds no value. Harada doesn’t have bad matches so it should be a good watch.

Match 5

The Sugiura Army (Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba & Kendo Kashin)

vs

Kongoh (Masa Kitamiya, Manabu Soya & Yoshiki Inamura)

The Kongoh heavyweights (minus Kenoh) takes on the Sugiura Army. They will certainly have the strength advantage in this match. Inamura has been getting closer to getting a big win and this is a big stage for him. He has improved a lot this year and a big singles win could be massive. If he does get the win then I think, he could be looking a championship reign later in the year.

On the other side the Sugiura army. Sugiura will be teaming with Kashin who he still isn’t sure of. Out of the current Sugiura army, I think Sugiura gets on with Sakuraba the best. It is an interesting team with only one recognized heavyweight. They definitely have the advantage in terms of experience.

This should be a good match. I think Kongoh will pick up the victory here.

Match 6

Keiji Mutoh

vs

Kaito Kiyomiya

Kiyomiya has been angling for this match for a while now and he finally gets it on the 10th.

For Kiyomiya this is a chance to prove himself against a legend a chance to beat him and improve himself. Kiyomiya has stated that he must overcome Mutoh to progress. Winning this might open up a path to the GHC Heavyweight championship. Kiyomiya’s singles record in 2020 is 10 wins, 2 losses.

Mutoh, on the other hand, is aiming higher than Kiyomiya. He wants to win the GHC Heavyweight Championship. If was able to win that he would be the first person to win the GHC Heavyweight, IWGP Heavyweight and Triple Crown Championships. However, to get to that title he has to get past the young ace of NOAH. This will be Mutoh’s first singles match in 2020.

This match could be good. Mutoh is pretty much past his peak. His body is broken down and he really shouldn’t be putting on 20+ minute matches. Mutoh still has the basics down. Kiyomiya for his young age has really good basics and a good foundation. I don’t know if Kiyomiya can carry him past 20 minutes. If this match is a short 10–15-minute match it could be good. Anything past that and it could be not so good.

Main Event

GHC Heavyweight and GHC National Championship Match

Go Shiozaki (GHC Heavyweight Champion)

vs

Kenoh (GHC National Champion)

A Double title match.
Shiozaki puts his Heavyweight championship on the line and Kenoh put his National championship on the line.

Kenoh just won the National Championship from Shiozaki’s tag partner Katsuhiko Nakajima at Departure day 1 in an absolute war. His first defence doesn’t get any easier. This match was Kenoh’s idea as he wants to prove who the strongest in NOAH is. Kenoh’s singles record in 2020 is 3 wins, 0 losses.

Shiozaki is coming into this match at the back of a match of the year contender against Naomichi Marufuji. Shiozaki’s title reign so far has been great putting on great matches against all of his opponents. He is having a great year. Shiozaki’s record 4 wins, 0 losses.

This match should be great. However, I am against the idea of a double champion. Although both men have agreed that both titles will be defended separately. The National title is not even a year old and was gaining an identity under Nakajima. If he lost the belt just to have this match for me is disappointing. While I am glad they will be defended separately I am not too excited by the idea of a double champion. I hope this double champion trend stays in 2020. I am looking forward to the actual match it should be a match of the year contender.

Conclusion

The third event in a week for NOAH. This could be the best of them all. With 2 good looking singles matches. A good range of tag matches. A historic match of the year contender match. Put all of them together and it should be good. As long as the event doesn’t run too long it should be a good one.

The show will air live on ABEMA on the 10th of August. It free to view worldwide. The event will stay up for 7 days before going on to Wrestle Universe.