Just three days before Demolition Stage In Yokohama, Pro Wrestling NOAH return to Korakuen Hall on Wednesday 10th of November. Go On To The Demolition Stage Night Five is the final of the preview shows before the last Demolition Stage big show.
We have the last preview match before Kaito Kiyomiya & Masa Kitamiya make their first defense of the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Title’s against Keiji Muto & Naomichi Marufuji. The last preview match before Masaaki Mochizuki makes his first defense of the GHC National Title against Kenoh.
The last preview match before HAYATA defends his GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship against Aleja. And the in ring return of Yoshiki Inamura, who has been out injured since the second half of July, in the opening match.
Six match card but they are a good six matches.
As always this show is airing live on Wrestle Universe. And Wrestle Universe is FREE for the rest of 2021, you only pay from January 1st 2022.
Starting at 6:30pm in Japan, that’s 9:30am in the UK, 4:30am East Coast USA and 1:30am West Coast USA. Don’t worry if you can’t watch it live, it will be up for replay not long after the show has ended.
Let’s get right into the show!
MAIN EVENT – Kaito Kiyomiya, Masa Kitamiya & Daiki Inaba vs M’s Alliance (Keiji Muto, Naomichi Marufuji & Masato Tanaka)
At Demolition Stage In Yokohama, Kiyomiya & Kitamiya are defending their GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Titles against Keiji Muto & Naomichi Marufuji. Despite winning the belts at the end of July, November 13th will be their first defense of those belts.
On October 30th, the same trio of the Champions & Inaba were beaten by Muto, Marufuji & Masaaki Mochizuki. Muto pinning former Wrestle-1 student Inaba. After the match, Muto & Marufuji made the challenge to the forgotten GHC Titles.
The big story remains between Kiyomiya and Muto. Try as he might, the young ace, the Supernova of Pro Wrestling NOAH still hasn’t beaten the Pro Wrestling Genius. They’ve had three singles matches. Muto won the first two and they went to a 30 minute draw in their last meeting.
And Kitamiya has a grudge to bear with Muto too. Muto made two successful defenses of his GHC Heavyweight Title before he lost the belt to Marufuji. Kiyomiya & Kitamiya.
Kitamiya has done something Kiyomiya hasn’t – he’s beaten Muto directly. In a tag match before their title match, Kitamiya had Muto trapped in a Prison Lock but it was a headbutt that caused the referee stoppage.
So at least one of the champions have beaten Muto directly but Muto has submitted Kiyomiya, twice, and pinned Kitamiya.
On a mystery show on November 3rd with several matches unannounced until the day, Kiyomiya and Marufuji main evented with a singles match against each other. That was their first singles match against each other since Kiyomiya successfully defended the GHC Heavyweight Championship against him in March 2019.
And the result was the exact same on this night. Kiyomiya beat Marufuji via pinfall. It was a variation to Marufuji’s old English rival, Doug Williams, Chaos Theory. Where instead of rolling through into a German Suplex, Kiyomiya trapped Marufuji in a pinfall.
Half of the champions pinned half of the challengers just 10 days before their title match. With just 3 days before the title match itself, this is Marufuji’s chance for revenge/redemption and put the challengers in a strong position before the match.
Muto & Marufuji have teamed up three times as just a tag team. They beat KAZMA Sakamoto & Moose in March 2017. Yep, that’s current IMPACT Heavyweight Champion, Moose. Weird match.
The next time was July 2020 where they beat Shiozaki & Kiyomiya. And the last time was in April 2021 where they lost to The Aggression, Kitamiya & Nakajima. It was in that match that Kitamiya got the referee stoppage over Muto.
*I’m going to note, just for reference, that The Great Muta & Maryufushi beat Kazushi Sakuraba & Masaaki Mochizuki in May 2020. But NOAH treat them as separate people.*
The champions have surprisingly teamed together as only a tag team just as rarely! They teamed the first time in October 2016 where they lost to Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka. Non-telvised. Then the next time they teamed was in July 2021(!) Where they won the held up GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Titles together over Nakajima & Manabu Soya.
NOAH Universal, a special show filmed for an international audience, saw them team for the last time with a win over Haoh & Nioh which was aired in September. Since the two won the belts, they haven’t really focused on tag team wrestling as we weren’t far away from the N-1 Victory.
So champions and challengers don’t have much time left before the title match. Now you’ll be excused if you think Daiki Inaba and Masato Tanaka are spare parts in this match.
Tanaka lost the ZERO1 World Heavyweight Championship to Takashi Sugiura in August. He’s just lost his first ever opportunity at the GHC Heavyweight Title against Katsuhiko Nakajima on October 30th. He replaces Masaaki Mochizuki in what was a victorious trio the last time they faced this exact same team.
And Inaba was the man pinned last time. A Shining Wizard from Muto saw him pinned. And this isn’t the first time Muto has pinned him in a six man tag team match. That was back in February where Muto, Marufuji & Tanaka beat Inaba, Shiozaki & Kiyomiya.
This was Inaba’s last match for 5 months as he took some time off to deal with an injury. Unfortunately, since his return, his position and place hasn’t changed much in NOAH. He still falls to those with more seniority than him.
That six man tag in February is the last time that Inaba and Tanaka have wrestled each other, with them having a singles match in 2017’s Fire Festival which Tanaka won. Kiyomiya lost a first time ever singles match to Tanaka in May. Kitamiya and Tanaka have only clashed in tag matches and one four way during Tanaka’s 2017/18 run in NOAH.
Tanaka against all three of his opponents here is a rare combination. And for Inaba it’s a chance at redemption plus him and Marufuji have gotten heated in previous tag matches.
Kongo (Kenoh & Katsuhiko Nakajima) vs M’s Alliance (Masaaki Mochizuki & Masakatsu Funaki)
This match, on paper, is everything I love about NOAH. In fact, pro wrestling in general. Just four tough guys – in this case hard kickers – just beating the hell out of each other.
It is a preview match for Masaaki Mochizuki defending his newly won GHC National Championship against Kenoh on the 13th. That in itself is a rematch from an incredible match during the N-1 Victory 2021 that saw Kenoh clinch the win in their Block.
But you also have the new GHC Heavyweight Champion, Nakajima, partnering with his leader in Kenoh. And Mochizuki’s partner is Funaki, a former All Japan Triple Crown Champion, and the man who Nakajima beat in the semifinals of the N-1 Victory (Before he beat Kenoh in the finals it’s worth pointing out).
Nakajima and Funaki had a short, but fantastic match. One that was overlooked after the hard hitting spectacle of the finals as the Kongo members went to war against each other. But Nakajima was carrying welts and bruises into that match, all courtesy of the MMA legend, Funaki.
After Nakajima beat Tanaka on October 30th, no challenger emerged. Perhaps Funaki would love another crack at the new GHC Heavyweight Champion. I know myself and plenty of others would love to see that rematch, perhaps a title defense before the Nippon Budokan on January 1st.
And speaking of rematches, and the Budokan too for that matter, Kenoh successfully defended his GHC National Title against Funaki on the last show their in February. The two seemed like tailor made opponents for each other and they had an absolute blinder.
Plus you have Nakajima and Mochizuki against each other for the first time in two years. They just recently teamed together again for over a decade since the last time they did, although they were not successful against Dangan Yankees. But they have always been better as opponents and we are getting that here.
It’s the GHC Heavyweight Champion against the GHC National Champion too. We got that in Nakajima/Mochizuki vs Dangan Yankees and it resulted in the GHC National Title changing hands in the title match.
I wish Korakuen Hall could make some noise because you know the crowd is going to be rabid for this one. But in the absence of crowd noise, you’ll have all four men laying in some heavy kicks and hard strikes.
Don’t be too surprised if all four have bruises and welts on their bodies after this match. It’s going to be hard hitting. It’s going to be great.
STINGER (HAYATA, Yoshinari Ogawa, Seiki Yoshioka & Yuya Susumu) vs Kongo (Aleja, Tadasuke, Haoh & Nioh)
Aleja has made quite the impact since he joined the NOAH roster in July. The Wrestle-1 graduate who debuted in March 2016 is undefeated in singles matches with wins over Junta Miyawaki, YO-HEY and Ikuto Hidaka.
He & Tadasuke did fail to beat Yoshioka & Susumu in August for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles. So they get to face the former champions in this match too.
This is Susumu’s return to NOAH after a brief absence. Meaning STINGER are at full strength here and not partnered with the rookie Yano. Although, to Yano’s credit, he did pin NOSAWA in a previous match.
The Kongo juniors are also at full strength. At times they are an independent group from the main Kongo group with Tadasuke positioned as their leader.
Right now he’s leading Aleja towards the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship. Aleja has never won a singles belt before and hasn’t challenged for a singles title since April 2018.
HAYATA is on another level in this current reign. It’s his third time with the belt and he’s made more successful defenses than he has before with Five. By the time his match against Aleja happens, he’ll be on day 143. His second reign lasted 154 days but he only made three defenses before losing it to Ogawa.
STINGER also have more experience as a team. HAYATA, Yoshioka & Susumu all spent time together on the Independents before they joined NOAH. Ogawa is surprisingly the odd man out but as always, he has been masterminding and puppeteering things on a higher level.
He may have been distracted lately on account of the actions of Los Perros del Mal de Japon, in particular Eita. So if there’s any time to take advantage of his mind potentially being elsewhere, now is the time.
Takashi Sugiura & Kinya Okada vs Funky Express (King Tany & Muhammad Yone)
Is this finally it? Is now finally the time that Kinya Okada moves beyond being a rookie, picks up his first big win, and does it as a heavyweight? That Takashi Sugiura, impressed by the young man, offers him a place in Sugiura Army?
Nope. Nah. Nadda. But can’t I dream? Can’t NOAH finally see the potential they have in the young Okada and allow him to become more than the rookie that loses every single match?
I’ll keep hoping and praying and waiting for that day. Is it here? Most likely not. But if I speak it into existence, maybe it will happen.
King Tany & Muhammad Yone can take the loss. After all, what’s another loss for them? It’s plain to see that their days of ever main eventing are done. Which is a shame for Taniguchi but he just didn’t have what it takes to move up to the next level.
Is that Okada’s fate? Could Taniguchi have made that next step if NOAH had put him in position to take it long before they did? I don’t know. I hope not to find out. I hope Okada does eventually live up to his potential.
Partnering up with Sugiura here could help him, especially if he is given the rub. But don’t be surprised to see Funky Express dancing away from the ring and Okada down after eating another loss.
Los Perros del Mal de Japon (Eita, NOSAWA Rongai, Kotaro Suzuki, Ikuto Hidaka & YO-HEY) vs Momo No Seishun (Daisuke Harada & Atsushi Kotoge), Hajima Ohara, Yasutaka Yano & Kai Fujimura
Los Perros del Mal de Japon out in full force in Korakuen. While Momo No Seishun and friends are short Junta Miyawaki on account of injury and are partnered with NOAH’s rookies.
Eita & NOSAWA Rongai made their first successful defense of their GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title’s at a Dragon Gate show on November 5th over Jason Lee & Kota Minoura. They did what Kenoh & Haoh couldn’t do and that was go to Dragon Gate and win an interpromotional match.
Plus you had the moment where all of Los Perros del Mal de Japon, including YO-HEY closed out the Dragon Gate show. This must have been a cathartic moment for him as he began his career in Dragon Gate but stepped away from wrestling after an incident (do yourself a favour and don’t look it up. It’s not worth bringing up a murky past that we won’t get the real story from).
So now the stable return back to NOAH but I do hope to see that Gate remain open. The champions haven’t had any challengers come forward yet but they have expressed a desire to defend in Dragon Gate again.
But I’m sure that Momo No Seishun and friends would want the next defense in a NOAH ring. And them as the challengers. However, would that be the original Momo No Seishun of Harada & Kotoge? Or former champions, Harada & Ohara? Or the other former Champions, the ones who lost the belts to Eita & NOSAWA, Kotoge & Ohara?
Although they are at a disadvantage here. They have the two weakest links on the NOAH roster in the form of Yano & Fujimura. And I say that with no disrespect to either of them. They are two very promising young rookies, Yano especially. But, as already discussed about Okada earlier, NOAH does not let their rookies rise above their stations easily.
There are exceptions with the rise of Kiyomiya and Inamura. And Yano getting a shock win over NOSAWA in a tag team match to celebrate his one year anniversary. But they are rare and few in-between.
I’m sure NOSAWA hasn’t forgotten that loss. And he’s not the forgiving type either. So don’t be surprised to see Los Perros del Mal de Japon play dirty and do whatever they can in order to dominate this match as they have done on multiple occasions so far in NOAH.
Yoshiki Inamura Return Match – Yoshiki Inamura vs Manabu Soya
It’s rare that, in Japan especially, a wrestler wins their return match. Very rare indeed. But Yoshiki Inamura had a lot of momentum, doing very well for himself in this year’s ZERO1 Fire Festival before he was taken out with an injury.
You could even speculate that Inamura was on course for a rematch with Masato Tanaka after the two clashed in a NOAH ring in May and Tanaka walked out victorious. That perhaps the ZERO1 World Heavyweight Championship vs GHC National Championship between Tanaka and Sugiura was not the original plan.
That perhaps it was Inamura who would have been the NOAH representative to challenge for the ZERO1 World Heavyweight Title. I’m not saying he would have won it. But I bet he would have done well in the Fire Festival and earned a Title shot.
So Inamura returns after being on the cusp of a breakout year. Normally, you’d assume he would be losing to Soya. Soya is the veteran after all and was the muscle in Kongo, which is saying something back when Kitamiya and Inamura were in it.
But Soya is in a bit of a slump. Truthfully he’s not really done well in the victories column since he joined the NOAH roster last April. He’s lost more than he’s won and lately, even when he’s on the winning side, he’s frustrated when he’s not the one to pick up the win himself.
Despite being a former two time Wrestle-1 Champion and Big Japan Strong Heavyweight Champion, Soya is usually the one eating the pins. Meaning Inamura, even with this being his return match and the tradition around that, could still stand a chance at beating him.
This is their first ever singles match against each other. When Soya joined NOAH he joined as part of Kongo whom Inamura was already a founding member. And after Inamura left Kongo in October last year, they only clashed in tag matches.
If you enjoy two big dudes clobbering each other, you’re bound to enjoy this one. Soya is only mid 30’s so needs to show that he isn’t past it. Inamura is in his late 20’s so he needs to show that he is, or will be, NOAH’s future. And that future could be sooner than you think.
And that’s your lot.
If you’re watching it live, it’s going to be a late night/early morning for the West. But it’s a compact card and every match has something going for it.
As always, thank you so much for reading this. I do genuinely appreciate everyone who takes the time to read these previews so I’m not just talking to myself.
But NOAH has been near and dear to my heart as my introduction to Puro and right now they are putting on a great product.
Take care and enjoy the show!
