So, how do you write a preview for a show with only two match participants confirmed and the other five matches being Special Singles Secret matches? With great difficulty I can assure you!
But that is the case for Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Go On To The Demolition Stage Night Four. And yes, this one is genuinely Night Four, sorry for the mix up in the subject title for the October 28th show preview.
Airing live on Wrestle Universe from Yokohama Radiant Hall, the opening match is a singles match with no participants announced until both wrestlers come out for the match. Same for matches three, four, six and seven.
This is the first of four shows to be aired live in November (five if November 23rd gets added but don’t hold your breath there). November 3rd, 10th, 13th & 28th are all on Wrestle Universe. The 13th & 28th will have English commentary.
Starting at 5:30pm in Japan, that’s 8:30am in England, 4:30am East Coast USA and 1:30am West Coast USA.
We know Kenoh & Haoh will be absent as they are on Dragon Gate’s Gate Of Destiny PPV*, challenging Susumu Yokosuka & King Shimizu for the Open The Twin Gate Title’s. But as Manabu Soya, Nioh, Aleja & Tadasuke are announced for this show, that means not all of Kongo are travelling with them.
GHC National Champion Masaaki Mochizuki and half of the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, Eita, will also be on the Dragon Gate PPV too as they are both contracted to that promotion first.
(*If you want to watch this, you’ll have to sign up to the Dragon Gate Network. But as there’s potential that more NOAH vs Dragon Gate matches could happen in the future so it may be worth looking into.)
This is a mystery show for five out of seven matches, so I’ll have to use the November 10th & 13th announced cards for speculation and educated guesses.
As was the case in October, November and December are FREE on Wrestle Universe. Just register an account now and only pay from January 1st 2022.
Let’s get in the show!….. The bits I know about of course. Usually I’d write main event down but… Well how can you when you don’t know the main event?
Special Singles Secret Match 1 – X vs X
Opening match. We know it’s not going to involve HAYATA, Yasutaka Yano, Aleja, Tadasuke, Masa Kitamiya, Kinya Okada, Manabu Soya, Nioh, Kenoh or Haoh.
Junta Miyawaki was injured and removed from all of October’s shows, it is not currently known when he will be back.
Go Shiozaki has been out injured since mid March. While Katsuhiko Nakajima seems to be teasing him, I can’t imagine him returning here.
Yoshiki Inamura has been out injured since mid July but has his return match on November 10th against Manabu Soya. So it’s unlikely that he’ll return a week early and instead have his return in Korakuen Hall.
As this is the opening match, I imagine Kai Fujimura will be in it. His opponent could be anyone from Ikuto Hidaka, Hajima Ohara, Yoshinari Ogawa, etc.
HAYATA & Yasutaka Yano vs Aleja & Tadasuke
All this time when Tadasuke was on about challenging for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship, he never meant himself. He meant the masked and mute Aleja.
HAYATA has just made his fifth defense over NOSAWA Rongai. He’d managed to beat his most defenses in his second reign so now his third and current stands as his most successful.
That same night, Aleja scored a big singles victory over Ikuto Hidaka. Hidaka had only lost singles matches to Kaito Kiyomiya, HAYATA for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship and Muhammad Yone this year in a NOAH ring. So Aleja beating him is a big deal.
So after HAYATA had beaten NOSAWA, Tadasuke hit the ring with Aleja in tow. It was curious why Tadasuke needed Aleja with him but it all made sense when Tadasuke made the challenge FOR Aleja.
It is well known that HAYATA is a man of few words. Aleja is a man of even fewer so Tadasuke will be doing a lot of talking for the both of them. However, in the ring, HAYATA and Aleja are perfectly capable of letting their actions do all the talking for them.
Aleja has never held a singles Title. Since his debut in March 2016 as part of Wrestle-1, he’s only held tag team titles. And he’s only challenged for a singles Title once, April 2018 where Seiki Yoshioka retained the Wrestle-1 Cruiserweight Championship against him.
Saturday November 13th will be his second singles title match. So the introduction of Aleja to Kongo, Yuya Susumu to STINGER and Eita to Los Perros del Mal de Japon has brought some fresh blood to the NOAH junior division.
And speaking of fresh blood, Yasutaka Yano has only just celebrated one year in professional wrestling. And on his one year anniversary, to the day, he pinned NOSAWA Rongai.
Yano has been wrestling with STINGER these past few shows and that loose alliance continues here. Yano, currently, would seem like an odd fit in STINGER. His demeanour does not match in with STINGER. But he’s having success with them so who knows.
Tadasuke & Aleja will have the advantage here regardless. Both have a lot more experience, even if they’ve only been teaming since Aleja joined NOAH in July this year. They’ve already had a GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title shot together.
And they have the mix of power and speed. Where right now HAYATA will have to lead his team and Yano is yet to find his core strength as a wrestler but like all NOAH dojo graduates, he does the basics and does them well. Right now he has promise to be a good all rounder.
Special Singles Secret Match 2 – X vs X
Yokohama Radiant Hall shows are usually junior heavyweight centric so don’t be shocked if this is a singles match between junior heavyweights.
You’ve got STINGER, Los Perros del Mal de Japon and Momo No Seishun and friends to pick from. All of Kongo’s junior heavyweights are already in matches.
I’m thinking STINGER against Momo No Seishun and friends. So, I know this would be a big match to do randomly and with no build, but I’d love to see Daisuke Harada vs Seiki Yoshioka. It’s not likely but a man can dream.
Special Singles Secret Match 3 – X vs X
I’m going for another junior heavyweight match. STINGER would now be Yoshinari Ogawa only. And after what Eita did to him on October 30th, he would absolutely be vying for the blood of any of the Los Perros del Mal de Japon members.
Eita is out due to being on the Dragon Gate PPV. So that leaves NOSAWA Rongai, Kotaro Suzuki and YO-HEY.
Ogawa and Suzuki were supposed to have a singles match on October 15th which was unfortunately cancelled as Ogawa had an injury. Now could be a good time to run it back.
Or even a NOSAWA singles match, which in itself would be a rematch from earlier this year. Providing Eita & NOSAWA Rongai retain the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles at the Dragon Gate show on November 5th against Kota Minoura & Jason Lee, Ogawa and a STINGER colleague could be very likely challengers.
Kongo (Manabu Soya & Nioh) vs Masa Kitamiya & Kinya Okada
This match should be all about Soya and Kitamiya. The two were former brothers and former tag team partners in Kongo.
But there wasn’t any animosity from the two about Kitamiya leaving Kongo. It’s all been about competition and establishing individual dominance.
In singles matches, Soya leads Kitamiya 2 to 0. He beat him in June 2020 in the finals of a tournament to determine the number one contender to the GHC National Championship. And then he beat him September 2020 as part of the N-1 Victory.
That was while they were both Kongo members too. Since Kitamiya left Kongo they’ve clashed over the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Titles. And, more recently, Soya pinned Kitamiya in a tag team match.
Other tag matches since then have seen Aleja pin Kitamiya’s tag team partners for the wins and Soya seemingly frustrated by the fact he wasn’t the one to get the win himself.
And they both have new partners here. Nioh is a former GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion. And Okada, for as good as he has looked in the past, for how much potential he could have in the future, is still searching for any kind of win.
He’s about to celebrate three years in wrestling and still is bring treat like a rookie. It’s a massive shame but it is what it is. And when he’s the one pinned, I’ll just accept it and move on.
Special Singles Secret Match 4 – X vs X
Now I think we’ll get the heavyweights here. Or at least a heavyweight vs junior heavyweight.
Katsuhiko Nakajima was not on the last Yokohama show or the one before that. So don’t be surprised to see the GHC Heavyweight Champion absent again although there is one singles match I’d love to see him have in a NOAH ring.
And that’s against Daiki Inaba as Nakajima took the Wrestle-1 Championship from him in practically a squash match. And so far, since Inaba joined the NOAH roster last year, he has been kept away from Nakajima.
So, if Inaba is in a singles match on this show, and if Kotaro Suzuki wasn’t in an earlier match, I’d love to see those two have a rematch.
They went to a 20 minute draw on the 17th of October and a rematch should be inevitable. Hopefully it’s here.
Special Singles Secret Match 5 – X vs X
Main event and we’re not even going to know what it is until both wrestlers are in the ring!
I’ll be honest, because we’re getting Kiyomiya & Kitamiya defending their GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Titles for the first time against Keiji Muto & Naomichi Marufuji on Saturday 13th November, I expect that match to be a factor into this show and it’s special singles moniker.
Now, Muto is not going to be wrestling unannounced on a small Yokohama show. If he ever does wrestle on these type of shows for NOAH. So that leaves Naomichi Marufuji.
If Masa Kitamiya hadn’t already been announced in that tag match, Marufuji vs Kitamiya sounded perfect for the main event slot in a secret match on a smaller show. But with his match confirmed that only leaves Kaito Kiyomiya.
Do I genuinely expect Marufuji vs Kiyomiya on this show? No. But it’s what I’d do to try and make this show can’t miss.
I can’t even really call this a preview article, realistically. It’s more of my horrible, usually wrong, predictions.
Do I think I’ll be right in my exact predictions? Nope. Not at all. Just a bit of guess work, what I think makes sense and what could make the show worth watching.
NOAH do tend to offer some genuinely surprising and great matches every time they’ve done unannounced shows/matches in the past so even if I’m completely wrong, the show should still be good.
Thank you for reading. And feel free to let me know how wrong I was on the day when we get Masao Inoue in a gauntlet match for all 5 Special Singles Secret Matches.
