How do you preview a show that is a surprise card? As in, none of the matches are going to be known until the competitors come out? That and the show the very next day isn’t going to have it’s card announced until the “surprise” show is done?
You just wing it and do a preview piece to talk about what was set up on the last Pro Wrestling NOAH show, what NOAH has done on previous mystery shows and highlight how you can watch all Five live NOAH shows this month alone.
Wrestle Universe is the subscription service used by all of Cyber Fight’s subsidies. That means you get Pro Wrestling NOAH, Dramatic Dream Team, Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling and smaller companies like GANPRO and BASARA. Like most Japanese subscription services, it’s paid for per calendar month. Meaning the earlier in the month you join up for it, the more you benefit.
The first calendar month of Wrestle Universe is absolutely FREE! So sign up on Saturday 1st of May and you will get the entire month for FREE and only pay from June 1st. That means you get the following LIVE shows from NOAH, DDT & TJPW for nothing:
- Saturday 1st May – TJPW
- Sunday 2nd May – Pro Wrestling NOAH
- Monday 3rd May – Pro Wrestling NOAH
- Tuesday 4th May – TJPW
- Tuesday 4th May – DDT
- Sunday 9th May – DDT
- Monday 10th May – DDT
- Saturday 15th May – DDT
- Saturday 22nd May – Pro Wrestling NOAH
- Sunday 23rd May – DDT
- Thursday 27th May – DDT
11 live shows in one month for FREE!
And that’s not including the shows taped and aired on a delay, VOD shows. NOAH’s show on Sunday the 23rd of May will be put on the Wrestle Universe site on Wednesday the 26th.
Three live NOAH shows and one on VOD. So, it’s the perfect time to sign up to Wrestle Universe. You more than get your money’s worth as it only costs under £8 per month when you start getting charged.
ABEMA have two live NOAH shows that they will air live this month. They are:
Saturday 15th May
Sunday 30th May
The show on Sunday, 30th May is a Mitsuharu Misawa Memorial show. It will be almost 12 years after their founders untimely passing. There’s only been one match confirmed for the entire month of May and that happens here; as Takashi Sugiura defends his newly reclaimed GHC National Championship against stable mate and tag partner, Kazushi Sakuraba.
Unlike Wrestle Universe, ABEMA is absolutely FREE. All you have to do is download their app and you can watch the show live and on replay, left up for 3 days now. If you miss the shows on ABEMA, they are moved onto Wrestle Universe after 7 days.
It is worth noting that March 21st was unexpectedly only available in Japan but all previous and the most recent ABEMA shows have been available worldwide. Hopefully the 15th and 30th are worldwide again as NOAH really appears to have recaptured a Western audience in this past year and a bit and how available their shows have become are truly a part of it.
Five live shows. One VOD. It’s a busy month for NOAH! Unfortunately due to an increase in Covid-19 cases in the Tokyo and Osaka areas of Japan, that and Japan still hoping to have the virus under control in time for the summer Olympics, the Korakuen Hall shows on the 2nd and 3rd will be without a live audience.
Hopefully the state of emergency in Tokyo will have cleared by the time the show at Korakuen takes place on the 15th. Remain cautiously optimistic however be prepared for the state of emergency to be potentially extended. NOAH have confirmed the shows will go ahead regardless but without a crowd.
So, as the show on the 2nd is a mystery card, let’s have a look at NOAH’s previous mystery shows:
NOAH “KORAKUEN HALL DAY 2 REBOOT”, 05.01.2020 (Samurai! TV/YouTube)
Tokyo Korakuen Hall
1,528 Fans – No Vacancy, full house
1. Mohammed Yone defeated Quiet Storm (6:23)
2. Haoh & Nioh defeated Hajime Ohara & Kinya Okada (3:56)
3. Michael Elgin Impact (USA) defeated Masao Inoue (0:08)
4. Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba & Hideki Suzuki defeated Shuhei Taniguchi, Minoru Tanaka & Hitoshi Kumano (8:53)
5. Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura defeated Shiro Koshinaka, Akitoshi Saito & AKIRA (8:51)
6. Kaito Kiyomiya defeated Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. (8:26)
7. Keiji Muto (WRESTLE-1), Daisuke Harada, Tadasuke, HAYATA & YO-HEY defeated Doug Williams, Yoshinari Ogawa, Kotaro Suzuki, Atsushi Kotoge & Chris Ridgeway (18:18)
8. GHC Tag Team Title: Naomichi Marufuji & Masaaki Mochizuki (Dragon Gate) defeated AXIZ (Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima) (c) (24:58) TITLE CHANGE! (Failed 4th defense, 52nd Champions crowned).
NOAH “NEW SUNRISE 2021”, 04.01.2021
Tokyo, Korakuen Hall
680 Fans
1. Daisuke Harada, Atsushi Kotoge, Junta Miyawaki & Yasutaka Yano defeated Hajime Ohara, YO-HEY, Seiki Yoshioka & Kai Fujimura (9:48)
2. Yoshiki Inamura & Daiki Inaba defeated Manabu Soya & Tadasuke (8:04)
3. Kazuyuki Fujita defeated Masao Inoue (0:06)
4. Shiro Koshinaka & Akitoshi Saito defeated Mohammed Yone & Shuhei Taniguchi (8:35)
5. Osamu Nishimura defeated Kinya Okada (4:36)
6. Haoh & Nioh defeated HAYATA & Yuya Susumu (FREEDOMS )(7:44)
7. Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba & Kazunari Murakami defeated Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Masa Kitamiya (17:10)
8. Yoshinari Ogawa defeated Kotaro Suzuki (7:33) via DQ.
9. Go Shiozaki, Hiroshi Hase & Kaito Kiyomiya defeated Naomichi Marufuji, Keiji Muto & Masato Tanaka (ZERO1) (22:36)
January 5th 2020 came the day after NOAH’s January 4th show, which had the card known well in advance. That show saw Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Kotoge retain the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team belts over Haoh & Nioh. Yoshinari Ogawa beat future STINGER tag team partner, HAYATA to win the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship. Takashi Sugiura retained the GHC National Title in it’s first ever defense over Masa Kitamiya. And Go Shiozaki ended Kaito Kiyomiya’s year plus long reign with the GHC Heavyweight Championship and begin one of the best reigns with that belt in some time.
The big shock from the January 5th card was that just one day after winning the GHC Heavyweight Title, Shiozaki and then partner Katsuhiko Nakajima lost the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team belts to M’s Alliance members, Naomichi Marufuji and Masaaki Mochizuki.
Their mystery shows got started with a big bang and a title change.
This year’s mystery show saw no title changes, but did see a big re-debut in the form of Masato Tanaka, a former GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champion and current ZERO1 World Heavyweight Champion. Instead of realigning with Sugiura, Tanaka instead joined M’s Alliance where he remains a member.
We also saw Shiozaki and Keiji Mutoh face off for the first time after Mutoh had made the challenge for Budokan. Mutoh would go on to win that match and, just two days ago at time of writing, beat Masa Kitamiya to retain his belt for the second time.
Naomichi Marufuji came out to be Mutoh’s next challenger, and that match has been made official for the Cyber Fight Supershow on June 6th.
That Supershow will also feature Jun Akiyama defending the KO-D Openweight belt against HARISHIMA along with the main TJPW title, Princess Of Princess to also be defended.
So we will most likely see more title matches be set up and defended in May.
NOAH has three Korakuen Hall shows plus the Mitsuharu Misawa Memorial show to build Mutoh vs Marufuji.
Sugiura vs Sakuraba has already been confirmed for the Misawa Memorial show so the three Korakuen Hall shows could feature preview matches.
The GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions of STINGER, Ogawa & HAYATA were challenged by the FULL THROTTLE due of Seiki Yoshioka & YO-HEY. The title challenge was not directly accepted by the champions but I have a feeling this match will happen. Whether it’s at Korakuen Hall or the Misawa Memorial show is another matter.
Neither GHC Junior Heavyweight Title or GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Titles have been challenged for as of yet.
It seemed like YO-HEY was going to challenge Atsushi Kotoge for the Junior belt, but that may not be the case. That, or he’s feeling really ambitious and will challenge for both Junior belts this month. An outside bet for Kotoge’s next defense could be his own Momo No Seishun tag partner, Daisuke Harada. Kotoge and Harada do have a rivalry, whether as partner’s or opponents. So being current tag partners may not prevent the challenge being made.
The Aggression of Nakajima & Kitamiya have not made a defense since beating Sugiura & Sakuraba on March 7th. Kitamiya was busy with challenging Mutoh for the GHC Heavyweight Championship in all fairness. However, the team has gone unbeaten since becoming champions.
It did seem like a Funky Express team of Yone & Taniguchi would be set up as challengers but they lost to the champions directly on a previous show. That and The Aggression have made it known that they want to face a younger team. Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura could fit that bill but we’ll have to wait and see.
I don’t think it would be beyond NOSAWA’s booking to have Mutoh & Marufuji maybe put forth a challenge on account of Mutoh beating Kitamiya. But champion teaming with his next challenger is a very Western thing, hopefully too Western to happen.
It’s genuinely hard trying to hype shows with absolutely nothing announced!
But NOAH are riding a great wave of momentum after another big show with NOAH The Glory.
Keiji Mutoh, like it or not, is having good matches at the very least and is putting more eyes on NOAH.
I was surprised to see Sugiura take the National belt from Fujita, but that match was absolutely fantastic and I know him and Sakuraba are going to be magic together.
There could be drama on the horizon with YO-HEY and HAYATA’s past history as the two were incredibly close in the past. That and Yuya Susumu, the other STINGER member has a shared history with the two of them. Ogawa’s days of leader could soon be over, that and NOAH introducing three new rookies who are close to debut, Ogawa may be busy with his training duties.
I trust Kotoge and The Aggression to have good matches with whomever their next challengers come to be. Honestly I’d love something unexpected like a team from DDT to challenge The Aggression. Imagine them vs Eruption….
With Kenoh, Manabu Soya, Tadasuke and Haoh due to return soon after Kenoh’s positive test for Covid-19, Kongoh will soon be at full strength again by the end of this month at least (Kenoh’s recovery permitting of course).
May is a great time to check out Pro Wrestling NOAH!
