NOAH is back on Wrestle Universe with who is the leader. A three-match show. This show is to decide who is the leader of FULL THROTTLE. This has come about since Kotoge and Yoshioka have been proclaiming they are the leader of the group. All these matches will be singles matches. Who will be the leader of FULL THROTTLE at the end of the night? Let’s take a look and find out.
The event will be live on Wrestle Universe. It will take place from the NOAH special arena.
Bell time 12:00 JST (23:00 EDT, 20:00 PDT, 04:00 BST)
Match 1:
Hajime Ohara
vs
Atsushi Kotoge
The first match of the night is Hajime Ohara vs Atsushi Kotoge. This will be their 6th singles match against each other. Their record against each other stands at 3 wins for Kotoge and 2 wins for Ohara
Since dropping back down to the Junior division Kotoge has been doing great work. he has won the IPW Junior heavyweight title and the GHC Junior heavyweight tag team title as well. He didn’t make it out of the block in the Global Junior League. He broke away from Stinger to form what is now FULL THROTTLE. A lot more hyperactive then he was in Stinger but not quite at his revolutionary hero level. Kotoge’s singles record in 2020 is 3 wins, 1 draw, 4 losses.
Ohara has jumped around a little bit since the start of 2019. After losing the GHC Junior heavyweight tag team titles in February of 2019 his tag team with Hitoshi Kumano disbanded. He joined the Sugiura army. He finished joint last in the global junior tag league and didn’t fare much better in the Junior League. In the 2020 Global Junior League, he made it out of his block but lost in the semi-final. He made the jump with Yoshioka to join Kotoge and form FULL THROTTLE. His singles record in 2020 is 4 wins, 3 losses.
This match should be good. Ohara will try to control the match and stop Kotoge from getting too crazy. Interestingly Ohara beat Kotoge in their most recent meeting so he might have the psychological advantage. I think Kotoge will pick up the win which is a shame because I feel that Ohara is one of the most underrated wrestlers in the world today and he should be getting a bigger spotlight IMO.
Match 2:
Hajime Ohara
vs
Seiki Yoshioka
A first-time singles match between the two.
Yoshioka joined NOAH from WRESTLE1 in April. He was a 3x WRESTLE1 Cruiserweight Champion. First debuting as part of the Sugiura army. He teamed with Ohara to challenge for the GHC Junior heavyweight tag team titles. He and Ohara then left the Sugiura Army to join Kotoge to create FULL THROTTLE. His singles record in NOAH so far is 1 win, 1 draw 3 losses. This isn’t the best record but he is still finding his feet in NOAH. He has been a good addition to the junior division and will surely continue to grow as he finds his feet.
Ohara will have just came off his match with Kotoge so he will be at a disadvantage. He will look to his experience to manage his fatigue and find a way to win.
Like the last match, this match should be good. Ohara will be looking to keep Yoshioka grounded. Yoshioka will look to speed things up and attack Ohara with his strikes although Ohara has deceptively good strikes. Like the last match, I expect this to be a loss for Ohara. Again I think he is arguably the best junior NOAH has and would be my personal choice to be the leader of FULL THROTTLE but I don’t see that happening.
Main Event
Atsushi Kotoge
vs
Seiki Yoshioka
I think this match will be the main event match. The first time these two will have faced each other. These two have been vocal about how they consider themselves the leader of FULL THROTTLE. They often have squabbled about it and almost came to blows until the calm head Ohara steps into to stop it.
At this point, I think both men will have 1 win. This match will be the decider.
Yoshioka will have had a match before and Kotoge will be fresh as well as probably a bit hyper.
The match will probably be fast-paced with Yoshioka focusing on strikes and speed. Kotoge will look to stop Yoshioka by slowing the pace down and control the match.
In the end, I think Kotoge will win and become the leader of FULL THROTTLE. With this I think Kotoge will become the main junior in FULL THROTTLE with Ohara and Yoshioka will become the tag team and will mainly be going for the junior tag team titles.
Conclusion
The matches on this show should be good. 3 of the premier juniors in NOAH going at it. Personally, I didn’t think that there should have been a whole event dedicated to finding the leader when I thought it was obvious who it was. Anyway, it should be a good event with some very good wrestling.
The event will be live on Wrestle Universe.
Bell time 12:00 JST (23:00 EDT, 20:00 PDT, 04:00 BST).
