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NEWS ARCHIVE

Pro-Wrestling NOAH

3/1:

Kenta Kobashi's had another knee operation on 2/27. A bone was removed from his right knee and added a bone to his left knee. He now hopes to return sometime in autumn, but now it's a lot more questionable whether he'll wrestle again in 2001.

2/28:

Yoshihiro Takayama has declared free agency. NOAH will still be the main promotion he works for, but he's going to go back to his shooting routes (well, those were actually works) and try his hand in PRIDE. He'll be better than Yasuda, but in a real fight size is the only thing either has going for them.

2/22:

2/22 Chiba Narita Shi Taiikukan 2,800
No Fear beat Taue & Izumida when Takayama high kicked Izumida at 15:34.
Misawa & Ogawa defeated Akiyama & Shiga when Misawa used his deadly emerald flowsion on Shiga at 18:38. Misawa & Akiyama shook hands after the match, so they are now unified against Hashimoto & Nagata. Akiyama says he's only going to tag with Misawa this one time though.

2/20:

2/20 Tokyo Korakuen Hall 2,100 sellout
Vader & Scorpio beat Misawa & Rikio when Rikio was pinned at 7:56 after Scorpio's 450 splash.
Akiyama made Ogawa submit to his front neck lock at just 2:05. Akiyama isn't that impressed with ZERO-ONE's roster because, aside from Nagata who is just helping them out, they don't have any heavyweights with a strong amateur wrestling background.
Takumi Sano (another new first name for Naoki) defeated Kanemaru in 14:28.
Omori & Takayama beat Marufuji & Sugiura when Omori used his ax bomber on Sugiura at 12:50. No Fear are enraged that in spite of all their provoking of Hashimoto, they wound up with the "joke" junior heavyweight opponents Otsuka & Takaiwa. They say they can beat those two in 5 seconds and claim they'll boycott the show if Hashimoto doesn't give them quality heavyweight opposition instead.
Although the weekly NOAH show on NTV still isn't going to start until the spring, this show was taped as a test and some of it will be shown on the Coliseo show.

2/16:

Jun Akiyama cancelled his boycott of the 3/2 ZERO-ONE show because he now has the opportunity to face Nagata, who was also quite good in amaresu (amateur wrestling). It sounds like he'll be paired with Nagata and let Misawa fight Hashimoto since they have more of a grudge.

2/11:

2/11 Tokyo Differ Ariake 1,800 sellout
Taue & Izumida & Kikuchi beat Akiyama & Kanemaru & Morishima when Taue used his jumping high kick on Morishima at 8:04.
Sano defeated Marufuji in his NOAH debut, getting a submission with a yurikamome at 12:35. Sano gave a positive report to former stablemate Kazushi Sakuraba, so it's possible Sakuraba might appear on one/some of NOAH's major shows. Sano will have a singles match with Kanemaru on 2/20 and Ogawa on 2/25.

2/10:

2/10 Kanagawa Odawara Arena 1,700
Misawa & Ogawa & Rikio defeated Akiyama & Shiga & Morishima when Ogawa pinned Shiga in his backdrop hold at 18:29. Misawa offered his right hand to Akiyama after the match, but Akiyama refused to shake because he doesn't consent to teaming with Misawa on the ZERO-ONE debut. Akiyama essentially said that teaming with Misawa would negate all the progress he's made over the past year. No Fear say they'll boycott the ZERO-ONE debut because Hashimoto didn't give Omori a rematch.
Vader & Scorpio beat Taue & Izumida when Vader used his Big Van crush on Izumida at 8:52.

Naoki Sano, who left Takada Dojo and is now a free agent, has reached an agreement with Misawa to wrestle in NOAH. His first match will be tomorrow against Naomichi Marufuji. This is a good move on NOAH's part since they supposedly want to have a junior division, and Sano is better than any of the juniors they currently have plus he has credibility within the junior division.

2/1:

Kenta Kobashi was advised by doctors to lose so much weight that he'd be a junior heavyweight. Obviously, the less he weighs the less pressure is put on his knees. I can't see Kobashi ever getting that skinny again, but he has already lost 5 kg.

The next tour, Navigation for Progress, runs from 2/10-2/25. Vader is only there through the 22nd. The only other foreigner is Scorpio. Takeshi Rikio is with Misawa's unit in every match listed. The thing that stands out to me as the most bizarre is they have Misawa & Rikio vs. No Fear listed as the main event of the biggest and final show of the tour at Kobe World Kinen Hall. This is weird not only because that's not much of a main event, but because it means the only big singles match of the tour, Akiyama vs. Taue, is the semifinal behind that match. I realize Taue's stock has fallen, but not to the point that a tag match with Rikio should be above his singles match with another of the main guys. Ikeda vs. Vader on 2/11 at Differ and Akiyama vs. Ogawa on 2/20 at Korakuen should be interesting even though there's no doubt of the outcome, but basically this is a nothing tour since all the focus and big matches are being held off for the next tour where the first champion will be crowned.

1/30:

NOAH's Navigation For The Victory, GHC series, which features the tournament to crown the first GHC champion, will run from 3/18 at Tokyo Differ Ariake to 4/15 at Tokyo Ariake Coliseum.

1/27:

Takao Omori revealed that he was hospitalized 2 days after his loss to Shinya Hashimoto due to a right knee injury that he suffered in November. He had a small operation, but went ahead with his January bookings, hiding the injury from the fans. The idea is that he might have won if he was 100%, so this is his excuse to fight Hashimoto on 3/2 instead of Akiyama.

1/26:

Mitsuharu Misawa agreed to send wrestlers to the ZERO-ONE debut show because it's a good opportunity to expose NOAH to different fans. Hashimoto wants to fight Akiyama, but Omori also wants a rematch with Hashimoto.

1/25:

Kenta Kobashi was operated on again. This time the three hour operation saw the doctors transplant cartilage from the bone around his right intesines to his right knee. They also put three screws in. 6 months is now supposed to be the minimum amount of time he'll miss.

1/22:

Kenta Kobashi had a 4 1/2hr operation to remove cartilage in his elbow. He's going to have another operation later this week to transplant cartilage into the elbow and his right knee. His knee was described as looking like that of someone who is nearly 80-years-old. After this weeks knee operation, Kobashi has to completely rest it for 2 months, avoid anything strenuous for another month, and then go through months of training and rehab so he can return to the ring. Considering the severity of his injuries, the projected 6 month return is a pleasant surprise. Although neither are close to ready, Takeshi Rikio & Kenta Kobayashi are probably going to be given some chance to step up in Kobashi's absense.

1/21:

Kenta Kobashi made need an artificial knee joint. It's also possible that he'll have to have another knee surgery before he comes back. Due to this, no tentatitive date or even month for his return to the ring has been set.

1/19:

The doctors discoved that Kenta Kobashi has been wrestling with a broken bone in his right knee joint cartilage. He's also got a problem with his left elbow joint. He'll have operations on the 22nd to try to correct both problems. If Kobashi doesn't pull a Kobashi and come back early, he's probably wrestled his last match of 2001. Obviously, this is a huge blow to the match quality of NOAH because a barely mobile Kobashi was still able to have very good matches on the first two NOAH shows, and apparently his match with Akiyama on 12/23 was a couple notches better. I'll say it again since I never feel like it gets though, Kawada is more reliable than Kobashi and will outlast him inspite of being 4 years older.

1/18:

Although Kenta Kobashi isn't seeing the doctor until tomorrow, it was already announced that he's off the February series. Not only can't he run, but he can't walk to catch the train or walk up all the stairs. He also can't sleep due to the pain. Somehow he's been wrestling, of course, but he's dragging his right leg around in the ring. Due to this, he seems to consider his matches from the current tour as pitiful. He hopes to recouperate enough that he can be in the GHC Tournament in March, but he might need emergency surgery. If he has to have surgery, it would be similar to what was done to Misawa when he was 26. Misawa was out for 10 months after this, and he was 7 years younger than Kobashi is now.
Since Kobashi is off the February tour, and Vader won't be on the biggest show of the tour on 2/25 at Kobe World Kinen Hall, Shinya Hashimoto wants Misawa to reopen relations between NOAH and ZERO-ONE. What a shock it would be to see Hashimoto back in NOAH already.:)

1/16:

Kenta Kobashi's right knee is bothering him more than usual. It's serious enough that his participation in the GHC (Global Honored Crown) Tournament in March is in doubt. Kobashi is going to get the knee looked at after the 1/18 show. However, wWhether he actually goes along with what the doctor(s) say is entirely another story.
Jun Akiyama declared war on Shinya Hashimoto. NOAH supposedly isn't working with Hashimoto since his team lost the tag match on 1/13, but this is another way of getting Akiyama over as the rebel at the same time they sneakily keep the program alive. It looks like Akiyama will be on the first ZERO-ONE show, either as a wrestler or maybe he'll just pull an Onita and "intrude."

1/13:

1/13 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan 5,600
Vader & Jun Akiyama beat Kenta Kobashi & Akira Taue when Vader used his moonsault press on Kobashi at 25:40. Vader & Akiyama concentrated their attack on Kobashi, "overwhelming him."
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa defeated Shinya Hashimoto & Alexander Otsuka when Misawa pinned Otsuka in his Tigerdriver at 16:40. To show that they don't like each other, Misawa & Hashimoto did a lot of strikes and ignored/pushed aside the ref when he tried to get in the way of them beating the other guy up. The seconds wound up on the apron at one point when Hashimoto was stomping a mudhole in Misawa after getting the ref out of his way. What was disappointing to the fans though was that this was during their only confrontation, which lasted less than four minutes. Otsuka getting pinned in the Tigerdriver shows the kind of respect he gets here.
Takeshi Rikio went to a 30:00 draw with Takeshi Morishima.
Akitoshi Saito & Masashi Aoyagi beat Kentaro Shiga & Makoto Hashi when Saito pinned Hashi at 15:38.
Scorpio won a 3 Way, pinning Naomichi Marufuji in his 450 splash at 12:01 then dropping da bomb on Yoshinobu Kanemaru at 9:38.

NOAH will have a tournament during the March-April series (same time as All Japan's Champion Carnival) to crown their first singles champion. Later in the year, they'll crown tag and junior kings as well.

1/11:

One of the reasons Misawa wants to kick Hashimoto's ass on 1/13 is that Hashimoto announced his participation in the 12/23 NOAH show before his opponent was officially agreed upon or NOAH made any official announcement regarding his participation. Right after that, he announced his was fighting on the 12/31 Inoki show, so that took away some of the steam from the announcement of his first NOAH match. Due to this, Misawa says it's not possible for NOAH to have a reliable relationship with Hashimoto.
If Akiyama & Vader's partnership goes well on 1/13, they may become a regular team.

1/7:

Shinya Hashimoto says he'll drive Mitsuharu Misawa to the point where the fans won't allow him to avoid a singles match with Hashimoto. Hashimoto would like to have his first singles match with Kobashi at some point after this. He doesn't seem too thrilled about having a rematch with Choshu though. He watched a tape of that match and pretty much said that the match was good, but the result was the worst. The angle continues to be that he has an "open contract" to fight anyone now that he's "independent." Thus, he'll fight Choshu again if New Japan wants to promote the match, but he'd rather his next match there be against Naoya Ogawa.
Misawa said he doesn't intend to have a good match with Hashimoto, he just wants to put a beating on him.

1/6:

Shinya Hashimoto's 2nd match in NOAH on 1/13 at Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan will be a tag where he teams with Battlarts Alexander Otsuka, who worked briefly in All Japan over the summer, against Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa. There's some stipulation where if Hashimoto pins Misawa then he gets to "extend his large influence over NOAH for one year." In turn, if Misawa pins Hashimoto then he gets some power over ZERO-ONE (assuming they ever hold shows). This is main event from a ticket selling perspective, but since they don't want outsiders in the main event, Kobashi & Taue vs. Vader & Akiyama is listed as the top match and should go on last.

12/28:

Shinya Hashimoto's next match in NOAH will be on 1/13 at Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan. It might be a tag match this time.

12/23:

GREAT VOYAGE 12/23 Tokyo Ariake Colisseum 12,000 sellout (Ariake Collisem attendance record)
Kenta Kobashi pinned Jun Akiyama at 35:58 when Kobashi had to use his deadly Burning hammer. Kobashi used 5 lariats, a half nelson outside the ring, his new kyukoka (nose dive) stunner, etc., but he couldn't put Akiyama away so he had to remove his "ban" on the dangerous burning hammer. Akiyama fractured a bone around/behind Kobashi's left eye with his running elbow. Said to be one of the best matches of the year, but they went overboard with the big moves trying to make it stand above the rest.
Mitsuharu Misawa used three running elbows in a row to defeat Vader at 14:28. Vader wanted to take Misawa's right elbow out (his elbow arm) to get revenge on Misawa for injuring his left elbow in April.
Shinya Hashimoto pinned Takao Omori with his suichoku rakka shiki no DDT at 6:28. Omori vowed he'd avenge this loss, so this might become something of a series. NOAH set their record selling merchandise, with Hashimoto's appearance helping because about 570,000-en worth of his stuff was sold. A Misawa T-shirt was the hottest item though.
Yoshihiro Takayama used an enzui high kick at 9:29 to score his first singles victory over Akira Taue. Not a big surprise since Takayama has recieved a much bigger push this year and Taue's stock has been falling for the past few. This was a good time to do this result since it was their major show, although Misawa's problem has been following these things up. For instance Akiyama finally beats Misawa and then he comes back and loses to Omori in the first round of a Champion Carnival that appeared to be built around him meeting Kobashi in the finals.
Yoshinari Ogawa & Daisuke Ikeda defeated Masashi Aoyagi & Akitoshi Saito when Ikeda used his Death Valley bomb on Aoyagi at 7:23. Aoyagi & Saito have something of a name from the past as they were in New Japan's Heisei Ishingun and Aoyagi has had some big matches with Atsushi Onita over the years. I doubt this was much of a match, but it's worthwhile to book since the NOAH guys got the win and Misawa probably doesn't have to give much if anything back in return.
Kodo Fuyuki & Tetsuhiro Kuroda brought the WEW Tag Senshuken back to FMW, defeating Tamon Honda & Naomichi Marufuji when Fuyuki lariated Honda at 13:13. This was also good booking for NOAH because they got the belt on two of their "young" teams over a 5 month period, and they only thing they've given in return is this win where it took arguably FMW's two top guys to take out the NOAH midcarders.
Kentaro Shiga & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takeshi Morishima beat Masao Inoue & Takeshi Rikio & Takashi Sugiura when Shiga made Sugiura submit to an udehishigigyakujujigatame at 14:17. Sugiura made his debut here. He won the All Japan Greco-Roman wrestling champiionship at 82kg in 1995.
Haruka Eigen & Jun Izumida & Satoru Asako defeated Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota & Makoto Hashi when Izumida lariated Hashi at 14:20.
Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Kenta Kobayashi beat Scorpio & Kishin Kawabata when Kikuchi used his hinotama (fireball) bomb on Kawabata at 12:08.
There was a 10 count for the late Yoshihiro Momota before the show started.

12/12:

NTV will broadcast NOAH starting next April. NTV is the station that broadcast AJ all these years then switched to NOAH when the promotions split, but quickly cancelled the TV deal. Ironically, NTV also announced a one-shot deal with AJ to air matches from the 1/28 Tokyo Dome show.

12/6:

More than 3,000 tickets for the GREAT VOYAGE show on 12/23 at Tokyo Ariake Coliseum have been sold since Shinya Hashimoto's debut match was announced. There's an angle where the NOAH wrestlers are pissed at this because they wanted the building to be packed with solely NOAH fans, rather than Hashimoto fans.

12/2:

The GREAT VOYAGE show on 12/23 at Tokyo Ariake Coliseum is stacked. After hardly having any major singles matches in the first 5 months, they are running Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama, Vader vs. Mitsuharu Misawa, Shinya Hashimoto vs. Takao Omori, and Akira Taue vs. Yoshihiro Takayama on the same show! Obviously this is nutty because they are putting a Dome lineup (well, it's clearly better than what AJ presented on their dome shows) in a building that holds 5,000 less than Budokan, but what do you expect from Misawa? Kodo Fuyuki is taking Tetsuhiro Kuroda as his partner in the quest to regain FMW's WEW Tag Senshuken from Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue. The 15,000-en seats and the good 10,000-en seats (the ones where you to sit in a chair for your $100) are already sold out.

11/23:

Yoshihiro Momota, the oldest son of Rikidozan, died from liver cancer at 7:50pm on the 22nd. Momota was 54. Although he didn't come close to attaining the notoriety of his legendary father, he was involved in the business for the last 28 years. Momota graduated from Keio University in 1968 with a degree in law. He was an original member of All Japan in 1972, working for them as a ring announcer and director until jumping to NOAH with everyone else in June of this year. Although he played football in college and was from a wrestling family, he ran his father's boxing gym after graduation and didn't try his hand at wrestling until he was in his early 30's. On 12/11/77 at Tokyo Nippon Budokan, he "involuntarily" became involved in the deciding match of the first Sekai Saikyo tag league on AJ's annual Rikidozan memorial show when Abdullah The Butcher attacked him, slicing him up. Yoshihiro didn't want the fans to think he was "the lazy son," so he decided to become a wrestler. He went to American for a few years, training under the Funks and wrestling in their Amarillo territory and then training under Sonny Myers and former NWA Heavyweight Champion Pat O'Connor while working for Bog Geigel in Kansas City. His Japanese debut was a tag match with brother Mitsuo on 9/1/80. He only wrestled in Japan for 7 years, but since he started so late he was 41 when he retired in 1987.

11/21:

Shinya Hashimoto may work the January tour. Even though Jun Akiyama has recived the biggest push since NOAH started, Kenta Kobashi is the wrestler they are talking about for the dream match against Hashimoto that would be the biggest match of the year for NOAH.

11/12:

11/12 Aichi Toyota Shi Taiikukan 2,100
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa & Daisuke Ikeda beat Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama & Satoru Asako when Ikeda pinned Asako at 21:36.
Kenta Kobashi & Takeshi Rikio beat Akira Taue & Jun Izumida when Rikio lariated Izumida at 15:14.
Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Morishima beat Vader & Richard Slinger when Akiyama explodered Slinger at 13:33.

11/11:

11/11 Kyoto KBS Hall 1,400
Akira Taue & Jun Izumida beat Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi when Taue used his dynamic bomb on Kikuchi at 20:29.
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa beat Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue when Ogawa used his backdrop hold on Shiga at 4:26.

11/9:

11/9 Chiba Koen Taiikukan 2,400
Vader & Scorpio & Slinger beat Omori & Takayama & Asako when Scorpio used a guillotine drop off the top rope on Asako at 17:02.
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa beat Kobashi & Kikuchi when Ogawa used his backdrop hold on Kikuchi at 19:49.

11/8:

11/8 Yamagata Shi Sogo Sports Center 2,400
Taue & Honda & Izumida beat Vader & Scorpio & Slinger when Izumida pinned Slinger at 15:06.
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa beat Tamon Honda & Masao Inoue when Ogawa used his backdrop hold on Shiga at 4:26.
Ikeda pinned Masao Inoue with his Death Valley bomb at 14:37.

11/7:

11/7 Fukushima Tsurugasaka Taiikukan 1,800
Mitsuharu Misawa is thinking of running a decision league to crown the first NOAH singles champion around March. Not so coincidentally, that would probably mean it would be going head to head with All Japan's Champion Carnival.
Vader & Scorpio & Slinger beat Kobashi & Kikuchi & Rikio when Vader chokeslammed Rikio at 18:19.
Misawa & Ogawa beat Taue & Izumida when Misawa used his running elbow on Izumida at 19:44.

11/6:

11/6 Niigata Iizumi Sogo Taiikukan 2,000
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa & Daisuke Ikeda beat Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Takeshi Rikio when Ikeda Death Valley bombed Rikio at 20:45. Misawa made a speech where he said NOAH would place more importance on the sports aspect. Akiyama, at least in storyline is pissed off about this and says they need to go in a different direction, especially since their exposure is down because they aren't on NTV anymore.
Takao Omori & Yoshihiro Takayama defeated Vader & Scorpio when Takayama pinned Scorpio in his German suxplex hold at 12:19.
Akira Taue & Jun Izumida beat Jun Akiyama & Takeshi Morishima when Izumida pinned Morishima at 15:18.
The match on 11/16 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mitsuo Momota's debut will be a singles match against rookie Kenta Kobayashi. Momota wants to keep wrestling as long as his body allows, and is also into teaching younger wrestlers so that's why the anniversary match is against a rookie.

11/4: Akiyama Leaves No Fear To Make No Interesting

11/4 Tokyo Differ Ariake 1,800 sellout
Mitsuharu Misawa's new WAV (someone should tell him that his group is a audio file, not the thing Noah encountered in the ocean) group appears to be the same guys he's had with him all along. No Fear beat Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa & Daisuke Ikeda when Omori used his ax bomber on Ikeda at 23:01. After the match, Akiyama decided to leave No Fear, a group he's at most been a part of since August, because fighting against them would make NOAH more interesting. The message this sends is that Misawa's group is too weak to handle No Fear when Akiyama is involved. I guess Misawa and his scrubs vs. No Fear vs. Akiyama and his scrubs vs. Kobashi and his scrubs will create some all important parity or something.
Vader & Richard Slinger beat Akira Taue & Satoru Asako when Vader used the hip drop off the 2nd rope as a tribute to his friend Yokozuna. Although Yokozuna wrestled in rival New Japan and never wrestled in All Japan or NOAH, NOAH was the only Japanese promotion to do a 10 count for him.
In the first match of his trial, Takeshi Rikio lost to his regular partner, Kenta Kobashi, when Kobashi made him submit to the cobra twist at 9:54.

11/2:

NOAH created an official website at http://www.noah.co.jp . They got 7,000 visitors the first day even though it was just a test version and the page hadn't been submitted to any search engines.

10/26:

NOAH will create three titles by spring of next year; single, tag, and junior. The single title will be decided by a tournament. Misawa said he'd like the tournament to be big so the young wrestlers that exert themselves can have a chance. Thus, every wrestler will try to earn the right to be in the tournament during the November and December series.
Takeshi Rikio will have a 5 single match trial on the next tour.

Contact info
All inquiries and orders should be e-mailed to M.L.Liger@juno.com.