fujiwara armbar investigates: Pro-Wrestling NOAH

An occasional series in which, in a bid to further my spotty knowledge of Japanese wrestling promotions, I watch a recent event and assess whether or not I'd watch regularly given the time, money and ability to access.

Promotion: Pro-Wrestling NOAH

Event watched: Navigation With Breeze, Korakuen Hall, May 22nd 2014

What did I know about the promotion going in?: Quite a lot, as it happens. Enough to probably cover the official versions of the history and a couple of things they would want to hide as best as possible. Formed by All Japan ace Mitsuharu Misawa in 2000 after a significant disagreement with its owner, with the assistance of his friends in the AJPW locker room (nearly everyone) and a major television network, the promotion put on some of the biggest shows of the 00s. 

Named for the biblical Noah and his ark (The Ark is how fans sometimes refer to it), the company allowed Misawa to put into practice the ideas that had brought him into conflict with AJPW management, such as attempting to sell out larger buildings, working with rival companies and, anticipating the way in which Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff had a monopoly on English-speaking talent, reducing the amount of foreign wrestlers.

Prolonging the heavyweight style that made AJPW such a thrill in the 90s with many of the same stars, the company rode the crest of a wave until the routinely mediocre booking of the undercard came to bite them in the belly by having no one to replace the top stars on the slowdown and eventual retirement of the much-loved Kenta Kobashi. Adding to problems would be the death of Misawa in a NOAH ring, problems with alleged mafioso connections, the re-emergence of New Japan and, in 2014, the leaving of new bankable company ace (and the one true name star the company had and could hope to rely on for another 5-7 years) KENTA to pursue a career in the US.

Naomichi Marufuji (l), KENTA (r)

Regardless of such issues, their titles are strongly-revered and considered a prestigious honour to carry: NJPW's Yuji Nagata is the GHC (Global Honoured Crown) champion at the time of writing, and England's Zack Sabre Jr. co-holds the Jr. Tag Team Championships with former GHC Heavyweight Champion Yoshinari Ogawa. The current president is Akira Taue, the vice-president Naomichi Marufuji.

What is the history of the promotion?: There's not a lot that I didn't cover already. The peak of NOAH seemed to coincide with the 2 year title reign of Kenta Kobashi, selling out the Tokyo Dome with a Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama main event.

What did you think?: I've seen NOAH shows of yore but this represents the first full show I've seen since the Marufuji reign on the GHC Championship circa 2006.

Mitsuhiro Kitamiya and Hitoshi Kumano tangle in the opener, a short affair redolent of many of the NJPW Young Lions matches: it's very smooth, the moves are basic but well-performed, the pendulum swings either way, with a steady build which the crowd gradually warm to and there's a clean finish in favour of the slightly more experienced Kitamiya (2 years to Kumano's 1). Encouraging signs of life for the NOAH dojo.

A junior heavyweight singles bout follows between Hajime Ohara - who I am presuming has some MMA aspirations/background based on his attire (he does) - and Daisuke Ikeda, who emerges carrying a sword about as big as a rolled-up carpet. Throughout the match Ikeda seems to reference other workers (prefacing his finisher with Daniel Bryan's 'Yes! Yes! Yes!' arm motions) so I guess the sword is a reference to NJPW's Kazuchika Okada's entrance at New Beginning? Let me know if I'm wrong on that. I also can't shake that Ikeda's full name is one letter away from a Buddhist sect leader that some teenage friends were/still are into. Anyway, this is also a perfectly fine and short encounter though Ikeda's ring attire is a little bit backyard fed.

Not the guy who beats Hajime Ohara

We're into the meat of the show now as we preface a triple threat match with a video package. Jr. Heavyweight Champion Daisuke Harada is being pursued by Quiet Storm. They have had many encounters. The third competitor in this match, Zack Sabre Jr., is not mentioned. This match is non-title, possibly because Quiet Storm is about as much a junior heavyweight as Hulk Hogan is.

The story of the match unfolds as Storm is the piss in the drink of a great technical encounter between Sabre Jr. and Harada. Some of Sabre and Harada's exchanges early in the encounter are expert-level stuff, that kind of reversing and countering of submissions that is not only technically brilliant but visually appealing. Gauging the reaction of every encounter between the two, a singles encounter must be in the offing.

This is not to say that Storm offers the match nothing. His brutish high-impact power wrestling counterbalances the artistry of his opponents, wrecking both men as Harada goes to superplex Sabre by sneaking underneath opportunistically and powerbombing everybody into oblivion. Storm wins by inflicting some more pain on Harada, covering for the pin and doing the Scott Steiner 'not yet!' bit before dooming the champion with one last big lariat. Sabre Jr. sneaks off to the back, a bit part player in this feud but enhancing his credentials daily. Impressive stuff.

Funnily enough he isn't very quiet whatsoever

Match four is a tag team bout between Atsushi Kotoge and Taiji Ishimori of the BRAVE faction and the excellently-named TMDK, which is an acronym for The Mighty Don't Kneel. TMDK (Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls) are a pair of blokes so Australian-looking that you half-expect them to stride to the ring wearing baggy green caps and half a pot of zinc cream. They're affable, irreverent types with a nice line in seaside capering that fits in well in the slightly over-reverent NOAH building, mainly because they back it up with skills that are well above average. I also thought their interview on Colt Cabana's Art of Wrestling was among the best yet. Success in the US is probably the long-term goal and you'd think WWE would be up for reaching out to potentially commercial, abundantly charismatic English-speaking guys with all-around skills and stamina. Right now they're a great fit in Japan.

The BRAVE boys are no slouches either. They're smaller than their opponents but stretch them every inch of the way, exhibiting brilliant chemistry and timing and even some killer moves I've never seen before. TMDK, who finished third in the annual Global Tag League, display a bit more togetherness that eventually sees them pick up the win inside the 12 minute mark. Really liked this match and everyone in it and we're four for four on this show. I don't even think my beloved New Japan can claim that in 2014.

TMDK: Shane Haste (l) and Mikey Nicholls (r)

A superfluous contract signing between Yuji Nagata and Muhammed Yone for the GHC Heavyweight Championship occurs. I do love a good superfluous contract signing but you'd think you'd get it locked down before the posters go up in the neighbourhood.

Match five is a six-man tag match which sees two members of the tweenerish No Mercy squad, (the squat and stolid Genba Hirayanagi and the large and lumbering  ex-IWGP, GHC and Triple Crown champion Yoshihiro Takayama) alongside the omnipresent Masato Tanaka, take on three of the heelish Chokibo-gun faction (arrogant junior Kenou, masked prick Maybach Taniguchi and the less-fatter-than-he-was-but-still-fat Takeshi Morishima).

Understandably given the two large contests this has to follow and the quartet of enjoyable wrestling qua wrestling matches we've been served, this encounter ups the ante in terms of storyline. Not that the match is some kind of grotesque DUD - far from it - it's lively and performed in a spirited fashion. It just doesn't try to steal the show, rather it plants ideas for somewhere down the road. The heels win and they heel it up in quite a perfunctory manner. Boooo! Hiss!!!!!

The way we were

A video package summarising the journey of KENTA to this moment plays. It's stirring stuff, detailing the rise from plucky junior to tag team shitkicker to undersized heavyweight division miracle boy. The tape interweaves the narrative of KENTA's relationship of long-term frenemy Naomichi Marufuji. Together they wowed the world as the best tag team of the 00s and brought out the best in each other singles competition, climaxing in the headline slot of the 2006 show at Budokan for the GHC Championship. KENTA is off to the WWE. Marufuji, NOAH's vice-president, must stay behind and tend to the shop. For one final night, they'll team rather than tangle.

Given that this is the last opportunity I'll have to comment on KENTA, provided his WWE run isn't a total failure, it would be daft of me not to take it. You see, whilst I haven't exactly been keeping my hand in with full NOAH shows, I certainly have been perusing the fortunes of this gentleman since his videos first became available to me. His style is just right in that sweet spot where it feels real and intense without ever breaking the illusion of a work.

One exchange in the middle of this farewell match really underlines KENTA's core appeal. He and Takashi Sugiura completely brutalise each other with wild kicks, slaps and forearm shots that don't seem at all pulled. This sequence offers very little in the way of classic aesthetics but pretty much everyone in the building can feel the heat rising in the seat beneath them, roaring the exchange on without inhibition.

Sugiura is a toadish veteran with a brief MMA career and is more than capable of fucking someone up. KENTA is smaller and quite attractive and obviously pays a lot of attention to quality hair-care products and outside of the ring dresses like someone who would refer to themselves as a 'creative' and sigh daily into a Mac Powerbook. But in the heat of battle, KENTA soaks everything up and spits it all back out and often ups the intensity. Of course ultimately it's a work but how many of us could muster the spirit to look good in the face of Sugiura's assault in even in a fake fighting capacity?

This match, billed as one of a double main event, more than lives up to its billing. The fourth member of the match is the boyish Katsuhiko Nakajima, a protege of Kensuke Sasaki (on colour commentary), whose kicks are the sharpest and best-looking I've seen for quite some time. Of course he's here to eat the fall from KENTA's raw knee Go 2 Sleep, but in many a way he's the biggest beneficiary. During the after match pleasantries where KENTA waves goodbye and shakes the hands of Sugiura and Marufuji, Nakajima slaps KENTA across the face. Far from being booed out of the building, the room bursts into applause. It's kind of weird but I think it's a show of appreciation and understanding that the mantle is being officially passed.

Everything you could want to happen in a match with these guys happens with the possible absence of that real spark of big match dynamite. Marufuji is still a remarkable wrestler of sublime movement, technique and transition. In terms of pure technical ability he is possibly KENTA's superior. Their gift and fortune as a pair (whether together or opposite) was to break through at a similar time and know how to press the buttons to drag out the best in each other.

And that is my real worry with KENTA in WWE. Not that he will be undersized or given a poor gimmick. It's that no one will understand or try to put across the dimensions of his subtle differences; he's not some respectful Japanese houseboy but a man of justified and visible self-confidence, he's got a charisma that can't be crammed into 'promos', he doesn't hate you as such, he just thinks that he's better. Underdog him and you lose his vitality, offering the often parochial US audiences no reason to care.

KENTA waves farewell, bowing deeply to all four sides of the room. Mentor and trainer Kenta Kobashi looks on from the balcony and lifelong friend Katsuyori Shibata watches from the floor seats. The camera lingers on a sign that says "KENTA: YOUR DREAM IS OUR DREAM." Imagine that happening for a not-retiring wrestler in the US. Hella emotional.

Fare thee well, Black Sun.

A tough act to follow for the second main event, the GHC Heavyweight Championship contest between champion Yuji Nagata and lifelong midcarder Muhammed Yone, but the two rise to the occasion well. Wrestled in a similar fashion to many WWE main events in the 00s, with a brawl around the arena before settling into a classic pendulum-swing encounter within the confines of the ring area complete with one or two 'oooof!' moments (Yone snatches Nagata off the apron and hits a Muscle Buster to the floor), it's a good match that the crowd respond to warmly. KENTA comes out for a stint on commentary. Nagata wins to retain and performs his Nagadance, turning around for his salute only to find Naomichi Marufuji waiting to challenge for the title. Nagata accepts and...we're clear!

Except we're not because NOAH choose the moment where everyone is milling out slowly to host two superfluous contract signings, one for the Jr. Heavyweight Championship between Daisuke Harada and Quiet Storm, and one for the Tag Team Championships between Dangan Yankees (Takashi Sugiura and Masato Tanaka) and...I'm not sure, because their opponents weren't there. At a CONTRACT SIGNING. D'oh!

What did you think?: I really enjoyed that!

Maybe it's because I'm more of a fan of the actual wrestling and less of the sports-entertainment aspect (not that everything was contested in some po-faced pseudo-sports way) that I'm going to get something out of a promotion even if there aren't too many stars around anymore. Also, perhaps this wasn't the most representative NOAH show to drop in on. It's not every day that their biggest star leaves, after all.

This said, the card was strong from top to bottom. It wasn't just 'the KENTA goodbye': seeds were planted, divisions kept rolling on in their own right and the championships around which the promotion is booked all had their stories developed significantly - with a little extra room for character development by way of the Chokibo-gun faction.

Where NOAH are strongest is the potential in the next generation of stars. New Japan's roster is incredibly strong, but ageing fast: Okada is young and Nakamura has a few years to go in his position but much of the domestic heavyweight roster is 39+. Yohei Komatsu and Sho Tanaka are excellent, but they seem undersized. Takaaki Watanabe is a heavyweight but perhaps not star material.

The future of NOAH? (and Ogawa)

NJPW management seem reluctant to pull the trigger on Naito, Goto and Shibata at all. Given that NOAH have shown that hugely talented juniors can become eligible for a heavyweight division shot, they are bridging the gap better with workers like Ishimori, Kotoge and Nakajima. Sadly NOAH don't have the present cadre of stars to lure masses in to peep at their next generation and have to get by on workrate alone. After all, their champion is another company's legend.

Would you watch again?: Perception is that NOAH, like All Japan, are a dying act as a result of their woes. I'd be keen to catch a few more shows to see how close to reality this is. This show was a solid 8.5/10 and worthy of wider exposure.

NEXT: Wrestle-1