#Go Shiozaki

[joearlikelikeswrestling]

[alibomaye]

[mackdaddyofthecravate]

Portraits from the special Cyberfight pop up shop

[heffalumpfreezone]

He is so very brave

[kopw]

[urakenbomb]

credit: kodamaxmax

[romiswired]

Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Go Shiozaki (Pro Wrestling NOAH 20th Anniversary ~ NOAH The Chronicle Vol. 2)

30 minutes.

When you look back at the pandemic era of professional wrestling, you think about many promotions that stood up and had to change a lot of things to survive. You think of the big ones, like WWE and AEW, who changed their whole presentation for a more intimate and let's say creative approach. The Thunderdome was something straight out of a dystopia, but it was accurate to the times we were going through. I mean, the idea of a pandemic always sparks fear and intimidation for whatever happens to you or your loved ones, so the idea of wrestling in front of multiple screens with people watching over you ALL the time didn't feel like that much of a nightmare, although it was.

AEW had their own shows, and they made the talent the crowd so you could at least try and remember the times when real people were there, cheering or booing the wrestlers in the ring and making sure they have a reaction, or they don't. The thing about the AEW roster working as a crowd was that they reacted to everything and everyone. At the time we didn't question if that was practical or not because we were so needed of human interaction anything resembling our ordinary lives before this behemoth called COVID-19 struck in our world was appreciated, even if in its nature lied a blatant dishonesty with everything surrounding wrestling.

The first months of 2020 were weird looking at them in retrospective. It seemed like wrestling was going to continue a route of mediocrity at least in the United States, while in Japan the new guard was slowly building itself to be recognized, while the present stars were still shining through the darkness of this world. In promotions like DDT, you had the likes of Konosuke Takeshita and Tetsuya Endo running things and making sure you remember their names while Chris Brookes and Yuki Ueno were slowly becoming more and more important.

In New Japan Pro Wrestling you still had the likes of Kazuchika Okada and Tetsuya Naito to remind you they were the biggest stars in Japanese wrestling, but names like Jay White and Will Ospreay were starting to break through the mold, specially Ospreay who started his transition to a Heavyweight wrestler. In All Japan Pro Wrestling, Kento Miyahara was kicking it and bringing back Zen Nihon to the conversation once again, and while we had all of this, there were projects to be made in the sphere of Joshi wrestling, like STARDOM building the myth of Utami Hayashishita, and Miyu Yamashita becoming the definitive Ace in Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling.

Among all of this, lied a promotion with enough ups and downs to build a video-essay of three hours. Its name was Pro Wrestling NOAH, and in 2020 they were starting a new era. Long lost were the days of Suzuki-gun's invasion and NOAH's attendance issues, as CyberFight bought the company and was starting to build it almost from scratch, bringing a new logo, a new image, and of course, new stars and some established ones that had a lot in the tank. NOAH was a mix of everything you could imagine, and in a certainly interesting fashion, they became the home for the shooters and hoopers of the wrestling world.

In 2017, no one knew if NOAH could continue running things, as the promotion was going through a big crisis. In the beginning of 2020, a new roster was brought to fruition. Alongside the drawing power of Keiji Muto, the likes of Kenoh, Kaito Kiyomiya, Masa Kitamiya, Kazushi Sakuraba, Takashi Sugiura, Hideki Suzuki, Katsuhiko Nakajima and Kazuyuki Fujita built a roster of absolute monsters with something to prove. After defeating the young Kiyomiya, Go Shiozaki, the last disciple of Mitsuharu Misawa, became the GHC Heavyweight Champion and started a new chapter.

To understand Shiozaki's struggle we need to go back to 2009, when Misawa received a back suplex and was left in the middle of the ring gasping for air. In the biggest irony of all, the man that subjected himself to the sickest bumps in history was taken down by a mere, simple thing. As Misawa tragically died, Shiozaki was given the crown and was expected to get to inhuman heights for a guy his age and with his experience. He was a NOAH-born wrestler, but the fans were merciless with him and didn't settle for less than the best. The pressure was massive, and Shiozaki basically left NOAH in pursue of different opportunities.

Contrary to his master, Shiozaki continued his story in All Japan, the place that saw the myth of Misawa be born and brought to the spotlight. After winning the Triple Crown, and becoming one of the best wrestlers Japanese wrestling had to offer, he then returned to NOAH in 2015/2016, amidst the Suzuki-gun invasion and the Sugiura-gun angle. Shiozaki promised to protect NOAH from their invaders, but Naomichi Marufuji (potentially, THE NOAH guy you may think of) didn't believe in Go's intentions and doubted his loyatly because he left the company where things got tough.

After years of working his way through the ranks of the company, Shiozaki was building a status deserving of more opportunities. He formed AXIZ, a tag team with Nakajima that was really popular in the company and helped him build a resume of worth seeing matches, giving the company a new feeling. NOAH was no longer the promotion you could ignore, as they were building something big in the hands of Shiozaki and Nakajima. As I said, Shiozaki entered 2020 defeating Kiyomiya for the GHC Title, and was waiting for his contender to arise. What he couldn't predict nor control was the situation he was going to get involved in.

Kazuyuki Fujita was his first challenger. Fujita was the last disciple of Antonio Inoki, and the last son of Inokism, which meant his style was leaning on insane strikes and claustrophobic holds. Fujita was as stiff as they come, and he had a lot of accolades to fear him, more so when you consider he was part of Sugiura-gun, the "bad motherfuckers" group by excellence. He didn't sell for nobody, he bumped on his shoulders, and he was a stubborn S.O.B. as learned from his master who carried his philosophy to the biggest Puroresu company in the world today, this being New Japan.

While this match's significance was already in the table, being a clash between two of the most stubborn, narcissistic, egostistical and disruptive philosophies of professional wrestling who ran the 2000s clashing with each other for dominance, longevity and prestige (and were also literally contrary to each other in every single aspect) something else happened. A thing that was only permitted in the dystopical landscape we were living.

NOAH was forced to run their 20th Anniversary show in an empty Korakuen Hall, and the Main Event of this evening was Fujita vs. Shiozaki. Keep in mind what I already said. This was a match between the last of a dying breed, because Misawa-ism and Inoki-ism are no longer living as they did before. Marufuji can teach the young wrestlers the "Misawa way" but he'll never be that, he'll never reach that status. The same goes for someone like Katsuyori Shibata. You can't teach spirit. It's something that comes with you. You can't teach passion. It's something that lives within you. You can't teach like Misawa or Inoki because it goes further. It's not only "Misawa vs. Inoki" but part of it is "Baba vs. Inoki".

Part of what made NOAH characteristic was its evolution of King's Road methodology. Like it or not, All Japan's DNA lives in NOAH's first steps in the wrestling world, and the first arc of the company lies heavy on the stories that couldn't end in AJPW. The "Misawa vs. Kobashi" series, the "Misawa vs. Kawada" series, even the idea of Jun Akiyama being crowned GHC Champion when he couldn't be a Triple Crown holder is also proof of this. Therefore, this match has all of this significance behind.

Its setting just amplifies it.

If you never watched this match during the pandemic, there's a chance you will not understand why this is one of the best matches you could see in your life. It's all about the atmosphere to me. When you write on paper "30-minute staredown" it surely does not sound as interesting as it actually is in the match. I think the unique nature of it helps for that complex idea to be accepted and embraced. There's no one watching this. No one has to go anywhere. We're all stuck in our homes, fearing the death of our loved ones and ourselves.

Maybe we're going through some tough shit even, therefore why should we care about "time", when the world just stopped and doesn't seem to run accordingly? Why is "time" an imperative necessity for us to enjoy this match, when its setting just tells the story more so than 100 camera shots and a 20-minute speech? This match is actually a great exercise in how to use the limitations bestowed upon you to build something magical. Everything about this match feels natural because it's the only thing that you can think of. It also helps you understand the weight this has for someone like Shiozaki, because there's also something really profound hidden. This is the last challenge of Go Shiozaki's career to prove he has everything needed to run NOAH and carry it like Misawa once did. It's sink or swim, and the biggest shark wants a bite of him, so he has to fight through. He has to prove to ourselves and HIMSELF he can go, and he can carry that weight. The finishing stretch of this match just speaks louder than words. The final Gowan Lariat takes down the beast, and helps Shiozaki build his myth once and for all.

Watch this match. It's the best match in the pandemic era BY FAR, and it's also the best match in 2020. I've said this in 2020 when I first watched this, and I continue to think the same in 2025. After five years, I can say Shiozaki's reign with the GHC Title was so legendary it brought NOAH to heights that it didn't reach for a long time. While the current NOAH fails to catch my interest and has sincerely lost the plot, there's always this reminder of what a great company they were in the beginning of the decade, and how that short two-year run was a gift to NOAH fans around the world, and the NOAH-born wrestlers who had a lot of ghosts from their past, haunting at them and reminding them of their condition. For Shiozaki, those ghosts have disappeared, and he can finally stand in the middle of the ring and shout: "I am NOAH."

[frentique]

[puroresu-musings]

NOAH "THE NEW YEAR" 2024 Review (Jan 2nd, 2024, Ariake Arena, Tokyo)

1, GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Title 3-Way Elimination Match - Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane (c) vs. Alejandro & Ninja Mack vs. YO-HEY & Tadasuke ***3/4

2, Jake Lee, Jack Morris & Anthony Greene vs. El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Titus Alexander & Vinnie Massaro **1/2

3, Masa Kitamiya vs. Tomohiro Ishii ****1/2+

4, Go Shiozaki vs. Satoshi Kojima ****

5, Great Sakuya & Nagisa Nozaki vs. Haruka Umesaki & Miyuki Takase **1/2

6, Takashi Sugiura vs. Ulka Sasaki ***

7, Hiroshi Tanahashi & HAYATA vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Yoshinari Ogawa ***1/2

8, GHC Jr. Heavyweight Championship - Daga (c) vs. Eita ***

9, NOAH/NJPW vs. House of Torture 12 Man Elimination Match - Kaito Kiyomiya, Shota Umino, Daiki Inaba, Shuji Kondo, Ryohei Oiwa & Junta Miyawaki vs. EVIL, Ren Narita, SHO, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi & Dick Togo ***3/4

10, GHC Heavyweight Championship - Kenoh (c) vs. Manabu Soya ****1/2

11, Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kota Ibushi *

This was my first full NOAH show I've watched in forever and it was a great watch. They pulled in a great crowd of over 5K, it had very good matches up and down the card, two fantastic bouts, but unfortunately it ended with one of the worst matches you're likely to see all year...

Things started hot with the Jr. Tag Title 3-Way. You know what to expect here; lots of crazy spots, not much in the way of traditional "psychology", and 100mph action. The crowd loved this and it was a great way to kick things off. There was confusion over the elimination nature of this one, and had it ended after after the first fall, I think I'd have liked it more, but it was a great little opener with the GLG duo of YO-HEY and Tadasuke eliminating both opponents at 8:48 and 12:24 respectively to win the straps. Things cooled down a tad with the next match, which was decent enough but just your standard 6-Man, which saw the GLG were victorious again.

The next match was something of a Dream Match for me, one that's been teased for a good couple of years now as Ishii and Kitomiya, two of my favourite guys from their respective companies, had an absolute war that is a strong MOTYC only two days in! You know what to expect here, it was tsandard Ishii big match fair, which is always tremendous. They pounded each other with chops, Lariats, headbutts, forearms punches and suplexes for 15:04, before Ishii got the win with the Vertical Drop Brainbuster. Amazing. The next match too was excellent as Go Shiozaki went over ageless veteran Satoshi Kojima, in a battle of the Go-wan Lariats! This was great, and kept relatively short at 13:56. Shiozaki won after an exchange of Lariats. Go formed a new faction called Team NOAH in the post-match.

Next up we got a couple of interesting debuts. "The Great Muta's daughter" Great Sakuya (Riko Kawahata) debuted in a doubles clash which ended in a DQ after she blew the dreaded Dokukiri in poor Umesaki's face. This was very silly, and the crowd were dead for it, but whilst it certainly wasn't great, it certainly wasn't bad either. The next match was better as former MMA fighter Ulka Sasaki battled NOAH legend Takashi Sugiura in a nice little exhibition. Sasaki looked good here, and it featured some good sequences, before Sugiura naturally won at the 11 minute mark with the Olympic Yossen Slam.

After intermission we got the ZSJ/Ogawa vs. Tana/HAYATA tag match. This was really good, as you'd expect, though at nearly 18 minutes it was a little long. They teased a lot of stuff with Zack and Tanahashi for their TV Title match at the Dome tomorrow. Sabre Jr. won for his team when he submitted HAYATA with a crazy leg stretch. The GHC Jr. Title bout was decent enough, as Daga retained over Eita in exactly 13 minutes. I expected a bit more here, and it ultimatly came off as a bit of a squash as Daga dominated the whole thing, despite the crowd really wanting Eita to win. The 6 on 6 Elimationation match was actually a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. Like everyone else, I'm at the end of my tether with this HoT stuff (and don't even get me started on Narita's inexplicably asinine inclusion in this nonsense), BUT, this match proves if done right, it can be pretty great. Obviously we got all the token House silliness like the never-ending stream of low blows, interference and incompetent refereeing, but it built really well as it boiled down to Kaito and EVIL, with Kiyomiya looking like a hero as he overcame the odds and sent EVIL to the floor with a Shining Wizard at the 26:14 mark to win for the babyfaces.

The first half of the Double Main Event; Kenoh's GHC Heavyweight Title defence against former tag partner Manabu Soya came next and it was another fantastic, hard-hitting war, and another early MOTYC. We all know Kenoh's great, and I've always been a fan of Soya since his All Japan days, but he's kind of lingered in the NOAH mid-card since arriving and gotten lost in the shuffle somewhat. Well this was a coming out party if ever there were one, both guys looked fantastic here, and I was worried someone was going to get legit KO'd at points, given how hard they were hitting each other. Kenoh missed a Moonsault knee drop by a considerable margin at the end there, but recovered well by devastating the big man with some headkicks and got the submission win at 28:36 with the Kenoh Special. Excellent, excellent match. Shiozaki came out in the post match and challenged Strong Fist to a title match, which will be happening on January 13th. Count me in as these two always have great matches together. And this is where I'd recommend everyone just turn this show off...

The Marufuji/Ibushi main event *sigh*... look I'm sure everyone already knows about this match, something that once upon a time was a dream match, but in the harsh realities of 2024, was an abject nightmare. This match was all kinds of bad, as Ibushi came into this thing banged up to oblivion and physically incapable of doing... anything, really. AND IT WENT 33:26!!! Which honestly felt like a good couple of hours watching live. Ibushi announced he was working through a broken hand and foot in the days prior, and when he made his entrance with tears streaming down his face, I feared the worst. The reality is this match shouldn't have happened, or if it did, have it go like 10 minutes maximum or something. And certainly don't have it be the main event! It was total insanity to book this to go north of 30 minutes. But even then, nobody made Ibushi try to do his signature spots in this thing. The guy couldn't even get himself up to go over the ropes on a backdrop, so what made him think attempting a Moonsault to the floor was a wise move? Well, he seemingly broke his ankle doing so, and the match only descended into more of a train wreck from there. The crowd were dead, almost like they were at a funeral, the "action" was a level lower than snail pace, and watching it was a profoundly sad experience. I never thought I'd see the day when the Keiji Muto of 2023 looked more mobile and having more business being in the ring than Kota Ibushi ever. Ibushi won with Kamigoye to put everyone out of their misery, none more so than the two guys in the match, then there was a totally bizarre post match where Kiyomiya and Jake Lee came out and seemingly banished Ibushi from NOAH. Ibushi could barely stand or walk on his way to the back, and this is a match I'll never watch again in my life. I had thought about giving this a DUD, but I couldn't be that harsh given the circumstances. Also, Marufuji did try his best out there, bless him. But the fact is Ibushi needs some time away from the ring to heal. I mean, this could be the end of his illustrious in-ring career, which is beyond heartbreaking, and he's looked a shadow of his former self since he returned to wrestling last Spring, but he wasn't even the same person out there on this show.

All in all, this was a great supershow from NOAH, marred slightly by a catastrophically bad main event, for obvious reasons. But I recommend everyone check it out up the fab Kenoh/Soya match, and just pretend the Ibushi/Maru match never happened.

NDT

[honestlychiefbanana]

Highlights of Go Shiozaki vs Ryohei Oiwa NOAH Sunny Voyage 2024

[joearlikelikeswrestling]

[stewkakegohan]

My summer was filled with energy and excitement thanks to N-1 VICTORY 🥹🌻

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NOAH One Night Dream | Go Shiozaki & El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. vs Jake Lee & Kenoh

July 15, 2023

Jake Lee got Go Shiozaki a little flustered during the clean break and Go had to take a moment to snap himself out of it. After the match, Jake chided Go on twitter for blushing, which prompted Go to apologize to him for it.

[mackdaddyofthecravate]

[jasvvy]

danielson and okada have no chance at topping omega/ospreay so i think they should just do a 30-minute staredown like go and fujita.

[kopw]

📷: undertaker619-0812