Day 1: Friday, September 18th from Nagoya
B BLOCK
TAKASHI SUGIURA vs. YOSHIKI INAMURA (9:11): Noah is kind of the forgotten Japanese wrestling company for wrestling fans here in the states. The biggest reason lately was that it was the only company that didn't have a streaming service. That changed this year when the conglomerate that owns DDT and Tokyo Joshi Pro bought them and put them on their streaming service, Wrestling Universe. No company is as big as New Japan in Japan, but Noah at least put this show in a pretty big building as compared to the small gymnasiums All Japan seems to always run in. Kenta was in Noah like ten years ago when Kenta was the biggest wrestling star in Japan. Those days are gone, and while Noah doesn't have any big superstars, they do have Go Shiozaki, who's been the face of the company for awhile, and Naomichi Marufuji, who's awesome and was in the G1 a few years back. The N-1 tournament has 12 wrestlers, so this tournament is a little longer than the Champion Carnival though shorter than the G1, which has 20 wrestlers this year. This tournament is the exact same as the Carnival and the G1. Two blocks. Everyone wrestles those in their block. Winners of blocks face at the end for a future title shot. 30 minute time limits. If you're wondering who copied who, the G1 or the N-1, well it was NOAH, because the N-1 Victory tournament used to be called the Global League until last year. The G1 stands for Grade 1...which I guess is similar to how we call steaks Grade A or something. What's the N-1 stand for? Noah's #1? Who the fuck knows. I'm guessing Noah was a wrestler that started the company, but I never watch this promotion nor know it's history so I have no idea. What I do know is that the wrestlers in this company wrestle at a faster pace than in All Japan and the matches in this first show were a little bit more dynamic than in the Champion Carnival. This promotion is a step down from NJPW, though, which I guess is obvious since no one pays much attention to what Noah does. I do know that they had a 60 minute match in the Spring where Go Shiozaki and Kazuyuki Fujita literally stared at each other for the first 30 minutes (this was, alas, in an arena without fans so they could actually do shit like that without a riot happening). They also had a 60 minute draw in August between Kenou and Go Shiozaki, the GHC champion. And tonight they had a 30 minute draw...so who ever books this company loves epics for some reason. As for this match...the first N-1 Victory tournament match? It was kind of average stuff. Sugiura, the 50 year old vet, beat the dude with a red mohawk, Inamura. Sugiura was scheduled to be in the Champion Carnival but that was postponed six months but I guess he still wanted to be in a tournament so here he is. *1/2
A BLOCK
KAITO KIYOMIYA vs. MASAAKI MOCHIZUKI (30:00): Mochizuki is 50 years old. And he definitely looked it. It almost seemed like someone in the booking department was punishing him by forcing an old man to go 30 minutes. Kiyomiya supposedly won this tournament before. He also had the GHC title earlier this year. He kind of looks like he could be Ibushi's brother. Unfortunately, he doesn't do any of the death-defying high flying. He also came out to the ring in a big, silly, majestic robe, which a few other wrestlers in the tournament also wear. What's up with Noah wrestlers and extravagant robes? I guess they have a fashion stylist on the payroll or something. This match was good but not great and a bit too sloppy to ever turn into anything spectacular. It also seemed kind of ridiculous to have a random, 30 minute draw in the middle of the show. Mochizuki did a bunch of submission holds and there were a ton of near-falls. This was actually probably the best match of the night. **1/2
A BLOCK
GO SHIOZAKI vs. MANABU SOYA (16:54): If you ever read the Wrestling Observer or even read about wrestling online you always end up reading Go Shiozaki's name. It seems like he's been in every Noah main event since the beginning of time. I'm guessing he's their big star. He came out to the ring with both of his shoulders all taped up which doesn't bode well since he's just starting the frigging tournament. By the end there was some good, back and forth action but early on it was a bore and Soya just worked on Go's arm. Shiozaki does deliver a mean chop. This was just okay. *1/2
B BLOCK
KATSUHIKO NAKAJIMA vs. KENOU (17:19): Kenou's hair is hilarious looking. It's so bleached blonde it looks white but his sideburns are brown. It kind of looks like a white wig. Wrestling wise he didn't win me over. He did the Finn Balor leg stomp from the top rope and also a top rope knee drop onto Nakajima's chest. Supposedly Nakajima turned on Go Shiozaki and joined Kenou's gang so these two are now buddies. Makes sense then that Nakajima offered a handshake pre-match but Kenou refused. That bastard! Tough love, I suppose. Nakajima won...which is probably an upset. **
Standings:
A BLOCK
Kiyomaya 0-0-1, Mochizuki 0-0-1, Shiozaki 1-0, Soya 0-1
B BLOCK
Kenou 0-1, Inamura 0-1, Nakajima 1-0, Sugiura 1-0
Day 2: Sunday, September 20th from Takasaki
B BLOCK
NAOMICHI MARUFUJI vs. YOSHIKI INAMURA (12:23): New Japan stopped doing these a few years ago, but I guess Noah is still not popular or profitable enough. This show was a single camera show with no announcers. Which means if you watched this you must really fucking love wrestling. It probably didn't help that none of the matches were any good. Marufuji is one of the few guys in this tournament that I actually know and actually really like. The reason is that he was in the G1 back in 2016 and ended up getting a main event title shot that year verse Okada (yeah...I doubt anyone believed a Noah guy was going to win the IWGP title). Marufuji is older and slower now, but he's still fun to watch. Without announcers and in a fairly quiet and small gym somewhere, this match and all of the others never really worked. *1/2
A BLOCK
MANABU SOYA vs. MASA KITAMIYA (12:56): I watched this and don't even remember it. That's how great it was. These are two big guys, so they had least made noise banging into one another. This show was kind of lame since Go and Kenoh didn't have singles matches, although they did take part in a multi-man tag on the undercard that I didn't watch but maybe should have. *
A BLOCK
KAZUSHI SAKURABA vs. MASAAKI MOCHIZUKI (8:28): Sakuraba is an MMA guy so he does holds and submissions not unlike Zack Sabre, Jr. I remember him from New Japan when he wrestled Shibata a few years ago. Sakuraba is an old man now so this match was slow as molasses. 1/2*
B BLOCK
TAKASHI SUGIURA vs. SHUHEI TANIGUCHI (21:57): This was a pretty basic wrestling match. They went long, and by the end it was at least mildly entertaining. With a lame card like this...who actually went to this show? *1/2
Standings:
A BLOCK
Kitamiya 0-1, Kiyomaya 0-0-1, Mochizuki 0-1-1, Sakuraba 1-0, Shiozaki 1-0, Soya 1-1
B BLOCK
Kenou 0-1, Inamura 0-2, Nakajima 1-0, Marufuji 1-0, Sugiura 2-0, Taniguchi 0-1
Day 3: Tuesday, September 22nd, from Tokyo (Korakuen Hall)
B BLOCK
KENOU vs. SHUHEI TANIGUCHI (9:40): Kenou at least has the look of a wrestling star. Bleached white hair, tight, leather red pants a la Nakamura, stiff kicks. He's the GHC National champion...which I guess is like the 2nd tier title. Kenou might just be as good as it gets in Noah, which, granted, doesn't make the company look all that great. This was in a sparsely filled Korakuen Hall, which they're having three shows in two days in. The one reason the G1 is so great and something to look forward to every year isn't the fact that it's a tournament...it's the fact that you're going to get a bunch of really great matches. So far, I can't really see there being any great matches in this tournament. Who would even have a great match in Noah? Maybe I should go and watch that Kenou vs. Shiozaki sixty minute match from last month. Although, maybe I shouldn't unless I need to go to bed quickly. **
A BLOCK
MASA KITAMIYA vs. KAITO KIYOMIYA (14:32): I don't know most of the wrestlers on this roster, so it's not helping that these two have similar names. This show at least announcers and multiple cameras, unlike the last show. Kiyomiya is the Ibushi lookalike. He's probably the youngest guy in this tournament, so he at least provides some much needed speed and oomph to N-1. This was pretty good and at least somewhat fast paced. **
A BLOCK
GO SHIOZAKI vs. KAZUSHI SAKURABA (8:35): This just didn't work at all. The only redeeming factor was that Go is a pretty big star in this company so at least the crowd was louder and more into it than most of the other matches. Go's big move is putting his opponent in the corner and doing like a hundred fake looking fast slaps to the chest. Eh. *
B BLOCK
NOMICHI MARUFUJI vs. TAKASHI SUGIURA (30:00): Another 30 minute draw! And this is only Day 3! This match was deadly dull for like 25 minutes. The final few minutes were fairly dramatic and semi-exciting. I wish they'd put a countdown clock or something, although if I knew Japanese I'm sure the announcers mentioned the time running out. The most memorable part was when Marufuji gave Sugiura a piledriver on the ring apron. That was about as good as it gets with the N-1 I suppose. *1/2
Standings:
A BLOCK
Kitamiya 1-1, Kiyomaya 0-1-1, Mochizuki 0-1-1, Sakuraba 1-1, Shiozaki 2-0, Soya 1-1
B BLOCK
Kenou 1-1, Inamura 0-2, Nakajima 1-0, Marufuji 1-0-1, Sugiura 2-0-1, Taniguchi 0-2
Day 4: Wednesday, September 23rd, from Tokyo (Korakuen Hall)
B BLOCK
KENOU vs. YOSHIKI INAMURA (10:26): This was the first of 2 Noah shows on Wednesday. I'm not exactly sure why they did this, especially this one had maybe a hundred people in the mostly empty stands. The good thing was that this started at midnight here in the states so I got to watch it live. The end of this match was weird. Kenou did a few face slaps to Inamura and Inamura fell over like he got knocked out and the ref ended it. Inamura's either a good seller or he really got knocked out, although who the fuck gets knocked out from a face slap? This was decent. I think I'm warming up to Kenou. It's either that or the rest of this roster just blows. **
A BLOCK
KAZUSHI SAKURABA vs. MASA KITAMIYA (2:29): Sakuraba is old and boring so I did a celebration when this was over in 2 minutes. I did like Sakuraba once. He wrestled Shibata years ago in NJPW and I recall their match being awesome. I think it was on a Dome show. Now Sakuraba is just an old man and it's kind of sad to see him tiredly applying submission holds. -No Stars-
B BLOCK
SHUHEI TANIGUCHI vs. KATSUHIKO NAKAJIMA (14:42): Nakajima had a big win on Day 1 in the main event...so of course he lost here. Taniguchi's big move is headbutting his opponent's chest below the shoulder...which makes no sense logistically. Does that even hurt the opponent? You'd think it'd hurt Taniguchi more just to do it. This was average stuff. Most of these matches remind me of random, meaningless RAW matches. I wish someone would break out of the pack and produce a masterpiece. I watched both of these shows and then watched the G1 and the first match I watched, Jeff Cobb vs. Shingo Takagi, was better than the entire N-1 so far. So it goes. **
A BLOCK
KAITO KIYOMIYA vs. MANABU SOYA (21:55): They went pretty long...too long, actually, as this was a good match that would have been great if it was shorter. Kiyomiya is the young pup of the tournament and so his matches have a little more excitement to them. The problem is that Kiyomiya doesn't have any spectacular moves. Maybe I'm just spoiled from watching Ospreay and Ibushi in the G1 tournament or maybe Kiyomiya just doesn't have that special something. **
Standings:
A BLOCK
Kitamiya 1-2, Kiyomaya 1-1-1, Mochizuki 0-1-1, Sakuraba 2-1, Shiozaki 2-0, Soya 1-2
B BLOCK
Kenou 2-1, Inamura 0-3, Nakajima 1-1, Marufuji 1-0-1, Sugiura 2-0-1, Taniguchi 1-2
Day 5: Wednesday, September 23rd, from Tokyo (Korakuen Hall)
B BLOCK
KENOU vs. NOMICHI MARUFUJI (15:05): Technically, this wasn't "Day 5" since it there were two shows on 9/23, an afternoon show and an evening show. I'm not exactly sure why they did this...especially since both shows had a sparse crowd. I'm guessing it was to save money. I'm sure it's cheaper to run 2 shows in one day since you probably pay less rent to Korakuen plus you don't have to set the ring up and everything twice. That doesn't sound good, though, for the future of this promotion, although they were just bought by some conglomerate that also owns DDT and Tokyo Joshi-Pro, that's why they're on the same streaming service with them (which is a steal at 9 bucks a month... unfortunately neither promotion is all that great). I'm sure the wrestlers that had to wrestle twice, like Kenou, didn't particularly enjoy it either. This was a typical Kenou match. All he does is kick his opponent. Marufuji lost by submission when he passed out. This was basic stuff, as this tournament has been so far. **
A BLOCK
KAITO KIYOMIYA vs. KAZUSHI SAKURABA (9:47): Both of these guys rolled around on the floor for the first few minutes grappling. That's always the worst part of any UFC match...so I'm not sure why they bother to do this in a fake match. Sakuraba, who's whole deal is submission holds, lost by tapping out. Sakuraba delivered some nasty kicks as well, which probably hurt him more since he wrestles barefoot. *1/2
B BLOCK
KATSUHIKO NAKAJIMA vs. TAKASHI SUGIURA (17:42): Sugiura did the old-school maneuver where he held Nakajima up in a suplex position on the top rope for awhile before finally delivering it. Sugiura is 50 and probably the biggest muscle guy in this tournament. I don't know why Japan has a lot of older wrestlers still around. Maybe that country doesn't have pensions or social security. This was okay. *1/2
A BLOCK
MASAAKI MOCHIZUKI vs. GO SHIOZAKI (16:21): The final few minutes were great. I was just thinking why none of the wrestlers in AJPW or Noah do any kind of suicidal, top-rope, drop-on-your-head moves like Naito, Ibushi, Hiromu, and Ospreay always do...and then Go tried a top rope moonsault. It's as if...they knew what I was thinking! Mochizuki is apparently from Dragon Gate. DG just had a big show on Sunday that featured their annual cage match filled with insane stipulations. I watched it and it was stupid. When a wrestler tries to climb out of the cage, his opponent's team climbs up and will blast an airhorn or try to hit him with a stick or something. It's the stupidest fucking thing you'll ever see. The stipulations were hilarious, though. The funniest one was if Yamato lost (he didn't) he would have to do opening talk segments with Mr. Kikuchi for the rest of 2020 (I don't even know what that means), he has to change his ring gear to design-less white briefs with white shoes and socks and change his entrance attire to a bathrobe, and he has to straighten his hair. What the fuck? The other funny one was if Masato Yoshino lost (he didn't), he would have to retire immediately, shave his head, then directly after the match wrestle Naruki Doi in a retirement match. Unfortunately, the loser's stipulation was kind of bland: Big R Shimizu lost and so he must leave the R.E.D. group, change his hairstyle to a crew cut and return to his former name, Ryotsu Shimizu. Honestly? They really should have done the one with the bathrobe. **1/2
Standings:
A BLOCK
Kitamiya 1-2, Kiyomaya 2-1-1, Mochizuki 1-1-1, Sakuraba 2-2, Shiozaki 2-1, Soya 1-2
B BLOCK
Kenou 3-1, Inamura 0-3, Nakajima 2-1, Marufuji 1-1-1, Sugiura 2-1-1, Taniguchi 1-2
Day 6: Saturday, September 26th, from Niigata
B BLOCK
KATSUHIKA NAKAJIMA vs. YOSHIKI INAMURA (11:49): This was a one-camera, no announcer show that wasn't shown live. They released it on their streaming service three days later. Because of all that, I'm wondering how many people in the U.S. actually watched this. Just us diehards, I suppose. This match was probably the best of the night. It was mostly all action. Inamura has a mohawk and is a big strong man type so he does all of the hard slams while Nakajima is the wily, smaller dude that does a lot of stiff kicks. Inamura did a top rope, flying shoulder move that was kind of unique. Nakajima has been one of the more entertaining wrestlers in the tournament, although like most of Noah's wrestlers, he doesn't really have that extra something that would make him a superstar. This might have been even better with announcers and everything. **1/2
A BLOCK
MASAAKI MOCHIZUKI vs. MANABU SOYA (13:15): Soya is a big, tough, thick looking dude with red hair and a goatee. I say lose the red hair and you'd look more like a bad ass. Michizuki won with a flying kick to the head off of the top rope. Mochizuki is supposedly 50, so I guess doing a flying, top rope kick is fairly impressive. Even though there was that flying kick...Noah is mostly just clotheslines, slams, punches, and kicks. No one really does a lot of crazy, high flying that is pretty popular here in the U.S. in NXT and AEW. Even NJPW has gotten more into that with Ospreay around. So watching Noah takes a little bit getting used to if you're expecting flips over the top rope that seem to be the money shot in most U.S. matches. With that said, this was a pretty good match. Mochizuki did a bunch of kicks. Soya did his power stuff like a top rope slam with Mochizuki on his one shoulder. It was solid. **1/2
B BLOCK
NAOMICHI MARUFUJI vs. SHUHEI TANIGUCHI (18:21): I don't know if Marufuji got a concussion, was knocked out briefly, was injured, or it was just the story of the match...but he got slammed and then rolled out of the ring and then continued to lay outside and then lay in the ring for long stretches while the ref kept watch on him. Eventually Marufuji woke up and provided some offense and won. Most of this was very boring, though. Marufuji did some cool spots and a lot of quick, swift kicks but he's obviously a lot older and slower than he once was so most of it just happens in random spurts here and there. This means that cohesively his matches never amount to much of anything these days. Taniguchi is pretty much just a dull, cookie-cutter, forgettable grey area void of a wrestler. *
A BLOCK
GO SHIOZAKI vs. MASA KITAMIYA (20:00): Go is basically the face of Noah, and has been for years. I was kind of wondering why while I was watching this. I guess it's because he's pretty good at facial expressions and acting. By the end of this match his eyes were wide and wild and he was excited and pumping his fist. It has to be that sort of dramatic flare, because he doesn't really do much interesting in the ring. In this whole tournament his opponent's have worked on his seemingly broken arms. I think in every match he gets tossed shoulder first into the ring post outside the ring. He also always does his thousand chops to the chest of his opponent in the corner. Shiozaki won after wildly hitting Kitamiya in the head with his wrists and then giving him a clothesline. Okay. Shiozaki also did a weird backwards suplex from the second rope where it looked like he was going to suplex Kitamiya out of the ring but just turned him mid-air into a slam. I think Go's great days are probably behind him, but I'm guessing he might be in the finals, so perhaps a 30 minute epic will showcase his true talents. We'll see. **
A BLOCK
Kitamiya 1-3, Kiyomaya 2-1-1, Mochizuki 2-1-1, Sakuraba 2-2, Shiozaki 3-1, Soya 1-3
B BLOCK
Kenou 3-1, Inamura 0-4, Nakajima 3-1, Marufuji 2-1-1, Sugiura 2-1-1, Taniguchi 1-3
Day 7: Sunday, October 4th, from Tokyo (Korakuen Hall)
B BLOCK
SHUHEI TANIGUCHI vs. YOSHIKI INAMURA (4:36): Good crowd tonight at Korakuen Hall for this show. I guess it makes sense, as this was a Sunday afternoon show and the last day before the finals. They also had a pretty good main event on paper. This match was between two guys already eliminated from the tournament, but they had a hard hitting, short match that was decent. Taniguchi did the Randy Orton kick to the head twice for the pin. **
A BLOCK
MANABU SOYA vs. KAZUSHI SAKURABA (5:57): Sakuraba hasn't done much of anything in this tournament except look like a tired old man. He had to win this to conceivably have any chance of winning this thing, but he lost to the red-haired Soya. Sakuraba had him in an arm breaker submission hold and Soya just moved so Sakuraba was on his back and the ref counted to 3. This wasn't very good at all. 1/2*
A BLOCK
MASA KITAMIYA vs. MASAAKI MOCHIZUKI (9:23): Mochizuki had to win to have any chance of making the finals. He lost of course. He is a 50 year old man. He's pretty good, though, as he does a lot of running kicks, regular kicks, kicks off of the top rope. Mochizuki kept working on Kitamiya's leg. Mochizuki went for his patented, top-rope-rebound-into-a-kick-to-the-head but Kitamiya grabbed him and slammed him off the top rope for the pin. This was entertaining. **1/2
B BLOCK
TAKASHI SUGIURA vs. KENOU (16:04): Kenou avoided Sugiura by doing a cartwheel off of the ring apron and down to the floor. Kenou kind of looks like those K-Pop boy singers that are kind of effeminate, so I suppose a grown man doing cartwheels kind of suits him. They had a good sequence where Sugiura elbowed Kenou then Kenou kicked Sugiura and they went back and forth and back and forth. Kenou did his top rope knee drop and top rope foot stomp. Towards the end they twice did a move where they both kicked each other in the head at the same time and both fell over. Kenou gave Sugiura a German suplex on the apron. This kind of all sounds like this was a fucking amazing match or something...but it wasn't. It was good, mostly all action, but it never really heated up into any kind of dramatic, intense, New Japan type of classic that maybe Noah just doesn't produce. Sugiura put Kenou in a headlock and Kenou passed out and lost. Both guys now have 3 wins but Sugiura only has 2 losses because he has a tie. **1/2
B BLOCK
KATSUHIKO NAKAJIMA vs. NAOMICHI MARUFUJI (16:25): Nakajima won, which means he wins the B Block. Nakajima is one of the younger guys (32), so it makes sense that they're putting him in the final. This match wasn't very good and you can blame Marufuji. I guess he's just gotten too old, because he was fantastic a few years ago in the G1 and he's a pretty famous wrestler in Japan. Nothing really happened in this match worth mentioning. *
A BLOCK
KAITO KIYOMIYA vs. GO SHIOZAKI (24:07): Who ever won this match would win the A Block. These two wrestled for the title at the New Year's show (the one that went head to head with night 1 of Wrestle Kingdom...great scheduling, idiots). I've noted before that Kiyomiya looks like Ibushi. But the only high flying Kiyomiya did in this match was a top rope drop kick. He's only 24 and he won so they ended up putting two of the younger guys in the final which makes sense. Go has the title, so him winning the tournament or even being in the final doesn't really make sense. This match was good but probably went a little bit too long as it never developed into anything great. Go's specialty seems to be his chops and his backdrop slams. Kiyomiya doesn't really have any specialty. His matches are at least fast paced, though he's kind of lacking in the excitement department. The crowd seemed into this and, honestly, I'm guessing this is about as good as Noah gets, which isn't all that great. **1/2
A BLOCK
Kitamiya 2-3, Kiyomaya 3-1-1, Mochizuki 2-2-1, Sakuraba 2-3, Shiozaki 3-2, Soya 2-3
B BLOCK
Kenou 3-2, Inamura 0-5, Nakajima 4-1, Marufuji 2-2-1, Sugiura 3-1-1, Taniguchi 2-3
Day 8 (Finals): Sunday, October 11th, from Osaka
KATSUHIKO NAKAJIMA vs. KAITO KIYOMIYA (25:24): This was a disappointment. Sure, they went 25 minutes...but this never felt like a big, dramatic, intense, exciting match...which is what you kind of want the finals of the big tournament of the year to be. I wasn't really expecting a great match, though, as there wasn't a single match in this whole tournament that got higher than 2.5 stars. Putting the two young guys in the final makes sense on paper...but neither wrestler seemed to go to a higher plane. This just felt like a regular, random match on any given night. Nakajima won with a suplex. A frigging suplex! I think it was supposed to be a brain buster suplex type of finisher but either way it was pretty anticlimactic. Kiyomiya did some big moves. A top rope drop-kick. A top rope slam on Nakajima. Neither guy does anything really exciting, and they didn't pull anything special out of their back pocket for this. One interesting moment came when Nakajima kept hitting Kiyomiya then throwing him out of the ring but Kiyomiya kept rushing back in to face him again. Nakajima gets a title shot against Go Shiozaki. That match may be better, as at least the crowds seem more alive when Go is wrestling. This N-1 tournament was a total bust. There were no great matches. There weren't even any standout wrestlers. Kenou, Go, Kiyomiya, and Nakajima are all decent wrestlers and fairly entertaining in the ring, but not particularly exciting or great. I'm glad I watched this tournament simply because I never watch Noah so I figured I'd check it out and get to know everyone and see what it's all about. Now I know. Unfortunately, now I know I wasn't missing anything. **
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