noah

Mike Reviews – NOAH Encountering Navigation (24th April 2005)

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Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Back on the NOAH waggon this week, as I decided to watch the first big Budokan Hall event following the end of Kenta Kobashi’s epic two year reign on top of the promotion. Takeshi Rikio is closing the show as GHC Heavyweight Champ against Akitoshi Saito, whilst Misawa and Kobashi take part in undercard matches.

Kobashi put Rikio over clean as a sheet back in March of 2005, so let’s see if his passing of the torch gives Rikio some juice on top as Champion. This is available on YouTube and you can watch along by clicking right HERE.

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Mike Reviews Kenta Kobashi GHC Heavyweight History – Part Five

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Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

More from the near nine hour YouTube video compilation of Kenta Kobashi’s epic GHC Heavyweight Title run from 2003-05.

Today we close things out with Kobashi’s final three defences, as he takes on Mike “The Gladiator” Awesome, Minoru Suzuki and Takeshi Rikio. Let’s hope that Kobashi goes out in style!

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Mike Reviews Kenta Kobashi GHC Heavyweight History – Part Three

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Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Let’s pick these up again.

Part 1

Part 2

For those not acquainted, there’s a nine hour plus video up on YouTube that covers all of Kenta Kobashi’s near two year GHC Heavyweight Title reign. A while back I decided to review every match on the collection, with us closing out Part Two with Kobashi successfully defending the Title against Yoshinari Ogawa.

This week Kobashi will defend against Takuma Sano, Takeshi Rikio and Yoshihiro Takayama. Let’s see how many stars he can accrue along the way!

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Mike Reviews – Pro Wrestling NOAH: Muta The World (27th June 2021)

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Konnichiwa!

Back with the second part of the NOAH double header from 26/27 June, with Great Muta getting dragged out of the mothballs being the selling point for this one. The 26/06/2021 show had a fantastic Cage match Main Event that made the show a thumbs up all by itself, but this show might be a bit more of a difficult sell.

I actually don’t mind Muta matches, but you 100% need a hot crowd in order to make them work and this show will have zero fans because they’ve taped it at the NOAH TV Studio, so there’s no way for Keiji Muto to really hide here and I’m not sure his in-ring in the Muta gimmick by itself will be good enough to make the match work, but I’ll be happy to proven wrong.

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Mike Reviews – Pro Wrestling NOAH: Cage War (26th June 2021)

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Konnichiwa!

NOAH did a double header of shows on the 26th and 27th of June, with night one having a Lucha de Apuestas Cage Match and night two having Great Muta getting dug out of the mothballs. It seems like quite a desperate ploy on their part, but what the heck maybe the shows will be good?

I’ll try and have the Muta show up tomorrow, but for today it’s time for some Cage War!

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Mike Reviews – Pro Wrestling NOAH Mitsuharu Misawa Memorial Show (31st May 2021)

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Konnichiwa!

Back with another NOAH review, because YOU demanded it! (Well, a few people did at least)

Mistuharu Misawa formed NOAH in 2000 after taking the majority of the All Japan Pro Wrestling roster and setting up a brand new company. In an absolute tragedy he passed away during a match in June 2009, so this is an event to honour his memory by the company he founded.

I’m a big Misawa fan, even to the point that I reached maximum nerd level in my younger days by being able to recreate spots of his move for move on the Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 video game. One of my fondest memories from attending a wrestling show was seeing him wrestle at the Coventry Sky Dome in 2008.

This is up on FITE right now and has English commentary, so if you’re curious about the product and fancy giving it a try, there’s really no better time. It’s a step up from having to buy tapes either online or from Extreme Central UK in Manchester like I had to do back in the day that’s for sure!

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Mike Reviews – NOAH The Glory (29/04/2021)

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Konichiwa!

I’ve really gone off the boil with New Japan recently, ever since the shenanigans with Ibushi and the briefcase in all honesty, but NOAH has done a nice job of stepping in to scratch my Puro itch instead. This card intrigued me enough to slap down the cash to purchase it on FITE and, seeing as I’ve got a rare day off scheduled, I decided I’d sit down with a nice cuppa and maybe a cheeky biccie to watch the show.

If you’d like some info on the backstory then there’s an article below that you can click on which goes into detail on the three Title matches. I’ll also try and relay anything that the commentary team throws my way too.

https://lastwordonsports.com/prowrestling/2021/04/28/preview-pro-wrestling-noah-presents-noah-the-glory-04-29-21/

Anyway, enough chatter, let’s watch some chuffing wrestling!

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Mike’s Mini Review – Pro Wrestling NOAH – Destination Back To Budokan! (12/02/2021)

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Hello You!

NOAH returned to the Nippon Budokan on Friday, site of some of their bigger shows from back in the company’s heyday. I’ve got quite a bit on my plate at the moment so I can’t do a full on review for it, but I have watched it and I wanted to give some thoughts on it in the form of a Mini Review as some posters expressed an interest.

I’ll be doing this more in a highlight form, where I don’t go in-depth on the matches and instead just give some thoughts on each match and some general opinions without going into deeper detail. If I get a chance down the line I might give this one a proper full review. I picked the show up on FITE for £19.99 (Not sure of what the price will be outside the UK) and it features English commentary from Stuart Fulton and Mark Pickering, who did their usual good job. They’re a low-key good commentary team and I’m glad FITE has been sticking with them. Thankfully they didn’t try the experiment of pairing them up with Muhammed Yone this time, which led to the commentary flowing much better.

I really like the English graphics for the wrestlers too, as it helps someone slightly less familiar with the NOAH product, such as me, to know who everyone is. They do set the names out surname first though, as is the way it’s done over in Japan, so bare that in mind if you watch the show as it takes a second for your mind to adjust.

Anyway, let’s see how the show was!

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Mike Reviews – NOAH The Best Final Chronicle (06/12/2020)

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Hello You!

I enjoyed the last NOAH show on FITE TV and the Main Event from this one was getting a lot of hype, so let’s give the show a looksee!

I haven’t been a regular watcher of the product for going on 10+ years, but I’m sure the NOAH fans we have on here will be able to pick up on anything I miss. Thankfully there will be some English commentary, so they should be able to update me on the relevant story points.

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Mike Reviews – Pro-Wrestling NOAH 20th Anniversary Show (22/11/2020)

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Hello You!

Because why not eh?

I was a big NOAH fan in the 00’s and hoovered up any stuff from the company that I could, even going to see the company live on three occasions when they toured over in the UK at different points.

The death of Mitsuharu Misawa and the retirement of Kenta Kobashi played their part in my interest for the product waning and I haven’t watched a NOAH show for a very long time. However, there was a thread up on the Blog noting that this show was going up on FITE with English commentary, so I decided to throw some coins NOAH’s way for old time’s sake seeing as the card looked like it would be fun.

It’s been so long since I watched the product that I’m going into this one totally blind, but Lawrence Talbot has kindly allowed me to post his previews from the live thread on the Blog. Head over and give him a like for putting the work in for us.

If I enjoy this I might even try and stay up to date with the product going forward. Anyway, let’s watch some chuffing wrestling!

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Pro Wrestling NOAH bought by tech company Estbee

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Tokyo Sports reports that Pro Wrestling NOAH has been bought by Estbee, an IT company whose executive is former AJPW owner Masayuki Uchida. The deal was made in the space of three weeks after Naomichi Marufuji met privately with Uchida on October 10th and the sale was finalised yesterday.

Estbee acquired the trademark, titles, and roster of NOAH. The wrestlers and staff were told yesterday and no schedules have been changed.

Estbee’s statement: Estbee have been looking to raise funds and get into new areas of business. While we have no business history with pro wrestling, Mr. Uchida has a connection to NOAH and decided to breathe new life into the company.

Takaaki Kidani, the president of Bushiroad (owners of NJPW and stakeholders in NOAH), tweeted: I was completely surprised to hear news of NOAH’s acquisition. On behalf of the industry, I hope this heads in a positive direction.

All information and translations via Enuhito and Chris Charlton

KENTA’s Farewell to NOAH (5/17/14)

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KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Takashi Sugiura & Katsuhiko Nakajima

I know we’re only a couple months away from when he debuts as Kenny “The Jet” Velasquez in NXT, but until then I’d like to remember the guy more like this. Marked when he came out to “What You Know” instead of “Enio”, crowd kinda lost it too. When he signed that last shirt, for the last time.. damn, we aren’t gonna see that for a while.. All in all, a fitting send off and a nice exclamation point on a memorable era.