Jake Lee vs. Yoshiki Inamura (NOAH 1/8/23)
The Dark Gentleman Jake Lee laughed his way to the end of the Royal Road and now aims to take over the Ark. Planted firmly in his way – the tire-pushing monster Yoshiki Inamura. In terms of purely factual Star Rating Distribution, this wasn’t a match that will completely rearrange your spreadsheet, but it worked quite well as a NOAH introduction for the Jakester.
In Inamura, the NOAH Booking Society picked the perfect opponent to make Lee look like a big deal. The wrasslin’ stayed simple all the way through, but the multiple visuals of Jake towering over Big Yoshiki and hanging with him in strength spots and strike exchanges told an effective story. Anyone worried about Jake’s Budokan reception should make time for this, as the Korakuen Hall interest for the controversial Prince of Darkness came through loud and clear. ***1/4
Kenoh & Hajime Ohara vs. Masato Tanaka & Shoki Kitamura (NOAH 1/8/23)
Nothing does the trick like a bit of interpromotional warfare. Old man Tanaka is no stranger to modern NOAH, but him bringing along ZERO1’s Kitamura for the ride gave the match an edge. Kongo greeted Kitamura with the full-on outsider treatment, injecting the action with a healthy dose of hatred along the way. It was hard not to root for Shoki, especially when he busted out the Shinjiro Otani tribute facewash. People laid their shit in and all boxes of an efficient NOAH midcard burner were ticked. ***1/4
Kaiyo Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura vs. Jake Lee & Jack Morris (NOAH 1/8/23)
January 8th. A blessed day where NOAH ran back-to-back Korakuen shows with Authorized Crowd Cheering. This one was a ton of fun and succeeded in its two goals – furthering the Jake Lee NOAH agenda and hyping up the upcoming Kaito/Morris GHC title match. Jake was even more overtly heelish here and hearing actual boos from the crowd made his shtick so much better.
We already know he works well with Inamura, so it was his ring time with Kiyomiya that piqued my interest. The few sequences they worked together hinted at a tasty David/Goliath dynamic, Kaito really selling the size difference by flying off Lee’s kickouts. Meanwhile, what do we think of the man known as Jack Morris? He remains a bit of a babyface enigma, but his ending stretch with the champ pointed towards a probably-solid title match. ***1/2
Katsuhiko Nakajima & Seiki Yoshioka vs. Satoshi Kojima & Shuji Kondo – Scramble Shuffle Tag Tournament Finals (NOAH 1/8/23)
The big hook on these two Korakuen shows was a randomized tag tournament featuring oddball pairings. This was the final of this fan service journey and it was nothing less than a Banger. Katsu and Yoshioka, also known as Team Foot Fetish, proved to be the most natural duo in the Ark – what with their simultaneous Kick Barrage Sequence of Death.
Coming off a big GHC tag match at the Budokan, Kojima made an even better impression here. Old Cozy struck a perfect balance between aging wrestler comedic reactions and awe-inspiring geriatric resilience. He has a special kind of chemistry with Nakajima that really brings his fighting spirit to the forefront. Case in point: the face-ripping finale they worked here – with Kojima matching Katsu blow for blow to shocked gasps from the crowd. ***3/4
Junta Miyawaki vs. Yasutaka Yano (NOAH 1/9/23)
Miyawaki made his long-awaited return at the Budokan in a promising-but-uneven match with junior champ AMAKUSA. This Yokohama showcase was another opportunity for all Wrestling Observers on the Internet to gauge his progress. Here is my official statement: I still don’t know.
While there was nothing aggressively wrong with the match, the pacing and layout felt super dry and I’m not sure that having an Even Steven 13-minute match with a rookie made Junta look like the star NOAH want him to be. Their opening was so deliberate and headlock-heavy that these boys fooled me into thinking they were going to a time-limit draw. **3/4
Kaito Kiyomiya vs. AMAKUSA (NOAH 1/9/23)
Heavyweight Champ vs. Junior Champ is a difficult match to pull off because you want to give the people their money’s worth while also adhering to the STRICT PRINCIPLES of size differential logistic. These two definitely favored realism over excitement, but they did so in a compelling fashion that made Kiyomiya look positively Ace-like.
They had an 80/20 match in Kaito’s favor, the champ proving to be surprisingly adept at stretching and cutting off his miniature opponent. With Kaito relentlessly staying on his ass, AMAKUSA’s few comebacks felt triumphant – especially that bonkers rotating tope suicida. Special shoutout to the modified Tiger Driver finish. Very happy to see Kiyomiya using this as a match ender. ***1/4
