NOAH - European Navigation 2008

[nWoHulkster]

Обявени кечисти за 21-ви юни:

NOAH кечисти:

Kenta Kobashi

Considered as one of the greatest wrestler of all time. Kobashi has been an incredible wrestler over his 20-year career and has taken part in some of the all-time great matches. Between 2003 and 2005, Kobashi held the GHC World title, which propelled Kobashi to become the most popular wrestler in Japan. In mid-2006, Kobashi was diagnosed with cancer but made an amazing recovery to return in December 2007.

Mitsuharu Misawa

One of the greatest wrestlers of all time. In the 1990s, Misawa took part in many of the greatest matches of the decade under the auspices of All Japan Pro Wrestling. In 2000, Misawa broke away from All Japan with most its roster to form Pro Wrestling NOAH. Misawa has turned it into the top wrestling promotion in Japan this decade. Misawa is a three-time GHC World champion. His finishing move is the Emerald Frosien.

Jun Akiyama

Akiyama debuted in 1992 and has been one of the elite in-ring wresters in the industry ever since. Akiyama transferred his amateur wrestling credentials into the squared circle with ease, and before long he was appearing in main events for All Japan Pro Wrestling. Akiyama has had many incredible matches during his career and has held the GHC World and tag titles on two occasions each. Akiyama’s signature move is the Exploder suplex.

KENTA

The most exciting wrestler in Japan today. The 26-year-old bad-ass combines a host of high-impact moves with wince-inducing striking to form an effective crowd-pleasing style. KENTA has had some of the greatest matches in all of wrestling in NOAH and ROH this decade with the likes of Bryan Danielson, Takashi Sugiura and Naomichi Marufuji. The eight year veteran is a former GHC junior heavyweight singles and tag team champion.

Naomichi Marufuji

The only wrestler to have completed NOAH’s grand slam of titles, having captured all five of the federation’s titles. His biggest title victory came on 9th September 2006 when he upended Jun Akiyama for the GHC World heavyweight title- thus becoming the first ever junior heavyweight to win the title. Marufuji is an exhilarating competitor who utilizes moves such as the shiranui, superkick and Pole Shift to tremendous effect.

Takeshi Morishima

At 6ft 4in, 300lb Morishima is a marauder who was in dominant form throughout 2007. He captured the ROH World title on 17th February 2007 and ran roughshod through a host of challengers in impressive displays of brute-force and power. The 29-year-old Morishima is a ten-year veteran who is tipped to become NOAH’s next top superstar. The burly brawler uses the lariat, backdrop driver and Amaze Impact to win his matches.

Takashi Sugiura – Sugiura is a highly successful former amateur wrestler who joined NOAH in 2000. Stylistically, his biggest influence is Kurt Angle and two of Sugiura’s trademark moves are the Olympic Slam and ankle-lock. Sugiura has been one of NOAH’s unsung stars of recent years, having participated in many classic battles over the last few years. Sugiura has held the GHC heavyweight and junior heavyweight tag titles as well as the singles junior strap

Kotaro Suzuki

Kotaro Suzuki debuted for NOAH in December 2001. The 29-year-old aerialist has been wowing crowds with his acrobatics for years, but really made an impact in 2007 when he and partner Ricky Marvin reigned as GHC junior heavyweight tag champions for most of the year. Suzuki is tipped to become the star of the junior heavyweight division’s singles ranks this year. The female favorite uses the Misty Crush, Blue Destiny and 619 as finishing moves.

Taiji Ishimori

Taiji Ishimori is a disciple of Ultimo Dragon, having been trained by the former WCW cruiserweight champion. Ishimori was initially a star in Dragon’s Toryumon X promotion, where he impressed audiences with his state-of-the-art moves such as the Superstar Elbow. Ishimori showed his intentions of following in the footsteps of KENTA and Naomichi Marufuji as a junior heavyweight division player, when he and KENTA won the NTV Cup in July 2007. Taiji has also just signed with pro Wrestling Noah full time.

Go Shiozaki

Go Shiozaki is a four year pro who is destined for greatness. Under the tutelage of Kenta Kobashi, the exciting heavyweight prospect has come on greatly during his short career. Shiozaki made a solid impression during 2007 and contested many exciting matches, which earned him recognition by Powerslam magazine who ranked him in their PS 50 for the first time at 32. The future champion uses the German suplex and moonsault as his main moves

Mohammed Yone

Mohammed Yone, the man best known for sporting a humongous afro is one of NOAH’s most reliable in-ring competitors. Yone first rose to prominence in the cult favorite BattleArts promotion in the late-nineties, but has achieved his greatest fame in NOAH. The highlight of his NOAH tenure was two runs with Takeshi Morishima as holders of the GHC World tag team titles. The colourful Yone’s finishing move of choice is the muscle buster.

Yoshinobu Kanemaru

The current GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion is the most decorated junior heavyweight in Pro Wrestling NOAH history. The 31-year-old has won the GHC World junior heavyweight title on an unprecedented 4 occasions. In addition, Kanemaru has also held the GHC junior heavyweight tag team titles twice as well as New Japan’s IWGP junior heavyweight tag belts. Kanemaru is renowned for his vast arsenal of moves, which include the moonsault, Deep Impact and Touch Out brainbuster.

Atsushi Aoki

Atsushi Aoki is the shining light from NOAH’s batch of rookies that debuted in December 2005. Aoki won the Wrestling Observer Rookie of the Year award for 2006 after showing tremendous potential in his first year. Aoki continued that momentum into 2007 and entered a number of memorable displays. Aoki’s crowd-pleasing style sees the youngster employ moves such as dropkicks, cross armbreakers and his finisher, the Northern Lights suplex.

Junji Izumida

Junji Izumida debuted for All Japan in 1992 following a career in that other genre of wrestling; sumo. Izumida’s biggest moment in All Japan came in October 1998 when he teamed with Tamon Honda to defeat Wolf Hawkfield and Johnny Smith for the All Asia tag team titles. After defecting to NOAH upon its formation, Izumida aligned himself with Jun Akiyama as part of his Sternness stable. Izumida’s signature move is called the Meteorite.

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi

Tsuyoshi Kikuchi is NOAH’s most eccentric wrestler. The twenty year veteran made his start in All Japan, where he quickly carved his niche as a gutsy underdog. His most memorable career performance was alongside Kenta Kobashi in May 1992, when the pair defeated Doug Furnas and Dan Kroffat for the All Asia tag team titles in one of the all-time great matches. These days, he's a beloved member of NOAH who entertains fans with his comical ways.

_______________________________________________________

Gaijin кечисти:

The American Dragon, Bryan Danielson

Dragon is regarded as one of the very elite in-ring generals in pro wrestling today. The Shawn Michaels trained technical marvel first rose to prominence in 2001 when he won the All Pro Wrestling King of the Indies tournament. The following year, he debuted for the new ROH promotion, and went on to become an ROH World champion, and one of the greatest

wrestlers in the promotion’s history. Danielson’s finisher is the Cattle Mutilation

Mark & Jay, The Briscoe Brothers.

Current Ring of Honor Tag Team champions Mark and Jay are the epitome of Tag Team Wrestling in the 21st century. The Delaware natives have also fought all over the world and recently won the Pro Wrestling Noah Junior tag team titles on their first tour battling Ricky Marvin and Kotaro Suzuki in an unbelievable series of matches.

Nigel McGuinness

McGuinness is one of the most successful British wrestlers in the world. McGuinness was developed by, and debuted for, former WWE developmental territory, HWA in the late nineties. He rose to prominence in ROH, however, where he has held the Pure and World titles. McGuinness is a well-travelled competitor who debuted for NOAH in 2005. McGuinness was ranked the number two wrestler in the world for 2007 by Powerslam magazine.

Doug Williams

The Anarchist is one of the most respected wrestlers in all of Europe- for over a decade ‘The Anarchist’ has been one of the leading wrestlers in the country, and has been a great ambassador for the British scene. Williams first wrestled for NOAH in 2004 and has held the promotion’s tag team titles. Other notable honours for Williams have included the ROH Pure title and FWA heavyweight belt. The Chaos Theory is Williams’ main finishing move.

Martin Stone

The Guvnor has been one of the best British wrestlers to emerge in recent years. Stone was originally trained by the FWA and achieved his first success with partner Stixx as part of the Stixx and Stone tag team that won the FWA tag team titles. Other titles held by the no-nonsense Stone have included the IPW:UK heavyweight title, the LDN heavyweight belt and the RQW heavyweight championship. Stone’s finishing move is the Tower of London.

Bison Smith

Bison Smith is an American powerhouse who has been one of NOAH’s top foreign stars over the last seven years. Smith was trained by All Pro Wrestling and debuted in 1998. He first appeared for NOAH in 2001 and competed for the GHC World title in 2003 and 2007. Bison Smith has wrestled in Puerto Rico and for several independent promotions in the US, and is influenced by Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody. Bison’s finishing move is the Bisontennial.

Eddie Edwards

Eddie Edwards, The final US competitor to be announced. Edwards Joined Noah Dojo as a student in May 2005 and was a high school wrestler previously, with recent outings in ROH providing extra experience to this already hot prospect, Edwards has been in battle with just about all of Noah's top junior heavyweights and was especially impressive on the last tour and with his first trip to Europe almost upon us he will look to impress the UK fans.

Wade Fitzgerald

Wade Fitzgerald at only 18 years old the former under 18’s MMA and British Tae Kwon Do champion steps up for his big show debut. While small in height his mini Herculean physique. His martial arts background and high risk offence has already helped his cause in his previous battles with Pro Wrestling Noah Stars Rikio, Tanaguchi, Ota, Hirayanagi, Kawabata and Shiga on these shores.

Първото шоу, същинското шоу на NOAH, засега включва следните мачове:

Второто шоу ще бъде NOAH vs. The Rest тип шоу и двете "коалиции" изглеждат така:

Noah - Mitsuharu Misawa, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Junji Izumida, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Jun Akiyama, Atsushu Aoki, Mohammad Yone, Kotaro Suzuki, Taiji Ishimori & Takeshi Morishima.

Тhe Rest - Dave Moralez, Bison Smith, Zak Sabre Jnr, El Ligero, Bubblegum, Wade Fitzgerald, Mark Sloan, Joel Redman & Mark Haskins (+ oще един необявен кечист)

П.С. Имайте предвид, че някои от описанията на кечистите са от преди няколко седмици/месеца, така че нa места може да не са актуални (пример: Morishima сега е шампиона на NOAH). Освен това, тъй като при последния ъпдейт на Mark Sloan (promoter-a на шоуто) контузията на Mark Briscoe все още не беше станала сега не е ясно какво ще стане с мача на The Briscoes. И не на последно място, първоначално и Ricky Marvin трябваше да участва на шоуто (даже името му е на постера), но отпадна поради някаква причина.

[vassil1990]

Доста интересни мачове като замисъл. Дано контузиите на някои от звездите да не попречат за провеждането им.

[BORKO_10]

Звучи много яко!

Засега за обявени много яки мачове като особено първия привлича сериозно вниманието ми.Дано се получи нещо добро въпреки възрастта и доскорошните проблеми на Kobashi.

Интересно с кой ще бъде заменен Mark Briscoe...

[Diamond_Dog]

Star Power отвсякъде. Гледах в Ebay цената на билетите и беше някъде към 150 евро, което ме навежда на мисълта, че ценни хартийки трудно се намират. Иначе с тези кечисти могат да станат адските мачове.

[nWoHulkster]

Билети не се намират трудно (ако знаеш къде да ги търсиш) и шоутата определено не са разпродадени (ако бяха щях да съм чул, тъй като поствам в един и същи форум с promoter-a на шоуто). Цените за първото шоу са от 12.50 до 50 лири, а за второто от 10 до 20 лири. Продажбите на билетите са стабилни, но не са някакъв колосален успех или нещо подобно. Всичко е в рамките на очакваното.

[nWoHulkster]

Добавени са още три мача за 21-ви юни:

Mark Briscoe ще присъства на шоуто, но няма да се бие. Заместникът му ще бъде обявен скоро.

[nWoHulkster]

Вместо The Briscoes:

[nWoHulkster]

Card за първото шоу:

GHC Junior Heavyweight Title:

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles:

Card за второто шоу:

Mitsuaharu Misawa and Kotaro Suzuki vs Bison Smith and Mark Haskins

Naomichi Marufuji vs Joel Redman

Takeshi Morishima vs Dave Moralez

Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs Zack Sabre Jnr

Jun Akiyama, Izumida, Kikuchi vs Muhammad Yone, Hubba Bubba Lucha

Taiji Ishimori and Atsushi Aoki vs BritRAGE

[nWoHulkster]

Great, great show. The results of which were...

Bubblegum, El Ligero and Luke Phoenix beat Mark Haskins, Zack Sabre Jnr and Dave Moralez when Bubblegum hit an SSP on Haskins. Action packed, went down well, good opener.

Aoki and Redman went to a 15 minute draw. Mostly mat based, standard stuff but very well done.

Kikuchi and Izumida beat Stone and Wade when Izumida hit Wade with a TKO. Light hearted stuff from the NOAH guys was over, Wade bombed like a motherfucker and Stone was kind of just there. Good bout though.

Doug and Nigel beat Suzuki and Suguira, Nigel pinning Suzuki with a double team Tower Of London. Really good match with loads of heat for the Brits.

Akiyama and Smith beat Morishima and Yone after the Bisontennial on Yone. Again, really good match, really good heat.

KENTA and Ishimori retained the tag titles over Danielson and Edwards following a Go To Sleep on Edwards. Probably MOTN in terms of pure work, Danielson is an amazing heel and KENTA is just star power in person.

Kanemaru beat Jay Briscoe with a Brainbuster. Only down point of the night was this match, not really Briscoe's fault, lazy Kanemaru turned up today.

Misawa and Marufuji beat Kobashi and Go after Marufuji pinned Go with the Pole Shift. Just amazing to see the legends go at each other in person. It could have been shit (It wasn't) and I wouldn't have gave a damn. Just magic.

that was an amazing show i will give a few comments

Bubblegum, El Ligero and Luke Phoenix beat Mark Haskins, Zack Sabre Jnr and Dave Moralez. great match to warm up the card but nothing show stealing really.

Aoki and Redman went to a 15 minute draw. i really enjoyed this match, really a solid wrestling contest and made both guys look amazing

Kikuchi and Izumida beat Stone and Wade when Izumida hit Wade with a TKO. this was another great match with some comedy and i felt that wade and martin were not the best team that could have been chosen

Doug and Nigel beat Suzuki and Suguira, Nigel pinning Suzuki with a double team Tower Of London. great action here i loved in and the brits were so over it was unreal great wrestling by everyone involved.

Akiyama and Smith beat Morishima and Yone after the Bisontennial on Yone. really really good match morishima was so over. also was it just me or did it look like morishima lost his luggage

KENTA and Ishimori retained the tag titles over Danielson and Edwards following a Go To Sleep on Edwards. MOTN for the match itself amazing all over

Kanemaru beat Jay Briscoe with a Brainbuster. Ok match could be lazied match of the night and you really felt for jay because you could see he was doing whatever he could to make it good but kanemaru was just lacking

Misawa and Marufuji beat Kobashi and Go after Marufuji pinned Go with the Pole Shift. Amazing moment and everyone in the arena was into it

Just got back from the event, here's my thoughts on the show -

Hubba Bubba Lucha (Bubblegum & El Ligero) & Luke Phoenix def. Dave Moralez, Mark Haskins & Zack Sabre Jr. - really fun opener. Dave Morales can move for a fat man, I'll give him that. Great Spaceman tope from El Ligero towards the end. Buggleman pinned someone with the Shooting Star press for the win

Atsushi Aoki vs. Joel Redman - Time Limit Draw (15:00) - maybe I'm slightly biased because I used to train with Joel, but I though he looked really good tonight. Really crisp and fluid, a definite future top guy. Aoki lookedgreat too, in a top notch technical effort. It became obviously about 8 minutes that it was going to a time limit draw, but it didn't detract from a great effort.

Jun Izumida & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi def. Martin Stone & Wade Fitzgerald - An enjoyable comedy match up. Wade Fitzgerald blew a few spots, but everyone else looked fine. Can't remember how the pin came about, or who got it.

Doug Williams & Nigel McGuinness def. Kotaro Suzuki & Takashi Sugiura - great match - obvioulsy McGuinness & Williams were over like motherfuckers. A double team Tower of London on Suzuki saw Team Vindaloo get the win.

Bison Smith & Jun Akiyama def. Mohammed Yone & Takeshi Morishima - disappointing match, mainly due to the fact that Morishima patently couldn't be arsed. Bison gave Yone a nasty looking power bomb en route to the win

KENTA & Taiji Ishimori © def. Bryan Danielson & Eddie Edwards - SUPERB MATCH! Where to start with the superlatives? KENTA's kicks are just brutal, absolutley brutal. This was my first look at Ishimori, and I was extremely impressed. Obviously Danielson played the crowd like a violin, and Edwards... a decent mechanic I suppose. This must gone about 30 minutes - it felt like half that time. KENTA with Go 2 Sleep on Edwards for the win.

Yoshinobu Kanemaru © def. Jay Briscoe - the other disappointing match of the night Partly because the crowd was burnt out after the previous match, and partly because these two just didn't gel at all. Jay's singles matches are never much cop, and this added furthur weight to the the theory. Kanemura won, can't remember how.

Mitsuharu Misawa & Naomichi Marufuji def. Go Shiozaki & Kenta Kobashi - let's face it - this was about seeing Kobashi & Misawa in the flesh. So it was an added bonus that the match was really good. I maintain that Misawa should pack it in, he spent 70% of this match hanging about on the apron waiting for the finish. But the other three carried him to something decent. What has Marufuji done to his hair?!?! It's a perm. Great to see Kobashi back in action, and we all ejaculated for the Machine Gun chops. Shiokazi's moonsault was breathtaking. Can't remember the finish.

Overall, a great show!

[shile]

Първоначално не бях кой знае колко очарован от card-a,с изключение на main event-a,но изглежда се е получило доста добро шоу.Мачът за jr. tag titles и ME със сигурност ще се гледат,както вероятно и останалите мачове от 4-ти надолу.Има ли информация за посещаемостта на шоуто?

[nWoHulkster]

Има ли информация за посещаемостта на шоуто?

Между 1000 и 1500, може би към 1200-1300. Залата е за 3500. Taка или иначе никой не е очаквал да я разпродадат и никак не е зле kато за дебют на NOAH в Англия.

[gboy]

Между 1000 и 1500, може би към 1200-1300. Залата е за 3500. Taка или иначе никой не е очаквал да я разпродадат и никак не е зле kато за дебют на NOAH в Англия.

Нещо аз ли не разбирам - 1200 души се събират в местния пъб в Англия . Не че нещо, ама ще си платят ли билетите за самолета качистите поне ? Въпросът ми е слединя - от къде NOAH ще си избият парите и ще направят такива при положение, че двете шоута я се посетят от 3 000, я не ?

[shile]

Ще си ги избият разбира се.Пари не се правят само от продадени билети.Шоуто ще излезе на DVD след време,също ще бъде излъчено и по TV в Япония или вече е излъчено не съм сигурен.Освен това на място предполагам e имало и merchandise на dvd-та,артикули и т.н.,от което също се докарват пари.

Иначе 1200-1300 не е лоша посещаемост за първо шоу наистина,но все пак си мисля,че е можело и по-добре.От book-натите мачове оставам с впечатление,че NOAH не са се съобразили особено,че провеждат шоу в Англия,а не в Япония.

[nWoHulkster]

Нещо аз ли не разбирам - 1200 души се събират в местния пъб в Англия . Не че нещо, ама ще си платят ли билетите за самолета качистите поне ? Въпросът ми е слединя - от къде NOAH ще си избият парите и ще направят такива при положение, че двете шоута я се посетят от 3 000, я не ?

3000 няма да са, по-скоро около 2000. Втората зала е значително по-малка от Coventry SkyDome. Билетите не са им единственият източник на приходи. От това, което чувам merchandise-ът се е харчил като топъл хляб и много от масите с merchandise са били разпродадени, което си е доста солидна сума паундове (между другото, една доста силна валута, която като се обърне в друга парична единица...). Ще има и DVD... Освен това, 1/3 от кечистите за шоутата са си местни, така че разходите по тях са минимални. Щом след първото си турне в Англия с две публики от съответно 1500-1600 и около 600 ROH направиха и второ турне в Англия, то едва ли NOAH ще се опарят много от финансова гледна точка. Освен това за NOAH шоутата са повече въпрос на престиж ("вижте ни, направихме шоута в Англия!~") отколкото бизнес начинание с цел огромна печалба. Ако трябва да дам прогноза бих казал, че може би ще излезнат на малка печалба, особено след известно време като дойде и DVD-то.

Иначе 1200-1300 не е лоша посещаемост за първо шоу наистина,но все пак си мисля,че е можело и по-добре.От book-натите мачове оставам с впечатление,че NOAH не са се съобразили особено,че провеждат шоу в Англия,а не в Япония.

Идеята на promoter-a на шоуто (Mark Sloan) още от първият ден беше шоуто да има усещане за автентичност, да прилича на истинско шоу на NOAH, само че в Англия. Идеята никога не е била да се съобразяват с английския пазар и дори и да го бяха направили едва ли щеше да има голямо значение, тъй като puro феновете са твърда аудитория и който е щял да ходи на шоуто е отишъл. На теория можеше да привлeкат и някой друг по-casual Internet фен (и многобройните постери, флайери и реклами показват, че се опитаха да го направят), но турнето на TNA миналата седмица (включително разпродадено шоу в същата зала) им уби значителна част от шансовете за това. Както казах, посещаемостта я бива. Нареждат се зад WWE, TNA, някои шоута на ASW, ROH и някои отделни шоута на други местни федерации, но представянето на NOAH откъм посещаемост никак не е лошо, особено като се има предвид, че говорим за японска кеч федерация в един американизиран свят и на американизиран кеч пазар.

[wwz]

Тука някъв пич, дето е бил на шоуто е направил що горе добри снимки

[nWoHulkster]

^ Снимки, които нарочно не постнах, тъй като с изключение на първата не струват и не показват нищо интересно. :)

[shile]

По-подробен report:

NOAH European Navigation live report: 6/21/2008, Coventry Skydome

This is the first ever NOAH event held outside of Japan. The show features 7 matches and is held at the Coventry Skydome, a 3500 seater venue in the middle of England that held one of last weeks TNA house shows. I’d first like to mention the good job that Mark Sloan has done on promoting this show. Articles on the website of the UK’s biggest paper, Billboard signs in the city itself and even bus advertisements. This is probably the biggest advertisement campaign for a non WWE UK show in years. His very approachable manner and his aim to make the show as authentic as possible has been great and I would whole heartedly suggest ROH contact him to organise their next UK shows.

The doors opened on time but the show itself was about 15 minutes late. Prior to the show we found out that Marufuji and Morishima had lost their ring gear on the flight over. Not the best of starts. The ring was set up with a ramp leading from backstage, but the ramp was about 8 inches higher then the ring apron. This looked silly but it played a part later on in the night. I would say that there were at least 1500 people at the show, ranging from 6 to 70 years old. Considering the lack of TV and little TV/Radio advertising this was a good crowd. Before the show proper we had a special pre show match, giving an opportunity for 6 young UK guys to show what they can do.

Pre show match: Mark Haskins, Dave Moralez & Zack Sabre Jr vs. Bubblegum, El Ligero & Luke Phoenix

I know very little about these guys. Haskins, Moralez and Sabre were the heels with Haskins playing to the crowd to rile them up. Moralez looks like Wayne Rooney after 3 years on a Burger binge. Bubblegum had some awesome pink crushed velvet tights while El Ligero is, essentially, a British version of El Ligero. It was a decent match that built well and came to a good climax. The heels worked over Bubblegum before he made the hot tag to Phoenix, who really took it to all his opponents. Later on he had a great spot where he completely unloaded on Sabre with a ton of strikes. The finish came when the faces hit two awesome dives on Moralez and Sabre, allowing Bubblegum to beat Haskins with a Shooting Star Press.

Bubblegum beats Mark Haskins by Shooting Star Press, 2.5 out of 5

A fun little match, good for a pre-show match. Each guy did well to show what they can do. The heels were effective but Phoenix and Ligero stood out. Phoenix was a good hot tag and showed some real passion in their while Ligero got the crowd eating out of his palm with some great baby face offence The only thing possibly holding Ligero back is his size and the fact that he uses El Generico’s gimmick.

Match 1: Atsushi Aoki vs. Joel Redman

Joel Redman is a 218lb student of Mark Sloan and came out first. Aoki debuted in 2006 and is already one of my favourite mat technicians today. The match focused around Aoki trying to take Redman’s arm apart while Redman kept trying to find something that would be effective. As the time limit drew closer and closer the wrestlers got more and more frantic with both guys trading frantic pinning combinations. In the last minute Redman managed to reach the ropes after a Jujigatame and the match reached the 15 minute time limit.

15 Minute Time Limit Draw, 2 out of 5

I really like Aoki, as he has a great ring style. He targeted Redman’s arm and worked it over with almost every move, until he got desperate and went for roll ups. Redman looked okay offensively but his selling was awful. I never saw him sell the arm once, which really dragged the match down since you never thought that he was in trouble. This seriously made Aoki’s offence look weak and the ring itself didn’t help since it seemed a little too small for Aoki to apply his submissions without being near the ropes. A nice little mat based match ruined due to an absolute failure to sell the arm by Redman.

Match 2: Tsyoshi Kikuchi & Junji Izumida vs. Wade Fitzgerald & Martin Stone

One half of the English team, Wade Fitzgerald was announced at 150lbs. I doubt he was even weighed that. His tag partner, Martin Stone, may be familiar to US fans who saw him at Chikara’s King of Trios 2008 tournament. Izumida is a chunky guy who likes to use head butts while Kikuchi is another fairly chunky guy who had some great matches in All Japan before the NOAH exodus. Kikuchi has actually been wrestling for more years then Fitzgerald has been on this planet, while Izumida is twice as heavy as Fitzgerald. The match focused around Kikuchi trying to overpower the two Englishmen while Izumida used some head butt based comedy to add a bit of light heartedness to the match. Izumida finally won the match by using a Fireman’s Carry into a TKO on Fitzgerald

Junji Izumida beats Wade Fitzgerald by Fireman’s Carry TKO, 2 out of 5

Firstly, Fitzgerald was the wrong choice here. He was too small and he got in a ridiculous amount of offence which made his opponents look weaker. Kikuchi hit the lowest fisherman suplex I’ve ever seen because of Fitzgerald’s size. Stone had a fairly good showing but he and Fitzgerald should have swapped roles since Fitzgerald’s performance distracted from the match. Izumida and Kikuchi are probably the two worst NOAH guys out of those who flew over but I still enjoyed their performance. Kikuchi was grumpy and surly while Izumida’s head butt based shenanigans were quite entertaining. Not a great match with some really odd choices of roles but it didn’t stink up the joint as I enjoyed it for what it was.

Match 3: Takashi Sugiura & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Nigel McGuinness & Doug Williams

Sugiura is a beast of a Jr Heavyweight while Suzuki is a flippy guy with a large range of moves. The British duo of McGuinness and Williams came out to Vindaloo (a song released as a unofficial anthem for the English Football team years ago). The Brits played up the Nationalism angle and helped pick the crowd up. The match started quite evenly before Sugiura came in as he focussed on out powering McGuinness, even using an impressive dead weight Harelip lift. Sugiura and Suzuki kept attacking Williams on the apron, which really riled the crowd up for the hot tag. Eventually the faces isolated Suzuki and hit a two man Tower of London for the victory

Nigel McGuinness beats Kotaro Suzuki by Two man Tower of London, 3.25 out of 5

This was where the show picked up, due to the combination of a great face performance by the Brits and Sugiura’s tactics. Sugiura and Suzuki isolated McGuinness and used some great spots, including setting up for a Yakuza kick to the floor, only to hit Williams, who was standing on the apron. They built the heat really nicely in this match and the crowd were loving it, backing McGuinness and Williams to the hilt. Doug did a really good job hyping the fans on the apron and McGuinness sold well, making the work over period more effective. Suzuki got some of his spots in and did a good job of putting over his opponents offence, especially Nigel’s 2 Lariats and the finisher, where he stayed down for ages to sell the move. A really nice match that played on patriotism to get the fans involved. Having Sugiura and Suzuki, instead of the originally advertised Briscoes helped the match significantly.

We then had a 15 minute intermission where I caught up with some other fans, including guys who had travelled all the way from Finland and Montreal. The consensus was that it had been not bad but needed to be better to have been worth it.

Match 4: Takeshi Morishima & Muhammad Yone vs. Jun Akiyama & Bison Smith

Akiyama and Smith got individual entrances, with Akiyama getting a nice reaction since I felt that he would be under-appreciated by the fans. Yone and Morishima came out together, with Morishima wearing trainers, black Lonsdale work out shorts and no knee pads Yone acknowledged 6 guys who wore Afro wigs in the front row, who got photographed repeatedly by the Japanese photographers. All three Japanese competitors were over huge, with Yone getting considerable love, although Morishima also got a lot of chants. Yone played a great face in peril and just has this kind of aura that makes you care. Akiyama and Smith did a great job of working over Yone, including a sick DDT onto the apron. Smith even hit with a shoulder block from the entry ramp, diving over the top rope. Morishima eventually tagged in and proved to be the immovable object that he is. He cut out the fast paced, ass based offence and focused more on powerful strikes, coming across like a monster. Eventually Akiyama took Morishima to the outside and kept him there while Bison Smith got the win with the Bisontennial (Styles Clash).

Bison Smith beats Mohammed Yone by Bisontennial, 3 out of 5

A good match where all three Japanese competitors got some love and showed what they could do. Akiyama was good as the grumpy guy who tried to teach Yone not to piss him off. He did a good job controlling Morishima at the end, since you need someone to dominate him to make it look like he won’t make the save. Yone was awesome as the face in peril, since he’s a fairly big dude. He got the loudest chants of the match and got a big pop when he went for the Muscle buster. Morishima wasn’t in the match that much but he was on form when he was. He dropped the ass based offence and just hit his powerful strikes and even brought out the Scrap buster. Smith did a good job and was better then expected. A nice way to get back from intermission and having these guys in that spot helped the crowd get back in the mood quickly.

Match 5: GHC Jr Heavyweight Tag Team Title match – KENTA & Taiji Ishimori (Champions) vs. Bryan Danielson & Eddie Edwards

Danielson and Edwards came out to The Final Countdown, which got a lot of the crowd really excited. Danielson then proceeded to cut the music before it reached those words and declared that only the Americans deserve The Final Countdown. This got a lot of heat from the crowd and meant that the champions got a lot of support when they came out. There were KENTA chants throughout the match. The Americans were heels throughout the match, mostly due to Danielson. He played the chickenshit heel by constantly bailing out before KENTA got involved, picking his spots and targeting Ishimori. When he eventually got a hold of KENTA it was on his own terms and he dominated. Ishimori used his quick offence and a little ground work to help turn the tide while Edwards had some nice work in the work over periods. The match featured more stuff then I can remember clearly but Edwards and Ishimori had some nice Hurricanrana exchanges, including a great counter by Edwards into a Boston Crab. Danielson kept attacking KENTA with his more brutal offence, including Cattle Mutilation, the MMA Elbows and the Triangle Choke Elbows. Eventually Ishimori took Danielson out of the equation with the Telerana DDT and KENTA took Edwards out with the Go To Sleep. Unfortunately it looked like Edwards may have badly hurt his Jaw so I hope he’s alright.

KENTA beats Eddie Edwards by Go To Sleep, 4.25 out of 5

Awesome match, definitely match of the night. Danielson somehow turned the entire crowd on him and did a phenomenal job as a heel. This meant that the support that KENTA and Ishimori got was huge, and this helped the match. All four guys put on great performances, with Edwards doing really well, including a ludicrously sold Lariat which I think may have been the move that hurt his jaw. Danielson’s heel work was truly great, constantly glowering at the fans, jaw jacking with the crowd and being a complete prick in the ring by avoiding KENTA until he was occupied. KENTA showed that righteous fire that he brings in his best matches and Ishimori shows how much he has come on from when I first saw him. A tremendously good match with some really nice exchanges and a good finish. The crowd absolutely loved it and it got one of the few “This is Awesome” chants of the night.

Match 6: GHC Jr Heavyweight Title match – Yoshinobu Kanemaru (Champion) vs. Jay Briscoe

Jay Briscoe was on his own since Mark wasn’t allowed to travel due to passport issues. Kanemaru came out to a decent response but the crowd was obviously burnt out after the previous match. This was the match I expected, a short affair that started with some mat work before both guys brought out the big moves, including a vicious looking Deep Impact (Top Rope Diving DDT) and a sick DDT on the ramp by Kanemaru. The match was quite even, with both guys hitting big moves before Kanemaru hit a Vertical Drop Brainbuster. Jay only just kicked out so Kanemaru followed it up with another for the win.

Yoshinobu Kanemaru wins by Vertical Drop Brainbuster, 3 out of 5

A nice, short match that suffered immensely due to it following the Jr Tag Titles match. They built the match fairly well, starting with mat work before building into a case of both guys using the big moves to get the win as quick as possible. The selling was fairly good and I enjoyed it. To be honest, it was exactly the kind of match that was needed: Short, with two guys who weren’t massively over who put on a simple, watchable match that the crowd didn’t need to be into so that they could rest for the Main Event.

Match 7: Mitsuharu Misawa & Naomichi Marufuji vs. Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiosaki

All four competitors came out in order of seniority, with Shiosaki first and Misawa last. All four competitors got big chants when they came out and Kobashi and Misawa even got the large Pennants for their entrances. Marufuji wore White Lonsdale training pants with White knee pads due to losing his ring gear. This was the match that everyone had been waiting for. While Marufuji and Shiosaki got the most ring time Kobashi and Misawa had more ring time then I expected. Kobashi and Shiosaki had some great chop based double teams on Marufuji while Misawa bought his side enough time for Marufuji to recover. Marufuji hits some great spots including a floor to Apron dropkick and an awesome running dropkick from the ramp, over the ropes, onto a seated Shiosaki. Kobashi nearly caved Misawa’s chest in with the corner chops, turning his chest the colour of raw steak. Near the end Misawa returned the favour with some forearms that nearly caved Shiosaki’s skull in. Misawa brought out two Tiger Drivers while Kobashi hit the Half Nelson Suplexes for a massive pop. Eventually Marufuji and Shiosaki were left in the ring and Marufuji hit the Poleshift to end the match.

Naomichi Marufuji beats Go Shiosaki by Poleshift, 4 out of 5

For atmosphere this was one of the three best matches I’ve ever seen. All four men got tons of respect from the crowd, with Kobashi getting the most chants. Misawa wasn’t that far behind and Marufuji’s in ring work got him a lot of praise as well. Marufuji played up to the flashy little prick role that he uses so well in matches against Kobashi, hitting him with his back turned and generally trying to rile up the big man. Shiosaki helped hold the match together with his big chops and he took the brunt of Misawa’s punishment, featuring the three sickest Elbows I have ever seen. Misawa was the typical modern day Misawa, using his presence, elbows and Tiger Drivers to make up for his age. Kobashi rocked the joint with his great facials, chops and general fire that seems to personify him. The corner chops were sick, Misawa took a nasty Half Nelson suplex and the crowd loved it. It was a quite well worked match with good moves, exchanges and selling but it was the sheer presence and spectacle that made this match so good.

Overall Summary

I said that at intermission some people thought that the second half needed to be good. Well, the second half was better then that. Probably the second best second half to a show that I’ve seen live this year (Supercard of Honor III is hard to beat) and the spectacle of the main event was something else. Two really nice matches and some very solid matches on the mid card make up for the first two matches. The crowd started off badly, with fears of two warring factions of internet fans but the McGuinness tag match turned things around and the crowd really came into it’s own, mixing respect with support and chants. The lack of “This is Awesome” chants (except when it was truly applicable) and “wooing” for chops also helps.

This was a great show for the first NOAH show outside of Japan and the end was met with chants of “Please come Back” and “Arrigato.” Hopefully NOAH do return to the UK since this was a great show and really brought the spirit of NOAH to the UK. Some friends of mine, who don’t watch puro, were unsure about these shows but really loved it afterwards.

8/10

Discussion

[nWoHulkster]

Шоу 2:

1) BritRage beat Taiji Ishimori & Atsushi Aoki in a good, solid opener when Sloan pinned Aoki (I think) with a tight roll-up.

2) Zack Sabre Jr. and Yoshinobu Kanemaru went to a 20 minute draw in a match full of tasty matwork and vicious strikes.

3) Naomichi Marufuji, who was clearly loving being a heel ("Brainbuster! Boooo!") beat Joel Redman with the Shiranui in another fine encounter.

* INTERVAL *

4) Hubba Bubba Lucha & Mohammed Yone beat Junji Izumida, Tsuyoshi Kikichi & Jun Akiyama when Yone pinned Izumida (I think). Great match, full of action and comedy. Yone & HBL make a great team.

5) Takeshi Morishima beat Dave Moralez with the Backdrop Driver in a disappointingly short match.

6) Mitsuharu Misawa & Kotaro Suzuki beat Mark Haskins & Bison Smith in a superb main event when Suzuki pinned Haskins.

A few notes:-

Top-to-bottom a great show. Very different to the Skydome show, but this is in absolutely no way a criticism. The Japanese mostly worked heel; Morishima and Yone being the exceptions, while Kanemaru looked baffled by the concept. As mentioned, Marufuji looked like he was having the time of his life, even squaring up to a ten-year-old kid in the front row after his win. Aoki & Ishimori also excelled at being cheeky little dicks. All the matches were solid, but two really stood out:-

The six-man was all kinds of fun, with Yone's Jap-fro probably being the second most over thing on the show after home town boy Haskins. Tone of great stuff including Ligero's attempts to knock Izumida down, the ref checking Yone's hair for weapons and Akiyama on straight-man duty.

The main event was excellent. Who would have thought they'd ever see Misawa playing heel in a Southern tag? Who knew Mark Haskins had such a great fiery babyface inside? Highlights included Haskins continually firing up from ever-more-powerful elbows from Misawa until he could finally take no more and just collapsing after one final massive shot, the crowd screaming for Bison (who I became a big fan of this weekend) to get back in the ring and save Haskins from Tiger Driver-y death and the belting Superkick that took Misawa down and allowed Haskins to hit the hot tag.

Great show, great atmosphere. Can't wait to watch that main event again. The DVD can't come soon enough.

BritRage beat Taiji Ishimori & Atsushi Aoki after a very entertaining opener with the crowd well and truly behind the British favourites.

Zack Sabre Jr. and Yoshinobu Kanemaru went to a 20 minute draw after a feast of outstanding wrestling, most of it I have to say came from Zack Sabre who must have really impressed the NOAH people watching him. Yet another of our amazingly talented roster of young British wrestlers.

Naomichi Marufuji narrowly defeated Joel Redman after a fine wrestling encounter with both men top class as one expected. Two fine performances this weekend against world class Japanese oposition for young Joel Redman. He was given a chance to impress and that is exaxctly what he did. Well done Joel!

Hubba Bubba Lucha & Mohammed Yone beat Junji Izumida, Tsuyoshi Kikichi & Jun Akiyama after a very entertaining tag contest. This was the nearest that NOAH probably do to a comedy match. It was full of action and very entertaining. All six were having great fun and it certainly rubbed off on the crowd. I have to agree that Yone & HBL made a great team.

Takeshi Morishima beat Dave Moralez after a good contest between two very big men. I thought that Moralez was big until he stood toe to toe looking up at Morishima. The match seemed pretty short and was over just as it appeared to be warming up.

Mitsuharu Misawa & Kotaro Suzuki beat Mark Haskins & Bison Smith. This was a superb main event with the crowd rooting 100% for the amazingly popular Bison Smith and their "local hero" Mark Haskins. The audience were screaming their heads off for their own local favourite Mark Haskins.

The crowd were so excited about this match; and the awesome ending; when their brave young lad went down fighting to world class opposition broke their hearts - just for a moment that was. A few seconds later and they were on their feet cheering for "good old Mark" I have a confession to make because I was on my feet at one point screaming "Come on Mark". Both Joel Redman and even the incrediby nasty Mark Haskins have turned into crowd favourites.

It was another great show and all those behind the two NOAH events (Mark Sloan, etc) deserve our thanks and congratulations.

[nWoHulkster]

Хах! NOAH rulz! Пак извадиха вълшебната пръчица и направиха коронния си номер с корегирането на "официалната" посещаемост за пред японската преса :

NOAH "EUROPEAN NAVIGATION 2008", 6/21/2008 (Samurai! TV)

Coventry Skydome Arena, England

2,400 Fans

1. Atsushi Aoki vs. Joel Redman went to a Time Limit Draw (15:00).

2. Junji Izumida & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi defeated Wade Fitzgerald & Martin Stone (13:05) when Izumida used the Mukado Domu on Fitzgerald.

3. Doug Williams & Nigel McGuinness defeated Takashi Sugiura & Kotaro Suzuki (17:06) when McGuinness pinned Suzuki after a McGuinness & Williams used a Union Tower of London.

4. Jun Akiyama & Bison Smith defeated Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone (13:23) when Smith used the Bisontennial on Yone.

5. GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: KENTA & Taiji Ishimori © defeated Bryan Danielson & Eddie Edwards (29:49) when KENTA used the Go 2 Sleep on Edwards (2nd defense).

6. GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title: Yoshinobu Kanemaru © defeated Jay Briscoe (13:23) with a Vertical Drop Brainbuster (4th defense).

7. Mitsuharu Misawa & Naomichi Marufuji defeated Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiozaki (25:35) when Marufuji used the Pole Shift on Shiozaki.

[nWoHulkster]

Казвам го просто информативно, тъй като стана дума за финансовата част на нещата. Шоутата на NOAH в Англия са били paid шоута, тоест NOAH не са давали пари за нищо, а всички разноски са били покрити от компанията, която е купила шоутата (A-Merchandise). A-Merchandise са останали доволни от финансовия резултат.