7/22 NOAH Results
What might be the biggest day of the summer schedule event-wise is drawing to a close and the major results are beginning to flow in. NOAH starts things off with their first-ever event at Tokyo’s famed sumo hall, results from GREAT VOYAGE 2012 in RYOGOKU:
They claimed 8000 paid.
Taiji Ishimori beat Masa Takanashi (DDT) in 4:41.
Von Erich Siblings NOAH Debut Match: Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls beat Lars & Marshall Von Erich in 6:26. Nicholls pinned Marshall after SSP.
Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kensuke Sasaki beat Genba Hirayanagi & Akira Taue in 7:39. Nakajima pinned Hirayanagi after a running low kick.
Mohammed Yone beat Yoshiaki Fujiwara in 6:42.
Kota Ibushi (DDT) beat Atsushi Kotoge in 9:42.
TAJIRI (Wrestling New Classic) beat Maybach Taniguchi in 4:35 by DQ. Ref assault.
KENTA Return Match: Naomichi Marufuji beat KENTA in 16:20.
Ricky Marvin & Super Crazy beat GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Atsushi Aoki & Kotaro Suzuki in 12:58 to win the titles. Marvin & Crazy become the 16th GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Marvin pinned Suzuki after a deformation piledriver. Damn, upset.
GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Christopher Daniels (TNA) in 7:55 to retain the title. V2 for Kanemaru.
Samoa Joe & Magnus (TNA) beat GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Akitoshi Saito & Jun Akiyama in 11:40 to win the titles. Joe & Magnus become the 24th GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Joe pinned Saito after a muscle driver. Uh…yeah, like what the?
GHC Heavyweight Champion Takeshi Morishima beat Go Shiozaki in 24:35 to retain the title. V4 for Morishima. And a huge one at that.
The other highlight of the card was the retirement ceremony for Takeshi Rikioh, who was forced to retire after being unable to fully recover from a neck injury suffered in 2010.
The Summer Navigation ’12 tour resumes Saturday.
Notes/fallout from SportsNavi:
The Rikioh retirement ceremony was held at the end of the event. Among those who attended and presented gifts were Kenta Kobashi, KENTA and Rikioh’s wife & 2 children (he has a daughter, 11, and a son, 3). Although the neck injury ended his in-ring career, there is some good news-he’s not going anywhere. Tomorrow (7/23, now today JST as of this update) he will be inaugurated as the newest member of the GHC Title Committee.
More good news for NOAH: Takashi Sugiura announced today he will return on 8/25. Sugiura has been out most of the year due to injury.
Despite the loss today, Shiozaki announced he would seek an immediate rematch with Morishima for the GHC Heavyweight Title.
