Pro Wrestling NOAH Higher Ground 2021: Day 1 1/10/2021

Pro Wrestling NOAH Higher Ground 2021: Day 1 1/10/2021

FULL THROTTLE (YO-HEY & Seiki Yoshioka) vs Yasutaka Yano & Kai Fujimura

Yano and Kai argue over who gets in first. Seiki and Kai do some amateur wrestling to start. Yano hits a dropkick on Yo and some elbows. FT takes it easy, bullying on Yano. Yo teases running the ropes but just turns around and dropkicks Yano in the face instead. After a few minutes of this, Yano jumps on the second rope and hits a crossbody on Yo. Kai gets in and hits some forearms and a pair of dropkicks. He then backdrops Yo for 2. Yo hits double knees while Kai is leaning into the 2nd rope and hits a nice dropkick.

Seiki hits some kicks on Kai, but Kai comes back with a running forearm. Yano comes in and gets some dropkicks and a top rope crossbody. Seiki comes back with an axe kick and gets rolled up by Yano for a close one. Yano hits some bad chest forearms and Seiki hits a tornado kick to a downed Yano for the win. Not real interesting at all and a waste of FT's time.
 

Shuhei Taniguchi & Muhammad Yone vs Yoshiki Inamura & Kinya Okada

The finish

Okada works on Yone's arm early. Okada hits a dropkick and everyone tags out. Ina and Shuhei trade shoulders and Ina takes him down. Ina gets thrown to the outside and thrown into the rail. Ina hits some weak forearms on Yone and then gets dropped with just one and tries it again to get dropped with a single boot. Shuhei comes in and beats up on Ina then Shuhei comes back with a suplex. Okada then comes in and dropkicks Shuhei. Ina's team 2v1's Shuhei and Okada hits a slow german. He hits some kicks and takes a spinebuster.

Shuhei and Yone 2v1 him with Shuhei hitting some chest headbutts. Shuhei hits a double sledgehammer on him then does something like a waistlock sitout slam. Shuhei hits more chest headbutts then chokeslam's Okada. He then taps him out a buffalo sleeper clutch for the win.

This wasn't anything special and didn't really start picking up until the very end. 

Daiki Inaba, Atsushi Kotoge & Junta Miyawaki vs Kotaro Suzuki, Ikuto Hidaka & NOSAWA Rongai 

Nosawa is one of those people like Steve Corino that just always seems to get a gig somewhere. Junta hits a dropkick on Hidaka to start. Inaba's team clears out their opponents and does running corner moves onto Hidaka. Kotoge runs the corners and nails Hidaka with a bunch of lariats then a bulldog. Nosawa hits Kotogas he runs the ropes and Hidaka superkicks him. Nosawa does a roll into an armbar and as Kotoge gets out, he gets put into a crossface but hits the ropes.

Kotaro hits some corner elbows on Kotoge and a 619. Kotoge comes back though with a leg lariat.  Inaba comes in and cannonballs Kotaro in the corner then they trade forearms. Inaba hits a standing blue thunder and a lariat and Kotaro does handspring into the ropes with an elbow.

Junta runs the ropes fast and back elbows Hidaka then dropkicks him from the top rope. Junta runs up the ropes with a tornado ddt on Hidaka then suplexes him for 2. Junta tries for an armbar but Hidaka holds on and he turns it into a hammerlock. Junta fires some elbows on Nosawa but gets low-blowed, then Hidaka does a wheelbarrow into an ankle lock for the win. This wasn't anything too special but it was a welcomed change after two slow matches.

STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa, HAYATA & Yuya Susumu) vs Kongo (Tadasuke, Haoh & Nioh)

Haoh hits a nice dropkick on Ogawa early he then headscissors Hayata. Haoh and Nioh hit double dropkicks on Hayata then Tadasuke clears out all opponents with clotheslines. Nioh's team hits triple elbows and they powerbomb Yuya onto his partners.

Haoh and Hayata trade forearms and Hayata hits an enzugiri. Haoh gets thrown into the post and Ogawa begins work on his arm. Hayata continues the arm work on Haoh, wrapping it around the top rope then Yuya follows. Haoh makes a comeback with a dropkick. His partners switch buckles and lariat opponents in each then Tadasuke hits a spinebuster on Yuya. Tadasuke does the Arn Anderson spot where he teases a punch, Yuya ducks, then gets a DDT. Yuya rolls up Tadasuke from the top and then kicks Tadasuke in the face. Ogawa comes in with a double stomp and some punches

Tadasuke hits a back elbow and tags back to Haoh. Haoh dropkicks Ogawa in the face and runs the ropes into another dropkick. Ogawa goes back to the arm and you guessed it, Haoh hits another a dropkick. Then he does an around the world DDT on Hayata. Hayat evades a triple team and Hoah dropkicks Tadasuke on accident. Hayat does a handspring but gets rolled up for a 2 count.

Nioh takes a triple team and he and Hayata trade pinfall attempts until Nioh reverses a crucifix for the win. It was alright but wasn't anything special.

GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship - Daisuke Harada (c) vs Hajime Ohara

They go on the mat to start. Ohara does a nice roll through into something like a cattle mutilation. They trade forearms and Harada shoulders him down. Harada goes for a dive but the ref stops it for some reason then he jumps over the ref and dropkicks Ohara on the outside.

Ohara does a fireman's carry into a backbreaker then does a nice set-up into a surfboard. They trade pinfalls and Ohara puts on a single leg crab. Harada goes for the ropes and Ohara fights him for his reaching arm. Harada hits an overhead belly to belly suplex and mounts a comeback with a northern lights suplex for 2. Ohara hits a real hard and fast armbar then a sliding dropkick to the face of Harada. Ohara does like a chokeslam on his knee on Harada for 2.

Harada hits a nice jumping double knee to the running Ohara. They go up top and Harada hits a top rope overhead belly to belly on Ohara but only for 2. He then hits a tombstone and a turn over knee. He goes for the german but Ohara saves himself. Harada charges at him and takes a nasty emerald flowsion on the head at about 14 minutes. Ohara hits a wild strike flurry and does a flip sell for a lariat. Harada hits a nice clothesline and then a release german. He hits a spinning elbow but only gets 2. Ohara puts Harada on his shoulders then drops down for an ugly landing. Ohara tries to roll him with his arm but Harada rolls him backwards twice in a german position and wins it. It was alright but some of the armwork near the end threw it off track and the finish was unusual.

Yoshioka made a challenge for Harada's title after.

Go Shiozaki, Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura & Kaito Kiyomiya vs Kongo (Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Manabu Soya & Masa Kitamiya) 

 

 

Go and Kenoh duck each other's shots to start. Soya powers down Marufuji in a test of strength. Soya does a deadlift vertical suplex onto Marufuji. Soya and Marufuji trade chops. Kaito gets in and gets easily subdued by Manabu.

Sugi and Kitamiya block each other's slams but Kitamiya finally gets one. Masa misses a senton and Sugi kicks him for it. Kaito hits some shots in the corner on Kitamiya as does Marufuji. Marufuji does a kick combo and Masa ends up spearing the buckles and tags to Kenoh.

Ken and Soya do a flurry of elbows on Maru then pound on him with stomps. Nakajima hit a nice kick to Go's face. Go hit some machine gun chops on Nakajma and Nakajima came back with kicks. Go hit a nice ridge hand chop and a brainbuster. Nakajima then slapped on an STF. Go and Nakajima went back to trading chops for kicks. Nakajima hit Go with a hurricanrana off the top and then superkicked him.

Sugi hit a deadlift suplex from the top on Soya then crabbed him. Soya took a 2v1 then a german. Soya then hit him with a death valley driver. Kaito hit a missile dropkick on Kenoh for 2. Kaito tried to do some kind of dropkick to the leg but Ken countered with a double stomp. Kongo did a nice triple team on Kaito and Kenoh did a standing falcon arrow. Maru jumped on Kaito's back and nailed Kenoh with a knee. Kaito hit a great dropkick on Masa.

Kenoh and Kaito traded elbows and Kaito hit a real nice high knee. Kaito then german'd him for 2. Kaito did a nice suplex into a side slam on Kenoh. Ken and Nakajima 2v1'd kicked Go and Go fired up to take them down. Everyone started hitting finishers and Masa put an end to that streak with a lariat on Marufuji.

Ken hit some high kicks and a dragon on Kaito then he dropped Kaito with a high kick. Ken went up top and hit a top rope double stomp for the win at a little past 30. It took a while for this to get going but the last 1/3rd was pretty good. Not as good as it could have been though and it was clear these guys were in a rush to get their stuff in before it ended.

Nakajima walked out after the match for some reason on his partners.

Overall thoughts: Started off slow but got a little better. Not a great show but it wasn't bad.