Pro Wrestling NOAH 2/23/2022 - Gain Control 2022

Pro Wrestling NOAH 2/23/2022 - Gain Control 2022

Here's what I saw:

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Titles - Atsushi Kotoge & YO-HEY vs. Stinger (HAYATA & Yuya Susumu)

Hayata cartwheels out of a hurricanrana attempt early.  then Kotogo and Yohey hit double dropkicks. Kotoge and Yohey go on the mat and he armdrags Hayate from the 2nd rope. Kotoge and Yohey do a leg drop/knee drop combo. Yohey then headscissors Hayata. Yuya sidewalk slams Yohey and surfboards him.

Yohey is thrown into the rails and Yohey is bleeding some. Yohey hits a high dropkick on Yuya then Yohey leg lariats Yuya.Yohey then 1v2's Stinger and hits corner lariats on Yuya. Yuya flatliners Yohey then Hayata shotgun dropkicks  and 2nd rope moonsaults Kotoge. Hayat reverse ddt's him for 2. Kotogo slingshots through the ropes and rolls into a cutter on Hayata.

Yohey missile dropkicks Hayata then dropkicks Hayata on his handspring back elbow attempt. Yuya knees Yohey into a ddt. Yohey dropsaults both opponents then tope con hilos his opponents. Yuya takes a cutter/bulldog combo then Stinger double enzugiri's him. Yuya hits a blue thunder bomb on him for 2.

Yuya armdrags him into a crossface and Yohey hits nice dropkicks on both opponents. Kotoge air raid crashes Yuya then Kotoge hits the killswitch on Hayata. Yohey standing meteora's Yuya then meteora's him from the top for the win.

This just went entirely too long at 26:58. It's not even like it was bad, just it was slow and the extra time added very little to this. If this match got cut in half it would have been a lot better.

Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura vs. Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura

Inamura and Marufuji go at it to start. Little happens until Maru hits some facekicks. He then Thesz presses him and is caught with a bear hug. Sugi and Masa trade shoulders and Masa wins it. He then misses a senton and they stare down. Masa hits some nice forearms on the ropes then Ina and Sugi trade forearms.

Ina gets thrown over the top by Sugi then is thrown into the rails outside. Maru puts Ina in a reverse triangle. Ina hits some chest forearms on Sugi and is chinlocked. Maru footslaps Ina then does some curbstomps. Ina does a nice spinning slam on Maru.

Masa samoan drops Sugi then sentons both opponents. Maru superkicks Masa and he hulks up like Mr. Saito used to do. He gets hook kicked and then dropkicked and it slows him. Masa is superplexed by Sugi. Sugi crabs him and the two trade forearms. Masa spears him after a nice leapfrog.

Ina comes in and shoulders Sugi into the corner then splashes him. Ina squats while he delay suplexes Sugi for 2. Sugi gets sandwiched then Ina runs him over with a shoulder for 2. Ina does a nice overhead belly to belly on Sugi but takes a hook kick Maru. Sugi then release germans Ina and running knees him. Ina and Sugi rade forearms then Sugi knees him and lariats him a 20 minutes. Sugi hits the olympic slam and wins it over Ina.

The second half was good but the first half was dull and boring. This did not need to go 20 minutes and would have been so much better at a little over 10. It's not that it was even bad...they just did nothing until the 2nd half. Then we finally got to see some blows being traded.

Daiki Inaba, Go Shiozaki & Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Kongo (Kenoh, Manabu Soya & Masakatsu Funaki)

Funaki and Inaba go to the mat and Funaki sleepers him before they rope break. They do MMA grappling on the mat then swing wildly on strike attempts. Soya and Go get in and they trade chops. Soya shoulders him down then Kenoh and Kaito go at it. They trade forearms and Kaito jumping elbow drops him.

Kaito takes kicks from Kenoh and Funaki and Funaki leg locks Kaito. Kaito goes after Funaki in the corner and gets held so Soya can hit his spine at 10 minutes. Soya power slams him then Kaito takes a shoulder/face kick bombo. Kenoh and Inaba then trade while Inaba is on the apron. Ken hits slaps and takes forearms from Kaito. Kaito then hits a flying clothesline.

Inaba gets in, shoulders Ken into the buckles then cannonballs him. Inaba hits a standing blue thunder on Ken then Ken misses a pele kick. Ken then hits a pele kick and tags out. Funaki hits some kicks on Inaba then Inaba and Funaki trade shots. Go comes in and machine gun chops Funaki, then fisherman suplexes him.

Funaki and Go trade strikes and Go hits a bad lariat on him. Funaki koppo kicks him then Soya and Kaito go at it. Kaito twisting forearms him from the 2nd buckle then top rope dropkicks him. Soya comes back with 2 suplexes for 2. Inaba hits a nice gamengiri on Soya then cannonballs him. Soya then gets double fisherman suplexed. funaki and Ken hit Kaito with kicks and Soya death valley drivers Kaito for 2.

Kaito dropkicks Soya but Soya comes back wit ha lariat. Soya tries a flying lariat but Kaito does a jumping knee then puts him in cattle mutilation for the win.

This was not too good at all. It was slow and little happened except some strike exchanges until the end stretch. This went longer than it needed to and little was accomplished here.

GHC Title - Katsuhiko Nakajima (c) vs Kazuyuki Fujita

They go to the mat to start They slap each other and Nak drops him with a high kick. Kaz rolls out then Nak forearms him and throws him into the post. Nak goes into the rails and Kaz facekicks him. Kaz traps his leg and slaps him and Nak slaps back.

Kaz figure fours him and does a Mutoh pose. Kaz puts him in a sleeper. Nak tries to rope break but Kaz climbs on him with a sleeper again and rope breaks again at 10 minutes. Nak slaps him a couple of times then Kaz comes back with slaps and drops him.

Kaz enzugiri's him and drops him with a chest kick. Nak top rope dropkicks him and Nak footchokes him. Nak chest kicks him while he is down then Fujita fights back with forearms. Kaz gets tripped into the middle buckle, then Nak kicks it. Nak then saito suplexes him.

Nak kick combos him in the chest and back and they trade forearms. Nak chest kicks him and gets slapped hard then they repeat. Kaz hits a release german on him. Nak backdrops him and high kicks him then punts him hard in the head while he is on all fours. Nak forearm flurries him then Kaz lariats him hard. Kaz spikes him with a powerbomb and does a nasty kick to his head while he's down. He then hits another nasty powerbomb and wins it.

I wasn't a fan of this one. It was slow, in front of a crowd that wasn't interested and Fujita didn't really give Nakajima much credibility. Fujita was not a great wrestler in his younger days and it's not like he has gotten much better.

Overall thoughts: I skipped like 4-6 matches here and still everything felt too long. I counted the match times and this show had something like 2 hours and 45 minutes just of wrestling, yet alone the intros and post-match stuff. Noah is not in a good place right now as they have one of the oldest rosters ever in wrestling and everything is slow and goes too long. People rave about this promotion online but I just don't see it, outside from the commentary.