NOAH Global League Day 12

Pro-Wrestling NOAH
Global League: Day Twelve
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
8th November 2014 

The absolute selfish bastards in the Pro-Wrestling NOAH organisation opted to have their annual round-robin tournament more-or-less right in the middle of my annual break. Ever since landing back in the country I've been struggling to play catch-up and get the lowdown on the subplots and lead exchanges in the tournament, or even just to catch a general sensation of which wrestlers are impressing and which are just padding through the tour. 

(Back row l-r): Hero, Sekimoto, Taniguchi, Saito, Cabana Kojima (Middle row l-r): Yone, Haste, Tanaka, Nicholls, Storm, Nakajima (Front row l-r): Nagata, Marufuji, Morishima, Sugiura

Let's therefore assume that I'm coming at this show with fresh eyes, that I haven't seen any of the tournament (I have, but just odd matches here and there) and all I know about the permutations moving forward are what are explained during the broadcast in Japanese.

fujiwara armbar investigates: Pro-Wrestling ZERO1

An occasional series in which, in a bid to further my spotty knowledge of Japanese wrestling promotions, I watch a recent event and assess whether or not I'd watch regularly given the time, money and ability to access.

Promotion: Pro-Wrestling ZERO1 (ZERO1)

Event watched: True Lies, Korakuen Hall, June 1st 2014

What did I know about the promotion going in?: little bits from here and there. In about 2002 I saw a VHS of their first ever show, which was probably the first full Japanese show I ever sat through. The opener featured Naomichi Marufuji, performing moves now made standard by international exposure but at the time were completely breathtaking. A lot of the card featured worked-shoot matches that seemed to be either a man kicking a man who was on the floor, or two men just rolling around on the floor for what seemed like an eternity. Misawa showed up in the main event and all was fine again.