Samoa Joe to debut in NOAH

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

NOAH, 10/27/07

Tokyo Nippon Budokan

 

1. GHC Heavyweight Title: Winner of Misawa/Marufuji (9/29) vs. Samoa Joe

 

If Joe wasn't part of TNA, I'd say he would have had a better then 50/50 shot of getting the title, because he'd make a perfect foreign heel for NOAH. As it is, he'll probably get put over huge in the body of the match but end up losing.

[Garth 0]

I'm glad Joe is finally getting his shot in a major Japanese company. If I remember rightly, wasn't he really down on wrestling for a while when he was getting no interest from the orient?

[Scroby 0]

Yeah, he made a few posts about it in his Livejournal while he had one. Basically the New Japan Dojo in LA wasn't holding up on their part of the deal when it came to working with Joe and Joe got really down about the whole thing. This was RIGHT before Joe signed up with TNA. Please correct me if I'm wrong about what happen with the New Japan Dojo and Joe.

[Garth 0]

Any word on who his opponent will be in his debut?

[CheesalaIsGood 0]

NOAH: Samoa Joe will face the winner of Misawa vs Marufuji on the 10/27 Budokan show. It should be noted that TNA does air in Japan, though probably not in any sort of prime slot. Rikio's injury has forced the tag titles to be vacated, and there will be a tournament at some point for them.

 

Section 3- There's ALWAYS something on IP worth linking

 

Kevin's back!

 

Section 4- I'd give Joe a chance if it weren't for Joe

 

There's so much conflicting data. On one hand, NOAH wouldn't put the title on someone who can't do tours with the company. On the other hand, Joe is the first high-profile gaijin they've brought in since Vader, and it would be awkward to have him lose right away. On one hand, NOAH wouldn't hot-shot the title to someone they've only hinted at. On the other hand, the company seems unable to figure out how to make headway without Kobashi and might be willing to do something drastic. On one hand, Joe Higuchi is going to be in New York on 11/3 and the only reason for that would be so he can perform a title match ceremony. On the other hand, there's no way TNA will let Joe wrestle in ROH.

 

Wait, that didn't work, let me try again.

 

On the other hand, Joe has 1-2 years left on his contract and TNA won't let him go so all the 'Joe jumping to ROH' speculation is incredibly wishful thinking.

 

Hmmmmm. Unless I'm doing this wrong, it seems to me that the many scenarios floating around online that have Samoa Joe with the GHC title don't have a chance of coming true. If Joe isn't winning the title then what will happen?

 

I doubt Marufuji is taking the title. Indications are that Rikio was supposed to get the shot at Misawa later this month, and Rikio hasn't been requested by ROH. Marufuji as GHC champion in ROH was done last year anyway. Part of the allure of Misawa in ROH, an allure costing many people (including yours truly) $100 a ticket, is that he would be defending the GHC title. Does that mean Misawa will steamroll everything in his path? As it turns out that would be preferable, because a very frightening scenario occurred to me yesterday.

 

Think back: what matches turned Samoa Joe from a great indy champ to a world-class wrestler? That would be the series of matches with CM Punk, especially the hour draws. What did Joe do last year? An hour draw with Danielson. What's something that would protect Joe without giving him the title? A draw. Mind you, I enjoyed last year's Dragon vs Joe broadway, but Misawa in 2007 is no Bryan Danielson. The longest singles match of his career is under 45 minutes long. It might make booking sense but there's a very good chance it would be bad enough to drive some of the few remaining NOAH loyalists away from future Budokan shows.

 

As for who's getting the title shot in ROH, a lot of names come up. There's Morishima, who is more credible in ROH than anywhere else and who might have dropped the ROH title by then. There's KENTA, who is also credible in ROH and who isn't a 'big money' matchup in Japan. There's Danielson, who could only be worthy of a title shot in ROH and who could re-create the aura of Joe vs Kobashi. After that you're looking at retreads (Nigel, Marufuji) and unworthies. Me, I'm hoping for Danielson, because he's the best clutch wrestler alive by a hell of a lot.

 

Once Misawa is done with Marufuji, Joe and Mr. X, then we can start speculating as to who unseats him. If NOAH is smart they aren't counting on Kobashi to be up for the task of carrying the company shortly after his return. Knee surgery is one thing to come back from, cancer is another matter entirely.

 

 

from insidepulse.com

[SinToxic 0]

wasn't there some talk on Joe not signing extension on his contract with TNA? anyways, the fact that Joe has no typical preliminary wins in NOAH gives that little hope for a surprise, but it seems like Misawa is trying to have Kobashi's reign, minus the quality. If this match against Joe delivers it could do wonders for both.

[The Buzz 0]

I was under the impression that Joe could still appear for ROH occasionally with permission, while I already know Gabe said he wasn't an option to face Misawa. It would have been possibly I'd think for Joe to win the belt, then drop it back to Misawa on an ROH show. But it was already ruled out as a possibility so just thought I'd throw that out there. ROH took great length to say that his farewell tour was the end of his run in ROH as a "regular" performer.

[Hawk 34 0]

I was under the impression that Joe could still appear for ROH occasionally with permission, while I already know Gabe said he wasn't an option to face Misawa. It would have been possibly I'd think for Joe to win the belt, then drop it back to Misawa on an ROH show. But it was already ruled out as a possibility so just thought I'd throw that out there. ROH took great length to say that his farewell tour was the end of his run in ROH as a "regular" performer.

 

TNA has blocked any talent from working ROH.

[The Buzz 0]

Well I'm sure you know more about it then I do, you seem to know your ROH happenings pretty well so I'll take your word for it.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Joe was rumoured to be on that agreement that he could come back on special occassions. Whether that was the case or not, I don't know. But this was all before the PPV announcement, which helped lead to TNA blocking their workers from working with ROH (and PWG), so any agreement that there may have been would have become null and void from then on.

 

I think.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

NOAH, 10/25/07

Yokohoma Red Brickhouse

1,200 Fans - No Vacancy

 

7. Samoa Joe & Yoshihiro Takayama beat Mitsuharu Misawa & Takeshi Morishima (12:24) when Joe used the Emerald Frosion on Misawa.

[Garth 0]

Not a bad start to Joe's NOAH career; beating the champion with his own finisher and what not.

[Hawk 34 0]

10/27/2007

Tokyo Nippon Budokan, 14,000 Fans(No Vacancy) (I'm going to bet it's 10k or more legit.)

 

1. Junji Izumida and Tsutomu Hirayanagi beat Mitsuo Momota and Akihiko Ito in 9:00 after Izumida used the Meteorite on Ito.

2. Tamon Honda, Masao Inoue and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi beat Kentaro Shiga, Kishin Kawabata and Makoto Hashi in 14:38 when Masao Inoue used the Argentine Backbreaker on Hashi.

3. Takeshi Morishima, Mohammed Yone and Taiji Ishimori beat Yoshinari Ogawa, Doug Williams and Bobby Fish in 13:17 after Yone used the Muscle Buster on Bobby Fish.

4. Akitoshi Saito and Taka Michinoku beat Jun Akiyama and Atsushi Aoki in 11:42 after Taka used the Just Facelock on Aoki.

5. Akira Taue, KENTA and Go Shiosaki beat Yoshihiro Takayama, Takuma Sano and Ricky Marvin in 15:26 after Go used the Go Flasher on Marvin.

6. GHC Jr. Title: Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Mushiking Terry in 22:22 with the Touch Out to become the 14th Champion. Terry loses in his first defense.

7. GHC Heavyweight Tag Titles: Naomichi Marufuji and Takashi Sugiura beat D'Lo Brown and Bull Buchanan in 26:17 after Sugiura used the Olympic Slam on Buchanan to become the 16th Champions. RO&D loses in their first defense.

8. GHC Heavyweight Title: Mitsuharu Misawa defeated Samoa Joe in 17:14 after an elbow smash to the back of the head. Misawa retained in his 6th defense.

 

Kenta Kobashi's return match was announced for 12/2 as Kenta Kobashi and Yoshihiro Takayama vs Mitsuharu Misawa and Jun Akiyama.

[CheesalaIsGood 0]

I posted the Joe/Misawa match in the JoeDirt thread.

[The Flamboyance 0]

Thanks dude. Downloading ASAP

[The Buzz 0]

I was on another wrestling website, and someone had a quote in their signature about "Samoa Joe was laughed at by Noah fans and even the Noah personel as a japanese parody joke wrestler, with much of his matches being guess the wrestler to the crew."

 

Has anyone heard something similar to this?

[Jacques 0]

It kinda makes sense. When I was watching Senshi/Daniels vs Devitt/Minoru, I thought it must be pretty weird for the audience to watch an evil foreigner who is ripping off trademarks moves of Japanese wrestlers.

[Mecha Mummy 0]

I was on another wrestling website, and someone had a quote in their signature about "Samoa Joe was laughed at by Noah fans and even the Noah personel as a japanese parody joke wrestler, with much of his matches being guess the wrestler to the crew."

 

There's this moment in the match where Joe uses the Stretch Plum and you can pretty much hear the announcers laughing at it when they realize that's what he's doing. It was a really, really poor decision on Joe's part because pulling homages to famous Japanese wrestlers might have flown in his match against Kobashi in front of an American crowd, but it just looked painfully awkward when he did it against Misawa.

[tekcop 0]

The worst was when he did the little Ohtani fire sword pose after the boot scrape. I cringed a bit there.

[theintensifier 0]

The match was a complete and utter disappointment.