A sellout crowd of 16,800 Fans, the highest Budokan attendence since the January 2005 Budokan show, packed the Tokyo Nippon Budokan to see Jun Akiyama overcome Akira Taue to win the GHC Heavyweight Title for the second time in his career. Akiyama pinning Taue after multiple jumping knee's, which he fired in rapid succession after Taue had kicked out of most of his recognized finishers.

Mushiking Terry challenged Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima to a future All-Asia Tag Title match before the show, and with his win over Nakajima must be in contention of a match. No mention has been made of a possible partner for Terry.

The all sumo alliance of Takeshi Rikio & Akebono proved too much for the team of Kenta Kobashi & Jun Izumida. Akebono received a large ovation from the NOAH crowd and his team performed multiple innovative double teams which emphasized their greatest asset; the two weighed in at a combined 335 kgs, or 737 pounds! Rikio & Akebono's finish was a union diving body press, with Akebono perched on the second rope and Rikio on the top rope.

KENTA defended his GHC Junior Heavyweight Title against Naomichi Marufuji in the semi-main event, finally beating his long time friend & former GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title partner Naomichi Marufuji in the semi main event. The two battled for nearly 30 minutes, with KENTA ensuring his win with multiple Busaiku Knee Kicks to ensure that Marufuji had no chance to kick out. KENTA's win breaks up a run of 6 consecutive Marufuji singles wins against KENTA.

NOAH, 1/22/06 (NTV/G+ Live)
Tokyo Nippon Budokan
16,800 Fans - Super No Vacancy

1. Kentaro Shiga & Mitsuo Momota beat Kishin Kawabata & Haruka Eigen (7:43) when Shiga used a cradle on Eigen.
2. Takuma Sano, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Dakota beat Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue & Tsutomu Hirayanagi (18:32) when Dakota used the Bad Land DDT on Hirayanagi.
3. Yoshinari Ogawa & Shiro Koshinaka beat Tamon Honda & Daisuke Ikeda (11:35) when Ogawa used an inside cradle on Honda.
4. Scorpio, Minoru Suzuki & SUWA beat Takeshi Morishima, Mohammed Yone & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (7:18) when Scorpio used the 450 Splash on Kikuchi.
5. Mitsuharu Misawa, Takashi Sugiura & Mushiking Terry beat Kensuke Sasaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Mushiking Joker (17:53) when Terry used the Mist Crash on Nakajima.
6. Takeshi Rikio & Akebono beat Kenta Kobashi & Junji Izumida (17:56) when Akebono pinned Izumida after the Rikibono Splash 63.
7. GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title: KENTA © beat Naomichi Marufuji (29:19) with the Busaiku Knee Kick (5th defense).
8. GHC Heavyweight Title: Jun Akiyama beat Akira Taue © (20:31) with a jumping knee to become the 9th champion.


Looks fun, especially the last two...

RikiBono Splash

Wow, I've really fallen behind on my NOAH for the last year or so, but what the hell are they doing?

Why is Akebono wrestling there? And why is a former GHC Champion his fucking partner? Why has Kobashi seemingly always down to tag duty other than to keep him out of the main event?

Although I will admit that I wanna see KENTA/Marafuji REALLY fuckin bad.

Akiyama with the belt is actually a surprise to me though.............Is he still doing the heel thing these days???

Yeah, they've got to keep Kobashi in tags to keep him out of the main events. You know later this year Akiyama's gonna drop it to Kobashi. Most of it looks solid to good but I just wanna see KENTA/Marufuji and Akiyama/Taue.

This was Akebono's first NOAH show. No idea why he's in a tag team with Rikio, but my guess is because they're both really fuckin' big.

Akiyama is the best possible option at this point IMO, and we'll most likely get Akiyama versus Misawa at the Dome show I'd say. Kobashi is rumored to be facing Tenryu.

Fuck, why Misawa? He's been so lazy these days, they should definately go with a Akiyama/Kobashi dome show rematch for the title. And why go with Kobashi/Tenryu? If they do then they might as well retire Tenryu as he's just bad in singles matches these days too.

The logic behind Misawa challenging Akiyama:

Taue: Losing three times to Akiyama would really hurt him, and winning the belt back would hurt the credibility of the belt a lot.

Kobashi: Most likely involved in a match with Tenryu.

Rikio: Most likely involved in something with Akebono.

Sasaki: Possibly involved with Mushiking Terry, otherwise he could be a good choice. I wouldn't mind Akiyama vs. Sasaki.

Kawada: Would also be awesome, but I don't know that DSE would let him compete in NOAH again.

Other than Misawa, I don't know who else. Akiyama as champ is boss, though.

SHIRANUI SUICIDA~!

Oh, I understand why they can easily put Misawa in there with Akiyama but they can do the same with Kobashi and have a better match and outcome. Forget, Tenryu stick him with somebody else.

Dude, we should totally start a NOAH co-fantasy booking thingy.

Where do we start?

No idea, I was just throwing that out there.

I'm thinking that they are eventually building to another Misawa/Kobashi match for the GHC at some point. It's just what happens in the mean time that will make it interesting or not. Regardless, someone needs to hold the GHC for a decent reign again.

So, Akebono is looking to be more than a Sumo wrestler?

He's been in New Japan for awhile. I think he's going freelance now.