V10 for Kobashi!!!

NOAH's big "Navigation Over The Date Line" Budokan tour closer ended with a bang!
Kenta Kobashi successfully made a record V10 defense of the GHC Heavyweight title today, beating fellow veteran Akira Taue with a new "wrist-clutch" Burning Hammer! The main event was said to be the true highlight of the show.
Minoru Suzuki returned to NOAH, and defeated one-half of the GHC Jr. Tag champions, Naomichi Marufuji in what was a very highly praised match. Suzuki is rumoured to be next in line to challenge Kobashi for the GHC title.
Another big surprise of the show was the unexpected appearance by former TORYUMON/Dragon's Gate UDG champion, SUWA! Who challenged KENTA for a GHC Jr. Tag Title match and then picking Ricky Marvin as his partner!
Full Results are as follows:

- Kishin Kawabata beat Haruka Eigen with a horizontal cradle at 6:08.
- Takuma Sano & Jun Izumuda beat Muhammed Yone & Trevor Rhodes in 20:55 when Izumuda used a Mukado Domo on Rhodes.
- Tamon Honda, KENTA, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Kotaro Suzuki beat Daisuke Ikeda, Takashi Sugiura, Mitsuo Momota & Ricky Marvin in 4:29 when Kikuchi cradled Momota.
- Takeshi Rikioh & Makoto Hashi beat Jun Akiyama & Go Shiozaki in 17:16 when Rikioh powerbombed Shiozaki.
- Minoru Suzuki beat Naomichi Marufuji in 17:18 by referee stoppage.
- GHC Junior Heavyweight Title: Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Low Ki in 22:15 with a revolution-style brainbuster (V1).
- GHC Tag Team Titles: Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa beat Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue in 30:44 when Ogawa used a backdrop-hold on Inoue (V5).
- GHC Heavyweight Title: Kenta Kobashi beat Akira Taue with a wrist-clutch Burning Hammer at 28:05 (V10).

Looking at the results, it really bothers me that the big eight-man tag barely went FIVE minutes, where as the tag match before it went TWENTY! And you had a TON of better workers in the eight-man.
And they gave the GHC tag title match THIRTY MINUTES?!? I love Masao Inoue, but he is in no way a guy to go half an hour with, and Saito isn't really any better. And lets not forget Ogawa is in there as well! Hopefully this will be alot better than what I expect it to be when I finally watch the show.
And why would SUWA pick Marvin for a partner? Couldn't he pick someone from the WINNING team like Kotaro Suzuki, who's way overdue for a push? Or maybe even Takashi Sugiura, as SUWA would be ten-times better a partner for Sugiura than Kendo KaShin was at the Tokyo Dome. Bottom line here: Ricky Marvin = Fall guy.
If you remember awhile back, I did pick Minoru Suzuki to be a likely candidate to beat Kobashi for the title, much like Taue. But I don't see Suzuki doing it now since he's lost to Tenzan in an IWGP title match before, so NOAH probably wouldn't want it to look like their champion is weaker than the IWGP champion at that time.
But who knows?

And on that note, my buddy, TenzanTeam2K has inducted Kobashi into his Wrestling Hall of Fame at his blog. Click the link and go check it out!

Credit: Strong Style Spirit for the results