NOAH "DESTINY" Predictions

Friendly reminder to everyone, tomorrow Pro Wrestling NOAH will be holding it’s second ever Tokyo Dome show entitled “DESTINY”. This has been the most anticipated Puroresu event of the year, even beating out New Japan’s previous two outings to the Dome in January and May. And all that hype just for TWO matches that was announced back in April! So without further adue, I present My predictions for the DESTINY:

Takashi Sugiura, SUWA & Masashi Aoyagi VS Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Mitsuo Momota & Katsuhiko Nakajima
- With the amount of high-calibre main events, I don’t expect the opening matches to go very long. SUWA pins Nakajima with the FFF to give his team the win.

Mohammed Yone & Takeshi Morishima VS Tamon Honda & Go Shiosaki
- I think it’s pretty obvious the veteran team of Yone & Morishima will win this and possibly be the next challengers to the GHC tag titles, but I’m going to go out on a limb and predict Go Shiozaki will pull out the shock upset and finally get his first win at the Dome with a flash cradle on Yone.

Akira Taue, Takuma Sano, Jun Izumida & Haruka Eigen VS Akitoshi Saito, Shiro Koshinaka, Masao Inoue & Kishin Kawabata
- These big mid-card eight man tags usually don’t go very long, so I’m predicting the Dark Agents get the win here with Kawabata pinning Momota with his Axe Bomber lariat. It could easily be Koshinaka or Inoue getting the win, but I like Kawabata, so I want him to pick up the pin.

Mushiking Terry Debut Match: Mushiking Terry VS Black Mask
- The wouldn’t go through all the trouble of hyping Mushiking Terry if he wasn’t going to get the win here. It’ll just be interesting to see how the match plays out, which will most probably be a spotfest. The identity of Black Mask is still a secret, though it’s rumored to be either Ricky Marvin, the long injured Kentaro Shiga, or even Taichi Ishikari. I’m hoping it’s Marvin as the guy can pull off some truly spectacular aerial moves to wow the crowd against Terry.

GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title: Yoshinobu Kanemaru (c) VS KENTA
- Unless they plan on pulling one over the fans like last year’s Kobashi/Akiyama match, It’ll definitely be KENTA taking home the gold here. Kanemaru has had a year long run with the title and he’s probably done all he can with the belt as far as title defenses go. Now is the time for the changing of the guard with the cocky KENTA finally winning the big one and going on to a string of best bout candidates with his title on the line.

GHC Tag Team Title: Minoru Suzuki & Naomichi Marufuji (c) VS Jun Akiyama & Makoto Hashi
- It’s kinda sad how Akiyama has fallen since several years ago when he was the top heel of the company, he still is but with the impending Sasaki Office invasion, and the lack of big wins really seems to have hurt the guy. Akiyama has finally been scoring some pinfalls in tag matches on the recent tour, and Makoto Hashi despite how good he is, is still the job guy of NOAH. I expect Hashi to take a heck of a beating and show a lot of guts before eventually dropping the fall in the match for the champions to retain.

GHC Heavyweight Title: Takeshi Rikio (c) VS Hiroshi Tanahashi
A world title match fourth from the bottom of the card. These two are really going to have to work their butts off in this one to steal the show. One thing this match does NOT need is Tanahashi’s tendency to work the mat game with ground holds and rest holds, AKA Strong Style. This match has to be a full octane spotfest of big hits and hard slams so that the fans will react well to it and not just site around waiting for the two dreams matches. Rikioh will retain here regardless, I just hope he wins over the fans after that debacle of a match with Akitoshi Saito back in April.

Yoshinari Ogawa VS Genichiro Tenryu
I have a funny feeling about this match that maybe, just maybe, Ogawa is going to steal the win with his trademark flash cradles after getting the bejesus smacked and chopped out of him throughout the match. I’ll still go with Tenryu winning it though.

Kenta Kobashi VS Kensuke Sasaki
THE biggest dream match dream match of the year. There is so much hype going for this match that I seriously hope both men bring their A-game and put on a true match to remember. You can easily expect a lot of stiff shots and big head drops in this one. It’s pretty obvious Kobashi is going to win this one. The question is: How?

Mitsuharu Misawa VS Toshiaki Kawada
The second big dream match on the card and the “decisive battle” between the two. Their first match in about 5 years, and eventhough the two might be past their prime (Misawa anyway), you can still expect a whole lotta crowd heat for this one. Like the previous match, expect a lot of stiff strikes in this one as well as head drops. And if all goes well, Kawada will be victorious as that would be the only way I see him working NOAH and taking this match. It would also be what the fans want I bet, and Kawada challenging (and winning) the GHC title off Rikioh would make for some good times in NOAH.

Right now, I am honestly really envious of anyone who gets to see this show either live or without spoilers. I really wish I could go without spoilers for this match, but by the time it takes for the DVD, tape or torrent of this to become available, I’m sure I’ll have peeked at it somewhere on the net cause I just can’t go a day without checking the news on latest Puroresu events and shows.
So here’s hoping Misawa and company put on a hell of a show, and achieve their “Destiny” of being the true number one in Japanese Puroresu!