(NOAH) THE GREEN GUIDE TO RATELS "SHOWTIME" (24th November 2019, Shinkiba First Ring)

RATELS (Daisuke Harada, Tadasuke, YO-HEY & HAYATA) will be holding their second produce show (their first one was held on 30th June 2018) at ShinKiba 1st Ring. Fans are hoping that they will take the show on the road and add an additional date to be held in Osaka (the spiritual home of RATELS, although only Daisuke Harada is native to the city). 

Mitsuharu Misawa started the tradition in the early 2000s by letting KENTA & Naomichi Marufuji do their own produce shows. This tradition has continued beyond the Misawa era with produce shows done by "Super Violent Army" and RATELS. These smaller shows are booked and planned by the wrestlers themselves, they plan everything from who is going to be on the card to how the matches will finish. It is a mark of Noah finally being able to get back on their feet that after the dark years, these things can come round again.

Masao Inoue vs Mohammed Yone vs Shuhei Taniguchi

4 vs 4 tug of war match (RATELS vs STINGER)
Four ropes will be entwined and placed on the mat, and then covered with a sheet. One person picks a rope, the two which chose the same rope will face each other in a singles match.

The Sugiura Army (Kinya Okada & Hajime Ohara) vs Junta Miyawaki & Hi69

RATELS (Daisuke Harada, Tadasuke, HAYATA & YO-HEY) vs STINGER (Yoshinari Ogawa,
Kotaro Suzuki, Atsushi Kotoge and Chris Ridgeway) ~ Elimination match.

The event starts at 12.00 midday with the tickets going on sale at 10.30pm. Noah have asked fans not to come to the venue before the tickets go on sale (i.e. before 10am), due to the disruption caused to neighboring businesses. Please also note that there is no parking at the venue.  


Will this show be televised?
Pro Wrestling Noah announced on the 23rd November 2019 that they would be broadcasting the show live via their official YouTube channel, which is a huge upgrade from their first produce.

If you can't watch the show live (it starts at 12 midday in Japan), please do not worry. Noah usually keep the whole show up for a few weeks afterwards, so you will be able to catch it at your convenience.

Will there be a DVD\Blu-Ray release?
Noah currently have no distribution service.

Will I be able to buy merchandise?
Both RATELS and STINGER merchandise will be sold at the venue. I would imagine that you will be able to get some of it through the official Noah shop.

Noah will also hold a lottery, with items exclusive to the venue (such as badges, mugs, the poster, a handkerchief\neckerchief, and the drunken photo booth picture taken at RATELS appearance at MEGARAGE)....

YO-HEY telling HAYATA off after he tried to vanish for the thousandth time

For all fans there will be a chance to have an autograph and a photograph with RATELS if you purchase the RATELS towel or the RATELS t-shirt. For the Noah's Ark fan club members, they will be given an A4 picture of the produce poster, which RATELS will sign (you don't have to buy merchandise).

Are any titles going to be defended?
Titles are not routinely defended on produce shows

"I really enjoyed today's RATELS event!!! Bitter ending for RATELS, but there were great matches. Eight fantastic wrestlers never able to make boring matches. Fascinating rivalry!!"

Usual Noah opening with the usual theme as RATELS came out to the ring, YO-HEY looking very colorful. RATELS all in purple, STINGER more somber looking in black.

4 vs 4 tug of war match (RATELS vs STINGER)

This shaped up as:

Yoshinari Ogawa vs YO-HEY
Kotaro Suzuki vs Daisuke Harada
Chris Ridgeway vs Tadasuke
Atsushi Kotoge vs HAYATA

Masao Inoue vs Mohammed Yone vs Shuhei Taniguchi
Masao Inoue came out to a remixed version of his theme music, and then as usual got into a struggle with his bright yellow t-shirt.

Completely ignoring Masao Inoue, Shuhei Taniguchi came out and squared up to Mohammed Yone as soon as the bell rang. Inoue tapped him as he wanted attention, and then he tapped Yone. Both brushed him off, locked up and ignored him. Crowd calling for Inoue.

Yone using rate decidedly not kid friendly language by calling Taniguchi as "asshole"!
Inoue telling Taniguchi to "Hey! Stop it!" when he got body slammed, and then Inoue was reduced to hiding in the corner, and clinging on to the turnbuckle, even though Yone got a "Masao" chant going.
Later, deciding he had had enough of being bulled, Inoue ran away from the ring, when he got back in, Yone crotched him by kicking the rope.

Despite the harassment of himself (at least  Takashi Sugiura wasn't around to stalk him), Inoue warned Taniguchi of his wrath. Taniguchi, however, wasn't intimidated by an old man with gout, and neither was Yone who knows every move that Inoue is going to make, so in the end Taniguchi and Yone just wanted to defeat Inoue, so it didn't matter who won.

WINNER: Shuhei Taniguchi with the diving body press on Masao Inoue (8 minutes, 18 seconds)

STINGER worked on RATELS in various ways during the singles matches in order to soften them up for the elimination main event, Ogawa with YO-HEY'S knee, Suzuki working on Harada's chest and ribs, Ridgeway on Tadasuke's arm and Kotoge just generally on HAYATA.

YO-HEY vs Yoshinari Ogawa
Unusually for him, Ogawa came out all in white. There was the usual beautiful YO-HEY dropkick, and you could tell just how much YO-HEY was loving this by the grin on his face.

In a moment that would be his Achilles heel for the rest of the evening, YO-HEY dived outside the ring, and yelled "FUCK" as it looked like he hurt his knee (there was a genuine moment of worry among fans at the venue and viewers at home), and Ogawa naturally capitalized on this and worked on damaging it even further throughout the match as massive calls for YO-HEY arose from the crowd.

HAYATA ("Wife") came out to rescue YO-HEY when Ogawa decided to use a chair by wrapping YO-HEY'S knee around the ringpost, but Ogawa shoved him away. HAYATA remained hovering protectively at ringside, with Ogawa kicking him away at times when he got too close.

YO-HEY spasmodically flailed all over the ring, refusing to give up, no matter what Ogawa put him through, with the crowd at fever pitch urging him not to give in. In the end, HAYATA threw in the towel (or rather his purple RATELS t-shirt), as he knew that YO-HEY was not going to quit, and that Ogawa was going to torture him. YO-HEY not happy, but HAYATA made him see sense, and helped him from the ring.

WINNER: Yoshinari Ogawa via HAYATA quitting on YO-HEY'S behalf (11 minutes, 55 seconds)
*Note the official Noah site has put the result as "TKO (Second threw in the towel)"

Kotaro Suzuki vs Daisuke Harada

Daisuke Harada came slowly to the ring looking merciless, holding the IPW Junior and wearing the GHC Junior Heavyweight tag belt, which he slowly undid his RATELS jacket to reveal.
Very technical match, which was full of hatred, Suzuki being very calculated and Harada not taking his eyes off of him.

As per the STINGER way (and as mentioned above) Suzuki worked on Harada's chest and ribs (I thought Harada was going to have an asthma attack at one point with his wheeze and cough).

Crowd on the edge of their seat with many near falls.

WINNER: Daisuke Harada with Katayama German Suplex (8 minutes, 13 seconds) 

Chris Ridgeway vs Tadasuke
Ridgeway came out to "Paint it black", which YouTube had to mute, but no doubt Miyawaki enjoyed.
Tadasuke, who decided to jump off the ramp and walk round the ring, proudly showing off the tag belt on the turnbuckle when he went to do his usual entry.

After the bell rang, Tadasuke offered Ridgeway the usual smarmy handshake, Ridgeway was sensible enough not to take it (its best not to trust Tadasuke when he does this), so Tadasuke flicked sweat at him instead.

Tadasuke alternating between crafty villain mode, (although he did do a clean rope break, Ridgeway imitated him and then kicked out at him), and then his manic crazy self, which caught up to him at times, especially when it caused Ridgeway to trap him in an elaborate submission (which he came up with spontaneously, which kind of reminded me of the mutation scene from "Akira"). Ridgeway pretty much found a counter to everything Tadasuke threw at him, including the OUTKAST.

WINNER: Chris Ridgeway with the German Suplex (12 minutes, 28 seconds)

Tadasuke said on Twitter that he was going to get revenge.

Atsushi Kotoge vs HAYATA
HAYATA came out to the ring very quickly, and to LOUD screams from the audience. Very fast paced match with the fight going into the crowd. Kotoge slamming HAYATA on the benches and walking into the ring as the count went (crowd screaming for HAYATA). HAYATA made it back by 15, and Kotoge threw him back into the ring. Kotoge also did the first of about three headbutts that evening.

Match had LOTS of near falls with a fight on the apron that I thought had genuinely knocked HAYATA out when he was driven headfirst into it, and a rare Kotoge moonsault. The crowd was at fever pitch as Kotoge went for the Killswitch, and then the pin, but the time just ran out and the GHC Junior Heavyweight music played (although this was not a title match).

Fans want to see this match again, and it has made my match of the year list.

WINNER: Time limit draw (20 minutes)

Nice little filler match which served to further the budding rivalry between Junta Miyawaki and Kinya Okada. Miyawaki growing daily, and he came very close to getting the win over his opponents, fighting like a demon (although Hi69 did no sell him).

WINNER: Hajime Ohara with the Muy Bien in Junta Miyawaki (8 minutes, 24 seconds)

STINGER vs RATELS (Elimination match via pinfall or over the top rope)
RATELS came limping out looking ragged, Tadasuke managed to rally everyone to do his fist pose though. STINGER came out looking slightly less worse for wear.

As soon as the bell rang you could forget the elimination rule, everyone attacked with Ogawa working on YO-HEY'S knee, and then Suzuki joining in. Ridgeway had a go too, but Kotoge did not.
RATELS at one point all got in the ring when YO-HEY was being tortured, with HAYATA being protective and last to leave it when made to by the referee.

YO-HEY eliminates Ogawa (roll up)

Ogawa couldn't believe what had happened....

Kotaro Suzuki eliminated YO-HEY via pinfall, with Tadasuke then eliminating Kotaro Suzuki. He had a crazy look in his eyes when he sat up from the pin. Ridgeway got into the ring and they butted heads. As soon as Harada got into the ring, he took the opportunity to shove Kotoge off the apron (this did not count as an elimination though).

Harada was merciless, had the shark smells blood look in his eyes when staring down at Ridgeway, who he had just stamped on (twice), but when Ridgeway was back on his feet they had a stiff exchange.

HAYATA was the one who eliminated Ridgeway via knocking him outside the ring off the apron, Ridgeway pulled him off the apron and therefore eliminated him, and a rolling on the floor fight went on outside, which Harada had to break up (twice as it happened because it kept breaking out). HAYATA stayed at ringside to watch, and there was no further trouble between himself and Ridgeway for the rest if the evening.

Then it came down to Harada & Tadasuke vs Kotoge.
Kotoge (who had been tortured by Harada), cleverly eliminated Tadasuke by using Harada against him, and then went for the quick pin on this momentum, but Harada kicked out. The crowd screamed loudly as Harada went for the Avalanche Katayama again, but Kotoge fought out of it with elbows managing to knock him off the turnbuckle. Kotoge did the second headbutt of the evening, and then got the three count with the Killswitch. As Ridgeway came out second him, we could see that Kotoge was bleeding from the head (Harada fortunately was not, but he would remain on his back with the others in RATELS around him for a while), YO-HEY (with a heavily taped and iced knee) limped barefoot into the ring.
Kotoge spoke on the microphone to sadly say to Harada that he didn't think that there could ever be any kind of happy ending between them, before leaving the ring.

Then YO-HEY spoke, thanked everyone for coming, babbled something at top speed, said he hoped there would be another RATELS produce, and then a worn looking RATELS scraped Harada off the apron and limped off backstage, where they later did a three man interview, which HAYATA did not take part in (and YO-HEY it seemed was not going to make him).

With thanks to: Yoshiko


Q: At the RATELS produce, the all out war with STINGER ended with two defeats in a row?
HARADA: I lost! Well, the first time I did the same, well...its frustrating to have more losses than wins.
Q: Did you try in every way?
HARADA: It doesn't end until you lose. That is all.
Q: Kotoge...
HARADA: OK! That name again comes out!
Q: Tadasuke?
TADASUKE: I am thinking of revenge now. Chris too, and yes, STINGER. I don't know if there will be another box office, but for now we will defeat Kotoge and Kotaro Suzuki in Niigata. Also (makes an antagonistic gesture) It's about this.
Q: YO-HEY, is that fresh icing on your knee?

YO-HEY: Yes. Originally, the ligament was like a McDonald's potato...the most delicious. Funyan Funyan* its a long habit for this guy, in a condition to feel like you want to rip it apart. It's a great quality, like Okasan's blonde straight hair (starts playing with Tadasuke's hair). It's all bundled up in this head, its a bad influence...well, well it goes without saying STINGER, that I hope I had a good opportunity to show that RATELS is number one when it comes to the Noah Juniors. I wonder if I had a good chance.

Q: That is the third opinion, is there another?
YO-HEY: Did you say it?
HARADA: We were knocked down today, but we will rise again!

YO-HEY makes a whistling sound of something moving quickly through the air
HARADA: Shut up! Even if we are RATELS, I'm too tired to talk, even if you aren't. The rest is up to Tadasuke

(Everyone leaves while Tadasuke talks)

TADASUKE: HEY! Well then, lets be serious. OH! OH! OH! ....OH!


*"Funyan" is a term that is hard to explain (but then again so is YO-HEY. SERIOUSLY DO NOT GET ME STARTED.) Basically it is something that you liken to imitating the vampire anthropomorphic cat character from a manga called "Flandre Scarlet", which has blonde hair like Tadasuke.

Typically crazy RATELS promo; YO-HEY imitates Quiet Storm, HAYATA can't stop laughing and Tadasuke does his usual fist pose. After everyone has left, HAYATA says "Same!" and leaves.

Quiet Storm asked YO-HEY what he thought he was doing, and asked him how big his arms were. YO-HEY said "21 cms, ude" (he means "Dude")