Mitsuharu Misawa and Pro Wrestling NOAH held their 1-Year Anniversary Party, having over 800 guests, at Westin Hotel in Yebisu Garden Place in Tokyo on Friday, August 24, 2001. Misawa left All Japan Pro Wrestling and started his new group, NOAH, in July 2000, along with 24 other wrestlers and 18 office workers. Since then, they have occupied the attention of the Japanese Puroresu world.
NOAH's GHC (Global Honored Crown) Heavyweight champion, Jun Akiyama, and New Japan Pro Wrestling's IWGP (International Wrestling Grand Prix) Heavyweight champion, Yuji Nagata, will face All Japan's Triple Crown Heavyweight champion, Keiji Muto, and Hiroshi Hase, in "The Puroresu 50th Anniversary Memorial Match" at Tokyo Dome on October 8, 2001.
During parties, festivals, and other auspicious events in Japan, the lid of a sake (a brewed alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice) cask is smashed open with wooden mallets in a merry ritual, then we use wooden cups for drinking sake.
Jun Akiyama beat Mitsuharu Misawa to become the second GHC Heavyweight champion at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on July 27, 2001.
Kenta Kobashi had operations to his right knee four times from January 22 to March 13, 2001. His post-operative recovery is good, and he is going to return to the ring next year.
NOAH has brought foreign talents from Roland Alexander's APW in California of "Beyond The Mat" fame, and from Harley Race's WLW in Missouri, along with veteran regulars like Vader and 2 Cold Scorpio.
Yoshinobu Kanemaru won the GHC Junior Heavyweight title when he beat Juventud Guerrera in the tournament final at Aichi Prefectural Gym in Nagoya on June 24, 2001.
2 Cold Scorpio was training in New Japan Pro Wrestling Dojo in 1991, like Chris Benoit was training in the 1980's.
Tatsumi Fujinami has his 30th Anniversary as a pro wrestler since his debut on May 9, 1971. Fujinami gave light and heat to the lightweight division in Japanese Puroresu when he beat Carlos Jose Estrada (Sr.) to win the WWWF Junior Heavyweight title at Madison Square Garden on January 23, 1978. Then, Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama), Jushin "Thunder" Liger, Ultimo Dragon, and The Great Sasuke have fixed the lightweight division in Japan.
Ryozo Yonezawa had worked for the late Shohei "Giant" Baba as his right hand man for 18 years, and he is a great storyteller about Japanese Puroresu.
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