TEEN'S HEAVEN

TEEN'S HEAVEN are a idol group which consists of three girls, Usagi Sekine, Ayame Ishihara and Yui Fujisawa (pictured above with Naomichi Marufuji in June 2020). The relationship between the band and Noah works both ways, Noah want to reach out to people who wouldn't normally watch wrestling, and TEEN'S HEAVEN want to reach out to people who wouldn't normally listen to their music. 

Their association with Noah came in early 2020, when they filmed a video for an upcoming song they were releasing, "LITTLE HERO IN YOUR HEART", at the Noah dojo. Naomichi Marufuji and Kinya Okada appeared in the video, with Naomichi Marufuji appearing at the CD launch event.

The girls look to be making more appearances in Noah, and are scheduled to appear in July 2020 at "NOAH The Sanctuary" at Club Citta. 

"Era Wrestler"

Background

The Japanese give regnal eras to each Emperors reign, so the Showa Era ("Enlightened Peace" or "Radiant Japan") was the reign of Emperor Hirohito from December 1926 to January 1989. Any wrestler who trained and was active during this era, is known as a "Showa-Era Wrestler".

The Showa Era was followed by the Heisei Era (8th January 1989 - 30th April 2019). At the time of writing, Japan is currently in the Reiwa Era (1st May 2019 onwards).

Wrestling terms 

"Showa Era Wrestler"
Masa Kitamiya is often referred to as wrestling "Showa Era" style, although he himself trained during the Heisei Era. To wrestle "Showa Era" style means that his style is reminiscent of an older time in wrestling, the more classical style that belonged to his senior, Masa Saito, which would not have looked out of place in the Giant Baba era of All Japan.

The majority of Noah are Heisei Era wrestlers, while the trainees in the dojo will be Reiwa era wrestlers. Each era is marked by its own style; Showa Era encompass the veterans, Heisei era are the current product, with Reiwa in Noah yet to be seen, but I would imagine that with a varied mix of teachers, they will encompass both styles while bringing their own in.

Trivia

Although Masa Kitamiya is the "Showa Era" style wrestler, he never actually wrestled in the Showa Era, having been born in 1988 the year before Hirohito died. However, Yoshinari Ogawa has wrestled in all three eras having debuted in All Japan in 1985 (Showa), where he remained until 2000 (Heisei) and is still active there in 2020 (Reiwa).

One day manager

Each month Mohammed Yone has a member of the Noah roster come to his restaurant to serve drinks and food to fans. The events are always on a reserved basis with limited capacity, and the restaurant closes for the evening. As well as serving drinks and food, the wrestler will usually put his own spin on it i.e. Akitoshi Saito mixed his own drinks, and Hajime Ohara cooked the evenings food. The evening will usually finish off with an auction of wrestlers personal items, an autograph session and a chance for photos.

"The Yone Women" (aka "The Tadasuke women")

"The Yone Women" consist of Mohammed Yone's mother, some other relatives, and local women who always come to see Noah when they come to Shinyuri Twenty One Hall, Kawasaki. The women are basically Yone's cheering squad, and they hiss and boo his opponents. They were so loud in February 2020 that Yone was worried that they were disturbing other fans.

They are also known as "The Tadasuke Women" as they seem to have taken him to their hearts after a show in 2018 when Tadasuke played up to them after beating up Minoru Tanaka, and showed them how tough he was by a muscle gesture. Like Yone they cheer him when he does well, and boo his opponents. 

Trivia

~ In 2018 Minoru Tanaka sprained his ankle when fighting Tadasuke near them, it was him who coined the phrase "The Tadasuke Women". He also said that they had distracted him so much that was why he hurt his ankle. 

Use of honorifics - "Chan"

ちゃん is a Japanese honorific, and used like "kun" as a term of endearment, but there are differences between the two. "Chan" does not have a direct meaning in English, but its like calling someone "little" in an affectionate way. 

Use in Noah
"Chan" amongst wrestlers is not usually used, because they tend to use the suffix "kun", which is more masculine. "Chan" is normally used by and for women, although there are exceptions;

1. Takashi Sugiura has called KENTA "Ken-chan", which I think probably goes back to the fact that he's known him since he was a teenager of about 18 or 19 (not to mention that Sugiura is 49, and KENTA 38).
2. Marufuji has used it for Takashi Sugiura when asking Kenoh why he chose to sit between himself and "Sugi-chan". This is an example of using it in "baby talk", which was how Marufuji was basically speaking to Kenoh (i.e like a small child).
3. Kenta Kobashi also used to call (or still does call for all I know) KENTA "Ken-chan", ("Little KENTA"), because the similarity of their surnames "Kobashi" and "Kobayashi" caused instant confusion in the All Japan\Noah dojos, and therefore differentiating between "Kobashi-san" and "Kobayashi-san" was a lot easier when "Chan" was added. 
4. Satoko (Mohammed Yone's female alter-ego) refers to Naomichi Marufuji as "Michi-chan", this is an example of feminine speech. 
5. YO-HEY calls himself "YO-HEY chan" at times, which is an example of playful speech.  

Fans (usually female) also use the honorific as nicknames, the most popular being "Katchan" (Katsuhiko Nakajima), which comes from the fact that he has grown up in Puro. 

"Chan" and "Kun" are not honorifics that would ever be used for anyone like Kenta Kobashi, Yoshinari Ogawa or Mitsuharu Misawa. You would never address anyone senior to you as "Chan" or "Kun", unless of course you had an extremely playful and informal relationship with that person...or else like Kenoh, wished to be very rude, but he uses "kun" in these situations, as its mainly male speech, and he doesn't wish to be playful, babyish or whimsical, but rude. 

"Noah Wrestlers Association"

I am unsure of what exactly this is, but Go Shiozaki is the chairman of the committee (I believe that Takashi Sugiura is also on the board). I believe that this deals with protecting the rights of the wrestlers, dealing with pay issues and health insurance.

The association is not exactly a union (it's not going to tell them to strike), but tends to lean more towards speaking for them as a whole, and ensuring that they are taken care of. One thing that Mitsuharu Misawa, the company founder, was always concerned about was what would happen to wrestlers when their in-ring lives were over. Before he died he had planned to open a restaurant which would have been staffed by veteran wrestlers, which would have given them an income and a purpose, so it is conceivable that the new Noah would create something to take care of its roster, the way old fashioned All Japan did not.
In the past Go Shiozaki has been the one to address the crowd at the Christmas shows, and present flowers from the roster as a whole at various events. In short it gives them a voice. The Noah Wrestlers Association is not the booking team.

Naomichi Marufuji may also be on the committee, as he is the roster manager (Takashi Sugiura held this position from 2011 until 2016), and so would deal with any issues and personal concerns in the day to day life of the roster whether in the dojo or on the road, and probably mediate disputes amongst people jammed together for such a long period of time. He would not get involved in anything regarding pay, health insurance etc.

"Hoss Fight"

Wrestling slang\western. Comes from "horse fight" ("Hoss" being a southern American word for "Horse"). It basically means a massive fight between two large beasts, which are usually either heavyweight or thickly set junior wrestlers. Technical wrestling is not a factor in these matches, they are usually two fighters who punch, slam, kick and throw each other around, and they don't hold back when doing it.

"Mud Boat"

Phrase used by Kazuyuki Fujita to describe Noah, it has two possible meanings;

1. An easy to sink ship made from mud, it mat also be from a parable about something that is likely to go away soon.

2. Kabuki reference. Kabuki is traditional Japanese theater, in which the stage is very spartan. A box with mud in it was used to represent a pond, lake, rice paddy etc.

"Passivity"

"Acceptance of what happens, without active response or resistance."

"Passivity" is a term used in Noah, and handed down by Mitsuharu Misawa to the All Japan and Noah dojo's, and is still used and taught today. The company surrounding Noah might have changed, but the training still very much remains untouched and belongs to the seniors.

"Passivity" basically means the skill to receive a technique. Misawa taught that to know how to do a move is not and was not enough, you must be able to "receive a technique" also just as well. The equivalent to this in the West would be "selling" or "how to sell".

"Young people, outsiders and fools"

A phrase that has been used since ancient times which basically means "when history changes", and is meant to reflect how young people who are stuck with stereotypes, a fool who can not fit into the framework of things, and a stranger who doesn't know the way, who all up until now, have been stuck in their various roles, who work together to change something. Recently used as the title of a book regarding urban renewal and town planning.
The phrase was used by Tokyo Sports in an article about Hideki Suzuki coming to Noah and facing Go Shiozaki at the Kultz Kawasaki event in July (although Suzuki used it in reference to a quote by Shinya Aoki, a Japanese athlete who does both MMA and Wrestling). They had to change it to "a stranger and a fool" as naturally, at 39, Suzuki is not a "young person". The article also spoke of the renewal of Noah, which fits in with the reconstruction theme of the phrase used in the title.

"Okakin"

Kinya Okada's nickname which is a combination of his surname "Okada" and his first name "Kinya". I would imagine that it is a pun on "Oka-kun". Interestingly, Naomichi Marufuji was called "Fujimaru" by Mitsuharu Misawa and Jumbo Tsuruta.

Okada is also known as "Chunky".