Destination 2021 ～Back to Budokan～

Promotional poster for the event, featuring various Pro Wrestling Noah wrestlers

### Tagline(s)

"We are back, Nippon Budokan" (Japanese: ただいま、日本武道館, Hepburn: *Tadaima, Nippon Budōkan*)

## Information

### Sponsor(s)

Abema
OSG
The Reeve

### City

Tokyo, Japan

The **Destination 2021 ～Back to Budokan～** was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event promoted by Pro Wrestling Noah (Noah). The event took place on February 12, 2021, at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. The event marked the promotion's return to the arena after eleven years.

The show was headlined by Go Shiozaki defending the GHC Heavyweight Championship against Keiji Mutoh. Another high-profile match scheduled for the show featured Naomichi Marufuji and Jun Akiyama against Kaito Kiyomiya and Yoshiki Inamura. The event featured three other title matches with Kenoh defending the GHC National Championship against Masakatsu Funaki, Daisuke Harada defending the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship against Seiki Yoshioka and Stinger (HAYATA and Yoshinari Ogawa) defending the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against Kotaro Suzuki and Ikuto Hidaka. All in all, the event featured nine matches.

Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the event had some restrictions in attendance, following the declaration of the State of Emergency in Japan. The event aired live on AbemaTV online linear television service and CyberFight's streaming service Wrestle Universe and FITE TV as a pay-per-view (PPV).

## Production

### Background

On December 6, Noah the Best 2020, Noah announced that they would promote the Destination 2021 at the Nippon Budokan on February 12, 2021, marking the return of the promotion to the arena for the first time in eleven years. Behind the scenes, NOAH's Executive Director Narihiro Takeda was the one who booked the event at the venue, after finding some vacancies at the venue schedule. Prior to the announcement, Noah's wrestlers Kaito Kiyomiya and Kenoh were one of the leading wrestlers of expressed their ambition of Noah promotion an event at the Nippon Budokan.

The last time Noah promoted an event at the Nippon Budokan was on December 5, 2010, featuring the memorial show of Joe Higuchi. Kenta Kobashi was the catalyst in a period, where Noah enjoyed great success with Nippon Budokan sellouts and classic matches. At a time when mixed martial arts was doing strong business in Japan and professional wrestling was seen as the "old fake version", Kobashi's drawing power kept Noah the most popular professional wrestling promotion in the country. However, while the promotion had once been considered one of the best in the world, it had recently fallen on hard times. First Kobashi started suffering from various injuries, which quickly took a toll on Noah's popularity. None of the wrestlers designed to replace Kobashi at the top of Noah had his charisma or drawing power and eventually the promotion lost its network television contract. Following Mitsuharu Misawa's death in the ring in 2009, the promotion started to unravel with financial issues and dissension in the front office. Despite not having wrestled in almost a year, Kobashi was the highest paid worker in Noah and by December 2012 the company simply could no longer afford him. Noah's decision to cut Kobashi led to an immediate backlash from wrestlers loyal to him with Atsushi Aoki, Go Shiozaki, Jun Akiyama, Kotaro Suzuki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru announcing their resignation from the promotion. The five ended up joining All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) after their contracts with Noah expired at the end of the year. However Akiyama, Suzuki and Shiozaki would later return to NOAH where's Kanemaru briefly returned to NOAH only to later sign with New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Despite Noah's financial situation at the time, it was considered a "given" that the promotion could sell out Nippon Budokan for the show, while Tokyo Dome was deemed "too big of a risk" which they would held which was Kobashi's retirement show Final Burning in Budokan on May 11, 2013 which was attended by 17,000 people and featured talent from NJPW and AJPW after that NOAH would not held show at the venue ever since due to its financial issues. Over the following years, NOAH's arguably biggest stars ace KENTA and Taiji Ishimori left the promotion and NOAH's financial dificulties worsened and the promotion was sold to Estbee Co., Ltd in October 2016 and LIDET Entertainment in January 2019, who attempted to relaunch the promotion as the second largest promotion in Japan, while also undergoing a visual makeover. In January 2020, the promotion was sold to CyberAgent Inc., due to its financial struggles, leading Noah to be merged into a new company, CyberFight, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to streamline costs. Afterwards, Noah established a plan to overtake New Japan Pro-Wrestling as the largest promotion in Japan, which would includ Noah promoting an event in the Nippon Budokan.

Pre-sale tickets for the shows were put on sale on December 12 for the "NOAH's ARK" fan club, while general sale tickets were put on sale on December 22; with individual tickets costing from $48,51 to $194,06. On January 4, 2021 Noah announced the event would air through CyberFight's internet streaming site, Wrestle Universe, and FITE TV featuring both Japanese and English commentary. On February 7, Noah would announced that match card would change to Masao Inoue testing positve for COVID-19 and Junta Miyawaki was undergoing emergency surgery for his appendicitis. On February 9, it was announced that Genichiro Tenryu and Toshiaki Kawada would take part of Japanese commentary of the event alongside Kenta Kobashi.

#### Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

On January 29, 2020, Noah also announced that the promotion would celebrate its 20th anniversary in the Ryōgoku Kokugikan which would be later canceled due to the 2019-20 coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). On March 30, it was initially announced that some 2020 Global Tag League shows of the tournament, while the April 15 show would be held behind closed doors, being streamed on DDT Universe, due to restrictions made by the Japanese government regarding the 2019-20 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic but it was later announced that the entire tournament would be held behind closed doors and the shows would be streamed on the DDT Universe under NOAH TV name. On April 22, the first show of the NOAH THE SPIRIT 2020 tour was held in an empty TV studio broadcast live on AbemaTV, and the rest of the shows would be canceled including ALL OUT ATTACK 2020 tour. On May 9, NOAH and their sister promotion, DDT started to promote shows at an empty TV studio being broadcast on AbemaTV under NOAH TV name. On July 18, Noah returned to held events with a limited number of fans in attendance at the Korakuen Hall.

On January 7, 2021, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga declared the state of emergency following a rise of record number of COVID-19 cases in Tokyo and across the country. This led to on January 31, CyberFight's Executive Vice-President Naomichi Marufuji and Executive Officer Narihiro Takeda announced further details for the show. During those details, Marufuji revealed that he also pondered to cancel the event, but instead he announced that the event would be held in a two-part system, with the increasing of the number of matches, with non-title matches being on the first part, and the title matches being featured in the second part of the event, with the aim of accelerating the start time of each match and to finish the event as earliest as possible, due to restrictions imposed by the State of Emergency in Japan. Marufuji also revealed that the event broadcastted as a pay-per-view (PPV), while the second part of the event would air on AbemaTV for free.

### Storylines

Destination 2021 ～Back to Budukan～ featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.

The Destination 2021 ～Back to Budukan～ was main evented by Go Shiozaki making his seventh title defense of the GHC Heavyweight Championship against Keiji Mutoh. On December 6, 2020 at Noah the Best 2020, after Go Shiozaki successfully defended the GHC Heavyweight Championship against Takashi Sugiura, Keiji Mutoh challenged to Shiozaki to a title match at Destination, which Shiozaki accepted. The title match was announced on the following day. Prior to the title match, Mutoh had expressed his intentions of challenging for the GHC Heavyweight Championship. If Mutoh was to win, he would become the third wrestler after Kensuke Sasaki and Yoshihiro Takayama to hold all three of *puroresu'*s major heavyweight titles (the GHC Heavyweight Championship, the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship, and the IWGP Heavyweight Championship). On Janaury 31, 2021, Mutoh and Shiozaki faced each other in their last pre-match, before the event, in a eight-man tag team match, with Mutoh submitting Shiozaki to win the match for his team.

On Janaury 4, Naomichi Marufuji asked Jun Akiyama to team with him at Destination 2021 ～Back to Budokan～. Marufuji reminded that Akiyama had promised to team him, before he left Noah in December 2012. Akiyama sarcastically responded to Marufuji's request on Twitter by stating that if Marufuji wanted to team with him, it would be under the condition, that they face Masao Inoue, before accepting Marufuji's request to team with him at the event. On January 10, Noah officialized the match with their opponents being Kaito Kiyomiya and Yoshiki Inamura. Prior to the match, Akiyama and Marufuji had faced each other during the 2018 Champion Carnival in All Japan Pro Wrestling, where Marufuji was victorious.

In the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship match, Daisuke Harada who was set to make his third title defense against Seiki Yoshioka. On January 10, 2021, Harada made his second successful title defense of the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship against Hajime Ohara. Afterwards, Ohara's Full Throttle stablemate Seiki Yoshioka challenged him to a title match. The title match was made official later that day.

In the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match, Stinger (HAYATA and Yoshinari Ogawa) were set to make their third title defense against Kotaro Suzuki and Ikuto Hidaka. On January 10, 2021, HAYATA and Ogawa made their second successful title defense of the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against KONGOH (Haoh and Nioh). Following the match, Suzuki and Hidaka attacked HAYATA and Ogawa, before challenging them to a title match at Destination. Later that day, the title match was made official. Since October, Stinger began feuding with Kotaro Suzuki, after he was kicked out of the stable by HAYATA and Yoshinari Ogawa. Afterwards, Suzuki align himself with Salvaje de Oriente, Nosawa Rongai and a mystery partner. However on December 6, Oriente turned on Suzuki revealing to be Yuya Susumu, who joined Stinger in the process. On January 4, 2021 at New Sunrise, following a match between Suzuki and Ogawa's Stinger, Ogawa alongside his stablemates HAYATA and Susumu unmasked Rongai's mystery partner, revealing himself to be Ikuto Hidaka.

On January 23, 2021, Kenoh successfully defended the GHC National Championship against Kazunari Murakami. Afterwards, M's Alliance member Masakatsu Funaki challenged Kenoh to a title match at Destination, leading Kenoh to accept after proclaiming that Funaki as the "strongest challenger". On January 31, 2021, Kenoh and Tanaka faced each other in their last pre-match with Kenoh teaming with his KONGOH stablemate Manabu Soya and Funaki with his M's Alliance stablemate Masato Tanaka. The match ended with Funaki scoring a direct victory over Kenoh, after the referee was forced to stop the match with Funaki laying out Kenoh with the *Sleeper hold*.

The rest of the matches for Destination were announced on January, including a twelve-man tag team match between Sugiura-gun (Kendo Kashin, Kazunari Murakami, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kazuyuki Fujita, Nosawa Rongai and Takashi Sugiura) against KONGOH (Haoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Masa Kitamiya, Manabu Soya, Nioh and Tadasuke) as predule for Sugiura and Sakuaraba's match against Nakajima and Kitamiya at the Great Voyage 2021 in Yokohama for the GHC Tag Team Championship. More matches were announced on January 31, with to be held as a two part event due to restrictions imposed by the State of Emergency in Japan regarding the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

## Event

**Other on-screen personnel**

### Preliminary matches

The pay-per-view opened with comentators Hikaru Inoue, Junji Shiono, Koniku Yamada and Kaito Kiyomiya at the entrance of the Nippon Budokan promoting Noah's return to the arena.

#### Part 1

The event event begun with a ten belt ring followed by a vingette for Noah's return to the Nippon Budokan. The first part of the event featured a singles match between Akitoshi Saito facing Kinya Okada. The end featured, Saito pinning Okada with the *Sickle of Death* for the win. The second match of the first part of the event featured Atsushi Kotoge, Daiki Inaba and Yasutaka Yano taking on Hajime Ohara, YO-HEY and Kai Fujimura. In the end, Kotoge performed the *Moonsault Press* on Fujimura to secure the win for his team.

The third match of the first part of the event featured M's Alliance (Masaaki Mochizuki and Masato Tanaka) taking on Muhammad Yone and Shuhei Taniguchi. At the end of the match, Tanaka performed the *Sliding D* on Yone for the win. The fourth match saw Sugiura-gun (Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Nosawa Rongai, Kazuyuki Fujita, Kazunari Murakami and Kendo Kashin) taking on KONGOH (Katsuhiko Nakajima, Masa Kitamiya, Manabu Soya, Haoh, Nioh and Tadasuke). At the end, Sugiura pinned Nioh following the *Olympic Slam* to secure the victory for his team.

#### Part 2

The first match of the second part of the event featured a tag team match for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship between the champions Stinger (HAYATA and Yoshinari Ogawa) taking on Kotaro Suzuki and Ikuto Hidaka. In the end, Ogawa surprise Suzuki after pinning him, after a headscissors hold, securing the victory for his team.

The second match of the second part of the event saw a GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship match between Daisuke Harada and Seiki Yoshioka. In the end, Yoshioka performed a Package Pumphandle half nelson driver followed by the *Crash Driver* to become the new champion. After the match, Harada's partner Atsushi Kotoge challenged Yoshioka to a title match.

The third match featured a *Noah Generation* tag team match between Noah originals Naomichi Marufuji and Jun Akiyama facing Kaito Kiyomiya and Yoshiki Inamura. In the final moments of the match, Kiyomiya perfomed a jumping headbutt followed by the*Tiger Suplex* for a near-fall. Kiyomiya then performed another *Tiger Suplex* for the win.

### Double Main Event

#### Double Main Event 1

Destination 2021 featured two main event matches. In the first, Kenoh defended the GHC National Championship against Masakatsu Funaki. In the colsing moments of the match, Funaki hit Kenoh with consecutive Roundhouse Kicks, only to Kenoh counter before trading strikes. Funaki attempted to perform a German Suplex, only for Kenoh to reverse it to the *Dragon Suplex* to win and retain the GHC National Championship. After the match, Funaki went for a handshake, only to Kenoh look at Funaki, despite showing respect to him. After the match, Kenoh thanked the fans for coming to the event, desopite the circunstances cause by the COVID-19 pandemic. Afterwards, in post-match interview, Kendo Kashin challenged Kenoh to a title match.

#### Double Main Event 2

In the second main event, Go Shiozaki defended the GHC Heavyweight Championship against Keiji Mutoh. Before the match, it was shown a promo of their match. In the finals moments of the match, Shiozaki performed a *Short-range Gowan Lariat* for a near-fall. Afterwards, Shiozaki perfomed the *Moonsault* for another near-fall. Shiozaki then performed the *Gowan Lariat*, as Shiozaki was going for another consecutive *Gowan Lariat*, Mutoh reverse it to a *Frankensteiner* to become the new champion. With this victory, Mutoh became the third wrestler (the others being Kensuke Sasaki and Yoshihiro Takayama) to win the three major heavyweight titles in Japan: NOAH's GHC Heavyweight Championship, New Japan's IWGP Heavyweight Championship, and All Japan's Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship. After the match, Kaito Kiyomiya challenged Mutoh to a title match. However, Mutoh left the ring without answering.

## Reception

The event drew 4,196 fans to the Nippon Budokan, however, it was noted that attedance numbers were affected by the restrictions imposed by the Japanese Government.

Paul Völsch in his review of the event for the *Voices of Wrestling* claimed that "even with [...] restrictions in place, NOAH managed to pull off a very entertaining show. [...] it nevertheless was a proper return for the promotion to the venue. The whole show from the presentation and the feeling of the matches was big time. Also, [...] the English commentary team [of Mark Pickering and Stuart Fulton] did very well on this show and showed good knowledge about the promotion and threw in some nice puro history references as well".

John Pollock in his review of the event for the *Post Wrestling* claimed that the show was "designed to pull on the nostalgia strings for the largest audience they could attract while making their current generation of stars coming off as significant, which [...] NOAH is attempting to accomplish specifically with the Keiji Mutoh title win." Pollock also praised the main event stating that it "was a challenge for Go Shiozaki to prove he is among the very best in the industry to attempt and get a 30-minute match out of Mutoh, who is significantly limited from decades of damage. The match was far from a masterpiece, but the elements of a great match were there by the end with an audience engaged with the near-falls and willing to go along with the ride of Mutoh going for the upset." Pollock also praised english commentary, claiming that "they were extremely well researched on every wrestler on the show", but he also noted that "it never felt like they were adjusting their call for a new audience."

    Andrew Balaz in his review of the event for the *The Chairshot* claimed that the show featured "a beautiful blend of new generation versus the old, and a fairly balanced mixture on who was victorious in the pivotal battles as well [...] great action from top to bottom and historical on multiple levels."

## Aftermath

Following the event, on February 15, during a press conference, it was announced that Keiji Mutoh had a signed a two-year contract with the promotion. At that press conference, Noah announced a partial match card for the Great Voyage in Yokohama and Great Voyage in Fukuoka, with Mutoh defending the GHC Heavyweight Championship against Kaito Kiyomiya, and Seiki Yoshioka defending the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship against Atsushi Kotoge. Meanwhile, Noah also announced that Kenoh would defend the GHC National Championship against Kendo Kashin at the Great Voyage in Yokohama, facing him in a winning effort, before losing the title to Kashin's Sugiura-gun stablemate Kazuyuki Fujita on March 21.

On August 15 at Kawasaki Go!, CyberFight's Executive Vice-President Naomichi Marufuji would appear in a pre-taped vignette, announcing Noah's return to the Nippon Budokan on January 1, 2022 at New Year's Day with event called NOAH The New Year three days prior to NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 16.