Departure was a professional wrestling event produced by Pro Wrestling Noah. The event took place on August 1, 2009 at the Differ Ariake in Tokyo, Japan. This was the fourth event under the Departure name.
The show was headlined by KENTA defending the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship against his former tag team partner Taiji Ishimori. Another high-profile match scheduled for the show featured Takeshi Morishima against Atsushi Aoki and also Takashi Sugiura was initially scheduled to be at the show but couldn't appear due to phlegmon on his right knee.
Production[]
Storylines[]
Departure (2009) featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portray villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.
Aftermath[]
After the event, Kenta Kobashi defeated Kishin Kawabata to retain his GHC Openweight Hardcore Championship. After four title defenses, Kobashi would vacate the title after suffering an injury and the title would be later retired. Noah would spend ten years without a secondary championship until 2019 when LIDET Entertainment acquired Pro Wrestling Noah from Masayuki Uchida and later established GHC National Championship as a secondary title as part of a plan to relaunch the promotion, as the second top promotion in Japan with both heavyweight and junior heavyweight being eligible to challenge for the title.
Also after the event, Ishimori began teaming with Ricky Marvin and began chasing after the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships while KENTA maintained his success in the junior heavyweight division by winning the 2010 NTV G+ Junior Heavyweight Tag League with Atsushi Aoki and GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships with Yoshinobu Kanemaru and following his success in the junior heavyweight division KENTA would transition from junior heavyweight to heavyweight he would replicate his in the division by winning GHC Heavyweight Champion and Noah's top heavyweight tournaments 2012 Global League and 2013 Global Tag League with Yoshihiro Takayama until 2014 when he left the promotion to sign with WWE and KENTA and Ishimori would later reunite with each other in 2019 in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) when KENTA betrayed his friend and tag team partner Katsuyori Shibata to join the Bullet Club after signing with the promotion one month prior to him joining the stable.
After Akitoshi Saito pinned Go Shiozaki at the event he challenged him for GHC Heavyweight Championship at 2009 Great Voyage, in which Shiozaki would end up retaining his title until he lost the title to Takashi Sugiura on December 6, 2009.
Results[]
| # | Results | Stipulations | Times |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeated Akihito Ito | Singles match | 8:13 |
| 2 | Kishin Kawabata defeated Junji Izumida and Kentaro Shiga and Makoto Hashi and Takashi Okita and Tamon Honda and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi | Battle Royal for #1 Contender GHC Openweight Hardcore Championship | 17:07 |
| 3 | Kensuke Office (Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kensuke Sasaki and Kento Miyahara) defeated Disobey (Genba Hirayanagi, Kotaro Suzuki and Takeshi Rikio) | Six-man tag team match | 17:16 |
| 4 | Jun Akiyama, Kenta Kobashi and Yoshinari Ogawa defeated Akira Taue, Muhammad Yone and Ricky Marvin | Six-man tag team match | 22:05 |
| 5 | Akitoshi Saito and Takuma Sano defeated Go Shiozaki and Shuhei Taniguchi | Tag team match | 23:44 |
| 6 | Takeshi Morishima defeated Atsushi Aoki | Singles match | 10:19 |
| 7 | KENTA defeated Taiji Ishimori | Singles match | 25:41 |
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