Departure ~ Freedom and Belief: WrestleFile Historical Verdict

Takeshi Morishima defeated Makoto Hashi in 14:05 to open NOAH's inaugural Departure weekend in August 2000. Morishima finished with Amaze Impact, making him the first singles winner on a card introducing a new promotion built from wrestlers who had left All Japan. The pairing deliberately put two younger competitors into the earliest position, rather than reserving every important moment for the decorated veterans who dominated the main event.

Morishima's later GHC Heavyweight Championship career gives this opening result greater retrospective interest, although he wasn't a champion yet. Hashi had a different developmental route within the roster, and his loss shouldn't be rewritten as a title defeat or a decisive career turning point. The duration allowed the opener to register as a proper competitive contest. Its primary viewing value is the moment itself: the new company's first match began with developing talent and established a result before the famous names took center stage.

Haruka Eigen, Jun Izumida and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi defeated Rusher Kimura, Mitsuo Momota and Takeshi Rikio in 13:08 during the first night of Departure 2000. Izumida scored the decisive fall on Rikio, giving the veteran trio the result while a younger heavyweight absorbed the defeat. The six-man presented contrasting generations of NOAH's founding roster, many of whom had carried long histories from the promotion's All Japan roots.

A match like this isn't the reason most viewers return to the inaugural weekend, but it demonstrated that NOAH could build a complete card around more than its leading singles stars. Kimura and Momota supplied recognizable veteran presence; Rikio provided a glimpse of a wrestler who would become important to the future heavyweight title scene. The bout didn't determine a championship, and it had no separate elimination stipulation. The straightforward team result helps distinguish the night-one undercard from the very different pairings arranged for the second night.

Kentaro Shiga and Naomichi Marufuji defeated Masao Inoue and Yoshinobu Kanemaru in a 19:30 tag match on NOAH's opening night. Shiga secured the winning submission against Kanemaru. Although the closing hold belonged to Shiga, the most enduring attraction is the presence of Marufuji and Kanemaru at a moment when the promotion's junior-heavyweight identity had not yet fully developed. Their speed and movement supplied a distinct style from the slower veteran-heavy matches elsewhere on the card.

This wasn't a GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship contest; the division's future titles were still ahead. The match provided an early view of wrestlers who would become central to the company's in-ring direction, without needing to pretend that every later rivalry was already established in August 2000. Inoue and Shiga also contributed substantial experience, giving the younger stars credible partners and opposition. Its relatively generous runtime makes it one of the stronger choices for viewers interested in how NOAH's junior division took root.

Daisuke Ikeda, Masahito Kakihara and Yoshinari Ogawa defeated Satoru Asako, Takao Omori and Yoshihiro Takayama in 23:46 on Departure 2000's first night. Ogawa scored the deciding fall to end a six-man that mixed shoot-influenced intensity with the heavier offense of established competitors. Takayama and Omori brought substantial name recognition to the losing side, while Ikeda and Kakihara gave the winning trio a distinctive physical identity. Ogawa's win also reinforced his place among the wrestlers closely connected with Mitsuharu Misawa's wider circle.

The lengthy runtime helped the contest feel like a major supporting attraction rather than an improvised introduction to six familiar faces. No championship changed hands, and the winner wasn't decided through an individual singles challenge. The historical value comes from how the match captured the breadth of NOAH's initial roster and placed recognizable veterans into meaningful competition before the opening night's headline tag. It is a particularly useful example of the promotion's early heavy and hybrid styles sharing one ring.

NOAH's opening-night centerpiece made the promotion's identity visible immediately: Jun Akiyama and Kenta Kobashi defeated Akira Taue and founder Mitsuharu Misawa two falls to none. That pairing connected the four pillars of NOAH's early heavyweight picture without treating the show as an ordinary continuation of their previous organization. Akiyama and Kobashi winning decisively established that the new roster hierarchy could evolve from the first night, even with Misawa involved as one of the opponents. The two-out-of-three-falls stipulation gave the result additional authority because the winning team had to take two decisions rather than benefit from an isolated flash pin.

The importance lies in its position as an inaugural-event statement. NOAH didn't rely only on the history of its imported stars; it offered a concrete finish that affected how viewers understood the emerging company. That first-night victory also becomes more revealing when paired with the very different Akiyama-Kobashi confrontation on the following show. Together, the bouts make Departure 2000 a continuing competitive story rather than two disconnected launch cards.

Satoru Asako defeated Kenta Kobayashi in 10:53 to begin the second night of NOAH's inaugural Departure weekend. Kobayashi would become known as KENTA and later establish himself among the promotion's most recognizable junior-heavyweight wrestlers. At this stage he was still developing, and Asako's victory belongs to the actual 2000 contest rather than the expectations created by Kobayashi's later career. The bout put a young competitor on a historic card opposite an experienced roster member.

The match wasn't for a championship and had none of the established rivalries that would eventually make KENTA's singles career notable. It matters because NOAH's founding presentation included new performers alongside the veterans who had made their reputations before the company existed. The ten-minute result gives viewers a baseline for how different the future star was in the early stages of his development. For those focused entirely on the weekend's strongest matches, this can be viewed as supplementary background.

Rusher Kimura, Mitsuo Momota and Makoto Hashi defeated Haruka Eigen, Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru in 13:32 on the second night of Departure 2000. Hashi scored the fall, giving the younger wrestler a win after losing his singles opener to Takeshi Morishima the previous evening. Several veterans appeared on different sides than they had in the first night's six-man, providing a further view of NOAH's initial roster depth and the way the two-night card was assembled.

The result wasn't a formal redemption storyline with a championship attached. It was a straightforward team victory in which Hashi gained the deciding fall while sharing the ring with more established figures. Kanemaru's involvement also supplied continuity with the initial junior-heavyweight showing against Marufuji's team. The match is most interesting when the full weekend is watched in order; on its own, its historical weight is modest compared with the opening-night main event and the concluding Akiyama–Kobashi confrontation.

Masao Inoue and Takeshi Morishima defeated Naomichi Marufuji and Takeshi Rikio in 19:30 during Departure 2000's second night. Morishima pinned Rikio, giving him a second victory on the new promotion's opening weekend after he had beaten Makoto Hashi on the first night. His participation across two different match formats showed the promotion using a developing heavyweight prominently rather than leaving every win to the established stars.

Marufuji's place on the opposing team added a junior-heavyweight element, while Inoue provided experience beside Morishima. Rikio's defeat must be understood in the context of a young performer still establishing his role. Both heavyweights would later become closely identified with NOAH's leading singles title, but neither future reign was determined in this tag match. The bout is worth seeing for the developing wrestler combinations and because its nearly twenty-minute runtime gave the new roster room to work beyond a quick exhibition. The recorded winner was the Inoue–Morishima pair.

Akira Taue and Jun Izumida defeated Takao Omori and Yoshihiro Takayama in 15:08 during the second day of Departure 2000. Taue scored the pin on Omori, giving one of the great established Japanese heavyweights an official victory after the previous evening's main-event defeat alongside Mitsuharu Misawa. Izumida's presence made this a conventional veteran partnership, while Omori and Takayama represented a physically imposing combination with their own potential in NOAH's developing heavyweight ranks.

The match wasn't contested for an inaugural GHC title; those championships would follow after the organization had found its feet. Its position below the final two bouts served a different purpose. It gave the audience a substantial heavyweight encounter before the card narrowed toward Misawa's follow-up and the decisive singles meeting between Akiyama and Kobashi. The win kept Taue prominent without undoing the previous night's result. Takayama avoided the direct fall, while Omori was credited with the loss.

Mitsuharu Misawa and Yoshinari Ogawa defeated Daisuke Ikeda and Kentaro Shiga in 20:41 on the second night of Departure 2000. Misawa scored the deciding fall on Shiga, recovering from the first night's two-falls-to-none defeat when he and Akira Taue lost to Jun Akiyama and Kenta Kobashi. His victory didn't erase that earlier result; it allowed the founder of the new promotion to finish the weekend with a win while leaving Akiyama's momentum intact for the final singles encounter.

Ogawa was an important regular partner for Misawa, and their teamwork supplied a familiar foundation against Ikeda and Shiga's different strengths. Shiga took the loss, preserving Ikeda's standing despite the team's defeat. The twenty-minute match carried more historical weight than an ordinary supporting tag because it formed part of the two-night sequence that established NOAH's competitive hierarchy. It was not a GHC title defense, and the precise result should be recorded as Misawa and Ogawa's team victory.

The second night of NOAH's inaugural Departure presentation ended with Jun Akiyama defeating Kenta Kobashi by referee stoppage. It was a deliberate departure from a safe ceremonial finish: Kobashi entered the new promotion with considerable stature, yet Akiyama left the first weekend with a result that advanced his own standing. The stoppage mattered more than a lucky count, giving the match a definitive outcome while preventing the established star from simply surrendering in a conventional submission. The match was also different from the previous night's tag victory, when the two men had worked together against Misawa and Taue.

That pairing of teamwork followed by singles confrontation supplied the young promotion with immediate story continuity. The result established Akiyama as a threat to the established order while preserving Kobashi's importance as the opponent whose defeat carried such weight. For anyone studying NOAH's formation, it offers a record of competitive priorities, not just the names who appeared on the first two nights. The finish is sourced as a referee stoppage and should not be rewritten as a standard pinfall.