Well he did have a falling out with Ricki over the disastrous South American tour, so he could be still biting even tho it was a year ago.
I'd be surprised if Noah was 'biting' about that, if he ever was. The whole situation might have been more of a media beat up than any truth to Noah being upset. I recall he came on the forums back then and was pretty chipper about things, didn't seem to be any bad blood.
As for Gao, Noah might have said he's not all that, perhaps Noah could jump back on the forums and let us know what Gao's strengths/ weaknesses might be from a player's point of view - Noah?.
But really, we gotta compare him [Gao] to what we had [elrich] . . . so surely it's a step in the right direction.