The Long Road Home: Takeshi Morishima on Betsu BattleMen, July 2018

Betsu* BattleMen, July 2018.

After making his announcement in June that he would be returning to the ring in a self produced box office "GENESIS", Takeshi Morishima seems to have retreated into his shell again, and so Betsu Battlemen caught up with him in July 2018. Wherever he was (apartment, hotel room, rented apartment for the segment), the door number was blurred.
Takeshi Morishima answered the door, although he probably knew that they were coming, he gave the impression of vulnerability as he stood back, peeped round it, and then stepped back to let them in. He looked like a shy child.

The interview starts with Morishima discussing Korakuen Hall (he says something that can be roughly translated as "what happened there" or "something went down there"), he then changes word in mid scentence while screwing his forehead up and shutting his eyes (a nervous habit he seems to have picked up) and says something about looking back on it.

Its then we get to see the footage.
Atsushi Onita once said that the majority of his life and his memories were packed into Korakuen Hall, well, I guess you could say the same about Takeshi Morishima and Noah, even the early days with All Japan. It must have been all so familiar to him coming back there after three years, or maybe even longer, but he gave the impression he was there to make his announcement, and then get the hell out of Dodge, and get the hell out of Dodge he did as soon as he could.
I wonder what Morishima was thinking as he walked down the familiar corridor from the parking lot. He looked nervous, so maybe his mind was only on getting in, making his announcement, and then getting out quickly. Part of him must have remembered some particular associated memory some part of his route through the building evoked. Maybe he remembered a happier time when he and the others were just simply Noah wrestlers together in the summertime of their lives? Young and happy during the Golden Era protected by their seniors, before the dark times that followed after Misawa's death stripped that all away and made them into executives with a corporation to run?
If he did remember anything he doesn't say, and if there are any memories, they seem too painful for him to want to confront.

Morishima's body language throughout the segment, betrays a lot of how he is feeling, he is hardly at ease. In the lift going up (Korakuen is on two or three floors) he touches his face, sweeps his hair out of his eyes, and leans back with his head resting on the wall. He looks anything but at ease. The camera crew who are with him asks if he is all right, he seems to snap out of his trance for a second and say he is fine. Maybe it is meeting people that is bothering him? Maybe its the adrenaline of his announcement and the nervousness of how he is going to do this? Whatever it is, this is a Morishima a million miles away from the Morishima in Wild II, or the Morishima who carried his Ring of Honor championship to the ring in his mouth (I'm pretty sure Misawa did not appreciate the bill for removing teeth-marks from the leather), the Morishima who battered Homicide for the title, gave Bryan Danielson a legitimate horrible eye injury during a Ring of Honor title match, and who was one of the most feared and fearsome GHC Heavyweight Champions in Noah history and who is remembered as one of the greatest Ring of Honor champions?
This is not that Morishima.
This is a fragile monster, and one very much made of blood, who is a ball of tense human emotions,  and to me, who looks like he is having second doubts as to whether or not he should be doing this.

The only three wrestlers he meets "officially" and on camera (Naomichi Marufuji hinted that they may have met) the three are are Akitoshi Saito (who gives him a big grin), Shiro Koshinaka and AKIRA. The meeting is tense, Koshinaka and AKIRA make an attempt at light conversation, but Morishima is awkward, smiles nervously, brushes the hair out of his face and then looks at his phone. He does not speak much with the Noah wrestler. There is no handshaking or bowing. If anything it gives the impression about people you meet on a Monday morning at work who ask you how your weekend was before getting off at the third floor, and who you don't see for the next two weeks.

So then comes times for the announcement. We've all seen the footage, and I've commented on it, so lets move on to the next part which is after the press interview. Looking tired, looking tense, rallying in the lift and varying between putting his head on the wall and rallying for the camera, Morishima immediately gets into a waiting car and goes home. Through the dark glass we see him collapse against the seats.

Next is a fascinating glimpse at Morishima's "missing years". He seemed to have bounced from job to job working in a flower shop, as a porter, clerk in a pizza parlor, bartender, concert security guard, bouncer, barman, fast food deliveryman. He wanted to disappear and as the clips show, he achieved this. Think about it, he worked with the public for three years coming into contact with all walks of life, and no one, not one person, ever posted anywhere that they had seen Takeshi Morishima; short of becoming one of Japan's "evaporated people", he had successfully vanished without a trace. He may well have asked all the people he came into contact with, and lets face it, one of them would have recognized him, not to say anything - but all these people kept their word?
However he did it, Morishima did it well, and maybe that's why he kept on moving around.

I get the impression that after Korakuen Hall, he went home and locked the door until BattleMen came for the interview.

No matter how good the card is, who his opponent is, how well tickets sell, GENESIS will all depend on one thing, the Morishima who comes to the ring and how well that Morishima copes with it.

"Betsu" means different, special, variation of etc in Japanese.
"Evaporated people" ("johatsu") are people in Japan who vanish without a trace. Not kidnap or murder victims they are people who vanish whether due to hopelessness due to job loss, debts etc.