(NOAH) "Global Junior Tag League 2019" Hitoshi Kumano interview, "If Chris Ridgeway and I have a solid understanding, we can aim for our first victory at our first appearance."


Q: Just before the opening of "Global Junior Tag League 2019", "The Backbreakers" with Hajime Ohara was dissolved.
KUMANO: That is no longer my concern, I am in junior tag league and I have a different partner. As The Backbreakers, it was a miracle that we did it for two years in a row. Separately, there is nothing against him now. There used to be a little while ago, but at the singles match with Ohara (4th May, Korakuen Hall), we said farewell. I am not going to use womanly words, but as Hajime Ohara is in motion in The Sugiura Army, I am going to do it my own way this time, and it is exciting now I can enter Junior Tag League with Chris Ridgeway.

Q: Have you watched your partner Chris Ridgeway in a video?
KUMANO: Yes, I have seen it. I wonder how we will engage, until now there has been no such thing as teaming with a wrestler who kicks like that until now. So, I am thinking about what kind of collaboration and what kind of match we are going to put together.

Q: Chris will enter at the opening round at Korakuen Hall, so it will be a crucial moment for the team.
KUMANO: I have had a sense of this often, so I will do it ad hoc. Do I call him Chris? Do I call him Ridgeway?

Q: Call what the people do first (laughs)
KUMANO: I think I will have to go with that name (laughs). I wonder, is this the third time I have teamed with a gaijin wrestler? Super Crazy, Andy Dalton and now Chris Ridgeway.

Q: Do you feel that you are open to teaming with foreign wrestlers?
KUMANO: Yes. When I first entered the Noah dojo, it was like a foreign country already (laughs). I lived there with TMDK, Zach, The Bravado Brothers, The Von Erich brothers and other multinational members. Unlike the past, there are no foreign wrestlers as there were before in the dojo, and had I not lived with them then I might have been more anxious about communicating in this match.

Q: The league will last for a short period of eight matches in the series, there is the risk of elimination? (rough)
KUMANO: That's right, but first of all our first match is Hajime Ohara and NOSAWA Rongai, if we win here, we will get the momentum will we not? (Rest does not translate).

Q: Can you tell me about which team's entry you care about most?
KUMANO: YO-HEY & HAYATA enter as last years winners, how how are they? RATELS or Stinger?

Q: Their goal is to have three consecutive wins. HAYATA will be teaming as a member of RATELS, and YO-HEY as a member of Stinger.
KUMANO: But what happens after they finish with 3 consecutive wins?

Q: What is it? They are aiming at a 4th.
KUMANO: But if you win for three consecutive championships, you will naturally challenge for the tag belt, right? But then what happens if Ogawa and YO-HEY have a Stinger showdown?

Q: Its about winning...
KUMANO: Is that so? Well, that story aside, its Chris Ridgeway who I am most concerned with.

Q: More than the teams you are facing, are you anxious about your partner?
KUMANO: If Chris Ridgeway and I have a solid understanding, we can aim for our first victory at our first appearance.

Q: Finally, please tell us of your enthusiasm.
KUMANO: This time I am going to team with Chris Ridgeway, and in terms of partnering with unknown powers, that makes us I think the most unknown among the entering teams. So, we will take advantage of what is unknown and win the league. Chris Ridgeway and I will be the face of the Noah Jnrs.

Link to original article from Noah.co.jp (in Japanese)
Picture credit: Noah.co.jp

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