(NOAH) My name is G-man

Note.Noah.Co.Jp

2nd November 2022

Hello, thank you for reading "NOAH the note"

My name is G-man. I do English announcing next to my friend, the ring announcer, at Noah shows. I received a request from a super cool fan of Pro Wrestling Noah's, who requested to know more about G-man. I would be happy if everyone knew more about G-man, understood that he is not dubious, and I would be happy if you could remember the feeling of kinship. So, without further ado, let me tell you a few things about how Japanese pro wrestling has influenced me. 

My first encounter with pro wrestling started when I was young, when I saw the heavyweight wrestlers of WWF (at that time) and became interested in it. From there, in 1994, I spent my impressionable youth learning about such Japanese wrestlers as Tenryu and Kabuki, and in 1995, Jinsei Shinzaki (Hakushi). I will never forget how moved I was at a match that was held in Japan. If I remember correctly, it was the electric current explosion deathmatch of the event final, Terry Funk vs Cactus Jack, for IWA in Kawasaki Stadium in the 1990s! This was really badass. I was stunned. When I learned about ECW, I discovered some great new wrestlers, like their Japanese rivals in FMW (Hayabusa, Mike Awesome, Masato Tanaka etc), and from there I started to like Japanese wrestling more and more. 

In fact, because I myself am so big, in 2003 I was training to become a professional wrestler. In 2005, special guest trainers Mitsuharu Misawa, Yoshinari Ogawa and Tiger Emperor* came to the UK for Pro Wrestling Noah tryouts. Seeing this, made me realize that all my efforts up to that point were in vain! The level was so high, I was stunned. Samurai TV came from Japan to film the tryouts. Noah's tryout passing standards were far beyond our wildest imaginations, and many of us thought Japanese wrestlers were insane. There were a lot of people with strong abilities among the tryout participants, some of whom were world class wrestlers, but I just couldn't keep up with them. 

Way back in 2010, DragonGate came onto the British wrestling scene. DragonGate was ahead of it's time, and definitely it had a huge impact on the pro wrestling we see in the UK today. At the DragonGate events in Britain, I took on the challenge of filming, and from there my job became camera work. I ended up working for top British wrestling promotions such as "Fight Club" and "Attack Pro Wrestling". Following this, Fight Club came to Japan, and held an event at Korakuen Hall in January 2019. This is the first and only (to date) event sponsored by a British wrestling promotion. The event was in collaboration with DDT, Sendai Girls and Big Japan Pro Wrestling. I came to Japan as camera crew for this event. It was a wonderful show, and everyone who participated felt a great sense of excitement and accomplishment. 

In fact, I'm not just doing ring announcing in Noah! 

So, how did I end up working for Pro Wrestling Noah? 

Let's talk about that another time. 

Don't rush. Don't rush.    

Notes

*Tiger Emperor was (and still is) thought to be Kotaro Suzuki, although his true identity has never been discovered and Kotaro has never spoken publicly on the issue.    

Translated from Note.Noah.co.jp

Picture credit: Note.Noah.co.jp