(NOAH) Before the launch of Noah, Mitsuharu Misawa said "It's a new promotion, but don't worry, just follow me" ~ Interview with Naomichi Marufuji, KENTA, and Go Shiozaki

BBM SPORTS

10th August 2025

Sadly this is not the whole interview, but is interesting enough as it deals with the walkout to Noah from All Japan. I think this interview would also have benefitted from the input of Yoshinari Ogawa and Takashi Sugiura. Sadly, Ogawa does not give interviews (and now he does not have to, he will not), and Takashi Sugiura of course has joined TEAM 2000x, and only speaks through YOSHI-TATSU. 

Noah's big midsummer events, which have been generating buzz at a rapid pace since the start of the year, are fast approaching. They take place on August 11th at Culttz Kawasaki in Kanagawa and August 16th at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. 

At the August 11th Kawasaki event, TEAM2000X's Takashi Sugiura and Masa Kitamiya, will challenge GHC Tag Team Champions Manabu Soya and Daiki Inaba. Kitamiya, who joined TEAM200X after his despondent disappearance, will be challenging for the belt immediately. 

Along with the notable junior singles match between New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Hiromu Takahashi and Yuto Kikuchi, the event also features the return of Go Shiozaki and the N-1 VICTORY entrant deciding match between Shiozaki and Harutoki. "I AM NOAH" Shiozaki will be making his return for the first time in seven months since January this year, in a number one contenders match for the right to compete in the singles league, the N-1 VICTORY, in September of this year.

At the Korakuen Hall event on August 16th, KENTA, who became the GHC Heavyweight Champion in July for the first time in 11 and a half years, will be challenged by his "eternal rival" Naomichi Marufuji. With both wrestlers now more mature, what kind of battle will it be in their first singles match in seven years? It is sure to be an extremely emotional match for fans who know the history of Noah. 

With such an important midsummer event looming, Marufuji, KENTA, and Shiozaki were interviewed for "Pro Wrestling Noah 25-Year History," published by Weekly Pro. Here's a segment where they look back on the days leading up to Noah's inauguration at Differ Ariake in Tokyo on August 5th 2000. 

Q: When did you hear about the launch? 

KENTA: I don't remember. I must have heard about it because I was close to Misawa.

MARUFUJI: I think my father told me.

SHIOZAKI: Didn't the company* tell you?

MARUFUJI: Well, the company* itself didn't even exist back then.

KENTA: Before the launch, everyone gathered at Differ Ariake, right?

Q: It was June 16th, 2000

MARUFUJI: Even though it was an important event, my memory of that time is a bit hazy (laughs).

Q: Looking at the facts, it was revealed that after All Japan's Nippon Budokan event on June 9th 2000, Misawa was dismissed as president at an extraordinary board meeting on May 28th. Did you know anything about it at the time?

MARUFUJI: I vaguely heard about it when I was having dinner with Misawa.

KENTA: Were you able to drink back then?

MARUFUJI: No, I didn't drink (laughs)

KENTA: So you weren't drinking like crazy, like you do now? 

MARUFUJI: Crazy! At that time, I could only drink Umeshu. Even though I was old enough to drink, I didn't.

SHIOZAKI: When did you start drinking?

MARUFUJI: There were many twists and turns...but that's not what I'm talking about (laughs).

Q: KENTA, when did you hear about the plan for a new promotion? 

KENTA: I was a rookie, so I didn't really know what was going on, but Misawa called me to Kinshicho and said, "We're going to a new promotion, but don't worry, just follow me." I didn't really understand the circumstances, but I think I answered "yes." I'm pretty sure Riki (Takeshi Rikio) was there too. 

Q: What about Takashi Sugiura? 

KENTA: He was a trainee and had only joined in 2000, so he wasn't called. He was probably answering the phones.

MARUFUJI: Or maybe he was at a snack bar (laughs)

Q: Shiozaki, you experienced the mass exodus from All Japan Pro Wrestling and the launch of Pro Wrestling Noah as a fan.

SHIOZAKI: I was still living in Kumamoto. I saw the inaugural press conference and thought, "He's going to be in a new promotion!" There were all kinds of rumors about it among my pro wrestling fan friends.

Q: Was there anything different from All Japan up until that point?

MARUFUJI: KENTA said he was a rookie, but I wasn't much different. I was close to Misawa, but I was like a goldfish, so I just followed him without understanding the details. I only understood that the training camp and company were changing. In other words, I only saw the same things as the fans.

Q: You were living in All Japan's training camp at the time. What happened?

MARUFUJI: I went back to my parents house.

KENTA: Everyone went their seperate ways.

SHIOZAKI: What?!

MARUFUJI: Well, when I left All Japan, there was no training camp. 

KENTA: Even after Noah started, there was no training camp for a while, so we all commuted to matches from our parents homes. A little while later a training camp was set up in Toyocho, and the first ones to go there were me, Marufuji, and Sugiura. Ah....Sugiura.

Q: Laughs

KENTA: I used to ride my moped to get there. 

MARUFUJI: Me too 

Q: You're both from Saitama Prefecture, so that's good that you were close to each other. 

KENTA: No, there was quite a bit of distance, it took about an hour.

MARUFUJI: It was good that a training camp was set up pretty quickly.

Translated from BBM SPORTS

Picture credits: BBM SPORTS

Notes

The company: Noah as a Ltd company. 

Umeshu: A Japanese liqueur made by steeping ume plums in liquor and sugar. It has a sweet, sour taste, and an alcohol content of 10–15%

Training camp: This is a broader term to encompass the whole facility which means the dormitory, kitchen and dojo. The dojo is usually referred to as a separate entity. In English it is common to use "dojo" to refer to everything, but in Japanese there is a separation between the two, the dojo being more of a sacred space, while the "training camp" encompasses the more mundane too.