(NOAH) APRIL 29 IS KOTOGE'S REVOLUTIONARY ANNIVERSARY

An interview with Atsushi Kotoge from Weekly Pro Wrestling's May 9, 2018 issue No. 1955

KOTOGE'S REVOLUTIONARY PLAN
1. Stream videos of matches for free
2. Wrestle in front of the Hachiko statue in Shibuya
3. Have a match with guys who break the mold

On April 29 in Niigata, NOAH's Atsushi Kotoge will be challenging Takashi Sugiura for the heavyweight title. Though he was met with booing when he declared his challenge, he's gotten the pin twice in the lead-up matches. Here, we interview Kotoge. He talks to us at length about his firm sense of conviction as he faces the deciding battle, and the details of the "Kotoge Revolution." (Recorded on April 19, in Shibuya. Photos by Kikuta, interview by Inoue).

— The GHC heavyweight challenge is getting close. How are you feeling?

Kotoge: All that's left is April 28 in Kawaguchi, right?

In the beginning, in order to topple Sugiura in my own way in a straight-out fight, I did wonder whether it's necessary to mount a frontal attack to win, to properly exchange blows. But between the challenge and the title match I got two pinfall victories -- and I got one before then, too -- over Sugiura, who doesn't lose by pinfall very much. So this way of fighting can't be altogether wrong.

— It's all the Kid Clutch.

Kotoge: It hasn't really been NOAH's style up to now, has it? Or if it were, it'd probably be a (Yoshinori) Ogawa, or an early (Naomichi) Marufuji kind of thing. It's better to make good use of this additional weapon, you know. And I just mentioned a frontal attack myself, but like, what even is that? To bundle someone up is a frontal attack. And it’s just that, myself, I can do that. Though I might use the frontal attack of bundling someone up, that’s just my NOAH heavyweight way of fighting.

— Speaking of the NOAH heavyweight division, there's an image, to no small extent, of fighting till you're completely spent.

Kotoge: That's right, you know. That that kind of thing is being said even today, through this whole era, that hasn't moved at all. If I become champion, I can do anything, and I hope the company will move in many senses of the word. I want to win and change the company.

— How has the response been?

Well it's not particularly like I only roll people up. When I won at Korakuen on March 31, it was kind of like a knockout win by headbutt.

— Though you decided on a headbutt on April 14 in Sapporo, you immediately got hit with a lariat as a counter, and got taken down by an Olympic Qualifying Slam.

I guess he became immune, huh. If you use it on someone at the wrong time, a bit too early, they can sense it coming. Because it's in the timing of deploying moves. Whether it's a headbutt or bundling someone up, you have to deploy it at a moment your opponent will be surprised. Though I've noticed it myself lately, I wonder if my style of being beaten is, in the end, related to that. I'm always just looking for my opening, you know.

— To that extent, you need the strength to withstand your opponent's fierce attack.

Kotoge: I've been doing this for 13 years, myself. March 29 will be the anniversary of my debut, to the day. To this extent, as the years of my career have been piling up, naturally a style has developed that plays to my own strengths. I can't absorb a lot of strikes, for example -- a way of fighting like that is my style.

— Are you looking for a chance to withstand Sugiura's intense strikes?

Kotoge: If I come under that, that's the end of me. If I don't, there might be a chance, like in the preliminary matches. No one realized it, you know. Sugiura was weak enough to be bundled up. Why did everyone exchange blows? (laughs) I understand a person, you know.

Things get heated when you clash with Takashi Sugiura, and it's because he makes it get heated. But that's the case when you go at Sugiura's pace. In the end, fans and wrestlers alike, everyone loves the manly Takashi Sugiura. It's the flip side of that booing from March 11 in Yokohama (strained laugh).

— When you challenged Sugiura, the crowd started booing. 

Kotoge: Hey, it's fine. That's why, in the preliminary matches, I used that way of winning and said "I don't care if you boo me." And in Niigata, too, if they can't stomach my way of fighting, my way of winning, if they love Takashi Sugiura, it's fine if they hurl boos at me. Because, as much as they boo, that's how much they love the impact of the moment it gets reversed.

— Isn't it tough, mentally?

Kotoge: A while ago, there were times I'd get overwhelmed.

— By the booing?

Kotoge: Well, by NOAH's style. That I have to adopt that way of fighting. A while back, if I got booed and was told I was a disappointment, my powers of persuasion and the weight of my skills, I'd think about those things. But the kind of wrestling I want to do myself, it's not like that.

— You thought about it again when you got booed on March 11 in Yokohama.

Kotoge: Well, if Kenoh was defending then, the situation would be completely different. But more than thinking about changing styles, it’s more appealing to think about taking the belt from Sugiura. On the other hand, at least it opened up again.

— So you had to get booed, and you had to have a match in the so-called NOAH style.

Kotoge: Maybe normally I’d get struck and lose (strained laugh). Those people who keep striking, like “Come on, hit me!” kind of style. Well, if I’m provoked, I’ll go with it.  From there, it's a match. But if I don't win here, whatever anyone says, it'll make me feel like “That small fry!” I want to become the champion.

— So can you tell us more about the "Kotoge Revolution?"

Kotoge: When it comes to wrestling, I'd like to open it up more and more. There are people who experienced NOAH's good days, right? I think it'd be better to give up old ways of thinking.

— Similar to Kenoh's way of thinking.

Kotoge: Kenoh became the champion as a member of the same generation, and of course seeing him jump to the front was frustrating. But I respected that he picked a fight with the past. If you're in NOAH, it's difficult to talk about. Because there was still that kind of feeling, when Kenoh took the belt, I thought, we can't go back to the old days.

— Marufuji and Sugiura feel like the last ones passing down the legacy of NOAH's good old days.

Kotoge: The style inherited from All Japan and NOAH, right.

— But while you were feeling the same things as Kenoh, you couldn't say it.

Kotoge: I was also soft. Deep down, I wondered whether someone couldn't punch through this state of affairs for us.

— And so the one to fire the first shot was Kenoh.

Kotoge: We're of the same generation, we're both heavyweights, and in that regard I don't really want to praise him -- he has a way of acting, like "I'll do it." But it's like, really, I should have done it myself.

— Because you couldn't get clear results, part of you felt like there's nothing to be done.

Kotoge: That's why if I become champion, I'm going to do some crazy things. When Kenoh was champion, too, I wish things had been shaken up more. If you want to go to the Budokan, you've gotta do crazier things. For instance, in order to spread NOAH, stream videos of the matches for free.

— That's novel, isn't it.

Kotoge: Since the time (it split off from) All Japan, NOAH had the support of Nippon TV, but now even the amount of broadcasts G+ will pick up keeps decreasing -- it's becoming a thing of the past, isn't it? What I want more is to have them broadcast now, and to have them be seen now. Firstly, I'd want to get Nippon TV to understand the situation, and I'd like them to increase the number of broadcasts. I imagine they'll say it's none of my business, though.... At any rate, if it's difficult, with my authority as champion I'll get videos of matches to stream online for free.

— Because now videos can be transmitted in various ways.

Kotoge: Anything that gets people hooked would be good. Well, that would be the front line of the revolution. Of course, as wrestlers, I think we need to do things in the ring that will attract fans. I plan to continue on both fronts.

— What other things do you want to do?

Kotoge: In order to expand NOAH, we can't keep a high barrier to entry. It would be particularly good to wrestle in front of the statue of Hachiko in Shibuya. A while back, we wrestled in the plaza in front of the headquarters of Nippon TV, like street wrestling, right? I definitely want to make it so we do that again.

— Right now various promotions are coming out with their own ideas, hosting clever novelty shows. And NOAH, amid that, in order not to be buried... 

Kotoge: More than that, we have no choice but to keep rising. I don't want to just wait and do nothing. If I do that now, we won't survive. I think I'm definitely the one in NOAH who wants to draw crowds the most. So if I'm champion, I want to start doing that more and more.

— And how do you want to go about fighting in the ring?

Kotoge: I want to add different kinds of excitement. Whether serious or comical or hardcore. I want to create an atmosphere that's more open to these styles.

— So you're saying you'd want to bring contract killers, one by one, to fight in NOAH?

Kotoge: I think that's a good way to do it. I'll do anything to shake things up. I'd like to show that there's lots of possibilities. There are a lot of promotions and a lot of wrestlers, right? I want to have a real banger with some guys who break the mold.

— For example?

Kotoge: Jiro "Ikemen" Kuroshio, for example, or Hideki Suzuki.

— You faced Suzuki in a tag match in February.

Kotoge: If I could make NOAH keep doing new things from now on, it would be good to include that style, too, wouldn't it.

— So that means you yourself were feeling that NOAH's style is narrow?

Kotoge: I’ve found myself thinking that lots of times in spite of myself. After Genba Hirayanagi left, all of a sudden I was lonely.

— That was in September 2016, wasn’t it?

Kotoge: I want NOAH to go on to become a more colorful promotion. Now it's more of a black and white era.

— That, especially, is the Kotoge Revolution.

Kotoge: But make no mistake, strength will certainly be necessary to bring about the revolution. It's a basic condition for fighting. I don't want to get that confused. Moreover, as a promotion, you show your personality. In wrestling, it's only when you have people coming to watch that you can do that.

— It seems like many things will change with you as GHC heavyweight champion.

Kotoge: There are things that the current NOAH fans want, and I myself want to keep doing that kind of wrestling. Also for the sake of NOAH's seniors. But you should be brave... Because Kenoh did those things, it became easier to say it, it's true.

— Kenoh has also been pretty quiet since losing the belt, compared to when he was champion.

Kotoge: It's true. If you're not carrying the belt, there's no weight to your words, it can't come across. That on its own is the value of the belt. Because I think the GHC heavyweight champion in particular has the power needed to move the company. But if I don't take it first, I can't get started. Because here, even talking about it in this way, if I lose in the title match, it's over.

— The challenge was decided, and Sugiura said, "Come raise the approval ratings." How was that part?

Kotoge: Hmm, I'm not sure. Though I didn't feel so pumped up anymore, I won a preliminary match in 1 minute and 58 seconds, so I have that.

— Kenoh and Marufuji were dumbfounded.

Kotoge: Kenoh and Marufuji weren't able to see because of me! That's what I mean when I say getting booed was fine. Because at a celebratory dinner in Sapporo, people were saying to me "How did you win so fast!?" But on the other hand, I wonder if I have to do those kinds of things. If I can become that kind of champion who pierces the hearts of the people watching, I want to go on doing more and more. You can either do that and determine the shape of the company, or ignore it. What's normally done is the most unsatisfactory. In particular, I'd like more booing, just not from wrestling fans (strained laugh). Now isn't the occasion for saying those kinds of high-handed things.

— In any case, if you don't win on April 29 in Niigata, none of it will get started.

Kotoge: I'm not standing at the starting line. I'm going to completely plunder Takashi Sugiura's legacy, and from there I'll start. Whether the GHC heavyweight title main event is a 30 minute, 40 minute match, it's not necessary to fuss over that -- if you're unlucky, I'll end it in one and a half minutes, maybe I'll aim to end it that way. On the anniversary of my debut, in Niigata, I'll start the Kotoge Revolution.

— It's Kotoge's revolutionary anniversary, isn't it.

Kotoge: Something like that (laughs).

(Article translated by Purodino)