(NOAH) Kaito Kiyomiya's "My Turning Point"
From the May 9, 2018 issue of Weekly Pro Wrestling. Text by Inoue.
He fell in love with NOAH watching Mitsuharu Misawa, and for as long as he can remember he's been determined to become a NOAH wrestler. The first teenager to debut in NOAH in the history of the promotion, he had the responsibility of wearing green at his debut. After coming back from his excursion overseas, he entered right onto the front lines, at the top. Kiyomiya is certainly NOAH's heaven-sent child. It's rare for a wrestler to have such a wealth of experience just two years and five months after their debut. (n.b. It's now been about 3 years and 1 month since his debut). Here we trace the turning points of the "emerald star."
TURNING POINT MATCH 1
vs. Hitoshi Kumano
(NOAH ★ December 9, 2015, Differ Ariake)
A DVD he picked up by chance at a video rental store would change Kaito Kiyomiya's life. It featured the final match of the tournament to decide the first GHC heavyweight champion. Seeing Mitsuharu Misawa knock down the formidable Yoshihiro Takayama, he felt such a shock, strong like nothing he'd felt before.
"It was cool. From then on, Misawa became my hero. For a long time I would only watch Misawa's matches. I think it was during the lower grades of elementary school, though I don't clearly remember when exactly. From the time I was old enough to understand what's going on, it came naturally to love NOAH, and I thought about becoming a wrestler in NOAH."
Up until middle school, Kiyomiya belonged to the soccer club. After he entered high school, since there was no active martial arts club, he developed his own workout routine. Though NOAH lost its TV broadcast and shrank in size, he thought, "I'll join and liven it up like the old days," and he'd just get fired up. After Misawa died suddenly in June 2009, "it was a terrible shock. But NOAH alone is the promotion created by Misawa," and there was no wavering. Joining NOAH in the winter of his third year of high school was now his destiny.
He entered the NOAH dojo and made an effort to train, and after his high school graduation in March of 2015, he officially moved into the dormitory. Of the training that was even harder than he imagined, he says "I didn't like studying very much, so for me wrestling was the only way. Don't give up, keep trying." With this feeling, he was able to manage one way or another. Incidentally, a bit of trivia for those in the know: of the trainees told "You all had better debut!" by Takeshi Morishima -- who announced in the ring in May 2015 that he'd be retiring -- Kiyomiya was the only one who did.
"There was one person in the same year as me; his baseline physical strength and such were better. Because he'd been an amateur wrestler from the start. He kept on giving it his all in that unstoppable way. But on the other hand, he was right there as a good goal post, so there was a part of me that said to try harder."
The trainee from the same year failed out before accomplishing his goal. But without losing heart, Kiyomiya reached his debut match as NOAH's first teenage newcomer. A big contingent of people from his hometown came to cheer him on, to the extent where "I was surrounded on all four sides by everyone I know." His opponent was Hitoshi Kumano. From the day of his admission test, Kumano was his closest senior.
"I held the record for the shortest number of years in NOAH, and I had a lot of things I wanted to establish, so when I knew that I was the youngest person to debut I was really happy. From that moment, I was taking the first step to create a new history for NOAH."
At the debut match, he said he was "so excited, it didn't make any sense." Though there would obviously be nerves, on top of that, he was flying high with the joy of becoming a NOAH wrestler.
"I trained right before the match, and the adrenaline was flowing. It was the best. I was so happy to be able to make my debut. I was thinking I would use my dropkick in the match -- my seniors had said, 'it's beautiful, isn't it.' Because I didn't have amateur wrestling skills, when my wrestling technique was praised, I was really happy. But in the end, Kumano's intensity as a wrestler was knocked into me."
With Kumano's chosen finisher, he bent Kiyomiya so his head was nearly touching his toes, and applied a Boston crab at an extremely acute angle. Back when Kumano was the second-youngest around NOAH, he would use what was called the "U-shaped hold."
"Though I'd received strikes and throws in practice leading up to my debut, I'd never experienced that kind of skill for torture. I hadn't felt that kind of pain in my life up to then. Seriously, I was about to die (strained laugh)."
Though in the end he lost his debut match, from his debut onward, he increasingly showed exceptional instincts and potential. That brilliance gave him the air of an "unpolished emerald."
TURNING POINT MATCH 2
vs. Hirai Kawato
(Lion's Gate ★ May 19, 2016, Shinjuku)
Feeling the expectations surrounding him, with every match, Kiyomiya aimed for his first victory and fought with speed and power -- but of course, that doesn't mean winning came easily. Amid those matches, he wrestled Hirai Kawato as part of New Japan's brand for young trainees, "Lion's Gate." Though his opponent was a rookie in a top promotion, he had debuted about one month after Kiyomiya. He absolutely couldn't lose this one, so he focused his mind and confronted it.
"It was my first time to go against a wrestler from another promotion, and New Japan is NOAH's rival promotion. That's why I really couldn't lose to that young guy. I thought I had to win at all costs. We were also the same age, 19 years old, and I was very conscious of being rivals of the same generation. But more than not wanting to lose, I really intended to win. From before the start of the match I was brimming with a feeling of victory (wry laugh)."
It was unusually fast for a NOAH rookie to have their first victory five and a half months after their debut. It took his senior, Kumano, 2 years and four months; Marufuji Naomichi, who showed glimmers of genius from the time he was a rookie, even took 1 year and four months. All the frustration of losing up till then, Kiyomiya took it all in and digested it, and he was crowned winner for the first time. His spirits were high, and he felt joy like he'd never known before.
TURNING POINT MATCH 3
vs. Minori Suzuki
(NOAH ★ October 23, 2016, Yokohama)
Carrying the momentum from his victory over Kawato, Kiyomiya dominated the Royal Rumble at the June 18 Suzuki-gun show at Korakuen, and claimed the right to go head-to-head with the boss, Suzuki Minoru. "I put my whole body, whole spirit into it. Be resolute!" he said with ardor.
In July, he got the pin on El Desperado, and for a moment there was great anticipation for the Suzuki fight -- but Suzuki-gun went on a rampage and it was declared a no-contest. Though he had to suffer such disgraceful mistreatment, in October at the Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium, a big match against Suzuki would finally materialize.
"At that time it was like Suzuki-gun would strike at every show, and we were being viciously beaten the whole time. I was the lowest on the ladder in NOAH, and being able to fight the outside invader boss was really exciting. When I was getting beaten up, I know it toughened up my body. Every time I'd fight I'd think something like 'You can go further today!' If they used a joint lock, I'd look for some clever way of getting out of it, for instance. Every day during practice, too, I would be thinking of what would be best to do as I wrestled. For that reason I was looking forward to facing him one-on-one, and I was shocked that it ended in this half-baked way. When it was decided that there would be a rematch, I faced it with a resolve like I'm ready to die here.”
The result was a death without surrender, giving it his all and being thoroughly beaten. He'd clashed with Suzuki with all his strength, so much that he couldn't get back on his feet when the match was over, with Suzuki standing over him imposingly. In this match, Kiyomiya became keenly aware of his own weaknesses as wrestler, which he hadn't been been able to notice up to that point. Right then, it was quite literally a turning point match.
"Consequently I had a renewed understanding of what was lacking in my abilities, it was a turning point in the real sense of the word. All at once, my approach to wrestling changed. I also consciously said no to what had been up to that point. I achieved my debut, and after trying my best, I felt like it was OK. But of course, the people at the top have to go further, and I had a feeling that Minoru Suzuki taught me the size of that obstacle. After that match was over, I thought I want to start aiming for the top."
Having become a wrestler, somewhere along the way he'd also become complacent. But he wouldn't be able to compete at the top of the business with this awareness alone.
The match with Suzuki had drilled that into his body. And so from that day on, Kiyomiya decided to cast out every hint of dependency in himself -- in order to become a superstar like Misawa, whom he'd admired for so long.
TURNING POINT MATCH 4
vs. Takashi Sugiura
(NOAH ★ January 9, 2017, Korakuen)
After the match with Suzuki, he was selected for entry into the singles match tournament, "Global League (2016)," not even a full year after his debut. He would be in singles matches with such heavyweight wrestlers as Naomichi Marufuji, Muhammad Yone, Go Shiozaki, Masa Kitamiya, Takashi Suguira, Davey Boy Smith Jr., and Alejandro Saez. Though he'd be able to accrue valuable experience, Kiyomiya was no longer the kind of man to be content with that.
Because he had this change of attitude, his desire for victory was growing. A change in ownership shook NOAH, and Suzuki-gun withdrew, but "all of that wasn't particularly on my mind. For me it was just about fighting," and so his focus was on the action in the ring.
With a violent shock, 2016 ended, and 2017 stormed in. On January 9, while Kiyomiya's old schoolmates were attending their coming-of-age ceremony at the Saitama Super Arena and enjoying the feeling of a class reunion, he went head-to-head with Sugiura at Korakuen Hall.
"You know, a part of me did want to go to the coming-of-age ceremony (strained laugh). But for me, having a singles match with Sugiura at Korakuen was more of a big event than a coming-of-age ceremony. I attacked and attacked, but Sugiura was sturdy and absolutely couldn't be knocked down. He was really strong. I thought, I want to become like that. Even then, my spirits were high."
After being battered, Kiyomiya said simply, "I want to get strong!" and declared a common front with Sugiura. For the moment, a decision was made about the green. "I even gave up my own color because I wanted to join up with Sugiura," and for that reason he switched to wearing black trunks. It was all for the sake of getting stronger.
When he started tagging with Sugiura, the looks he got from those around him also became exacting, and he was making more appearances on the second half of the card. In this harsh setting, he devoted himself all the more to his aim of demolishing the status quo -- but in reality...
TURNING POINT MATCH 5
vs. Takuya Nomura
(NOAH ★ May 4, 2017, Korakuen)
That same year, in March and April, Kiyomiya entered "Global Tag League" with Big Japan's Takuya Nomura. This "hope of the wrestling world" combo, formed across promotional lines, brought a fresh breeze blowing through the spring festival.
"Up until then I'd never lost to a wrestler from another promotion. I certainly didn't want to lose, but... in this match, experiencing this kind of setback for the first time, losing to someone my junior, the reality of that cut deep. It was extremely frustrating. Strangely, I was starting again. The next time I wrestled, I felt like I'd better win."
It's said that since his debut, Kiyomiya had been developing with incredible force, and the setback of the Nomura fight was great. What to do but get progressively stronger? Perhaps because he was teaming with Sugiura, he couldn't rely on anyone.
"I thought that I have to change by myself. Even if I lost in my first year, I thought a lot about how I was able to grow. Then before I knew it I was entering my second year. I was able to experience a lot of things, I was so consumed with motivation."
Various thoughts were going around in his mind. Amid all that, in March NOAH formed a business partnership with Impact wrestling, and they were looking to receive wrestlers from Japan. Kiyomiya made a direct appeal to go on expedition overseas. In June, he embarked for Canada.
TURNING POINT MATCH 7
vs. Kenoh
(NOAH ★ January 6, 2018, Korakuen)
He enjoyed every day of his time in Canada. Though the sudden lack of Japanese being spoken around him made him feel a bit lost at sea, it likely agreed with him to be fully immersed in training and matches.
"Every day I ate my fill, and I was determined to enjoy everything, even the hard things. I had matches, and with the money I made there I ate food, then again the next day, I'd have a match. That kind of trip was interesting. The whole time I was imagining the training and matches I'd do when I came back to Japan. If I'm in a NOAH match, I want to use this skill, for example -- thinking things like that. About three months passed, and I was thinking I want to have a NOAH match soon. But I wanted to bulk up. Both feelings were strong."
He weighed more than 100 kilograms, and believed he could fight in the frontlines at the top of NOAH. In December of last year (2017), Kiyomiya stood before Kenoh, who had defeated Eddie Edwards to become GHC heavyweight champion, and suddenly declared he wanted to challenge. The new year began, and on January 6 at Korakuen, Kenoh's first GHC heavyweight title defense was, extraordinarily, also to be the match marking Kiyomiya's triumphant return.
Kiyomiya went back to the green trunks, and faced the deciding match. Vividly evoking Misawa, Kiyomiya used the rope feint, and for a face lock included an adapted cobra clutch. TFC (Tornado Face Crusher) and an avalanche-style reverse DDT were some of the new moves in his repertoire. He'd decided to use his prized tiger suplex hold for the first time in this match, but the hold broke down before he could get the three count. Though in the end he lost, KO'd with a right high kick, he showed the world all the growing he'd done overseas.
"It was fun, wasn't it. In terms of how it felt, I was thinking I could do more. But I remember I took that high kick, and I lost. It was like, I've still got a long way to go, huh. But even though I lost, I didn't lose my belief in myself." From that point on, he had bounded over the wall to the top of NOAH, and, together with Go Shiozaki, he dominated March and April's "Global Tag League." For the first time, he held a trophy in his hands.
"Now wrestling is pure enjoyment. Although up to that point, there were a lot of turning points that seemed to be presented to me by those around me, from now on, more and more, I'm going to catch hold of turning points on my own."
On April 29 in Niigata, they challenged "The Aggression," Katsuhiko Nakajima and Masa Kitamiya, for the GHC tag titles. From this point on, there are surely many more turning points to come. With Kiyomiya's efforts, NOAH's future is coming into view.
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