(NOAH) Kiyoshi Tamura "Please fight with me in earnest", Kenoh "Collaborating Questions & Answers" and the memory of Nakamura.

Number Bunsun
23rd November 2019

The remarks of the leader of Pro Wrestling Noah's "rebel" unit leader, Kenoh, are causing ripples.

On the 2nd November at Sumo Hall, Kenoh challenged the GHC Heavyweight champion, Kaito Kiyomiya, at the Sumo Hall event. Despite being defeated after more than 30 minutes of intense fighting, he was still someone who led the promotion to the biggest stage of the year.
After the victory in the main event in Osaka on the 9th November, Kenoh declared war on the "solitary genius", Kiyoshi Tamura, saying "fight with me in earnest."

Kiyoshi Tamura debuted in 1989 with the newborn UWF. After UWF International, in the late 90s he reigned as the ace in RINGS which was lead by Akira Maeda.
Since 2002 he has been a true UWF fighter who has played an active role in mixed martial arts rings such as PRIDE, HERO'S and DREAM.

Tamura and Noah have never had a point of contact, but Tamura was suddenly approached after watching Noah's 16th September Osaka event from ringside. Following a meeting with Hiroshi Suzuki, the president of Noah's parent company, LIDET ENTERTAINMENT, it was announced that he would take office as a Non-executive director​*

TAMURA SEES KENOH'S BEHAVIOR AS A PROBLEM

Tamura's immediate role as non executive director, includes several monthly meetings, and an exchange of ideas at LIDET. As Noah has become a new system this year and is becoming reborn, by listening to Tamura's opinion, which is different from the current "general knowledge about wrestling", it is an effort to improve the parts that people internally do not notice.

As his "first job" after taking an executive role in Noah, Tamura watched the 2nd November Sumo Hall event at ringside with the chairman of LIDET, Riki Choshu. When asked for his opinion after the event, during the match between Kiyomiya and Kenoh, the problem was the look that Kenoh gave the General Manager, Riki Choshu.
"I cannot forgive Kenoh's attitude, the glare he gave Choshu irritated me." These comments were published in Puroresu Weekly's "Legend's Tournament Summary" of the "2nd November Sumo Hall detailed Noah report". This led to Kenoh biting back against Tamura.

"COLLABORATION QUESTIONS & ANSWERS", PROVOCATION WITH A FORBIDDEN PHRASE

On the 9th September in Osaka, Kenoh said the following "Kiyoshi Tamura, are you irritated with me? I will use the words of Riki Choshu. Hey! What do you want to do? You embellished it in the magazine! What is it? Do you want to bite or not? You are famous and you hate Professional Wrestling, what is wrong with you? That is not a good connection! Kiyoshi Tamura, I am serious, please fight with me in earnest!"
If you have been a fan for a long time, you will understand this point. "What do you want to do?", and "Embellishment in the magazine" are remarks from the so-called "Collaboration Questions & Answers"*, whereas "please fight with me in earnest" are words that Kiyoshi Tamura once told Nobuhiko Takada at the UWF Internal NK Hall event on the 18th August 1995.
Kenoh borrowed the famous words of Riki Choshu "serious match", the chairman of LIDET (who is hostile) to provoke Tamura with.

THE REASON TAMURA CONFRONTED TAKADA TO HAVE AN "EARNEST MATCH"

In 1995, UWF International fell into financial difficulties, and sought a "forbidden competition" with New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Takada, who was at the event on the 18th June at Sumo Hall, said "I will retire in the near future."
To continue to storm into this rivalry means that the fighting style of UWF fought to protect so far collapses, and there is a high possibility that it will be swallowed by the "great power" of New Japan. Another issue is Takada retiring after the fight, and the chance for the young athletes to overcome their teacher, will be forever lost. Tamura, stood at the top as a youth with a sense of crisis. After defeating Gary Albright, who was the ace gaijin in the main event at NK Hall on the 18th August, he shouted "Takada, please fight with me in earnest!"
It was decided that the 9th October Tokyo Dome event would not be a match against New Japan, as behind the scenes Tamura had appealed to bring Takada back to the UWF International main, appealed to take it back how the fight was, and a virtual change of ace.

A "MATCH IN EARNEST" REALIZED AFTER SEVEN YEARS

However, Takada ignored him.
On August 24th, six days later in a public telephone conference with Riki Choshu, to the shock of everyone on the 9th October "New Japan Pro Wrestling vs UWF International" at the Tokyo Dome was officially announced.
Tamura, who had challenged Takada who was the president of UWF Intentional, had openly challenged him and so refused to participate in the event. He was given no more matches, and his salary was stopped. He was no longer welcome in UWF International, and he left the company for RINGS after his contract expired in May 1996.

Tamura's "revolution" may have ended in failure, but after seven years the "earnest match" that he had sought eventually was realized at Nobuhiko Takada's retirement match at "PRIDE23" (Tokyo Dome) in 2002, when Tamura KOed his teacher, with a single right hook.

THE IMAGE OF KENOH AS NAKAMURA

Although Kenoh said to Tamura, "please fight me in earnest", he probably does not want to fight in mixed martial arts.
By fighting with Tamura in Noah's ring, it seems that they are trying to appeal to fans outside of Noah, and not just to Noah fans. This is reminiscent of Shinsuke Nakamura, ten years ago during his New Japan era.

It was in September 2009 at New Japan's Kobe event, when Nakamura declared that he would regain the IWGP championship, and invoked the name of "Inoki", which was forbidden in New Japan at that time. Furthermore at Sumo Hall on the 8th November he said, "What is wrong with fighting the past?! What is wrong in trying to exceed it? I will make this the future!"
In contrast to Hiroshi Tanahashi who stole the hearts of the fans in main events, he used his own methodology of "overthrowing Inoki", which caused a stir and invigorated New Japan.
With Kiyomiya taking Noah's simple approach, and Kenoh declaring war on Tamura, it seems to be similar to the relationship between Tanahashi and Nakamura some ten years ago.

KENOH VS TAMURA, WHAT IS THE POSSIBILITY IT WILL HAPPEN?

Shinsuke Nakamura vs Antonio Inoki never happened because Inoki retired, but Tamura is still active, although he is not currently competing in the ring. Even after turning away from the fight against New Japan in 1995, Tamura has never had what could be termed as a "true Pro Wrestling match", taking that into consideration it does seem hard to imagine him getting into the ring, but that is not to say that the possibility of this happening is low. In the past Tamura had turned away from professional wrestling to protect UWF's style and philosophy, but now virtually no UWF companies exist, and there is nothing to protect. For Tamura, going to Noah's ring is also a great opportunity to present the UWF style to the current professional wrestling world.
This is why Tamura will not have to break his style when and if he climbs into Noah's ring. At the time, what kind of fight will Kenoh show? How much can there be to appeal to the world?

Kenoh vs Tamura is a victory for Kenoh.

Link to original article from Number Bunshun (in Japanese)
Picture credit: Number Bunshun

*A non-executive director is a member of a company's board of directors who is not part of the executive team. A non-executive director typically does not engage in the day-to-day management of the organization but is involved in policy making and planning exercises.

*On November 18th 2003, Shinya Hashimoto had called a press conference at the ZERO-ONE dojo, when Riki Choshu walked in. Hashimoto had criticized Choshu in an article with Eastern Sports. They had a complete row with accusations that Hashimoto had embellished details in the interview. Hashimoto feigned ignorance and asked "What with photoshop?", and Choshu told him to not "swallow the words you have vomited".