(NOAH) Green to red essence. Interview with Kiyoshi Tamura

November 2019
Weekly Pro 

To start, Kiyoshi Tamura watched the Noah 6th September event with an associate. After that, he talked about his thoughts on his official YouTube channel. Hiroyuki Suzuki, President of LIDET Entertainment heard the remarks on YouTube and said "There were many parts of it when I thought that was exactly the case, and many parts to respond to". Later, through a common acquaintance, he met with Tamura. At the meeting he made a request that he take a directors position at LIDET, and officially he took office as an outside director* and LIDET executive director on January 1st 2019.
President Suzuki has a desire to make use of the essence that has been Tamura's career while aiming to expand LIDET'S pro wrestling business, he also has a desire to hold a UWF style performance in the future.
Tamura's role as an executive director includes attending several meetings per month at LIDET, exchange of ideas of opinions, and attending events. Most recently, he went to visit the Noah Sumo Hall event immediately after taking office.
President Suzuki is enthusiastic about Tamura, "I want you to get involved in Pro-Wrestling. I want you to make it interesting."

Tamura turns 50 years old this year, and passing through the turning point of life, this is a new challenge in the midst of feeling that he is giving back to the mat world. I would like you to read the interview based on this premise.

Q: It has been a long time since you appeared in "Weekly Pro". By the way, have you retired?
TAMURA: I haven't retired yet. As an athlete when it gets to the point that become unable to practice, that is when I can't do it anymore. Still, I wonder if I can maintain that.
Q: You can do it to keep active, there are still things you are able to do (rough)
TAMURA: It is not as long as it used to be, but practising the smallest comprehensible martial arts can still be done. I've never practised purely wrestling, but shoot style is in the martial arts repertoire.
Q: As long as you can practice, would you have a match if there was an offer?
TAMURA: Yes. In my own athletic history I haven't bounced off or jumped off ropes, so I can't have that kind of match, however, if the match can be done in shoot UWF style then there is a possibility. The offer of the match came from both LIDET'S director, and Noah, I talked to just the director and refused because the match was not possible.

Q: Where you surprised about the discussion? 

TAMURA: No, things went pretty smoothly when I entered. My remarks on YouTube (in which he talked about the 16th September Osaka event), were roughly that the matches were long, and that the style of them is quite different from Antonio Inoki's New Japan, the wrestlers lost out to production, Kenoh won the league, and the referee handed out trophies. I was watching objectively and spoke, it got to President Suzuki's ear somehow, and then the offer came through an acquaintance.

Q: What was your first impression when you met the owner, Suzuki, for the first time? 

TAMURA: It was very comfortable as he keeps a low profile. Because it was before Sumo Hall, I thought I would come out for a match. In my experience if a match, or someone is pushed into a match, then it often goes wrong, but this time it was my understanding of the match. However, because the proposition was so interesting, I entered smoothly.

Q: Do you feel advisory work is interesting? 

TAMURA: It is interesting. I started up a gym called U-FILE CAMP in 1997, and it grew to five stores. Now, there only two, but when I had five I ran an event in one of them, and did it about one hundred times. It was fun to do that, and pay attention to the small details, like how to make the wrestlers exciting to the audience.  

Q: There was a connection in thinking about the method as to how to enliven something you had created.

TAMURA: When I got this offer, I would try and watch various Noah matches on YouTube. I don't know the personalities, but I go into it quickly, and I try to watch some at night for study, but there are some parts that I lose interest in. In the future, I am going to be watching what other promotions are doing from now on. 

Q: Will you be visiting other promotions?

TAMURA: I don't know if I can go, but it it is something to think about. 

Q: That is ambitious.

TAMURA: I am motivated, but when I say motivated, I mean it is from a business point of view, I have to do what the owner wants. Plus, its what is required, for example the owner may say wear blue clothes, red, white and yellow. I think in this type of selection, I have to please. It is the owner who makes the plan, and who makes the final decision. This was how I spoke to the owner from the outset. I said that if he didn't like it, he could always cut me, just like in the baseball world between manager and player. The coach said, Tamura, hit the 4th. It cannot be helped if the batter hits a home run, and the 4th batter does a bunt while exploring what the owner wants.

Q: How will you explore your role?

TAMURA: I will search for the role. I don't think it is the case that the owner saw my statement on YouTube for example about how the referee handed the trophy to the winning wrestler, I think it was because I was saying there should be a revision for the subsequent Sumo Hall event. When asked for the words about going to see other promotions, am I in a position to do that? I am watching that aspect. 

Q: Do you want to find out how far you can go as a director of LIDET? 

TAMURA: The ultimate goal is to ask the owner for the final target, where he wants to go, and make both LIDET and NOAH exciting while aiming for the eventual compromise. I am going to aim for that goal. I don't know if my way is a shortcut or a detour, but is the basic premise in what we talked about in raising Noah. I have a sense of responsibility to the owner. But of course, I want to say about what is good when I visit the owner.

Q: Even if it is painfully true, what you are saying about Noah?

TAMURA: More or less, I'm an adult, so I'm not going to sugar coat it.

Q: Is there ant reason that you are focusing so much on Sumo Hall? 

TAMURA: As a fan, I would like to see Muta and Marufuji, and the main (Kiyomiya vs Kenoh). However, Great Muta is a big name, and I think I differ to see how it will lead to future mobilization from now on. I think the most exciting thing is to work with Noah fans in the Noah style, and have them come to Noah. I don't know how much time I will have to spend on that, but when I went to see the Osaka event, I felt...and this is the first time I have spoken about this, but a percentage of the audience were puroresu fans, about 30% want to see it, I want to change it to 70%. That is my subjectivity, and I think that Noah can be strong if 30% could become 40%, and 50% to 60%, and then we can turn it to 70%.

Q: The owner has a plan, but do you have any plans to do a UWF style produce again? 

TAMURA: I want to do it, but if I want to, then I will need to make various preparations. I want to do it my way, and if the owner will co-operate, then I would like to discuss it. 

Q: I think its quite brave to do UWF style in the present era.

TAMURA: I think you have to be brave to do it.

Q: Many people do not know about UWF, and it will be interesting to see what kind of reaction you will get from an UWF style show.

TAMURA: Lately when talking about this, I think with Noah's style it would be useless to do the same thing as New Japan, and then change it somewhat. I think its better to start with the Noah style, and then work out how to launch it. In addition to that, educating customers about this view is necessary, and if it can be done with Noah, it will take shape after 2019 if I can take care of it, and get my point of view across. 

Q: It is necessary to change the perspective of fans over time. 

TAMURA: The UWF generation who are in their 30s, 40s and 50s, know the real truth I think, and if it happens, then that era will come first I think. The younger generation want to see it, and I think they are a generation who never knew it first hand. I wonder if the customers can recreate the atmosphere of the promotion, while they grow up with it.

Q: In any case, if you were to hold an UWF style produce, it is not going to happen any time soon? 

TAMURA: It's more how to approach the owner. If I rely completely on LIDET, then it will be no good, I have to take the risk on UWF myself. I have the title of LIDET'S executive director at the moment, and there is the possibility that such an idea will come out while participating in meetings one to three times a month, but I do not know when that point will come. 

*A director of a company who is not employed by that company, typically an employee of an associated company.

Translated from an article in "Weekly Pro" from November 2019.
Picture credit: Weekly Pro