(NOAH) "It's finally time to compete" ~ Noah's young ace Kiyomiya, declares war on wrestling leader, New Japan.

4th January 2020
Sports Hochi\Yahoo Japan

From the New Year, Tokyo Dome City is hot. On the 4th and 5th January, New Japan will hold their first Tokyo Dome two event series, and at Korakuen Hall in the same city, Pro Wrestling Noah will hold their own double event on the 4th and 5th in a series of battles which is the "Pro-Wrestling festival".

Noah's GHC Heavyweight champion, Kaito Kiyomiya (23), declared war from the hole to the dome.
The young ace, who has greeted the New Year as the youngest champion, made his vow for 2020.

The young champion, Kiyomiya, who will undertake his seventh defense against a former champion, Go Shiozaki (37) at Noah's Korakuen Hall event on the 4th. "I feel like its finally time to compete". It is not only challengers who he will fight in the ring, as he looks New Japan, the industry leader, who will be at the Tokyo Dome.
Although the scale is different between a hall with 1,000 people and a The Dome with the capacity of 40,000 - they will complete for game content.

Kiyomiya, who won the GHC Heavyweight title at age of 22 last December, and became the youngest ever in history. In his second year, he was in the main event at WRESTLE-1'S all-star match "WONDER CARNIVAL" which was held at the Edion Arena Osaka.

In the days of Noah's founder, and the first ever GHC champion, Mitsuharu Misawa (46), Noah would hold events at the Tokyo Dome. Kiyomiya* recalls that "when I was 12 years old, I was just a fan who adored Misawa." By way of a rental video from the store, he grew up to love professional wrestling after seeing the first championship match (2001, Misawa vs Takayama).
Misawa died suddenly due to an accident during the match in 2009, and Noah attempted to overcome the crisis by resisting New Japan's Suzuki Army. It was around this time in 2014, that Kiyomiya entered Noah.
"The Suzuki Army had come, and I had a lot of involvement with LionsGate (an event introducing young athletes), so there was quite a lot of involvement with New Japan. I do not want to lose to the promotion over there, by colliding with the young athletes. I have always had that feeling."
With the first championship by the wrestler who debuted after Misawa died, the promotion clarified leaving Misawa in earnest, and last March Misawa's emerald green mat, which was the color of the promotion, was removed.
 
"I thought it was a company-like decision, but as a champion I have to understand that, and create my own world. Unless you think about such things when you are young, you will not be able to lead the group in the future".

It will be the New Years decisive fight, in which the young Ace's awareness will be tested.

Link to original article from Yahoo.co.jp\Sports Hochi
Picture credit: Yahoo Japan\Sports Hochi

*The phrase used twice in this article (and the text on the sign he is holding) is "man of the year", which basically means someone who was born in the same Zodiac year as the current one, this means that Kiyomiya was born in The Year of The Rat. I have omitted the saying as there is no direct meaning in English, and "man of the year" means a different thing entirely.
I have also cut out one paragraph relating to this as it does not translate well, and an error has been made in it.