(NOAH) AXIZ "Endless Love Vol.2" ~ The Prologue

Prior to the live broadcast of "Endless Love Vol.2" AXIZ (Katsuhiko Nakajima & Go Shiozaki) met in the studio of Noah's official photographer, Wakako Miyaki, for a photoshoot. Katsuhiko Nakajima streamed the event live through his official Instagram. I am afraid a lot of what follows is me recounting the event from about 7am in the morning, and as I was travelling to work, I wasn't able to take notes. Live Instagram videos are a one time affair, and they don't get saved or backed up, so I am unable to go back and recheck anything or gif anything, but having said that Carrie has very kindly uploaded the last six and a half minutes to YouTube.

You catch them good, you miss them, too bad.

AXIZ are currently promoting their second photobook "SILVER" which commemorates their shared 15th anniversary in wrestling. If you would like to know more about how the books came to be produced, you can read Nakajima's translated diary entry here. At the time of writing "SILVER" has not yet been released, and "GOLD" is now sadly fully sold out online, and will only be available in a limited run at venues, but when it it is released it will be sold through the online Noah shop at first, and then at venues once Noah start holding shows for live crowds once the Coronavirus pandemic has passed. I suggest you get it as soon as it is available (and if you don't live in Japan, use a shipping agent like White Rabbit Express). Hopefully we will be able to get both through Amazon, which was the case with the earlier Noah photobook, "Photo The Live".

So, getting back to today, Nakajima had arrived before Shiozaki, who I got the impression was running late, and as they talked Nakajima and Miyaki kept stopping with Nakajima saying "is that his car?" or listening for the sound of a door. While they waited, Nakajima decided to get changed into his ringwear for the photoshoot, while showing the audience his new AXIZ branded trunks. Naturally as his main offence is a kick attack, Nakajima has a lot of padding for the shin and knees, with his silver shin guards reading "K. Nakajima."
Finally, the door banged, and Go Shiozaki walked into the room.

Shiozaki (waving at the camera): Hello YouTube!
Nakajima: It's Instagram...

So while Shiozaki got changed (and after he had shown us where the AXIZ jackets are stored, which really reminded me of when he was about 22-23 years old and gave Samurai TV a tour of Differ Ariake, which included a look in the store cupboard where Kobashi & Misawa stored their ring robes), Katsuhiko Nakajima posed for the camera. He did some serious poses, some funny poses (including looking like a Velociraptor), and at one point Shiozaki photobombed him by leaning in in front of the lens, and much to my lasting regret I wasn't able to capture the picture as the camera on my phone is slow.
Once Nakajima had finished (he posed with the jacket and without it, Miyaki popping in every now and again to rearrange his hair or clothes), he went searching for Shiozaki who seemed to have vanished from the studio.

Nakajima (singing): Where is Go-san? 

Nakajima found Shiozaki sitting in a hallway tying up the laces on his boots, and back in the studio the two of them posed together. For whatever reason, Shiozaki didn't pose on his own in the video, I got the impression that there wasn't time, although he may well have done it after the video ended. Whatever the reason, they had a lot of fun posing, Shiozaki naturally spending most of his time laughing, which had done ever since he walked in, and among the more serious pictures, there was a joke one where they spun round quickly (Shiozaki almost fell over), and they finished by doing the famous "lean". After which the video closed out and they thanked everyone for watching.

With thanks to: Carrie