(NOAH) The pinnacle of the eternal ark ~ Interview with Go Shiozaki

Translated from Weekly Pro

18th August 2020

Q: I would like to look back on the double championship on the 10th August in Yokohama

SHIOZAKI: On the way home after the match in the car I was turning up the air conditioning, but I couldn't stop sweating at all.

Q: Your body was still burning after the match...

SHIOZAKI: It was like that. Kenoh was intense. I felt his intention to take the GHC National Championship and then the GHC Heavyweight Championship. I knew he was strong, and I felt his spirit as a champion.

Q: Kenoh transferred from another promotion, while you debuted at Noah and have been watching GHC matches for over seventeen years. Did you have a desire to carry history and enter into the double championship?

SHIOZAKI: I wasn't there at the time Noah was formed, but apart from the period when I left, I have been watching Noah for a long time since I entered as a trainee. Both the times and the form have changed, but the basis of Noah's fight and the GHC battle have not changed. After I defended against Marufuji (Naomichi), I was keen to accept Kenoh's resolve to bring the GHC National Belt directly. 

Q: You had Kazuyuki Fujita in March, Akitoshi Saito in June, and Marufuji in August; you accepted all challengers. 

SHIOZAKI: I know that accepting all opponents is the fight of the GHC. I gave a soccer ball chop in the same way against the soccer ball kick because my opponent was Kenoh, but I didn't want to lose even an inch (laughs). But what became painful was ingrained which appeared on the body, as when Kenoh kicked I chopped and would not give way. 

Q: You suffered from an abdominal attack

SHIOZAKI: It still hurts when I twist it. It must have come to rob stamina, its groundwork to bring the footstamp finisher. Being aimed at your abdomen also makes it harder to breathe, and because I couldn't breathe it became difficult to control my breath.

Q: On the contrary, you attacked the right foot

SHIOZAKI: If I have a right arm, Kenoh has a right foot. I thought I would break his pride, because I thought it would be a good move for me to hurt that. If one foot is not strong enough, then the power of the foot stamp and the high kick will be halved, so I carefully attacked the foot for a long time. If the dominant foot is crushed, and being mentally driven is rare. 

Q: From where did you assume a long drawn out fight? 

SHIOZAKI: When we were trading chops and kicks, I felt the burning coming due to Kenoh's countenance. I knew this would not be so easily decided at an early stage. Every shot was really accurate, and I felt that it was heavier than ever. But I cannot lose myself either. 

Q: To defeat the opponent, be sure to beat the opponent. When each of you feel like that and the battle rages on, the match continues to rise higher and higher. 

SHIOZAKI: Further upwards, further upwards, further upwards, further upwards...that is what the GHC is all about

Q: Outside the ring, Nakajima who was seconding you, tried to give you water, but you refused and did not drink? 

SHIOZAKI: Stubbornly I thought I would lose if I drank water, but Katsu sprinkled water on my neck, which was very helpful. He did it at a good time, it was just when my body temperature was rising suddenly and I was in a daze because of the heat of the venue. I have an image that if you drink water during a match, you will lose stamina as you become bloated as your insides cool. Being cooled down became the next best energy, and I thank Katsu for being my second. 

Q: It was the scene of the right high kick, that changed the situation of the match

SHIOZAKI: That worked

Q: The best thing to do on the ramp is escape

SHIOZAKI: The offense and the defense on the ramp is also GHC. 

Q: If you have such an awareness, then you will be attracted to it. 

SHIOZAKI: Kenoh is not a wrestler who made his debut at Noah, but I feel that he has the blood flow of the GHC.  

Q: It has become rare for Noah to have ramps

SHIOZAKI: I haven't seen it in a long time, but it's not good if all the attention is focused on the cliff type attacks. 

Q: Mitsuharu Misawa vs Kenta Kobashi, Jun Akiyama vs Kenta Kobashi, KENTA vs Marufuji made the GHC fight by it. 

SHIOZAKI: During the match there is nothing but attack and damage at the time of impact, but if you watch the footage later you realise that those who set it up can't do it without considerable engagement from both sides. I felt the awesomeness of Kenoh in doing it because I saw it as a second myself at the Tokyo Dome a long time ago, when Akiyama did a brainbuster from the apron on Kobashi and he spat blood. 

Q: It's the ultimate battle

SHIOZAKI: Speaking of battles that go outside the ring, the mats aren't the type that absorb water so they become slippery when sweat or moisture accumulate, and you slip when you grab the ropes. It was a really serious situation that there was a danger of slipping over and being counted out as the count went on. 

Q: Your return to the ring was the answer to a strong hit 

SHIOZAKI: As for slaps, antibodies were made during the fights against Kazuyuki Fujita, it was crazy taking them. I felt hatred for the PFS. 

Q: It was a nuisance, but even towards the end of the match, Kenoh did not slow down at all 

SHIOZAKI: Yes. The movement became much quicker. If you give him a gap, even for a second, he will attack. The ankle hold during the final stages was hard; he lifted me with my legs fixed in place, and kicked me in the stomach. 

Q: The PFS (Professional Foot Stamp) released by Kenoh was the highest grade strike 

SHIOZAKI: I hate it (strained laugh). It really annoyed me. 

Q: But it was still possible to kick out at 2? 

SHIOZAKI: Instinct. When I was a trainee I practiced endlessly kicking out of falls. I wonder if it is ingrained in my body. It may have been because that strike awoke something in me. 

Q: The lariat intercepted the next strike

SHIOZAKI: I'm not going to fall for that. As he fell it wrapped around his neck and jaw as a return gift for the previous PFS between successive GHC Heavyweight champions.

Q: The Gowan Lariat was also returned with a kick out at 2

SHIOZAKI: I thought the match was over, but he kicked out. Unintentionally I went for the pin again. 

Q: You rushed into the sphere of finishing the match with anything to get the three count. 

SHIOZAKI: I'm not concerned with who the opponent is. I just want to use the technique to win. 

Q: You were prevented from aiming to use the Moonsault? 

SHIOZAKI: I watched the footage later, but after being kicked in the back of the head in the corner I don't remember much of it. Being kicked in the back on the iron railing with no escape...

Q: You took a PFS from the corner to the outside. 

SHIOZAKI: I was the one who took it, but I think that Kenoh was also scared. When you fly to the ground from that height, you can injure your feet if you are not skilled. I guess its a credit to the match. Well, there was an internal separation from both sides that came out *laughs* (rough) 

Q: Laughing was not the case 

SHIOZAKI: In the final stages of a match, the more you do, the more the fire burns. However, there is some calmness about the remaining time running out, and I can avoid using the lariat as I can depend on the elbow that can be surely hit. I forget precisely when, but I thought I could win if I used just the moonsault; the first time went outside, he evaded the second and although I hit a third, Kenoh didn't let me get the pin. That was clever. 

Q: He rolled away

SHIOZAKI: I think I would have won if I had been able to land on him. 

Q: A few seconds later at the point of the pin, the bell sounded the end of the match. 

SHIOZAKI: I felt my lack of power, but maybe the Gods of the GHC didn't want the outcome to be a win or a lose. 

Q: It was the first ever defence for both the GHC Heavyweight and the GHC National that ended in a draw. 

SHIOZAKI: The fact that we did this double championship match during the evil of Corona, it was a battle to increase the value of each others GHC, but what to do from here is going to be really difficult. But that is the GHC, and that is Noah. Fight and enhance each other, and fight together to enhance the next fight...

Q: You closed out the event on the microphone

SHIOZAKI: That is the pride of the GHC Heavyweight champion when all I wanted was to lean on the seconds and go home, but I saw the GHC champions Misawa and Kobashi and so it was also a victory or defeat for them. 

Q: When leaving the ring, you looked up at Kobashi who had been watching the match on ZOOM

SHIOZAKI: I noticed, and raised my hand. However, when I was out of sight of the fans I immediately collapsed. 

Q: Are you confident you got through the sixty minutes? 

SHIOZAKI: It may sound odd, but I think it was a sixty minute match because it was with the GHC National Champion Kenoh. Even in the heat, the fans wore masks and applauded us with emotion to the end. It was really transmitted, and I am sorry that it ended in a draw without a win or a loss, but I was able to show Noah's fight and a fight of the GHC, and I think that was good for the final Yokohama Bunka Gym, wasn't it?  

Picture credit: Weekly Pro