(NOAH) "I thought I would lose if I looked away" ~ GHC Champion, Go Shiozaki's revelation, the truth of the thirty-one minute stare down in the Fujita fight
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Interview Part 1
(Interviewer, "Show" Yasuaki Otani)
Noah's GHC Heavyweight Champion, Go Shiozaki (39), will be challenged at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on February 12th. Last year he defended six times, literally impressing "I am NOAH". Of particular interest was his first confrontation with Kazuyuki Fujita (50), the last successor to Inoki-ism, who he continued to have a 31 minute stare down with. What exactly was that match? Shiozaki opened up about it.
Q: The first thing I wanted to ask, was about your blood type?
SHIOZAKI: AB (laughs)
Q: I find the relationship between blood types and wrestling interesting. First on the list, is Antonio Inoki.
SHIOZAKI: Yes (and Nikoli*)
Q: Kazuyoshi Ishii**
SHIOZAKI: Cheeky
Q: Jyushin Thunder Lyger
SHIOZAKI: Serious...
Q: The "King of Destruction" the late Shinya Hashimoto, Kiyoshi Tamura, Yuji Nagata...
SHIOZAKI: Oh...
Q: Jun Akiyama...
SHIOZAKI: Yes
Q: Shinya Aoki, and when it comes to Noah, Katsuhiko Nakajima and Kaito Kiyomiya are among the faces.
SHIOZAKI: Yes
Q: What do you think when you hear these names?
SHIOZAKI: Unique members (laughs)
Q: True (laughs)
SHIOZAKI: However, the AB type has two sides. I have been told that they are often called eccentric, but there aren't many in wrestling. I have an image that there are many good wrestlers with the AB type.
Q: When you hear the names of AB type people, do you think they are AB type, or do you think they are different from you?
SHIOZAKI: To be honest, Katsuhiko Nakajima and Kaito Kiyomiya are the only two who I have been in contact with. I don't know about the others, but I think there are many people who think about things and act on it.
Q: Actually, the moment I learned that you were an AB type, I got the impression that you were definitely an interesting study (laughs)
SHIOZAKI: Then I won't betray it (laughs).
Q: No, no, no (laughs). Isn't the AB person someone who is thinking about something different from what is being talked about at the moment?
SHIOZAKI: It may be (laughs). Thinking about what's being talked about right now, so the result is not to think about it. Someone else might look at it differently though.
Q: For example, I could be talking about a "Yakiniku Set Meal", and from there on you associate it with something else, and then you are thinking about World Peace (laughs).
SHIOZAKI: Yes. I've already arrived there thinking about World Peace (laughs)
Q: After all, you are such a person, but since you took the GHC Heavyweight belt from Kiyomiya in January last year, you have defended six times.
SHIOZAKI: Well, I wanted to defend ten times
Q: Ten times!
SHIOZAKI: However, there were quite a few times when the world stopped due to the influence of Coronavirus. The fact that I defended by doing a title match during that was an experience that precisely because I was able to experience it, it was an experience that can't be imitated.
Q: Last year, corona changed the fate of humanity
SHIOZAKI: However, with the inclusion of the content of the match that happened then, it became an positive idea that I couldn't have had that experience unless such a situation occurred.
Q: Positively
SHIOZAKI: Yes. It was my first title match with no audience (March 29th 2020, vs Kazuyuki Fujita, Korakuen Hall), but that gave me a good experience.
Q: You said you wanted to have defended ten times now, how would you have done that if there was no Corona?
SHIOZAKI: I wanted to do it at the end of each tour. I think that that if you do that the name and the breadth of the GHC will expand.
Q: One title match is usually a match of 40 or 50 minutes, but you have done this seven times. That alone is amazing.
SHIOZAKI: No, no. The first defense was 57 minutes (and 47 seconds), but thirty minutes of that was the stare down. I myself think that it was possible because I don't think I could have done it unless the world was in that situation.
Q: Fujita said about the match that, "Even if there was an audience, you would still be glaring for 30 minutes."
SHIOZAKI: On the contrary, I thought it could be done as there were no fans. But also during this time there was the Sugiura Army produce at the end of the year, and I was facing Fujita again. At that time we had another stare down, and I thought that if there were fans and we had a title match, it wouldn't have worked for 30 minutes.
Q: After the match you commented that, "There was an unprecedented sense of tension and intimidation".
SHIOZAKI: I thought that I would lose if I looked away from the stare down, and even if I moved my position, I would lose...is it because of being an AB type after all? (laughs).
Q: It may be because being an AB blood type, is the reason for thinking like that (laughs).
SHIOZAKI: That is why I went in with a different theory and sense of competition (than from pro wrestling), and I didn't move for 30 minutes.
Q: Fujita jokingly said, "I got my guarantee*** just by standing"
SHIOZAKI grins
Q: That was never the case, it was tremendous collision of energy!
SHIOZAKI: Although I didn't move, my physical strength was exhausted considerably. I wasn't going to lose because of a feeling of intimidation pushing me. If you catch that, then you will lose. So you got a very different match.
Q: If you laugh, you lose, isn't it?
SHIOZAKI: I already thought that I would lose if I looked away (or something like that) or even moving a muscle. That was a fight I had never experienced before.
Q: It must have been a world that only the two of you, who fought, could understand
SHIOZAKI: People who were watching the broadcast (which was broadcast live), I was told later, said, "Oh, I thought my phone was broken", but I am glad that they couldn't look away.
SHIOZAKI: No, well, I hope that he felt like that. I thought I was going to do it for sixty minutes.
Q: Fujita said that, "after that, he received all my attacks"
SHIOZAKI: I didn't want to receive them (bitter smile). But, I stand as a champion, taking that and receiving this, but I am still standing at the end! That is the image of the GHC Heavyweight Champion, and if I didn't end by doing that, then I would have good as lost. That is why I thought that I wouldn't give in to Kazuyuki Fujita's attack.
Q: This is the opinion of the viewer, but Fujita's attack is ugly, isn't it?
SHIOZAKI: The same is true for open hand slaps. The thickness of his hands is different. It works because of how he splays his hand, and I received a technique that I had never received. I was really conscious of that several times.
Q: Aware!?
SHIOZAKI: It was such a shock, but I think that was because the first 30 minutes was the stare down, and I was able to withstand subsequent attacks. If it wasn't Kazuyuki Fujita, and a different wrestler, then I think it would be different again. No matter what kind of attack I took, I felt like I couldn't lose to it.
Q: Fujita has been called "The last successor to Inoki-ism", but did you see that with your own eyes before the match?
SHIOZAKI: Yes, I know he is called that, but I didn't really think about it. But even when reflecting on it, the way of fighting doesn't change. If so, bring what you have cultivated, and fight with what you have fostered. I didn't think that Inoki-ism was the opponent, because the fight was GHC.
Q: This might just be my imagination, but I think something changed in you at the end of the match against Fujita.
SHIOZAKI: More than ever, my feelings for Noah and my feelings for the GHC have become unshakeable. I'm stronger. Until now, I hadn't done much with wrestlers who are so called "outside enemies", so by doing it in a title match and doing it without an audience, I was held more responsible as a champion. When I crossed that point, I thought more about Noah and the GHC. I wasn't going to give in to Kazuyuki Fujita's attacks.
WHAT IS YOUR IMAGE OF GIANT BABA & ANTONIO INOKI
Q: You fought against Atsushi Sawada in IGF in the past. Do you remember that?
SHIOZAKI: I remember, I had no choice but to rise to it.
Q: It seems that Sawada was angry with Inoki after the match, but do you remember your impression of Sawada?
SHIOZAKI: Is he a member of The Diet now?
Q: A member of the Abiko City Council
SHIOZAKI: I had an image that he would come at me more fully, but I was being attacked relatively carefully. So, I wonder if (Inoki) had become frustrated as a result
Q: I see.
SHIOZAKI: If that is what I think Inoki-ism is (the fight with Sawada), then I don't know of the fight against Fujita would have had a completely different result. He may be "Inoki-ism's Last Successor", but I thought that it was Fujita's individual way of fighting.
Q: Last year both Baba and Inoki celebrated the 60th anniversary of their debut. First of all, what kind of impression do you have of Inoki?
SHIOZAKI: Hmmm...well, I have the impression that he had matches that were completely different from the wrestling you see.
Q: And what is your image of Baba?
SHIOZAKI: Baba looks at the opponent and if he recieves it, you will get it back. I have an image that his was a style of fighting in which how you take it, was one of the attacks.
Q: Is receiving**** one of the attacks?
SHIOZAKI: Of course I will attack, but I will also take. I am someone who is going to stand, no matter what I receive. I think that is what is amazing about being able to take, and because it's receiving, what will emerge is the awesomeness of related things when you stand. So, when I got up, I thought that everyone would say "amazing", and get excited.
*I think he probably means Nikoli Volkoff, who is known in Japan as simply "Nikoli". The other Nikoli (a book publishing company) is doubtful in meaning.
** Founder of K-1
*** Appearance fee
**** I.e how to sell a move
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