(NOAH) Katsuhiko Nakajima's "Origin": A conversation between Kensuke Sasaki and Akira Hokuto heard at the front door.
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Pro Wrestling Noah will hold their Nippon Budokan event on February 12th 2021, for the first time in eleven years since December 5th, 2010. The event name is, "DESTINATION 2021 ~ BACK TO THE BUDOKAN". This is a big match that will influence Noah's "future" from now on.
GHC Heavyweight Champion, Go Shiozaki (39), the GHC National Champion Kenoh (36), and Katsuhiko Nakajima (32) who won the N-1 Victory last year have been chosen for interviews focusing on their "origin" and "future", which will be serialized. The third is the origin of Katsuhiko Nakajima, member of the rebel unit "Kongoh" (Interview by Takahiro Fukudome)
Has it been 16 years since then? Katsuhiko Nakajima has a feeling the weight of the conversation between Kensuke Sasaki and Akira Hokuto, when heading to the match venue from his home in Yoshikawa City, Saitama Prefecture, during the "Kensuke Office" era.
"Sasaki became a freelancer, and immediately after becoming Kensuke Office, it was just he and I. It was right at the start of it, before Hokuto was on TV. When Sasaki left to go to the venue, I was his second so I went out with the luggage, but Hokuto always saw me to the front door."
Nakajima joined "WJ", which was established by Riki Choshu in December 2002, when he was in the third year of Junior High. In September of that year, he had made his professional debut at the martial arts event "X-1". His professional wrestling debut was made at tha age of 15 years and 9 months, (the youngest in the history of Japanese pro wrestling), on January 5th 2004 against Tomohiro Ishii. However, "WJ" collapsed two months after it's debut, and he became a second of Kensuke Sasaki, who had been a member of the promotion. Since 2005, Sasaki had been working as a freelancer under the "Kensuke Family", with his wife, and former female professional wrestler, Akira Hokuto, as his manager, and Nakajima. Nakajima also lived with them at their home at Yoshikawa City, Saitama. The unforgettable words between the two took place at the front door in 2005, when Sasaki and he started participating in various promotions as freelancers.
"When Sasaki said to Hokuto, "I'm going the match", she would say "Bring me another one", and Sasaki replied "Ou*". Hokuto was Sasaki's manager, and I think he used to say that because he had a family, but I honestly didn't understand the meaning of what he always said".
(*Note, this kind of means "to bear", "to take responsibility for". It doesn't translate well, but Nakajima explains later)
It was when he started his own career as a pro wrestler, that he began to understand the words of Sasaki and Hokuto.
"If Sasaki, who was in the position of a freelancer, couldn't show anything worthy in today's match, then there was a chance that he couldn't have another one. So when he answered "Ou" to Hokuto's "Bring me another one", the conversation between them was "Have a meaningful match", "Okay, I will have a meaningful one". At that time, even when I heard the conversation, I didn't know what it meant because I had to work hard and concentrate on being a second, but now when I look back on it, I think the conversation between them was amazing. I wonder if the pressure at that time on Sasaki was great...He was a freelancer with no guarantees, and had a family, there was a sense of responsibility to get another match. It was an environment where if he failed today's, then he might not have another...looking back, I think it was amazing. That word stays with me a lot".
A conversation between two people that he didn't understand when he was seventeen years old. He realizes now the true meaning and weight, only because he has a career, that is why now in the ring he vows to "wrestle a meaningful match".
Nakajima's "origin" was in the conversation at the front door between Sasaki and Hokuto, but there was a predecessor who gave him unforgettable teaching.
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