(NOAH) Kenoh's Origin (Part 1) ~ "Make a rival", as taught by Jinsei Shinzaki ("Noah's Nippon Budokan Series")
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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 first is the "origin" of Kenoh (Interview by Takahiro Fukudome)
Kenoh has decided to fight Masakatsu Funaki for the GHC National Championship at the Budokan on the 12th.
It is said that the "origin" of the champion, who started his journey of being a pro wrestler at the age of eighteen, was said to have been watching Jinsei Shinzaki in "Michinoku Pro".
"Shinzaki did not teach in words, but rather by example. I think it is important to give direct guidance, but it is also important to see and steal. In that sense, I was thinking of stealing the elements that could be stolen by watching Shinzaki."
Kenoh learned Nippon Kempo at an early age growing up in Tokushima. He won the All Japan* High School Championship in High School, and when he was 18 in 2003, he was the youngest athlete in history to win the All Japan Championship. In 2005 Kenoh became World Champion at the World Championships, ranking him at number one. Soon after this Shinzaki, the president of Michinoku Pro Wrestling, and also from Tokushima, scouted him.
Having decided to become a pro wrestler, Kenoh made his debut on March 2nd 2008, at Michinoku's Tokushima event, against Alexander Otsuka. After being reborn as pro wrestler, "Kenoh", he learned pro wrestling watching Shinzaki. Shinzaki doesn't say much in the ring, and is able to attract the audience just by his appearance. That's why he confessed that what he most taught was the, "presence" in the ring.
"It wasn't about stealing each technique. I wanted to steal that aura and presence, but that being said, aura is not something you can steal. Watching Shinzaki, I wanted to be someone with that kind of presence."
To be a pro wrestler, he was taught the most important thing in words.
"What I remember most is the expression, "You have to make a rival." Looking back on that now, I think it is true. Speaking of pro wrestling Noah, Misawa, Kobashi, Taue, Akiyama, they all fought as rivals and that has been an inherited history. I also launched Kongoh two years ago, as I was fighting surrounded by enemies. It was not only the wrestlers in the ring, but also the company was also an enemy...but it's interesting because there are only enemies."
Two years ago, he launched the dissident unit "Kongoh", and has an attitude of hostility towards all enemies. He puts the amount of heat it takes to create rivals into words.
"I think some wrestlers will make rivals step by step. It may be important to have a rival, but whenever I get angry, whether it is at an opponent or at the company, I immediately say it. So, it may be faster for me to make rivals than other guys."
After becoming a top wrestler in Michinoku, he transferred to Noah in March 2015, and he took the GHC Junior Heavyweight tag a year later, winning the GHC Heavyweight Tag in January 2017, and defeating Eddie Edwards on December 22nd, two years and nine months after joining Noah. He took the GHC National Championship last August.
"I arrived at the belt quickly, because the speed of making rivals is fast. I still have the GHC National belt."
Kenoh's rival is probably the former GHC Heavyweight Champion, Kaito Kiyomiya (24).
Kiyomiya defeated Takashi Sugiura at the Yokohama Buntai Gymn on December 16th 2018, and took the GHC Heavyweight only three years after his debut. This was the shortest time in GHC history, and he was the youngest at 22 years and 5 months, and he had reached the top.
In terms of speed alone, Kenoh, it can be said, had lost to Kiyomiya.
"This is an assertion, but I took the belt without the backing of the company, like Kiyomiya. If you look at Kiyomiya now, you will see that Noah is trying to build a foundation to lift him on. Not for me. I climbed up from the bottom to reach the belt. I had no backing from the company. I became a champion just because of my strength. I became a champion just by my ability."
Then he returned to the Shinzaki's teaching of, "Make a rival".
"Without those words, I might not have been in my current position. I'm not Noah born, and I may not have reached this point."
*Nothing to do with the wrestling promotion
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