(NOAH) "Come at me you bastards!" Kenoh's Weekly Pro Column

Tuesday 5th October 2021
Weekly Pro

Q: I think you have something to say? 

KENOH: Actually, I climbed Mount Fuji this summer. In order to win the N-1 and become the best pro wrestler in Japan, I had to defeat the best mountain in Japan.

Q: How long did it take you to reach the summit? 

KENOH: 4 hours

Q: As expected for a top notch athlete. Does that mean you want to talk about climbing Mount Fuji? 

KENOH: No, speaking of the best in Japan, the best in Japan has been decided recently

Q: The Liberal Democrat Presidential election? 

KENOH: Correct answer

Q: Just as you would expect from Kenoh from the Meiji University Faculty of Political Science and Economics

KENOH: When Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said he would not be elected president, I was pretty worried from that point on. However, when I saw the presidential election this time, I thought about both advantages and disadvantages of the policy, and how the people's will is. After all, he who wins the factional fight with skill, is going to be great.

Q: Suddenly it went right to the core

KENOH: At the same time, if you are seriously fighting for the top, you also know the political party needs to be fired up.

Q: Certainly, this liberal democratic party general election was held by Taro Kono, Fumio Kishida, Sanae Takaichi, Seiko Noda, and I felt that each of them was facing their own core as a politician. 

KENOH: Even though they are the same Liberal Democratic Party, they all have a principle claim, and there are some similarities and some differences.  There is a dispute between each faction, competing for votes.  It's a battle that is just like the epitome of life.  Really interesting.

Q: And if you were to replace it with the pro wrestling world...

KENOH: If everyone is seriously fighting for the top by sticking to their own principals, then the promotion will definitely be fired up

Q: Interesting analogy

KENOH: There are 80 generations of New Japan that overlaps. The reason why New Japan's past is so interesting, is that the dispute between factions is like this presidential election as it has been fought on a daily basis. 

Q: The 80th generation of New Japan was turbulent

KENOH: It was because each of them kept their own beliefs. Akira Maeda, who left New Japan, launched UWF in April 1984. Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Nobuhiko Takeda, Satoru Sayama (Tiger Mask) and others joined and "U", which became the foundation for mixed martial arts after that, was proved. In September 1984, Choshu and other Ishin Gundan members left becoming Japan Pro-Wrestling and then smashing into All Japan. Ultimately, all of them are New Japan faction conflicts.

Q: That's one way of looking at it. The Three Musketeers made a leap forward because the UWF's Ishin Gundan left, and then they returned to UWF...

KENOH: Hey, if you dig that far you will run out of room. From here on, I will talk about Noah.

Q: The true value of this column is linking the past with the present#

KENOH: That's right. New Japan has a history of faction conflicts, but All Japan was a one party rule of Giant Baba. Baba died and Misawa became President. Eventually, he found out that he was being cramped by Motoko Baba and clique, and most of the wrestlers and staff followed him out and Noah was born.

Q: It's kind of like that

KENOH: Noah doesn't seem to have had many factions, but looking back, this is interesting again. The line from Misawa to Naomichi Marufuji is a powerful conservative mainstream*. The Kenta Kobashi faction was more conservative mainstream, but it seems there were many strong self assertive behaviors. Jun Akiyama transferred to All Japan with most of Kobashi's faction. KENTA was a survivor of the Kobashi camp, but he left the group and went from WWE to New Japan. Go Shiozaki, who left the group with Akiyama, returned to Noah and revived the Kobashi faction, so I am looking forward to seeing how he is going to build his own faction in the future. Akira Taue's party is Takashi Sugiura and Takeshi Morishima, who were his former seconds. The Sugiura faction is still there. 

Q: You belonged to Morishima's party when you first came to Noah.

KENOH: Yes, that's true. However, the Morishima faction suddenly disappeared due to the retirement of the chief. I've been non-faction for a while. I couldn't enter into any of the factional disputes, and so couldn't easily emerge. If you aren't part of a party, then you won't even get a chance. No one helped me. In this election it is possible to say it was like Seiko Noda's feelings, so I decided to launch my own faction. 

Q: Kongoh

KENOH: That's right. I haven't been able to collect votes in faction battles yet, but I am getting the popular will. If I compare it to the presidential election recently, then I will get a lot of party membership votes like Taro Kono.

Q: I see

KENOH: However, it was Kishida who won the Presidential election this time. After all, in any era it is the conservative mainstream that is the largest and the strongest faction. In terms of Noah, it's Naomichi Marufuji. Marufuji is the strongest in Noah.

Q: That's a statement that doesn't sound like you, Kenoh.

KENOH: It's only now. In the near future, it will be Kongoh who will take over the position of the largest faction in Noah. 

*Japanese political term, associated with LDP party of Shigeru Yoshida.

(Thanks to JenJ for sending me the article, and Metal Noah for requesting it)