(NOAH) "FOLLOW ME YOU BASTARDS!" Kenoh's Weekly Pro Column (7th December 2021)

Q: The double championship match of the GHC Heavyweight and The National, it was awesome.

KENOH:...

Q: What happened? 

KENOH: I'm disqualified as a main eventer

Q: It was a great match that could be a candidate for "Best Bout" of the year!

KENOH: I would be convinced by that if I was a second class self satisfied pro wrestler. To be clear, the defeat was confirmed even before the match. 

Q: Yes, but you didn't lose in a 60 minute time-out draw.

KENOH: No, it's the attendance. On the 27th November, STARDOM held a big match at the same venue the day before. How many people were there? 

Q: 1,119

KENOH: And Noah the next day? 

Q: 917

KENOH: It's a complete defeat. It's all my responsibility. As a main eventer I'm pathetic and despicable. I can't blame Corona anymore. In fact, spectators are returning to New Japan, and if you can't attract customers even if you have a lot of matches, you can't say that you are a first class professional wrestler. Before the event when the subject was made, there was a response. 

Q: There isn't a situation to reflect on that much, and it's not just your fault. 

KENOH: Pro wrestling is basically a package, but for me, I don't think it's so frustrating to think that the main eventer is responsible for everything.

Q: Even so, a climatic fight with Katsuhiko Nakajima, the fierce battle and the full time draw impressed the arrival of the Kongoh era.

KENOH: Even with the same full time draw, it would have been more fulfilling to have a full venue. Moreover, I fought with all my might for 60 minutes, and after the match I would have tasted something sweet, but it made no impression on me. 

Q: After the match there was the shock of Go Shiozaki's return and the GHC Heavyweight Championship challenge, you withdrew backstage to express your regret. 

KENOH: The lights dimmed and Shiozaki's theme music plays as if to erase the afterglow of the sixty minutes. I wonder if those guys in Noah were in on it? I'm being treated coldly by them, the company...

Q: Certainly.

KENOH: Had Shiozaki noticed what was going on around him and waited for another three minutes, it would have been an emotional scene where Nakajima and I praised each others good fights. As usual, his timing is bad. 

Q: With that said, I wanted you and Nakajima to talk on the microphone about your feelings after exchanging a moving handshake about what you had bought out for 60 minutes. I wanted him to come out later.

KENOH: Even if that had happened, I would still have a bad feeling. Well, that day I couldn't beat Nakajima and I can't enter the main at the Nippon Budokan last. Honestly, I am disappointed. For eight months he has been living at home and he will stand in the main event at The Budokan, while I have been fighting in the ring and wearing down my body and soul. Shiozaki calculated to return for the 1st January at the Budokan, and he aimed to time it like this completely.

Q: That's not the case...

KENOH: Also during the event, KENTA'S participation at the 1st January Nippon Budokan was also announced. 

Q: It was big news!

KENOH: As Noah will be competing with New Japan at the Yokohama Arena on the 8th January, it looks like a barter. That's fine.  

Q: Kenoh, in the past you participated in Noah for the first time in July 2011 to defeat KENTA, but what are your honest thoughts?

KENOH: KENTA has become completely someone of New Japan. Though everyone was happy, but I was a little sad.

Q: It will be the first time in seven years that KENTA will participate in a Noah match*

KENOH: Don't probe into KENTA for now. More than that, my life has been crazy since November 28th. I've been in pain since that day, and I've lost my cell phone. It's one thing after another.

Q: It's always the way

KENOH: Shut up! On the day of the match in Yoyogi, Kenichi Ogawa became the new Boxing IBF World Superheavyweight at MSG in New York, so I was pretty excited about becoming double champion.

Q: For you, he was a junior in the Nippon Kempo Club at Meiji University*

KENOH: I really wanted to see the live broadcast of the match in real time, so I joined DAZN. Ogawa's opponent was from South Africa, was he okay with the Omicron variant? 

Q: Thoughts on your junior?

KENOH: As we both have red belts, I am waiting for an interview in a boxing magazine between the GHC National Champion Kenoh and the IBF World Super Featherweight Champion Kenichi Ogawa. 

*"Flight" is not included as he was not KENTA, he was going by the WWE-NXT name of "Hideo Itami" (although everyone, including Marufuji, called him KENTA)

* Kenoh's sports background is in Nippon Kempo, he studied politics at Meiji University. 

Translated from Weekly Pro

Picture credits: Weekly Pro