(NOAH) At the signing ceremony, Fujita heads towards the Hakata GHC match in a silent battle with Tanaka for over 33 minutes

17th March 2022

Pro Wrestling DX

The signing ceremony for the GHC Heavyweight Championship match, Kazuyuki Fujita (Champion) vs Masato Tanaka (Challenger), at the March 21st Hakata event, was held at a hotel in Tokyo on the 17th. Unusually for a press conference, a silent glare for over 33 minutes unfolded. Although both of them fought a stubborn "staring match" with almost no words, Fujita changed his attitude after the press conference. 

The final battle between the two men, which ended in a 30-minute draw at the Sugiura Army box office at the end of last year, will take place at the Hakata event. The signing ceremony was held today, four days before the title match, but Fujita's press conference in Noah did not end normally. Tanaka appeared first and took a seat. When Fujita, who subsequently appeared, walked up while focusing on Tanaka, Tanaka stood up and glared. 

Both men escalated to a stubborn stare-down, without listening to any questions from the host or the reporters or signing the match contract. The whirr of the camera shutters gradually disappeared, and the press conference was plunged into silence. Even when the host prompted, "The match will be signed for at a later date, this press conference is over. Please leave", both Fujita and Tanaka kept their eyes on each other, "the one who looks away loses", and kept staring and not moving from the spot. When thirty-three minutes had passed, Tanaka stripped off Fujita's sunglasses and threw them away, and left first. 

In the GHC title match "Go Shiozaki vs Kazuyuki Fujita" in March 2020, there was a stare off for over 30 minutes at the start of the match, but oddly two years later, the "legend" was reproduced at the press conference this time. Fujita watched Tanaka like a hawk as he left the room, and he himself left the room once. When he returned, he went back up to the stage and turned around and sat saying "Oh, I'm tired. Please give me a beer". From a familiar hotel staff member he ordered "quickly, five glasses". After this he said, "I was really angry." Note - the next part doesn't translate well, but Fujita says something like Tanaka started the fire by snapping his glasses, he goes on to say that because he is now a member of Noah, he will send him an invoice for them later. Fujita also said, "When I told my children I was going to a press conference today, I was asked if I was going drinking again. What is being said? I love press conferences, hahahaha!" While laughing vulgarly, he poured five glasses of draft beer from the jug that was bought in. 

As ever, at the end Fujita transformed from The Beast into "Drunken Father". What kind of ending will we have in the GHC fight of "Beast vs Bullet" which has abandoned everything, in every sense.    

*Just a quick note about "Hakata" and "Fukuoka", it's one and the same place. Hakata is an older name for Fukuoka, the two regions being merged during the Edo period, when a Samurai named it after his ancestors land. In the Meiji era, a split vote in 1889 resulted in both names being used. 

Translated from Pro Wrestling DX

GIF taken from Noah Official YouTube