(NOAH) "Show Noah's fight at CyberFight Festival where pro wrestling is condensed"
10th June 2022
Note.noah.co.jp
Go Shiozaki will fight in the GHC Heavyweight Title Match at the main event of the 12th June "CYBER FIGHT FESTIVAL 2022" (hereinafter referred to as "CyberFight Festival"). The pre matches with his challenger, Satoshi Kojima, has become more intense with each round. About half a year after his return, Shiozaki has returned to the forefront and bloomed. We asked Shiozaki, who is on a new championship road, about his thoughts on the title defense against Kojima.
"Now Satoshi Kojima is "NOAH-like"
Accept everything and overcome
Q: Six months have passed since you returned from your absence following surgery for right bicep tendon dislocation. Although you lost the title match with Katsuhiko Nakajima on January 1st, you are currently wearing the GHC Heavyweight Championship. You have returned to the forefront at top speed.
SHIOZAKI: I was injured, so I felt cautious, but I think it was because I was able to make a title match on January 1st in a month of returning. After the title match, I fought a few singles and didn't get any results. It was all necessary to get back to the forefront.
Q: On January 21st, you celebrated your 40th birthday. Is there any change in your feelings?
SHIOZAKI: Rather than a feeling, it has become harder for me to get rid of physical damage at 40 (wry smile). But that is why I know my body, and have become more aware of its condition. So far as matches go, there is a feeling that you can't do as much as you want. A certain teacher* said, "A man starts from 40" and then "A man starts from 50" (laughs), and if you don't think so then it can decay. Now I am in my 40s, I certainly feel those words are right.
Q: Far from being in their 40s, Noah has many amazing wrestlers in their 50s, including Takashi Sugiura and Kazuyuki Fujita. What do the active veterans have in common?
SHIOZAKI: Compared to when I was young, I think I am physically weakened due to injuries, but in such a situation I am thinking about how to devote myself to practice. It's the same for Sugiura and Kojima, but when I see wrestlers who are a little older than me fighting at the forefront, I feel like I have to do more because I am young. It stimulates me.
Q: On the 12th June at CyberFight Festival, a GHC Heavyweight Championship match has been organized with Satoshi Kojima, someone who is energetic in his 50s. Since the singles match at the 2010 G1 Climax, twelve years have passed. What has been the change in Kojima's image?
SHIOZAKI: At the press conference he said, "Even if my body is not in its heyday, my feelings are." I am convinced of those words. Of course wrestling is important, but the body is important, and there are also points where the body accompanies the aspect of the state of mind. I think that the situation of the belt being before you is a feeling of excitement, and when I reach that age I want to be like that. I feel that energy in Kojima now.
Q: That is Kojima, and is also the case for Fujita who you were originally scheduled to fight on the 30th April at Ryogoku Kokugikan, or Keiji Mutoh, who is from New Japan and who you lost to in the title match last year. Each type is different. Is there any part where you feel the difference in how you grew up?
Q: What would you explain "Noah-ish" as?
SHIOZAKI: It is easy to understand that the strongest is at the top, isn't it? The strongest person is at the top, regardless of age, career or promotion. The other, which may be wrestlers words, is the part that says "I'm going to take this like this", isn't this one of the most "Noah-ness"?
Q: In other words, is it like accepting all opponents?
SHIOZAKI: Yes. It's about accepting everything, and still being able to stand up. It makes me feel like I have returned to the fans. When I was absent, I was watching matches from an objective point of view, and when I came back and wrestled I felt great in the way of "this is how it is taken". And when I look at the way wrestlers in their 50s go to matches and their content, I know I can't lose.
Q: It is understandable that is is "Noah-like" to accept all the opponents and still rise, but isn't that exactly how you fight? It was in your 2020 championship path in which you took all challengers and still rose up and won?
SHIOZAKI: It would have been different when I was young in my twenties or early thirties?
Q: What does that mean?
SHIOZAKI: It's important to me to feel like I am, but when I was young, I just tended to push out what I wanted to do. Instead now, it's accepting all opponents and on top of that surpassing them. I think that I can take everything, because I am confident that I can still rise no matter how much I receive. Even if it's passive, it is still experience, hmm? I have built up experience that damage can be suppressed if I take it like that, and I think that this is a match that can be done only because I am confident.
Q: In other words, it will be a "complete explosion" type battle.
SHIOZAKI: That's okay for me. When I was the champion in 2020, I had a strong desire to take it. Looking back on it, I wasn't aware of the championship era of Misawa and Kobashi, but I feel like that was the case. It is because I am confident that I can stand, even if I receive all the opponents to the point where there is no more. I feel that I can now understand the question from Misawa and Kobashi's championship era, "Why can I take this attack?"
Kojima's lariat is a "lifting", my lariat is a "slamming".
SHIOZAKI: The basics are the same, but not all are the same aren't they? Kojima's lariat is a swinging type, so if you are not aware at the time of impact, there is a danger he will destroy you in one slot. The same is true for Hansen's lariat. There is a lot of impression of a foreign wrestler. My lariat is slamming, and I think many Japanese wrestlers are of that type.
Q: What is the difference between the damaging part and the receiving part?
SHIOZAKI: In the case of the swinging lariat, it comes from below so your chin is taken. If there is a clean hit and you take it passively, then you can't let the shock escape if you are turning in midair. It is an attack that makes it difficult to escape damage in this kind if way. In the case of my own lariat, or the slamming type, the same is true at the moment of impact and there is damage caused by the mat by knocking down as it is. It may differ depending on how you think about it, but I think it is more damaging to hit the mat, so I am sticking to that form.
Q: After hearing that story, I am looking forward to seeing the offense and defense of the lariats.
SHIOZAKI: I don't want to take it. However, I feel that since Kojima made his debut 31 years ago, his lariat has been cultivated. He has great skills and I feel the history of his battles. I want to respect that history and surpass it. As a wrestler who uses the same lariat, I can't help but be aware of which one is better.
Q: This is a little off topic, but recently, you have been wearing a t-shirt with the old logo. Is there any reason?
SHIOZAKI: For me, Noah's logo feels like that logo. History changes steadily and accordingly, but the company itself values history and I also value the history of Noah, and so with the desire to cherish Noah's progress I am wearing that t-shirt. If anything, I have an attachment to the old belt, and I want to bring the two with me to enter with (smile)
Q: You first wore the belt in 2009 and then been the GHC Heavyweight Champion for a successive five times. Last time it was a great champion's road, but do you feel that you want to build your own era?
SHIOZAKI: I think that will come later. Until now, when I wore the belt I was desperate to defend it, and I was having matches while being aware that "I am the GHC Heavyweight Champion". I think it was more about how much I conveyed rather than what I said. I say "I am NOAH", but I am confident that I am Noah, and without those words I don't think I could have defended that much the last time. I didn't set a defense record, but I was conscious of showing the GHC battle and that of Noah, so I hope that was transmitted. Now that I am champion again I want to stack up GHC matches. Like I said earlier, winning on the basis of accepting all of the opponents was my original idea and I think that is the way Noah fights, and so I want to stick to that.
Q: Last year you were absent and did not participate in CyberFight. What are your thoughts on being in the main event of the four groups?
SHIOZAKI: At CyberFight Festival where four promotions gather, there are fun matches, women's wrestling and various other matches, so I think it is an event where pro wrestling is condensed. When I started watching pro wrestling, All Japan also had various matches. There was a lively match with young people in the first, a fun match with Eigen and Rusher around the third match, various foreigners and there was a great match at the end...that was the pro wrestling I saw. In this sense, I think that CyberFight Festival will be an event that shows the origin of pro wrestling. I also feel responsible for the fact that Noah's GHC has been entrusted with the task of the main. I want to show the fun and enjoyment of pro wrestling as well as showing Noah's fight.
Notes
*Probably Kenta Kobashi
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