(NOAH) Retirement announcement, NOSAWA Rongai looking to switch to "M Leaguer"

27th October 2022

Pro Wrestling DX

NOSAWA: This is NOSAWA Rongai, who will retire from professional wrestling at the Tokyo Dome on February 21st. Well, I announced my retirement in Fukuoka, so perhaps I can't say anything interesting today, so I am here to thank CyberFight and Pro Wrestling Noah for giving me this opportunity, and to say thank you to the company. To be honest, when I think that I don't have to play NOSAWA Rongai anymore, I feel a little relieved, but on the other hand, it's melancholy...no, it's not. It feels sad, but I can hear a terrible sound in my ears with something like, "Retirement is a joke, right?" or "Are you sure tou want to quit?", but it's over in real life. Hmm...well, it's a little difficult, but I didn't just announce my retirement for my own convenience, I am retiring at the Tokyo Dome after bouncing around. There are very few wrestlers who can retire at The Dome, so I guess I am in luck, and maybe I should thank the wrestling gods. To tell you the truth, I still want to do wrestle, and I want to keep wrestling, and I feel frustrated right now. Being in Noah's ring is very satisfying to me, it's fun, and I can't help it. There is Eita next to me, who is more than twelve years younger than me*, but he's like my little brother. I learned a lot from him this year, and I don't think I could have done Perros without Eita. I am very grateful to him. Yes, Eita is 31 years old today. Eita, happy birthday to you. Huh? Not the atmosphere for something like that. I don't know. Not just to the side of me, but right in front of me is Senior Ogawa or HAYATA-kun, who can be called lovers or unrequited love, or rather opponents who can be passionately tactical. If I were to use an analogy from the Sengoku period, there are pathetic wrestlers like Kotoge, who is neither a shield or a spear, and I thought it would be fun to fight him. I'm really glad I came to Noah, and I think it's good to greet the end at Noah. I have been told by the company that this is a retirement road, but I haven't thought about it that deeply. If I say that I don't need a ceremony or a ten count, then people might think I'm not quitting, but I want to quietly retire at The Dome and finish there. When I announced my retirement I received offers from wrestlers or groups that I had a connection with, but my body isn't really that good, and I am a wrestler who has never really wrestled in a good condition. Therefore, I was told by the company that, "NOSAWA-san, if you want to appear, you can". To that extent, if I feel like it, I will just turn up. So yes, after that is the Tokyo Gurentai Independent Performance Final in December 20th. I have asked Noah and the company, Cyberfight, to let me do this for a while and Noah will be the organizer. It's strange to say that I belong to Noah. The co-sponsor is THE LEAVE, who you are familiar with from the commercials. Tokyo Gurentai is a unit promotion that I created in 2000, and I think I want to do it with my friends until the end. So today, I am a little sad, so maybe I will just announce the main card. December 20th, Korakuen Hall. Tokyo Gurentai vs Kongoh. NOSAWA, MAZADA, FUJUTA, TAKEMIRE& Dick Togo vs Kenoh, Nakajima, Soya, Tadasuke, Ohara & Hi69. Kongoh is all just the same and there is no sense of unity, so at the end of the twelve man tag, I thought I would show Kongoh how great the unit really was. That's why I thought it would be nice to show at the end what a unit is like. Lastly, I'm going to ask you to listen to my selfishness, as this is the last Tokyo Gurentai performance, and so if everyone likes it, I feel it's ok to voice it, so please come by all means. Also, I don't want to talk for too long, so until February 21st, I'm think I will play NOSAWA Rongai. I still hate Noah fans, and I'm going to go hard on the media, which I don't like, so please support me until February. 

Q: When did you start thinking about retirement? 

NOSAWA: I was thinking of giving up the business, rather than retiring. When I entered Noah in earnest in 2019, I was fighting with the feeling that I was going to end here, or that I would vanish here. That's why I'm retiring...because I really think that small things can change your life, so I decided to retire because of something really trivial. 

Q: Who dared choose the same day as Mutoh during this time? 

NOSAWA: No, I didn't choose it, I consulted Mutoh first. When I said, "I want to retire with Mutoh-san", he said with a serious face, "Move it slightly." It's not that I should persist a little more, but I didn't want to do it on the same day, so was told to change it (laughs). About two months ago, when I had dinner with Mutoh, he asked me "When are you going to retire?" I said, "If Mutoh doesn't retire early, I can't retire." He said, "Shall we retire together?" It's really trivial to receive such words. It wasn't just Mutoh who said it, the doctor originally told me that I should quit, so I made the decision. 

Q: You said that there is no need for a ceremony or a ten bell count, but from the perspective of those who watched your matches, wouldn't it be sad? 

NOSAWA: You don't really watch my matches, so you shouldn't say things like that. I'm quitting in my own way, so it's a retirement match, a ceremony, and I have to do a ten count, or something like that...have I changed? (bitter smile)

Q: What are your thoughts after retirement? 

NOSAWA: I'm still studying qualifications and licenses, but since I can get a minimum annual income of 4 million, I think I will aim for being a "M Leaguer"

Q: M League as in a professional Mahjong League? 

NOSAWA: Yes, yes. President Fujita of CyberAgent is the chairman so I'm thinking about making my debut as an M Leaguer by approaching him in various ways after February. 

Translated from Pro Wrestling DX

GIF taken from Pro Wrestling Noah Official YouTube

NOTE

More than twelve years younger than me: NOSAWA'S original line was to say that Eita was "more than one cycle of the Chinese Zodiac", which equates to twelve years. As this has no translation into English and is not something that would be understood necessarily or generally in the West, I have changed it.