(NOAH) The great ordeal that befell Kaito Kiyomiya, who inherited the DNA of Misawa and Mutoh, as he set sail on his journey.

1st December 2023

WaniBooks

Kaito Kiyomiya's ROAD TO JANUARY 1ST - PART 1

"NOAH THE NEW YEAR 2024" will be held at the Ariake Arena on Tuesday January 2nd 2024. A short term intensive series approaching Kaito Kiyomiya, who is striving for his first big match of the year, begins.

2023 was a turbulent year for Pro Wrestling Noah. First and foremost was living legend Keiji Mutoh's retirement at the Tokyo Dome on February 21st, which caused many to wonder where the Ark was headed. 

At the time of Mutoh's retirement, Kaito Kiyomiya was the reigning GHC Heavyweight Champion. Kiyomiya lost to former All Japan Pro Wrestler Jake Lee on March 19th at the Yokohama Budokan. Jake declared war on Noah at the Nippon Budokan on New Year's Day, and in just his 11th match, reached the top of Noah, defeating previous champions such as Katsuhiko Nakajima, Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura, and Go Shiozaki one after another, and took control of The Ark. Kenoh, who won the "N-1 VICTORY", took back the helm that had been seized by the outsider. On October 28th, Kenoh defeated Jake at the Fukuoka International Centre and became the 43rd GHC Heavyweight Champion. He will have his first defense match against Manabu Soya at the Ariake Arena on January 2nd 2024. Noah's New Year will start with this important match, but of course, the person to keep an eye on in the New Year is the 27 year old Kaito Kiyomiya, who will celebrate eight years in his career on December 9th. Despite the hardships of losing the GHC Heavyweight Championship to Jake, and losing to Kazuchika Okada of New Japan, he has formed a same generation era tag team with New Japan's Ryohei Oiwa, that has transcended the boundaries of promotions. Kiyomiya is about to step into a new era. Let's explore Kiyomiya in 2024, while re-examining the battles in 2023, which was a great source of inspiration. 

Looking back, the turning point for Kiyomiya came in the summer of 2022 last year. Mutoh announced his retirement in June, and at the Nippon Budokan on July 16th, the start of the final countdown, Kiyomiya defeated Mutoh in their fourth singles match. Kiyomiya took the initiative in the early stages of the match, and defeated Mutoh with the Shining Wizard, Dragon Screw and the Mutoh method of the Figure Four Leglock. After the match, Mutoh announced that he would be handing over his three sacred treasures, saying, "As a reward for defeating me, I will give you the Dragon Screw, The Figure Four and the Shining Wizard". It could be said that Mutoh passed the baton to Kiyomiya. 

However, it was difficult for Kiyomiya to suddenly shoulder Mutoh, and fans were also confused. Naturally, after Mutoh spoke, there were some words of reaction and a mixed opinion amongst fans; "I am afraid he will end up being a copy of Mutoh", "I want the original to compete". Kiyomiya looks back and reflects that, "My feelings were that since Mutoh-san told me so, I wanted to show off my skills with great care, but I was very conflicted as I tried to use them in the match thinking, "Is this really the right thing to do?" At first there was some hesitation". 

Daring to refrain from using Mutoh's techniques, he lost two consecutive times to Jack Morris and Masa Kitamiya at the start of the N-1 in August. In his third match, August 14th, against Katsuhiko Nakajima, he won with the Figure Four after a series of Shining Wizards and said, "I can't keep pretending". Subsequently, on August 19th at Korakuen Hall, he won with his own original variant of the Shining Wizard when he grabbed Masakatsu Funaki's head. After that, he defeated Takashi Sugiura and Satoshi Kojima with the Shining Wizard, and won four consecutive victories. In the championship match against Hideki Suzuki in Osaka on September 3rd, he achieved his long awaited victory in the N-1 by using a modified version of the Shining Wizard. "After I used Mutoh's method on Nakajima at the N-1, little by little my doubts started to slip away. The Transformed Shining Wizard was born by chance during a match with Funaki. When I thought, "I have to beat this guy!", I immediately grabbed his head and shove my knee in. It's not just Mutoh-san's technique, but I always think about, "What kind of movement should I use to make it more effective when I do it?". I have always had confidence in the sudden movement of the drop kick. I try to make the most of my own initiatives, such as thinking about whether I should try something new and add that, and that's when I come up with a Shining idea for an opponent and decided to develop it. I had no hesitation from that point on, and I think it is presumptions to compare myself to Mutoh, but in my mind I am thinking of getting to the point where people can say, "Speaking of Kiyomiya."

Regarding the momentum of winning the N-1, he challenged Kenoh for the GHC Heavyweight Championship in Nagoya on September 25th, and became the 41st champion by performing a Transformed Shining Wizard from a LOVE pose. There was no hesitation there. 

Since his debut, Kiyomiya was expected to be the second Mitsuharu Misawa, and was seen as the successor to Keiji Mutoh, but Kiyomiya is not a copy of anyone else, but has established his own original pro wrestling that incorporates various essences, and has pushed forward in creating his own generation of pro wrestling. "If I want to claim to be the strongest in Noah, and protect this belt, then I can't avoid it", he said and nominated Kazuyuki Fujita as his opponent for his first defense on October 30th at the Ariake Arena. Although the Frankensteiner at the finish was a little broken, he shouted, "There are a lot of enemies and walls, but I can only face forward! I will lead Noah, so please come and see me!". 

He is determined to create the next history in his generation, but...

On November 15th, at Korakuen, he succeeded in his second defense against Timothy Thatcher, who was invincible in Noah at the time, and on New Year's Day of this year, he not only fought against the challenger, Kenoh, in a big match at Nippon Budokan. There was also the match between The Great Muta and Shinsuke Nakamura in the final, which was billed as a double main event. Despite being billed as a double main event, the GHC was actually a semi final, and both he and Kenoh engaged in a deadly battle that lasted nineteen minutes and twenty-three seconds, exhausting both body and mind, but they were no match for Muta vs Nakamura in terms of impact. "There was definitely a rivalry with Muta vs Nakamura as the main event. I competed in my GHC hoping to have a match that would make people think, "Noah, that's amazing!", but I couldn't win in terms of buzz or anything like that, and it made me realize that there are so many different types of professional wrestling out there. Seeing the breadth of professional wrestling firsthand...I guess it was like I was learning about a world that I didn't know existed and because I was able to know this, I realized that what I am aiming for is still wide-ranging, and I will not be able to reach it unless I experience many more things. I was wondering if just putting my body on the line and fighting would lead to the spread of Noah, but I realized that that's not the case." 

After a bitter experience, the third defense of the GHC took place against Jack Morris on February 12th at the Edion Arena Osaka. The clash between the twenty-six year old Kiyomiya and the twenty-nine year old Morris was truly a new generation GHC match, and as part of the "Reiwa GHC New Chapter", it was a battle that pitted the minds, skills and bodies of professional wrestlers against each other. 

"Since this was a GHC with Jack Morris in his twenties, I felt like a new chapter for Noah had begin, and I wanted to continue competing with my generation from there, and create the next generation of history. In the end he defended the title with a modified Shining Wizard that Mutoh admitted was "100 points!" But, just when it was thought that Kiyomiya's "Our Noah" was starting in earnest...an unexpected bad ending happened. Kazuchika Okada, with whom destiny was born at New Japan's Yokohama Arena show on January 21st, burst in wearing a t-shirt and KO'd Kiyomiya with a Rainmaker. 

In 2023, Kiyomiya has broken the curse of being the second Mitsuharu Misawa and Keiji Mutoh's successor, and has stepped into a new era, but from here on, he will be faced with trials. 

Translated from Wanibooks-Newscrunch.com

Picture credits: Wanibooks-Newscrunch.com