(NOAH) Kaito Kiyomiya's Road to the 2nd January: Kaito Kiyomiya participates in the G1 CLIMAX. Confrontation with SANADA and the Reiwa Fighting Spirit Three Musketeers, encounter with Ryohei Oiwa.

15th December 2023

Wanibooks

"I want to spread Noah", decision amidst pros and cons. 

While welcoming 2023 as the GHC Heavyweight Champion, on February 21st at the Tokyo Dome, he lost a singles match to New Japan's IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, Kazuchika Okada. On March 19th at the Yokohama Budokan, Kaito Kiyomiya lost the GHC Heavyweight belt to Jake Lee from All Japan, who had become a freelancer. Kiyomiya faced a huge challenge in the first half of the year, and in order to make a comeback, he chose New Japan's ultimate midsummer tournament, the "G1 CLIMAX", which was held from July 15th to August 13th.

Looking back, Kiyomiya experienced a battle with New Japan right after his debut. At the time of his debut in December 2015, Noah was occupied by the Suzuki Army, and Kiyomiya was rushed into battle with them three months after his debut. On June 26th in Kanazawa, he had his first confrontation with Minoru Suzuki, the "world's most evil man" (a six man tag with Naomichi Marufuji, Toru Yano and Kiyomiya vs Suzuki, Takashi Takashi Iizuka and Yoshinobu Kanemaru). After being toyed with, he fell prey to Suzuki's Gotch-style piledriver. Also, before the fight with the Suzuki-Army, just two and a half months after his debut, he was even in the ring with New Japan. On February 25th 2016, he participated in "LION'S GATE", which was held by New Japan at Shinjuku FACE as an inter promotional new

generation development project, and he learned from Ryusuke Taguchi. Taguchi was defeated in six minutes and twenty seconds after being hit with a special attack, he was told by Kiyomiya's teacher, Yoshinari Ogawa, "He's salty, so please be strict." Regarding Kiyomiya, he gave high praise saying, "My rating may be too lenient, and there are some rough spots, but overall he's great and I didn't think he was salty at all." The stage for Kiyomiya's first victory was actually New Japan, not Noah. On May 19th of the same year, at Shinjuku FACE'S "LION'S GATE" second show, he defeated Hirai Kawato with a Boston Crab. 

Considering his experience as a young wrestler, it makes sense that Kiyomiya chose the G1 CLIMAX as the place for his redoubled efforts. In this years G-1, thirty-two strong wrestlers were divided into four blocks, A to D, with the first and second place from each block competing for supremacy in the finals. Kiyomiya was put in Block A, which included SANADA (who defeated Okada and became the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion), Shota Umino, Ren Narita, Yota Tsuji (named The Reiwa Spirit Three Musketeers), Hikuleo, Chase Owens and Gabe Kidd. SANADA, was the oldest member of the block at thirty-five years old, which made it a fresh one, and considering the careers of the Reiwa Fighting Spirit Three Musketeers, made all of them Kiyomiya's juniors. 

In order to concentrate on the G-1 CLIMAX, he declared that he will miss Noah's N-1 VICTORY during that period. Naturally, there were pros and cons, but looking back on the time he says; 

"There was the desire to get revenge on Okada, but more than that, in order to spread the word about Kaito Kiyomiya and Pro Wrestling Noah, I decided to take a break from the N-1 and compete in the G-1. I had a strong desire to spread my name on New Japan's stage."

In the opening match in Sapporo on July 15th, he used a modified Shining Wizard to defeat Yota Tsuji, who had become the man of the hour after returning from training overseas, to challenge SANADA for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. On August 18th 2017, when Kiyomiya was training overseas, he lost to Chase Owens in the semifinals of the Elite 8 Tournament in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada, on July 18th in Yamagata, he revenged himself against him with a Transformed Shining Wizard. On July 21st in Nagaoka, he ended up in a draw with Shota Umino, who is his junior by one year and four months, due to a twenty minute time limit. 

The battle between those who inherited Keiji Mutoh's genes. 

On July 25th at Korakuen Hall, there was a league match against the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA. SANADA, who is from All Japan, used to work as Keiji Mutoh's attendant, and as he has inherited that gene, this match turned out to be a mirror. The basic attacks and defenses, such as the arm, neck and footwork, is not New Japan, but rather Noah-like, and All Japan-like, which is the root of Noah. The normal arm drag was also an old NWA style inherited from Baba/All Japan to Noah. At nineteen minutes and fifty-eight seconds, with two seconds left in the match, SANADA won a dramatic victory with the Shining Wizard. What was impressive was that New Japan fans cheered Kiyomiya, just as much as SANADA. 

"I was surprised, I thought that since I was competing in New Japan's G-1, in enemy territory, I would get a lot of boos. But there was a surprisingly welcoming mood. There were more cheers than boos at any venue, not just the SANADA match. The match with SANDA was a battle, but (and this might not be the right way to put this), it was a lot of fun. I feel like it was similar to having a match with Yoshinari Ogawa, so it's going to be about being technical. When I do a technique, SANADA'S technique comes from that, and then it connects more and more, and I wonder "If I do this, how will it come back?". It was fun to create a chain of thinking of, "Since I came like this, I'll reply like this." In turn, SANADA also commented on Kiyomiya evaluating him and expressing his enjoyment, "He's amazing. It was really cool to get into this ring by myself and fight alone with that young guy. It was fun, so lets do it again". 

After that, on July 27th in Ota Ward he fought Gabe Kidd, but the fight went out of the ring. On August 1st in Takamatsu, he was defeated by the 203cm and 120kg Hikuleo's Godsend (a high angle chokeslam) and lost the match. In the final match in Osaka on August 5th, the Shining Wizard was countered by a front suplex by Ren Narita, and he lost the match. He did not advance to the finals because he had four consecutive scoreless matches, including in the match against SANADA. However for Kiyomiya himself, he gained a lot by focusing on the future. 

"Tsuji, Umino, Narita...I just thought they were amazing! Although I am at a higher level in my career, we are of the same generation, and I feel that these guys will create the future of the professional wrestling world. Although everyone had a different style, each of them performed with confidence, and I felt a tremendous amount of power."

The G1 ended for him at the Edion Arena Osaka on August 5th, but he participated until the final matches at Ryogoku Kokugikan on August 13th. During that time, he had the opportunity to team up with New Japan's Young Lion, Ryohei Oiwa, four times. Oiwa is twenty-five years old, two years younger than Kiyomiya, who debuted in August 2021. "During the match, I was thinking about why New Japan is top of the industry right now, and I felt that the younger wrestlers were very active and the people of my generation were really excited, that is why when I teamed up with Ryohei for a match, I felt a great sense of the future for him.". 

And after the end of the G-1, Kiyomiya took action to remove the barriers between Noah and New Japan.   

Translated from WaniBooks

Picture credit: WaniBooks