(NOAH) "This match is my main event...win and change something" - Go Shiozaki's revenge against New Japan Pro Wrestling's Satoshi Kojima, 2nd January Ariake Arena

27th December 2023

Hochi News

Pro Wrestling Noah's former GHC Heavyweight Champion, Go Shiozaki, gave an interview to Sports Hochi on the 27th, and revealed his feelings towards New Japan's Satoshi Kojima, who he will be competing against at Ariake Arena on January 2nd next year. 

The singles match with Kojima was due to his defeat in the tag match at Shinjuku FACE on November 27th, and after a match at the Yokohama Budokan on December 2nd, he was eager for a fight. The reason why he requested a one on one match, which he himself aspired to compete in, was to overcome the nightmares of his past. 

"I'm sorry to say this, but I don't get along well with Satoshi Kojima. I have never won a singles match against him. He defeated me in the G1 (New Japan Pro-Wrestling Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium on August 8th 2010) and last year he robbed me of the GHC (Saitama Super Arena, June 12th). He is a wrestler who is not compatible with me. The 2nd January Ariake is the first shot in 2024, so I think I have no choice but to win, in order to get the best start to the year."

While he reveals his secret feelings, he smiles bitterly at the lack of compatibility. 

"However, that's what I think, but we don't get along well (strained laugh). For some reason, there's something about Satoshi Kojima that I can't surpass. There are some similarities in the style of matches between me and Satoshi Kojima, and that's a bit of a trauma..."

And he declared as if to drown out his weak feelings; 

"In order to overcome my weaknesses, I have to win against Satoshi Kojima, and that's why I think I have to change something at Ariake. You can't overcome the incompatibility unless you change something. This is a fight against myself, and I cannot afford to lose. If I lose here, then I won't be able to do anything in 2024."

Along with his personal desire for revenge, the match will also be an important one for the promotion, as it has the title "Noah vs New Japan". 

"Rather than the promotion, I will challenge Satoshi Kojima. After all, I haven't beaten him, so I am going to step into the ring as a challenger against him."

This year, he returned from a long absence of eight months due to in injury in May, and in September he won the midsummer strongest league, the "N-1 VICTORY". It was his first league victory, but he lost to the GHC Heavyweight Champion, Jake Lee, and was unable to regain the title. 

"This year, I was able to get through the league by winning the N-1 for the first time, but I couldn't keep it up after that. Even if I got a good flow going, I couldn't make it go any further. In order to break through that situation, I have to defeat Satoshi Kojima. This time in Ariake there is a "main event problem", but I want to make my match the main event and win in Go Shiozaki's main event." 

Also this year, there was the shock when Katsuhiko Nakajima, his partner in the tag team AXIZ, left Noah at the end of September. 

"He won the Triple Crown, and the World's Strongest Tag Team Championship, and is giving a lot of inspiration to All Japan, so I don't want to lose to that either. Even when we were teaming as AXIZ, I didn't want to lose to him, even when he was next to me, and even now I don't want to lose to Katsuhiko Nakajima, who is a huge inspiration to me. AXIZ has not disbanded and separated, so we may never be a team again, but I believe that the bonds of AXIZ are still there."

On the 2nd January at the Ariake Arena, he will take on the challenge with inspiration from Nakajima. At Korakuen on the 20th of this month, he also announced that he would reveal his "forward looking" moves for the future at Ariake. 

"I would like you to take this as a positive statement that I think will become visible if I can surpass the January 2nd match against Satoshi Kojima as the year progresses. Hiroshi Tanahashi has been appointed as the president of New Japan Pro Wrestling, so it's exciting from that aspect as well."

This is how he looks ahead to the new year of 2024, which will start with a revenge match against Kojima. 

"There are things I'm thinking about to give Noah more stimulation, and I want to work so that the fans can enjoy that stimulation even more."

Translated from Hochi Sports

Picture credit: Hochi Sports