(NOAH) CHAMP TALK: GHC National Champion, Manabu Soya
1st January 2025 (Issue no 2334)
Soya has made the GHC National battlefront a major pillar of Noah, alongside Kaito Kiyomiya's GHC Heavyweight title. His rugged, honest, and manly road to victory has already begun to take hold, and at the Nippon Budokan on January 1st he will face Masa Kitamiya, who could be said to be at the pinnacle of that. We take a closer look at Soya's passionate image as a champion.
"I reached my passion through cherishing myself, "I don't want to lose to Kitamiya"
"I struggled to get the chance I wanted in Noah, but I've finally achieved something. I think I was able to get the belt in my fifth year because I continued to approach it with strong conviction even after Kongoh disbanded.
My passion started to emerge around the time I got the belt, and my absence from wrestling since March was a big catalyst. When I can't do things the way I normally do, I reach a different level, or maybe I just see things differently. I decided to have surgery on both elbows, and it turned out to be a good decision. I'd been wrestling with numbness for over a year. It wasn't just about physical transformation, but also about reexamining my mental state, which led to my passion. Ever since coming to Noah, I've been so concerned about what's going on around me that I may not have had time to pour love into myself, but I've been immersed in something, and when I started pouring love into myself, it became my passion.
Since becoming the GHC National Champion, I've been nominating my next challenger, and after five years, there are plenty of opponents in Noah that I'd honestly like to challenge for the belt. I think it would be exciting to have a title match with those guys, and that would also show my love for myself. Wagner fought for the GHC National Championship in February last year, and was scheduled to fight in an official match at "N-1 VICTORY" in August this year, but was unable to do so due to an injury. Although he was in a different block, Shiozaki was also unable to compete despite being entered in "N-1 VICTORY" due to injury*. Both of them must be feeling frustrated because it takes a certain amount of determination to miss matches, return and then make it all the way to the title match. That's what I wanted to experience.
After defeating the mercurial Shuji Kondo, the next challenger is Kitamiya. One reason is that I was pinned in the tag team match on November 17th in Nagoya. No matter what I say, it will just seem like sour grapes, so I won't say anything, but it's a fact that I lost directly, so I want revenge. Also, there's a significance to the decision made by the three of us, including Daiki Inaba, last September. Even back then, it seemed like we were working together as a new unit, but for me, it's not just that; fighting and livening up Noah is what's important.
In order to make the 25th anniversary a great year, I think Kitamiya is the right man for Noah's biggest event of the year. On December 1st in Shinjuku, after defeating the challenge of Shuji Kondo, and was about to make a counter-nomination, I didn't read the atmosphere and blurted it out, but my heart was with Kitamiya. came to Noah in April 2020 and started wrestling together, I came to Noah in April 2020 and started wrestling together as Kongoh, so I call him "Kongoh-senpai." We've teamed up to challenge for the GHC Tag Team Championship, and I've also teamed up with Kenoh and Katsuhiko Nakajima to challenge for Kitamiya's belts. Everyone who watches knows that we're similar in terms of style, and we share the same goals as professional wrestlers. I don't want to lose to Kitamiya in anything. It's more of a feeling than a way of expressing it in words. We've been struggling in similar situations, so even though our match is the sixth, I want our title match to be the most exciting.
This year, Kitamiya has been gaining recognition with consecutive singles matches against Tomohiro Ishii, so we need to compete there as well. If we do that, we can liven up Noah. The color of a belt changes depending on the champion who wears it, and I want to lead the GHC National front with the color of passion."
Notes
Shiozaki's injury: Shiozaki was determined to enter. Atsushi Kotoge had to plead with him to see sense.
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