NJPW - News, Results & Sonstiges

"Cody and I actually have a lot of common. We obviously have different standpoints, but we both went through WWE, both had our setbacks and decided to get our releases. We're of a similar era. So there is a lot of complex emotions going on, but I wanted to stap up and introduce myself to him as his oppenent. [...] As soon as I left WWE I made a huge change, came to NJPW dojo and started from scratch. - He's just passing through, you know? Just floating around since leaving WWE. [...] I really didn't have that much interaction with Cody .. he was on RAW & SmackDown and I was in NXT, but I was taught by his father and when Cody was hurt and coming back I trainend with him. [...] I think having watched a lot of Cody matches, they're very much 'American Style', but I think his matches lately are showing a little change. - will it fit with the Japanese style, the New Japan style? [...] When he came in there was this thing of a guy joins Bullet Club and all of a sudden he gets to debut in the Dome. For a guy that came up from nothing I wanted to say: "take it seriously"! Want to wrestle Shibata - Cody, Shibata is too much for you, and before that he has to get through me. [...] 2016 - I've just been able to grow and grow. I was in the World Tag League? And Tanahashi was my partner? - For 2017 there is one big goal: to be in the G1! Last year (WK 10) I didn't even get in the dark match, being ringside with Finlay, White, Kanemitsu & Kawato. Finlay is now NEVER 6-Man Tag Champ and White's doing well in ROH. And now with Cody at WK11 .. we have that WWE past, carry both our stories on in Japan. In WWE he was above me .. and now? I'm going to show just how tough Juice Robinson is."

"It is insane .. just for it to be so free whelling. It's hardly listening to the fans. Would they really be clamouring for a title match on the back of such stupid clowning around? You start pulling this crap and then everything becomes ok right? Nothing's off the table. The point of view becomes that the tag belts become meaningless because they decide who gets shots so easily. You do this garbage and title matches lose all meaning. The tag belts aren't a stupid prop. As it was, we (mit Tomoaki Honma) lost those belts to G.O.D., lost a rematch and went on from there .. and the story was how Honma and I would be shaped by that and get back to challenging form. Honma said: "so this means our World Tag League win is basically meaningless, right?" [...] If they let someone into that title match so easily, anybody who lost that tournament could have done the same, right? I mean we won for the 2. year in a row! You think a feat like that and you go back to Muto and Hase 93-94, it has that level of value and yet nobody can invest in the match with this kind of booking now. It's just slapped together. And this jackass (Toru Yano), messing around .. listen you prick, not a single person was looking forward to seeing you. Well we know Yano and IShii very well and if they want to make a light of our win, we will expose them. You think the shit you pulled has a place in wrestling? This goes way back and I know the ulterior motive here. And G.O.D. they were just borrowing our spot. We will take back what is ours. Of course you think that the same result as Sendai (World Tag League Final) would be boring? We will drive that nail in all the deeper at the Dome."

"Man, how many Matches have I had this year .. it started getting super demanding around March and I just kept running. I had to take some time off before the October show, but it's been some year. All the title defences stick with me. I don't really like living in the past, but I knew with the Ishii-match (Wk10), when I first got the belt I thought: "this is the year". When I officially signed with the company it was a matter of saying emphatically I wanted to fight here. Really, making a public deal with it in March, I could take or leave, but it was a matter of so many having left. [...] Then I had a big year for tours; America, UK twice and Singapore as well. I think a great thing about wrestling is its communication without words. It' very unifying. I can get in any ring in the world and put my style of match and know that people will understand me. .. but a though year. My career was definitely shortened this year, but I fell I can't not go into my matches like I do. There's nobody else that you can rely on to do what I do."

"Goto; he had ups this year. NJ Cup finalist & G1 finalist. Though the G1 finals was more a gift spot .. a present from Tanahahsi. Nobody remembers Goto in the G1 final .. they remember Kenny for winning, but if you asked: "who did Kenny face in the G1 to win? - You'll get a lot of blank looks. Where does the Goto issue start? Well for one there's the thing of him changing his faction out of the blue in March. Didn't even talk to me about it. But that's .. whatever. What I have a problem is the guy just not knowing what he actually wants to do. You want the IWGP title? Then why the hell enter a faction where you have to be his (Okada's) goon? You want to change something about yourself? Then fine. What the hell have you actually changed, really? It's just everything he says or does, all that provokes from me is questtion marks. And I think lots of people have that problem with him. I just don't get him. I hear he gets on great with the Chaos guys. These are people you fought for years and you flop that easily? He's having fun? .. is that enough for you? I know this is a selfish business, but the guy is just surrounding himself with people doing well and hopping on that wagon. Having fun as the chaotic warrior .. changes in an instant. We faced each other in December and it was: "just do it" - "no, you do it" Saying me he'd take out his angst and anger on me .. you just said you were having fun - what are you actually saying? I've been connected to Goto more than anybody else in my career. But I'm done with this constant talk of; we were classmates, best friends, comrades in arms .. we are in complete different dimensions now. His matches get me angry. I just think: "man, are you alright"? It is hard to tell whether he cares, whether he is all there or not. Every big match; this is my 'revival', every time. So for crying out loud, when were you at your peak? What are you reviving toward? When were you at yor best that you now need a revival .. tell me!?"

"There is not a big result I can point to that made my year. But as an individual I think it was complete, statisfying .. an upheaval. The turning point was losing to Okada in February in such a beat down .. I had never felt that low in my career. Wrestlers should never think about the 'R' word, but honestly I was thinking of packing it in. But I settled down, calmed myself, joined Chaos, pulled myself together and here I am. Since joing Chaos, it feels like I have found my natural spot, you know? My natural posture .. this is an instinctive thing. That is what I mean by having fun more than ever. I've found my groove and the G1 was proof of that."

"He's a good wrestler, but even if there is talk about his revival, he hasn't really put the big results together. Still, if I'm to really be at the top, I have to get through him, I think. He also broke my jaw at WK 8, so there is a lot wrapped in this match. It's a chance to show myself, make a statement .. that's it. He's bitter; "is this good enough for you?" It is why I am at the point I am, so yeah. .. I Never joined Chaos because I hated Shibata particularly". I don't have anything bad to say about him, but him bitching about me.. I thinke these are complaints he's been grumbling about since we were teaming. And I'm supposed to talk to him before I go to Chaos? Here's a guy who didn't tell me before leaving the company .. still, that's the two of us. [...] I wasn't bent on fighting him, but knew it'd happen eventually. He wants to use this as a means to send a message to me? Look it's not a big deal. We're human & stuff changes. We teamed and fought Chaos guys, now I get along with them. People change all the time. Yesterday's enemy is today's friends. I really think we are better off communicating by beating the piss out of each other. He's flown all over the world, wrestled while his body takes all the punishment .. he has a lot of respect from me. If you compare us this year though, I think my results are more significant than his. Has he changed? Not much, but parts here and there. He's been less stubborn, more worldly. He used to be just the heavy strokes guy and now he seems more than that. .. I'm really focused solely on the IWGP title. I've never much thought about the NEVER belt .. what after winning or what does the title really mean? I don't know the answer. But the unique part is that it is openweight. We can really create some interest with that aspect of things."

"It's a snail's pace perhaps, but I think the juniors took a step up. I had a lot of different oppenents, went abroad a lot, so for me it was a very busy year. We're at 10 / 20% maybe? There is still a lot to do, but that fuels me, fuels us for 2017. For me, from a results perspective, I might have lost the belt once, but being champion for pretty much the whole year is a big bragging point for me. All the different defences this yeaar .. it has been exhausting, but at the same time, i feel stronger for it and there is sense that I've grown the belt's worth, which is nice. [...] What makes Hiromu different is that I was always chasing someone .. wrestling peers or elders. Up to Bushi that was the case. Hiromu - it's him chasing me. When he left I promised myself to get to the top and be champion before he got back, so this match could happen. I've been blessed to wrestle abroad a lot and have a lot of great foreign opponents, like a Kyle O 'Reilly, but this is really the first time a young Japanese guy has come up to me. [...] I don't know whether you can say he's a different person, but certainly a mix of the Lucha & Us styles are there. The way he carries himself, his facial expressions, all that. He's bloodthirsty maybe, but it was rediculous of him to say he'd kill me. Everything he learned, every move, I can take, absorb and throw it right back at him. He said I wasn't raised in the New Japan system, that I was an outsider, like it was a bad thing .. I walked a very lonely road, but it meant I really forged something different to my contemporaries. [...] I wen into the tryouts, failed, went through Mexico and met so many more people, who shaped me and my story. And after all that work to build something, there's this time bomb wanting to destroy it all. I take issue with him saying he has interest in the title, but not me. You can't wrestle with that closed of a mind. He went to a bunch of different countries, met different people, saw different religions. What has he learned? [...] I'm definitely excited for WK11 .. the match is lower on the card than I'd like and underneath the other three title matches, but we'll steal the show. With next year in mind, I hope the juniors will grow in more and different ways in 2016."

"Things have changed now. I foght Okada so many times and lost once and now everything is different .. when we were younger I always wanted Naito to get into my level and for us to fight it out on the big stage - that's the year. His style is different, but throwing the belt, stepping on it, thats's beyond the pail. [...] I can not lose to Naito, I have to win and have to make 2017 Tanahashi's year again! [...] This year was though. The thoughest of my career. When you are a young wrestler and you go through a patch of losses - that becomes a learning experience for you and you suck it up and carry on. .. and sometimes those spats throw up chances to get you to the top, but then I lost in the G1 as well. [...] Naito's confidence is though the roof. You see that in the way he carries himself, the way he wrestles, what he says. He's like a different person. Whatever happens, he says he is godlike. We haven't had this contrast in between our careers before this year. For me, I say I'm the Ace - that has a certain expectation attached .. an affirmation I get results. [...] 2016 I was a challenger and 2017 I'm a challenger, but one match further down the card. If you are standing still, you're going backwards. In the past I said Naito was my successor. We have similar physiques, similar ability to capture the audience. We faced each other a lot, but 2011 sticks in my head the most. Oct. 10; a hell of a dramatic match, the anniversary of my debut and Naito was in the crowd that day. But at that point, business was still down and there was a big part of me, that wanted to do that match with a bigger spotlight, so doing it in the dome is a big deal. The real reason why I challenged Naito was to have a singles match in the Dome .. and I felt a chance, even slim of being main. I stepped in the ring in November and addressed Naito as the guy, who couldn't be Tanahashi .. I thought it would rile him up, could assert myself over him, but it didn't turn out that way .. I didn't have any leverage. Saying it as champion with Naito challenging it would have landed. [...] But he was my last key to the Tokyo Dome, possibly even the main event. [...] Changing my theme 'High Energy', it's a bit late at 40, but it's time to start a new Tanahashi from square one and have to do legwork myself, a new challenge. [...] In 2017, New Japan will be looking internationally more than ever, but I think there's a lot we can and should still do domestically. I want us to be in bigger buildings, working towards doing a stadium tour and I want people going there to say: "ah, a Tanahashi title match filled this place". So I'm going for every belt in 2017, it's certainly going to be a revival, I hope .. at least from a results standpoint. I want to remind everyone how great Tanahshi is; 'Tanahshi equal greatness', not the frustration of this year."

"Why did he come down at Osaka? He wasn't who I wanted - he was who I expected. He felt if he wanted to be in a main event at the dome, he needed me. .. but there is another meaning to all this, remember? That fan vote. I don't know whose idea it was, but it meant the IC belt was less important than IWGP. Maybe the didn't like me, but I always wanted the IWGP belt .. I still do, but the IC belt came here. You think I'm here to announce a fan vote? No, I don't want one - the main event needs to be the IWGP title, I want the semi. [...] I couldn't be Tanahashi in the end. But I took a different path. I'm glad I'm not him. Tana isn't the heart of NJ anymore, LIdJ is. He can't touch this level, he was finished after WK10. What did he do this year? I know he pulled the company, I saw that, but that is done. [...] Well I think if you thought of a Tanahashi vs Naito title match, you'd go back to me challengeing for the IWGP title. Now it's a bit of a shame it is for the IC title, but we've come full circle in a way. When I debuted, nobody was watching me and I thought: "I have to overtake Tanahashi", that was my duty. I have done that now, but it was not me that did it, it was Okada in 2016. From there he faded away. [...] A key point is how far we've gone with LIdJ since it was founded last year, how far it's come and then when Tanahashi looked me in the eye, he saw: "here's a guy that was so mindful of me, but now I've fallen away." - he talked about it after Osaka. [...] I always hopped for that big match, the biggest stage, both at our primes .. that chance has gone, which is a shame. Maybe I ascended too slowly, or he fall away too quickly, but this match isn't that. I see nothing in this match that interests me. So I have to look for motivation and if the pleasure of overtaking Tanahashi myself, if that is denied me, well then I'll just have to take pleasure in driving the final nail home in his career. That's a bad thing, without Tanahashi, the Naito you see here wouldn't exist. So it's with gratitude, that I'll hammer in that nail. He said I never became him. If I hadn't founded LIdJ, if I was where I was before then, well maybe those words would have stung, would have had weight. But I forged my own path. So it dindn't hurt me at all. Make no mistake. I could never be him. Los Ingobernables was a turning point, but I need to say, who I am on a fundamental level never changed. The way I expressed myself and how people perceived me, that's all that changed. My priorities are different. Before LIdJ I'd think about what the fans wanted and I wrestle to that, now I wrestle the way I do and the reactions follow. I have never changed myself, I don't deny my past, don't hate where I am from. [...] So you think the old Naito needs to be pulled out? OK, do that, what have you got? Someone different? It makes no sense. The only people it does make sense to, are the people who think Tnahashi is the be all, end all. [...] Maybe changing music is a bit of trial and error in reinventing himself and that's fine. Look, January 4 - Tokyo Dome, it is NJPW's biggest show. For me and for LIdJ it's a huge stage. I've never won a singles match in the Dome, I haven't created this Naito winning image, yet. When I do beat Tan, that scene; I'm really excited about. So my plans for the Dome? More People know my name, know LIdJ and being victorious. The main event? I'll watch it. I'm aware of everything, everybody, but they're hundreds, thousands of times more aware of me."

"There's a lot you can read into and a lot to expect with an oppenent you've wrestled before, but when it's someone completely new .. there's some nerves there but it's inspiring. I think Kenny and I can start something truly new. [...] Yeah he is BC leader, was IC champ, but even so, we didn't cross paths so I really wasn'T that aware of him. Only, I watched some of his stuff as a junior, before NJPW - he's crazy, just scarifices his body. He didn't seem like someone just moving up from junior to heavy. He beat Tanahashi, beat Naito, both have held the IWGP title. He can pretty much do anything. He has a lot of power, he can fly. He's very much like AJ, just an 'all mighty' type of wretler. But unlike Aj, he has all that ability and he's crazy. Devit, Styles were both great leaders for Bullet Club, but he's in a whole new category. Getting himself in main event proves that. He's at his most dangerous at his pace. I want him to wrestle at my pace, but Omega is a guy that probably won'T let me do that. [...] I'm at the top and I've been at the top for a while, so it might not seem that I'm hungry to him I guess. In a way that's a compliment, but I've been through a lot to get to this point. Still, I'm not going to talk like him and make a big deal of my struggles. What I want him to know, is more important than a hungry attitude is having struggled and failed and come out the other end. That gives you a level of strength you can't hope to have otherwise. [...] Everyone who wrestles me complains I'm manufactured, office chosen. To me, that's obvious y'know? The office wants a star, finds the best they have and pushes them, that's me. It's for working at this level, doing tv appearances, doing commercials, being known worldwide. The Tanahashi feud, finally beating him, coming through 2016 has made me the strongest I've ever been."

"I'm completely ready .. I will be in absolute peak condition at the Dome. [...] I am the most legendary gaijin in New Japan history and I want to do more for Japanese wrestling. Me beating Okada, it's not just best for me, but for New Japan. [...] This might disappoint Japanese fans a bit but as the IWGP champion, even if it means wrestling in Japan less, I want to wrestle internationally more. I want to defend the belt in America, UK, New Zealand, all of Asia. Bullet Club defend their belts worldwide. You know why, don't you? We are both doing a similar thing on a worldwide stage, but we are better (WWE). To prove that the fans have to be able to compare in person. If they want to have a UK champion, I want to defend the belt in the U.K. - I have that sense of pride and want to protect New Japan. I want to defend against Ishii. I'd have liked it if he'd have challenged me for the contract, honestly. He beat Okada in the G1 after all, so he has a claim. If he wants to challenge me after I win he's more than welcome. Oh and .. is it always the same person in that Tiger Mask W mask? I saw him in that Ryogoku dark match. He was still very green, but he had some pretty cool moves. If he's still the same guy and he really does his best and puts the work in, he might be a contender one day."

"I definitely spent three years wanting to be at the top internationally, but I also wanted to get back. It felt great to be back in Japan. 'Road to Tokyo Dome' .. they found out about it at the same time - I looked at the NJPW site and there was my match listed. I had everything planned around the Dome .. no gear obviously. It was though to wrestle in street clothes .. it looked bad. I like being in proper gear and I will be at the Dome. It wasn't that I didn't want to do those matches, it was just sudden. But being on that card in the main right away and being a focal part of that match made me happy. It's a different felling to 'Fantasticamania' - it was more about wrestling Dragon Lee .. not about Hiromu is back! Now I am back and in a match in the Dome for a title. [...] Kushida carried the division for the last three and a half years, so his ability isn't in question. I just took issue with him in September, when he lost the belt and was talking about the weight of the title. Look, if you suck, you don't get to be champion. "The championship is no pushover"?"Of course it is not, that's obvious, but that's why I got results right? That's why I pinnend Kushida in the tag, being the leading guy in that match, being a bigger deal than anybody else after the match. [...] I always knew I was the one that had to take down Kushida and while there was a real feeling that someone who said what he did shouldn't be a top guy. I look at him and I get pissed off. "I want to elevate the juniors" - it's a lip service. [...] I don't think he's uniquely difficult. I've wrestled all sorts of opponents over the last 3.5 years .. jiujitsu type guys, kick boxer type guys - I can beat all of them. [...] I recognise his ability, know how good he is, but there's nothing about Kushida that has me worried. Having wrestled him now, he's as I thought - not a worry. The brawl with him after the match, it highlighted an immaturity, making me more angry all the the time. Why is ths guy at the top? .. who doesn't give a damn about the company or the division? He infuriates me. He said that not being a product of the dojo system was a strong point for him - I have no problem with that per se. But if your opinion is: " I love NJ and I want to see it do better" then it doesn't matter where you got your start. There are a lot of people from outside nowadays, but honeslty it is a different issue with him. The weight of the belt .. why? These 3 years he's been at the top, winning the most, been around the title, right? For him to say that, maybe he didn't believe it himself, but to say that and be so flippant about it, I can'T forgive that. I've not been fast tracked, not been hot shotted. I've put in results all over the world and I've earned this right. I'll be the champion everyone wants and everyone needs. For Kushida .. no pushover .. no cakewalk? Listen, I know the title is no pushover, but mister 'I don't give a crap about New Japan'? Taking it from you will be!