Murder Machine has date with Desperado
Saturday in Ryogoku, SHO makes his second career challenge for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Yet just over one year removed from challenging Hiromu Takahashi at 2021’s New Beginning, the Murder Machine is a much changed individual, and will stop at nothing to get the gold. SHO was willing to give a rare interview ahead of the Hyper Battle ’22 card.
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Look at that picture and tell me it isn’t messed up. You can’t.
–As we speak, your match with El Desperado for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship is just days away. How are you feeling right now?
SHO: You don’t need me to give you a promo here, because we all know the result. I will be winning and that’s it. It’s easy money! Just because it’s a title match I’m listed as the challenger. But it’s (El Desperado) who has to take on the unbeatable test that is myself. So if you want inspirational words, go talk to him, thank you.
–This all started on March 12 in Aichi when you attacked El Desperado and said afterward that you would ‘fix the broken power balance’ in the junior division.
SHO: See, this world is all twisted. All messed up. I’m here to set things straight. The junior division has been broken for far too long, I just couldn’t ignore it any longer.
–Can you be more specific? What about the division is ‘broken’?
SHO: Isn’t it obvious? The fact that I’m not champion! The fact that the punk I beat and then beat the crap out of these few weeks is the champion! Just look at that picture and tell me it isn’t messed up. You can’t.
–Admittedly, you did beat El Desperado during Best of the Super Jr.
SHO: Not just that punk with the belt, but the other one, carrying around that trophy like it’s his prized private possession, that joke. I beat him up too. So that belt, and that trophy should be mine, and they aren’t! This reality is corrupt. It’s glitched. I have to patch out those bugs. Saturday in Ryogoku, it’s the grand reboot of the junior division.
–During this past tour, Desperado has mentioned that you’ve been talking a lot more than you used to.
SHO: I’ve not been talking more, it’s just that he can’t deny any longer that what I’m saying is true. I’m not like that guy who runs his mouth, talking a bunch of BS nobody understands. Don’t worry! At Ryogoku, I’ll shut his big mouth for good. He’d best make sure he leaves nothing unsaid while he still can.
It’s not about being happy, it’s about being right.
–Talking about you since you joined HOUSE OF TORTURE, he said ‘doesn’t he seem happy? It seems fun, having new toys and new playmates’.
SHO: Fun? Happy? Oh I’m very sad indeed. Sad that this pitiful state of affairs, where this joke of a champion gets beaten up by me and still has the belt. But it isn’t about being happy, it’s about being right. I am on the absolute right path!
–So CHAOS was not right for you?
SHO: Just like EVIL said, that place is rotten to the core. It’s green with mold, and if I’d have stayed, that mold would be on me as well. I still feel guilty, that I associated myself with these good for nothing losers. Leaving CHAOS was a rebirth. It opened my eyes.
–But to go back to that BoSJ match with Desperado, there was a good deal of interference from HOUSE OF TORTURE…
SHO: Bull! I wouldn’t stoop that low. Anyone can see I beat him one on one. The difference in level was too great for him. Look at the results page. 30 minutes, one fall, a circle by my name and a cross by his. That’s all the proof you need. Fair and square.
–Fair and square??
SHO: It was just me, him and the referee in that ring. At the end of the match I was standing and he wasn’t. Anybody could tell you that and all the people in the building were witnesses. Take a survey! 100% would be on my side!
There’s nothing I have to be careful of
–Let’s talk about your thoughts on El Desperado as a wrestler. Having won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at Power Struggle last November, he has defended twice, against Hiromu Takahashi in the Tokyo Dome, and Master Wato in Sendai.
SHO: Everything that man does is despicable. Especially that move with his opponent’s knee over his head.
–The Numero Dos?
SHO: It’s inhumane. It should be banned. But since I’m so generous, I’ll let him use that awful move. You won’t see me do anything as cruel as that. I fight fair, every time.
–Desperado is certainly very adept at targeting his opponents’ knees. Is that something you’re careful of? Are there any other things you’re looking out for?
SHO: No! There’s nothing I’m careful of. He has no class; he might well get DQ’d and I’d take his title by disqualification. That would be fine by me, but I have no need for his dirty tricks. All I wonder about him is whether he ever feels bad about ruining what should be sacred championship matches.
–I think our fans tend to be more upset about H.O.T interference in title matches…
SHO (incredulous): What interference? There is none! When did any of that happen? Where is the evidence? Are you all that short sighted? Something wrong with your eyes, or your minds?
–Well for a recent example, how about Yujiro Takahashi and Tetsuya Naito in the New Japan Cup? After H.O.T interference, even Yujiro asked to fight Naito one on one, only to hit Naito with a low blow.
SHO: Lies. Yujiro fought fair and square and that rat cheated his way to victory. EVIL and I just happened to be there, and he went and attacked us, for no reason. That goes for all of LIJ. Putting a happy face on things, and then stabbing opponents in the back. Drawing the referee’s eye so they can cheat their way to victory. Just like EVIL says, they’re rotten to the core. That’s why I promise that I will always fight fair.
–You’ve never been IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion in your career to date.
SHO: Right? That’s messed up, isn’t it? That’s why I say everything is wrong headed. That’s why I have to right those wrongs, put a fair and just name on that nameplate.
–What would your goals be as champion?
SHO: Right the power balance, and fix all these bugs in the junior heavyweight division. After that? I might kill some time taking care of the small fry, heh. Let me enjoy defending that title by taking care of all those little worms wriggling about. When you finish the main quest, it’s fun to go back into new game+ right? I can keep beating them over and over, speedrun the whole game.
The wrench? It’s there to fix what’s broken
–I’d like for us to talk a bit about how you joined HOUSE OF TORTURE. It was the Super Jr. Tag League that saw you turn yopur back on YOH and dissolve Roppongi 3K. At that point in time, were you already thinking about the ‘next step’?
SHO: A meaningless question. Well, one thing I’ll say is that guy had long outlived his usefulness. He was, he is, rotten, and if I’d have stayed with him the decay would have spread to me. So before that happened, I made sure to choose the right path.
–So your success as a tag team was all out of a ‘usefulness’ to yourself as an individual?
SHO: Huh. When a cash cow runs out of milk, it’s time to lead it to slaughter! It’s that simple.
–How did you feel about YOH as an opponent in your singles matches, and over the NEVER 6 Man tag titles?
SHO: Nothing! It was all too easy! Here was I looking forward to an all out war, and all I got was a walk in the park. It was a clean sweep! No wonder it was sponsored by that Clean-Pa spray.
–You defeated YOH in Sendai, and retained the NEVER titles in Sapporo with H.O.T. What does HOUSE OF TORTURE mean to you as a group?
SHO: What is H.O.T? It is a collection of the very best, the very purest of heart and those who stand for what’s right. This is a world full of the worst of the worst. It’s on us to take those miscreants and torture them into righting their ways.
–There are a lot of fans who would disagree with that. Master Wato has talked about wanting you to ‘wake up’.
SHO: I am on the right path. I’m the one who’s reformed, born again! Anyone who can’t see that needs to wake up themselves.
–Can you tell us about the ‘torture tool’ you call your wrench?
SHO: Why do I carry that tool with me. I won’t tell! But as you’ve seen, I have been using it as a last resort, to punish those villains who won’t listen to reason. Maybe if I feel like it, I’ll talk more after I’ve fixed this power imbalance and taken my title. But to put it simply, a wrench is there to tighten bolts, is it not? It fixes what is broken, in more ways than one.
Rest easy, I’ll make everything right.
–After Hyper Battle, May sees Best of the Super Jr. return to its usual spot on the calendar. You were very close to victory last winter; how will you approach this year’s tournament?
SHO: That trophy should be mine, but someone worse than me made sure it was stolen from me. I will find the culprits and punish them, just as when I showed myself in protest at the Ryogoku finals; in the end that trophy is another symbol of how broken this division is. This year? Everyone needs to be fearful of me. Everyone will fall, and it only makes sense to take your punishment and not make a fuss. After Ryogoku, I’ll have two belts, and who knows? Maybe at PayPay Dome (May 1, Dontaku) I’ll make it three. Hiromu had better polish that trophy, because that’ll be mine, too.
–Do you have any thoughts about being in the semi main event spot Saturday in Ryogoku?
SHO: No. I don’t care about things like that. The only thing I’d say is that if I had the belt, it would be in the main event.
–I see.
SHO: I’ve said this time and again, the junior heavyweight division is completely broken. But it’s all OK, rest easy. The gods of junior heavyweight wrestling have chosen me as their messiah. I will make it all right once more, and all I ask is for the rotten, corrupt villains to take their punishment. Then the juniors will be in the Tokyo Dome main event where they belong! Every single wrong will be righted, and it all starts in Ryogoku.
–Finally, El Desperado has called out contenders from other promotions, any thoughts on that?
SHO: It’s OK, I understand! He’s so scared of being beaten up by me he wants to run to face anybody else he can. That’s fine, cowardice is as cowardice does. But that just proves my point that nobody like him deserves a championship. I’m sorry to all those people he named, but I have a right to challenge and they don’t. But don’t worry! You can try to beat me instead! Just another side quest when I play new game+!
