Hiromu speaks to media after BOSJ threepeat
Hiromu Takahashi spoke to the press on June 4 for the first time after his historic third straight and fourth overall Best of the Super Jr 29 win, with an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship challenge now official for June 21 in Korakuen Hall on the New Japan Road.
Hiromu Takahashi entered appearing tired and disheveled as he chanted ‘the broken down Hiromu Takahashi has entered the building,’ before taking his seat, sighing, and beginning his statement.
Hiromu: These post big match press conferences, we’ve had a few, right? After I’ve won things. Sometimes you want to do something a little different, right? Don’t you think, as a wrestler?’
–I’m not a wrestler, but sure.
Hiromu: But this time I was so beaten up I couldn’t think of anything. I can’t remember the last time I felt this broken down. So I’m going to play it straight today.
–How do you feel having threepeated for the first time?
Hiromu: Hmm. But when you think about it, I wrestled Desperado in the Budokan in December 2020, and yesterday was June 3 2022. So in a year and a half I’ve won three times. And all under these circumstances. I have to say that while I’m really happy that I’ve been able to do this, it really is a shame that I’ve won three straight Best of the Super Jr. trophies with no cheering. Don’t get me wrong, I love the support and the applause, but I wanted everyone chanting my name.
–You obviously had the expectations of that last match with Desperado to live up to, did that lead to any pressure on you?
Hiromu: That kind of pressure is something you don’t feel until afterward if anything. During the match I was so focused on just getting through and winning. Before and afterward, maybe that kind of thing gets in your head, but between the bells, you’re only focused on what’s in front of you.
–There were 20 wrestlers in this year’s lineup, with a lot of debuts. Were there any that particularly stood out to you?
Hiromu: Well, first of all I want to say thank you to all those guys for coming over from overseas, or El Lindaman from GLEAT as well. All those guys were foughting to try and be the guy, and that competitive spirit is what made the BOSJ a success. After I won, as I was giving that promo, the idea popped in my head; back in the day they had everyone come out to give a final photo session, right? I thought we could do that again. We should. Maybe that’s a hard thing for me to put in practice, being an LIJ member. Whatever. In my opinion, those guys were my enemies over the last few weeks, but in the end, it should be a celebration. I’d love to have a group photo again sometime.
–About your title match…
Hiromu: Ah yeah! I thought I would come here and talk about challenging Ishimori today. I should have put it out there sooner, but then Ishimori made that point backstage, about not making it to the finals, and that he’d get his revenge on me whether I won or lost. So I guess that’s what pushed the company over the edge in making this match. For the champion to say that and recognise me like that, wanting to wrestle me whatever my result that’s a big deal. And we’re doing it in Korakuen? That’s cool. I really want that to be a completely sold out Korakuen Hall. Make sure you’re there. I’ll tell everyone ‘make sure you’re watching on World’ but what I really want to say is ‘make sure you’re there in person for this’.
–So you’re excited for a Korakuen Hall title match?
Hiromu: Oh, yeah, of course! I want this, let’s F’n go, c’mon, let’s get it! All that stuff.
–In the league standings, while you and El Desperado won your blocks on tiebreakers, you were level on points with Taiji Ishimori and El Phantasmo. The impression was that the four of you were the big four of the tournament.
Hiromu: Hmm. I don’t see it like that. Points are points. It isn’t like everyone was going out shaking hands every night, ‘let’s have a fair fight’. Everyone was fighting and clawing for every single win. So I don’t think of it as one guy, or a group being better than anyone else. Every match and every opponent was tough.
–You used a new move to finish last night, a variant on the Time Bomb II, as well as a stunner toward the end of the campaign. Is there a name for it?
Hiromu: No, I didn’t really have any time to think of one. The finish is Time Bomb 2.5. There was actually a 1.5 as well, you know.
–What kind of move was that?
Hiromu: Well, I never used it in a match so I can’t really say. The time was never right. Maybe someday you might see the Time Bomb 1.5.
–I see-
Hiromu: You think you should read that 2.5 in English or Japanese?
–I-
Hiromu: Like, English is pretty cool, isn’t it? “TWO POINT FIVE”
–Well.
Hiromu: Maybe you can call it in Japanese when I wrestle here, and if I have a match abroad, you can call it in English.
–OK. And the Stunner?
Hiromu: I’ll think of something.
–Well, those are my questions- do you have anything else you’d like to say?
Hiromu: Well, I got this..
–What’s that? Yoghurt?
Hiromu: Yeah. When I got to the back, this was in the LIJ locker room. There was nobody there, just like always; everyone had left. But there was this yoghurt, and a note on it that says ‘To Mori, congratulations on four trophies and three in a row.’
–Mori? You think Naito wrote that.
Hiromu: Yep.
–Tetsuya Naito.
Hiromu: Yeah. Absolutely. This is Naito’s work.
–Why Mori?
Hiromu: Naito calls everyone ‘Mori-san’ So, I dunno but I think it’s Naito. So I want to say ‘thanks’.
Hiromu would continue, discussing Shingo Takagi’s congratulatory text (the only from LIJ members), and switching up his gear for forthcoming matches (‘I might go with these BOSJ shorts, or I might just fake Ishimori out’) before further extending the conference. Regarding the BOSJ trophy, he would say that to stop it ‘getting dinged up in my suitcase’, he would only carry it with him until his title match on June 21, before discussing that bout with Taiji Ishimori;
‘There’s such a calm stability to him. He doesn’t have any flaws, and creating a weakness is really difficult. So I think this match will be about using a move he hasn’t seen before and go from there. It’s pretty tough to create a weakness in someone who doesn’t have any.’
Asked whether he feels he has surpassed Jyushin Thunder Liger’s achievements by winning his fourth BOSJ, Hiromu was introspective saying ‘it doesn’t matter how many BOSJs I win, I won’t directly surpass Liger. It’s more about going at it from a different direction and doing something amazing in my own way.’
Hiromu Takahashi challenges Taiji Ishimori on June 21 in Korakuen Hall.
