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FEB.15.2023

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Back to the Wrestling Future: KUSHIDA interviewed

Timesplitter talks NJPW Academy

Since NJPW Academy’s official announcement, prospective wrestlers have been signing up in droves to either start or further their careers within a unique LA Dojo environment. Joining Fred Rosser in teaching the advanced course at the school will be KUSHIDA, who we sat down with to discuss what he’ll bring to the Academy.

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–So since you’ve headed back to LA this winter, you’ve been very busy in IMPACT and AEW.

KUSHIDA: Right, I’ve had quite a few bookings over here, and I’m looking forward to wrestling in GCW soon as well.   

–And you’ve been very busy in the LA Dojo as well of course. 

KUSHIDA: Right. A lot’s happening at once. Like my team with Kevin Knight, that was all a happy accident in a way. After coming off my hand foot and mouth disease, I was working to come back, and Kevin was there to train with me. It isn’t a teacher student thing, it was the two of us both working to the same goal together. 

 –I see.

KUSHIDA: Coming into the Dojo there, with all the great guys Shibata has worked to raise, it really felt like there was this awesome atmosphere there. So much potential, so much possibility. It really made me motivated to do something cool here. 

–So you already felt the potential of the LA Dojo as a learning environment, but when you met Kevin Knight, that only intensified.

KUSHIDA: Right. The La Dojo really is an incredible place. It’s a great place to get you to Japan, it’s a great place to improve your potential in the US, and that potential is only growing. It really is essential for anyone looking to move up. 

–And now there’s a new avenue to make use of the Dojo.

KUSHIDA: Right. In simple terms, Academy is a wrestling school, and one where you still get that NJPW history, the culture and the technique. But on top of that, we can also prepare you for MMA, or for lucha, or for a US television style. There’s a lot of different thought processes to the business, and we’ll be cogniscent of that.

–I see.

KUSHIDA: So within that, I don’t really see myself as a coach so much as someone that can help everyone come through feel and experience the ideas and the techniques behind Japanese wrestling. I really see this as a big learning and growth experience for myself as well, and I’ll be approaching this with every bit of the focus I bring to my matches.

I want there to be give and take

–What’s your approach to teaching? You’ll be sharing coaching duties with Fred Rosser.

KUSHIDA: Right. Well, we’ll be with a class of wrestlers who have already made their debuts, and if I’m not able to be at a session with match commitments, I’m sure there’ll be people swapping in and out. Basically, what I want people coming in to understand is that the end goal of the Academy is not necessarily to make NJPW Young Lions. What we will be doing though is giving you the techniques and an understanding of the culture, the philosophy, the history and helping you practice all that. Then when you go on and into the wrestling world at large, you’re taking that NJPW-ism with you.

–So it’s a more open philosophy.

KUSHIDA: Right. A full time Dojo is a closed thing, it’s a walled garden by design. For me, I started my career in places like the Takada Dojo and then CMLL lucha classes, paying my money to pay my dues, and gather experience, and that’s helped me want to share that.

–I see.

KUSHIDA: You have givers and takers, right? I feel in my career that I’ve been lucky enough to take an awful lot of knowledge, and I’m at a point in my life where I want to share all that and be a giver. This is a chance to do that.

–You’ve always had an interest in teaching.

KUSHIDA: Pro-wrestling is hard, man (laughs)! It’s a hard thing to teach. Even just answering that question ‘what is pro-wrestling’, there’s no right or wrong answer and everybody will tell you something different. When I was coming up, a lot of it was ‘figure it out yourself’, but I came through my career learning so much from so many different coaches and teachers. Some might give you a lecture, some might teach you practically. I feel I’ve had a more diverse learning experience than just about any other wrestler ever.

–And that’s given you a lot of experience to benefit from.

KUSHIDA: At the end of the day it comes from loving the whole thing, all of wrestling. And I’ve always been inquisitive, so I’ve always had that desire to deconstruct why things are a certain way. That’s what I’ve been doing my whole career.

–And it’s led you to a lot of different places.

KUSHIDA: I think a diversity like I’ve had, that’s the key for pro-wrestling to prosper in the future. So with this, I think for the students coming into the Academy with the end goal to be a Young Lion, to be in the NJPW system, then they’re more than welcome to take their experience here and then go try out for that. But it isn’t necessary. 

Wrestlers don’t learn from one coach and then that’s it, finished product. There’s more to it than that. So what I want are people who have that inquisitive nature and open minded approach. I’m not going to say I’m about teaching people everything, or creating a group of wrestlers in my image. But I’ll be looking for people with potential, you know?

–OK.

KUSHIDA: But we also have that pipeline, and guys like Rocky (Romero) that can help connect people to promotions all over the world. if your goal is Japan, or America, or Mexico, we can help get you there, if you’re skilled enough and able enough to navigate this world once we send you off. It’s this great chance to have a bunch of young wrestlers bringing NJPW with them out into the world, or simply helping the people that have the resolve to go ‘OK, I’m going to be taught by Shibata-san now’. 

I want to meet cool people


–So your seminar on January 19 was a bit of a trial run for all this.

KUSHIDA: I had three hours for each session, and a bunch of American wrestlers came by; and I mean from all over America. This kind of seminar, by wrestlers for wrestlers is pretty popular in the US. Like, the Gracie Dojo will sell personal training sessions at about $300 an hour to teach technique. I think with wrestling there’s a little bit that’s more closed off than that, but I’m perfectly happy with some move or some little thing I do gets used somewhere else, and this kind of opportunity is a great way to share that stuff. 

–And a certain Mercedes Moné happened to stop by, of course. 

KUSHIDA: She is such a great model to follow. She’s at the top of the world when it comes to being a female pro-wrestler and just an entertainer in general, but she has such a love for this that she comes in to share and figure different stuff out. 

–That’s the kind of spirit you want in students.

KUSHIDA: Yeah. There are countless people around the world who can’t make a living just through wrestling, that work part time jobs during the week and wrestle at weekends. And if you’re in that spot and you want to make yourself more known, more marketable, then we want you. And as well, I think guys that have that interest in Japanese pro-wrestling puts you in a certain niche and gives you a unique sense. 

–How so?

KUSHIDA: Like, I say this to Kevin (Knight) all the time, but when he came into the Dojo, chose NJPW and became one of Shibata’s students, he already had a natural knack for things. I think there’s a lot of guys and girls in America that have the same sense of ambition and drive that he has. There are in Japan as well, but this role in the States works best for me. I never came up through the Noge Dojo, my learning was in these other schools around the world, and that’s what I want to tap into.

–It sounds like a young KUSHIDA would have really appreciated something like this.

KUSHIDA: I’m excited to meet that teenage version of myself. I really want to meet cool people with this, and find great new talents. If there are really great people I want to introduce them to NJPW. But however things turn out, I think having enough will to improve yourself that you would pay out your own money to be a part of something like this, that sets you apart already. That’s why having LA Dojo as a place for everyone like that is so important. As for the individual seminars- I have a target over the next decade to one in all 50 states. 

This can be the California Roll of wrestling

–And although the Academy is in LA, the classes are open to everyone, correct?

KUSHIDA: Absolutely! Japanese, Australian, European, if you can get a visa or a 90 day ESTA. It becomes quite an expensive prospect, but it’s a really worthwhile opportunity. In the end, I think this is a chance for NJPW as well to grow in reputation in the US in that regard.

–How so?

KUSHIDA: Well, with nearly 51 years of history, NJPW is part of the fabric in Japan. But while we run in the US, the question is how to get into the broader culture. Like, people know what a California Roll is, right?

–Right…

KUSHIDA: Maybe some Japanese people would turn their noses up at the idea of that being proper sushi, but a good California Roll is great. Even without using real seafood, you can do a lot with sushi rice, seaweed and crab sticks, and change things up from there. And it was having that as a base that brought a Japanese concept of sushi to the US. It’s a really underappreciated food. 

So with this Academy, here you have a chance to take what we teach you from March, and bring it to Japan, to LA Dojo, to other American companies, hell you could get a start in Hollywood, or be a YouTuber, or just enjoy having this as your hobby…

–…and you want this to be the California Roll that sparks a sushi boom.

KUSHIDA: I’d really, really like that. Maybe it’s not a sushi or a ramen in 1, 3, 5 years but New Japan Pro-Wrestling will have that cache in America. Whether it’s my seminars or a course, two hours in some other state, or three months in LA, if we’re able to get more American independent wrestlers through our doors and on into the world, you’ll see the results, and you’ll see NJPW take root across the country.

–Thanks for your time.

KUSHIDA: At the end of the day, this is the absolute best role for me for NJPW from America, and I’ll be giving it absolutely all I have. 

 

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