New IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion talks impending Anniversary main
As NJPW celebrates 52 years on Wednesday March 6, the return of the Anniversary tradition main event that pits IWGP Junior and World Heavyweight Champions against one another had a lot of intrigue around it on announcement. Yet while fans were predicting a first time ever matchup for Tetsuya Naito and EL Desperado, they got another first time lineup with SHO in the place of Despe. Yet it’s the manner in which the title changed, via countout for the first time in the belt’s lineage that has fans most furious- not that SHO has any measure of contrition. We spoke to the new champ to get his thoughts on his first singles title win in NJPW and facing Naito in Ota.
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Everyone complaining should get their facts straight
–I suppose congratulations are in order for your IWGP Junior Heavyweight title win.
SHO: I don’t need your congratulations! It was obviously always going to happen. If anything, it’s screwed up that I haven’t been champion before now.
–Well, it took a while for this title match to come together.
SHO: Desperado was ducking me this whole time.
–Desperado had said that you weren’t title match worthy.
SHO: He didn’t see my abilities because he has a pea brain and pinholes for eyes. And he was so scared he didn’t want to put his belt up.
–..Until you stole the title belt in Osaka.
SHO: I made sure that belt was in its rightful place. If he was a rightful champion and had the guts to keep hold of it, he would have made sure that it didn’t go anywhere. Not to mention I even had to give him my mask for him to accept the challenge! He should be grateful.
–…’your’ mask. At any rate, what’s your assessment of El Desperado over the last year or so?
SHO: He and Hiromu wrestled January 4, in the Tokyo Dome, right? What a joke! You call that a junior heavyweight title match? You call that junior heavyweight wrestling period? They should have been jerking the curtain on a spot show in a campsite!
–El Desperado had suggested that if you lost, you would have had to join Strong Style. Was that on your mind at all?
SHO: What kind of idiot even thinks about losing before their match? Especially someone who can’t possibly be beat like me. That team is the exact opposite of ‘strong’ anyway, compared to the fair and square way we fight in HOUSE OF TORTURE.
–Well, you can certainly say Strong Style and HOUSE OF TORTURE are opposites.
SHO: The point is, my odds of losing were zero percent. He could have said any stipulation he wanted- ‘if SHO loses, he has to pay 100 million Yen’, ‘if SHO loses he has to retire’, anything. SHO isn’t going to lose!
–Win by any means necessary, then?
SHO: Any means necessary? What are you even implying? I’ve never done anything but fight fair.
–At the end of your match in Sapporo, Ren narita came from under the ring and stopped Desperado making the referee’s count.
SHO: What? What match were you watching? Any single match I fight by myself, I don’t need anybody else to help me win. Anybody could clearly see that was a fair one on one fight, and tyhat he just couldn’t keep up with me in the ring. He was so beat up that he was knocked to the outside and couldn’t get back in.
–The finish to that match was booed pretty heavily.
SHO: Of course! It was such a mismatch when it comes to strength and skill levels. I was so completely dominant it hurts to watch. If you have any complaints, well you need to get your facts straight. In the end, it’s fitting that Hokkaido is so big and empty, just like the heads of the people in it.
–You don’t agree there’s some shame in winning the belt by countout?
SHO: Shame? You should have some! I came out on top of the most dominant championship performance of all time. I couldn’t be prouder.
Naito is challenging the greatest wrestler in the history of mankind
–How you won it aside, how does it feel to be IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion for the first time?
SHO: I feel like finally, for the first time in the history of this title, it has a worthy champion. Like finally the corrupt power balance in the junior heavyweight ranks in NJPW has been mended. The world’s junior heavyweights now just need to give me their thanks, and follow my lead.
— With the Anniversary main event seeing the junior heavyweight champion wrestle the heavyweight one, did you have a preference before Sapporo of SANADA or Naito?
SHO: No. Who cares who it would be? Nobody can beat me anyway. It could have been both.
–A three way match, you mean?
SHO: No, not a three way match, a handicap match. I could easily tear them both apart.
–In the past, the junior heavyweights have had a perceived disadvantage in situations like this.
SHO: Get with the times. Every junior heavyweight that turned heavy is because of me. I’m far bigger than this division, and everyone knows they can’t beat me if they stay junior, so they move up to heavy. That’s just how dominant I am. Now in Ota, Naito gets to challenge the greatest wrestler in the history of mankind. I’m sure he’s far from tanquilo.
–How do you feel about heading into your first singles match with Naito?
SHO: How I feel? Naito is a simpleton. He’s a World Heavyweight Champion who couldn’t find the world in an atlas. You can’t even understand his Japanese, all local country talk mixed with Spanish. And then all the sheep in the audience join his little chorus. I’m there to put a stop to the idiot convention.
–You said to Naito backstage that you wanted him to put the World Heavyweight title on the line…
SHO: Only right isn’t it? Junior or heavyweight, I’m the best there is, and the best wears the belt. Nobody’s beating me whether they’re 100kg, 200kg or 300kg.
I’ll wrestle in prime time, not a ham and egger like Hiromu
–Well be that as it may, this is a special singles match, non-title.
SHO: And there it is. Just like always, excuses and an easy way out.
–Naito did say that if he were to lose, he would vacate, and that you could wrestle the New Japan Cup winner for the vacant championship.
SHO: I’m winning anyway so whatever, the winner of this tournament can face me instead. Or since HOUSE OF TORTURE members will all be winning, we could have a H.O.T four way in Ryogoku.
–Will you change your approach in the ring against heavyweight competition?
SHO: I don’t see any reason to. Only that if I go at full strength, the match will be done inside of a minute, so I’ll make sure that he suffers for longer than that. Maybe half pace.
–This being the Anniversary main event, the people in it are the real representatives of NJPW in 2024, in a sense.
SHO: Of course I’m in it! Better me than that scrub who was going to wrestle him four years ago.
–You mean Hiromu Takahashi? That match was scheduled for the 2020 Anniversary but was cancelled.
SHO: Wasn’t that cancellation a gift from the gods? All the fans were rejoicing they never got that trash main event. This time, it’s at least half a good main, just Naito that shouldn’t be there.
–Was there somebody you would have preferred?
SHO: Of course it should be a HOUSE OF TORTURE main event! Naito being there is ridiculous! EVIL, Yujiro or Narita should have the World Heavyweight title.
–Well to hear Naito tell it, if you were to win then you stand a chance of becoming the first dual junior and heavyweight champion in Ryogoku.
SHO: And the H.O.T members will advance and we can have a HOUSE OF TORTURE four way. Even if, *even* if someone else were to make it through they’d have a zero percent chance of beating my 120% chance of victory. Hiromu always talking that trash about wrestling in prime time, what chance does he have? None. I’ll wrestle in prime time instead of a ham and egger like him.
YOH is the worst of the worst
–So we should point out that you don’t actually have the junior heavyweight belt with you right now.
SHO: No! YOH took it! Who takes a man’s c\title belt? The lowest of the low, that’s who. I’ll take care of him soon enough. He’s an embarrassment.
–Didn’t you just…
SHO: He’s a thief! A burglar! A larcenist! A pilferer, a swindler, a looter, a, a…
–He was once your tag team partner…
SHO: I’ve already come to terms with burying my dark past. But he’s still here, an eyesore, a disgrace, an embarrassment, a blot on history, a-
–He wants to be a challenger to your title.
SHO: He needs to give it back this second! I’ll beat him to an inch of his life. I’ll end his career. He needs to pay. As if I someone on his level should be given a title match.
I’ll fix the crooked power balance here
–HOUSE OF TORTURE currently also has EVIL as the NEVER Openweight Champion. With two belts in the group, How do you feel about the faction at the moment?
SHO: We are putting the wrongs of this world right. And there are a lot of them!
–And that means getting more titles, presumably.
SHO: It means getting all the political power round here. EVIL says this is his company and he’s right!
–I mean Hiroshi Tanahashi is the president…
SHO: Who can possibly respect any authority he has! We’re needed to stop him running rogue and doing even more damage than he has already.
–How has Yoshinobu Kanemaru’s position developed as a second junior in the group?
SHO: Talent attracts talent. Of course someone with the skills and the right mindset like Kanemaru has would want to join us. We’re unstoppable together.
–Do you have any thoughts on recent departures from NJPW?
SHO: They’re all running scared of the HOUSE OF TORTURE! They know they can’t hold on to the top spots as long as we’re around. Gutless, every last one.
–We haven’t had a full card determined yet, but it seems like you’ll be heading to your home in Uwajima March 12 as champion.
SHO: Home? There? As if I’d associate myself with that hick town! I feel nauseous thinking of coming within a 200 km radius of that place. If they put me in a match there it would all be the fault of YOH for stealing my belt!
–Fans in the past brought signs calling you ‘the shame of Uwajima’
SHO: All because of the slander that Hiromu takahashi put out! I’ll make him pay in court, mark my words. But I certainly don’t want to go to that hick town.
–OK, then. Any final thoughts on how you want your championship run to continue?
SHO: When was this belt created?
–February 1986, just over 38 years ago.
SHO: SO it’s taken 38 years for that title to finally have a worthy champion. The lineage really begins with me. I’ll take all those name plates off it and replace them with just my name. Trash that whole rotten lineage. Fix that crooked power balance here, and be the final boss for every junior heavyweight wrestler until the day I retire.
