NEW JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING

NEWS

MAR.8.2021

#INFO

Makoto Abe’s Many Hats (2/2)

We continue our conversation with ring crew, announcing and timekeeping master Makoto Abe

The first part of our conversation with Makoto Abe was hugely popular a few weeks ago, and while he’s still the source of wanted aggression from EVIL, Abe’s still putting in the work in bringing you every single NJPW event on the road and on the screen. 

Check out part 1!

I can focus on getting the job done here

  

–So we have two Japanese ring announcers in NJPW. Yourself, and your senior, Kimihiko Ozaki. 

Abe: Yeah. Ozaki is the same age as NJPW itself, 49, so five years older than me. 

–What sort of things did Ozaki teach you. 

Abe: Oh, the NJPW way of doing ring out counts, counting along with the referee, things like that. 

–Is it safe to say you’re kind of a mix of the AJPW and NJPW styles?

Abe: Yeah, I’d say so. Plus I take some stuff from the announcers I used to hear as a kid. After I got a taste for the job and fell in love with it, I went and did more homework, listened to some of the classic calls. Guys like Kero Tanaka.

–Tanaka is a real legendary figure, of course. He left NJPW in 2006, but came back to announce the title match at our 40th anniversary event between kazuchika Okada and Tetsuya Naito, and for Jyushin Thunder Liger’s farewell.

Abe: He was a real trailblazer, I think.

–What was the biggest surprise to you coming into NJPW? 

Abe: I think the size of the operation, when it comes to the number of wrestlers, and the number of employees. And everybody knows their role and can do it properly and effectively. That means I can really focus on my job, whether that’s ring announcing or putting the ring up and transporting it.

–A lot of the wrestling world is about doing half a dozen jobs at once.

Abe: Oh yeah. I’ve had to sell merch in the past as well, or I’d be at the timekeeper’s table calculating the merch take for the night so I can provide a report the next morning (laughs). Of course that means you can’t put all you have into any aspect of your work. 

 A day in the life

 

–So what does a NJPW event day look like for Makoto Abe?

Abe: Well, to take the Tokyo Dome as an example, I’d get up at four, and out the door at 5 to go and pick up the ring truck. Load that up, and set off at about seven for the venue. That’s when setup begins. We get that done, a break for lunch and then a quick meeting before we get onto the event itself. 

–We’ve been back to back in the Dome for the last two years, but what are things normally like after the matches?

Abe: Normally it takes about an hour to tear down. Then I take the truck back and get home around midnight. If we’re on a tour, I’ll drive the ring onto the next town.

–So you have to drive a ten ton truck around the towns. 

Abe: Yeah. I got my truck driver’s license at 36, 37? In a driving school with all these college students. One thing I remember, in Sendai in 2012, I was working the All Together event as an All Japan staff member. I went to check out the NJPW ring truck just to see what it was like; I think deep down I knew one day I would be driving it!

–You had a little epiphany of sorts.

Abe: Four years later, I was really driving it. It was like a message from God or something. Back then, AJPW used to run a card in Taiwan once a year. While I was over there I went to see a fortune teller; they’re pretty famous in Taiwan, and I saw this place on TV I wanted to check out. 

–And?

Abe: Two or three years later I was cleaning around the house and found the papers from the fortune teller. It said that I would change my job, and have a kid. Both hits. So it was a bit after the fact, but I thought ‘oh man, it was destiny’. 

BUSHI and SANADA were first two through the tryouts

 

–Last time we talked a bit about Satoshi Kojima; are there any other wrestlers that you’ve interacted with in All and New Japan? 

Abe: When I was with All Japan, they started running tryouts every January. The first people through were BUSHI and SANADA. 

–Oh, yeah. They both came into AJPW at the same time.

Abe: I was in charge of sorting through all the applications, and I invited them officially to the tryouts. I was there while they tried out as well. 

–BUSHI moved to NJPW a little before you did, but SANADA was a few months after you, in April 2016. Was that a surprise, to run into him at Ryogoku?

Abe: Yeah, that was huge! Coming out in that skull mask in the main event with Naito and Okada.

–You might have been the most surprised guy in the building!

Abe: It was just ‘what the heck is going on!’. But I’ve known him for a long time, so it’s been great to see his journey. Him getting to show what he can do in the final of the G1 against Ibushi, that was really emotional. 

–How about BUSHI?

Abe: Comparing him to what he was like in AJPW, he has a lot more focus, and he thinks things through much better now. He’s had his own twists and turns, it was great to see him come through and win the IWJP Junior title from KUSHIDA that time. 

–Back in September 2016.

Abe: BUSHI came in with SANADA, Hiroshi Yamato and KAI. I think BUSHI got off to a slower start, but as soon as he won the belt for the first time, he shot forward. That title win really got me emotional.

–SANADA really had a rocket strapped to him from the start. He was Yuji Nagata’s opponent in the Champion’s Carnival final he won. 

Abe: He worked hard from the beginning and had such immense natural talent. He would be training whenever he had a free moment back then. I think that’s starting to pay off now.

I’m still a huge fan

–In general, what’s New Japan Pro-Wrestling been like to work for?

Abe: I’ve learned a lot, grown a lot. Honestly, gratifying is the best word to use. I’ve been to so many towns, all over the country and overseas.

–Do you like the travel?

Abe: I love it. I love going to the towns we only hit once or twice a year and seeing the same fans come back. A lot of the staff feel the same way; we get a connection to those people that stand out and we’re happy to see them come back. 

–Do you watch wrestling differently to how you used to as a fan?

Abe: No! I’m sitting at the timekeeper’s table, loving every second (laughs).

–You look like you keep your cool, but you’re still a fan.

Abe: And I’ve got the best seat in the house! I’m still a huge fan. I watch NJPW World, buy Weekly Pro-Wrestling magazine, the works. I live this every day, and I think if I’m not able to enjoy it, the fans won’t either. The one thing I look at differently though is the referee, how he moves. 

–That’s part of the job when it comes to how you call.

Abe: Yeah. And how the wrestlers move, how the ring’s holding up, that kind of thing. 

I’m only in that ring for a short time, but that moment is my match

–When you get that caught up in the matches, do you make mistakes sometimes?

Abe: Ah, sometimes! But I’ve had enough tenure that I can pass it off like it all went smoothly (laughs).

–You haven’t gotten anybody’s name wrong or anything?

Abe: No, no, nothing like that. I’ve had days where I’ve had a frog in my throat, or I’ve tripped on my words. When that happens I really feel down for the rest of the night. I take the ring down, get home and have a long self pity soak in the bath (laughs).

–Is there a trick to make sure you don’t screw up any names?

Abe: Ah, not really. I mean I might screw up a height or weight at some point, but I’ve never called the wrong name. But I do take extra care, especially on big shows. When the pressure’s high and I’m nervous I tend to stand in the corner and focus on the sponsors on the corner pads, that calms me down. I think ‘ahh, I can’t wait to have a nice Zima and eat some Hanamaru Udon after this’ (laughs). That eases the nerves. 

–Nerves get to everybody.

Abe: I’m only in that ring for a short time, but that moment is like my match as far as I’m concerned. 

That match will stay with me for the rest of my career

–How has COVID most affected your work, and what happens in the ring?

Abe: Obviously not having the fans’ voices is tough, still. I always used to think about other productions, plays, stage shows and everything that even with all this production behind them, the crowd don’t get invested enough to yell like with wrestling. I think now we’re without one of the greatest elements of what pro-wrestling is, and that’s a shame.

–To go back to SANADA, that night in Osaka during the G1 with Okada, and that electric crowd…

Abe: That match will stay with me for the rest of my career. 29 minutes 47 seconds. Man, that was special. Even going to a draw would have been big for him, but that last minute win was huge. 

–What’s the drill when you get to the last moments of a time limit like that?

Abe: Well, we usually do time calls every five minutes, and then three minutes, two, one, 30 seconds, 10 seconds. Lately we’ve been doing 20 second calls as well though. 

–Your calls of the time limit just added to that drama in Osaka.

Abe: I called 20 seconds just as SANADA was going up, then Moonsault and three. The place just blew up. It felt the same when Hiromu came back after that absence, the pop was so huge it was like the building was shaking. There really isn’t anything like that, and it’s sad we can’t have those reactions just yet. All the way through the G1 I was feeling like however great the matches were, they wouldn’t get to that true next level that the crowds bring to them. But that patience is tremendous, and if we all keep to the rules we’ll be back in full swing soon enough.

I accidentally stopped my watch twice

–What other matches stand out the most from your NJPW career so far?

Abe: Hmm. I’d have to go with January 4 2020 in the Tokyo Dome. We got past the 40,000 mark, and standing in the ring, just surrounded by people was something else.  

–We hit that capacity mark.

Abe: Six years earlier, I was working shows with less than 100 people there. Just the spectacle of 40,000… Plus the match was incredible. I was actually so caught up in it all I accidentally stopped my stopwatch twice. 

–Oh no!

Abe: I was so caught up that when Ibushi hit Kamigoye. I bought that finish completely. I didn’t call him the winner early or anything, but I was so convinced he had it I stopped my watch. 

–Wow.

Abe: So then when Okada kicked out, I was like ‘0h crap!’ and restarted the watch. Then Okada hit his first Rainmaker and I stopped my watch again! It still wasn’t enough! So I think the official time is about 5 seconds short. (laughs)

–You were that invested. 

Abe: That happens from time to time; I might accidentally stop the watch and then quickly restart it, add a second or two to the final time. But that really was something else. 

–I’d imagine it’s actually pretty tricky to stop the watch right at the three count, and ring the bell, too. 

Abe: Right. I’ve let the hammer fall, and then redirected it to the table at the last second before. 

— Like a referee just pulling short on a three count (laughs)

Abe: After all these years I have a pretty strong sense of when a finish happens, but that I can still get caught out at times like that really highlights how great this business is. 

–What are your ambitions moving forward? 

Abe: I’m just one part of the whole here, but I want to go further and further. I’m not satisfied with staying where I am; I’ve come so far that I wouldn’t have imagined the things I’ve done a few years ago, and I want to surprise the me of now with what we do here and abroad over the next few years too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BACK TO NEWS TOP