YOH takes the fan hotseat

His scheduled IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship bout with El Desperado, initially set for Dontaku on May 4, may have to wait. But YOH, now back in the ring and with the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team gold once again at his side, has plenty of reason to be happy. We sat down with half of Roppongi 3K to put him to the fan participation test.

1. From ‘Yuta’ 

What was the hardest part of rehab for you while you were off?

YOH: It was right after the operation for me. As much as I tried, I couldn’t move it at all, but the way they do rehab these days is to really make you move it. 

–Really?

YOH: Within reason, but yeah, even if it’s really hard you have to move it as much as you can. Every day my doctor was bending it about, it hurt like hell. I even had to move it the day after surgery!

–No way!

YOH: I couldn’t put any power in that part of my leg at all. the muscles around there, I could barely make them twitch, like a fish gasping out of water.

–So your body really wasn’t listening to what you were trying to make it do. 

YOH: That’s the first step with rehab like this- it’s connecting your consciousness to your body. That’s just so incredibly hard, and the first few days I really wondered when I could ever get into a ring again. The mental side of it is super tough.  

2. From ‘Mie-nyan’

Did you get any particular words of encouragement from your CHAOS teammates while you were off?

YOH: They were all great. When I came back on April 4, we were the semi-main event. So I figured that by the time I got to the back they would have left, but they were waiting to congratulate us when we got to the back. Ishii wished me luck right before my entrance as well. They’re all so warm hearted. 

–Even Ishii!

YOH: Yeah! We have a CHAOS messenging group as well, and when I was told I’d be out for a while I sent a message there apologising for having to take time off, you know. And everybody got in touch with me individually to wish me well. 

–CHAOS seems like a kind hearted bunch. 

YOH: They really are. It’s like, when there’s a multi-man tag, all of us will walk out together to Okada’s music or whatever. That’s like us, I think. 

–That’s a good point; we don’t see you enter individually.

YOH: LIJ will all come out one by one, but all of us coming out to one song, that makes us feel like a family I think. I said this in my backstage comments as well, but I’m really glad I’m with CHAOS. 

3. From ‘Shimu’

What do you think has changed the most from before you were injured to now?

YOH: One thing that I got from talking to the trainer Sugano san was this: wrestlers all like to have the biggest muscles possible, right? I mean, I like to pop my pecs as much as anybody. But Sugano told me ‘the most important thing is to know your own body’. He used to work with pro soccer players, so he had experience with knee injuries, and ACL injuries at that. With him our major goal was for me to build my body around the knee issue, to create a physique that makes it hard to get hurt again, and to move in a way that doesn’t put pressur eon my knees as much.

–I see.

YOH: I hadn’t trained with a specific goal like that before. It was always about getting bigger, but now I had something else in mind.

–So did that change your diet as well as your exercise?

YOH: Well, I’ve pretty much been eating the way I want to. That’s a mental thing as much as anything; it’s no good to have added stress on top of rehabbing the injury. Training wise, it’s been about really working on the abductor muscles and the glutes. That takes a lot of the strain from the knees, so when I bump there’s less of a jarring impact.

–There’s a real theory to it.

YOH: It’s more than just squats, heh. Sugano san taught me some of the same stuff they do in soccer and basketball. With his help, I honestly think I’m in better shape than before I got hurt.

–No way?

YOH: Seriously! It’s really like a weakness has become a strength. 

–Do you have any concerns at all about your knee?

YOH: I think that I used to have a screw loose before I was hurt and I’m more sensible now. I can’t say I don’t have any concerns at all, but that comes with the territory.

–You think you’re stronger mentally as well as physically after the injury?

YOH: I do. I think I got to know myself better and I treated it all as a period for self care. I went to the company and asked to stop my blog, and freeze my social media while I was recovering, and used all that time to really focus on myself and what I want to do in the future. It all paid off, and it helped me be creative too; I came up with the Direct Drive move, for one thing.

4. From ‘Northern Light’

Do you have any more new moves at the ready, besides Direct Drive?

–Before we get into that question, how did Direct Drive itself come about?

YOH: I talked about this when I guested on SHO’s podcast, but vinyl is a big hobby of mine, and I really threw myself into all that while I was off. I got myself a new setup, and when I played a record on the new decks, it just sounded amazing. 

–An epiphany?

YOH: You could say that. direct drive is a kind of mechanism in turntables, it’s about how the motor operates the record. There are belt drive decks and there are direct drive ones, and I have a direct drive. 

–So what’s special about direct drive? 

YOH: Well, direct drive is at it sounds, the motor is directly connected to the turntable as opposed to spinning a belt that turns the deck. So I would watch a record spinning as I was giving all this thought. I wanted to do something from a double underhook, like a Tiger Driver, and I thought I could give it that rotation like a record on a deck. I tried it and it worked perfectly.

–And do you have any more new moves?

YOH: I’ve got three.

–Three!

YOH: I’ll tell you one is called DNV. It stands for ‘Drop the Needle on the Vinyl’; I’ll leave that up to your imagination.

–We’ve seen you come up with the Five Star Clutch, and the Stargazer. Is this an extension of that kind of thinking?

YOH: It’s completely different. Part of all this is having come back from excursion more than three years ago now, I wanted to add more depth to my matches. When you tag all the time, it does come with its own restrictions for finishes, right?

–We tend to expect double team moves.

YOH: So I expected from the start that it would take some time for me to find a singles finisher. It started with the Five Star Clutch, then it was the Dragon Suplex, along with the Stargazer, which was really about taking my opponents’ mobility away from them. In my third year, I thought a Moonsault would round out that trilogy so to speak, but…

–The injury changed things a bit.

YOH: Right. As I was getting ready to come back, I was really going bac and forth about whether or not I could do a Moonsault. I asked my doctor, and he wasn’t sure, and in the end, I put a mat out on the ring, and gave it a shot. I think ultimately, for my career, my bump card has space for about 30 moonsaults. 

–you have to think about longevity career wise.

YOH: And it isn’t just career wise. One of these days I do want to start a family. I want to be there for my kid’s school sports day, and I want to win the hell out of the dad’s foot race (laughs). So that’s why I came up with Direct Drive, and some extra moves too. I wanted to show more in our matches before, but I didn’t expect them to go after my knees so much.

–Desperado and Kanemaru really went for you. 

YOH: Even if I hadn’t already hurt my knee, they were trying to make sure I would hurt my knee, heh. That’s basically the name of the game, to find a weakness and exploit it. But I was able to hit Direct Drive in Ryogoku. 

–It’s quite a steep angle to drop your opponents on their heads.

YOH: It’s all very precise timing. You get that turn or the release out by a little bit and there’s no way to take a bump off it. But it was a cool thing to discover. I think its almost a Rainmaker like discovery. 

–You think it rivals the Rainmaker?

YOH: Right. Actually, up to around the New Japan Cup finals when I announced my comeback, I was really umming and ahhing about whether to use Direct Drive or the DNV as my finish. So I spoke to Okada about it and he thought the Direct Drive was better.

–A blessing from Okada!

YOH: The next day, I was training with Yot Tsuji in the Dojo and Okada was there. We put a crashmat down and I tried the move, and Okada went ‘yeah, that’s the one’.

5. From ‘Olaf’

So I heard that you first tried the Direct Drive on Yuya Uemura in training. What did Uemura say to you after he took it?

 YOH: He said ‘ah, it’s kinda like a Twist and Shout’, heh. I trained a lot with Uemura and Gabe Kidd before I came back. Tsuji wasn’t around at the same time for some reason… It’s weird, the way Tsuji carries himself I kinda forget he’s my junior. I keep calling him ‘Tsuji-san’ (laughs).

–You get on with the Young Lions? 

YOH: Yeah, especially Gabe. He and I both like Oasis. Liam Gallagher has his own clothing line now, and Gabe wears a lot of his clothes. That was an ice breaker for the two of us. 

6. From ‘Fusamajo Shoji’

Your new costume looks amazing! What was the thinking behind it?

7. From ‘Kusonoki’

You said on SHO’s podcast that there was a particular motif to your new ring gear, can you talk about it?

–When you first came out in black, there were a few people on social media saying you’d turn heel…

YOH: Ha! That never came into my head. But I did kind of want to get away from that silver and gold image with SHO. I really wanted a complete image change for the team, new logo, new music, the works. Besides, SHO had already dropped the gold for yellow and black a couple of years ago now. 

–Good point.

YOH: That turncoat SHO (laughs). Anyway, we were getting away from that Daft Punk imagery we used to have anyway, and after we talked it over with Rocky (Romero) we got his OK to completely change the music and everything. So on my side, the thinking was to bring in the black from SHO’s colour scheme. 

–Got it.

YOH: I like black, and I have a lot of black clothes myself, but it’s a difficult colour to wear well, so it doesn’t overwhelm your character or your look. You have to be super fashionable to pull black off properly.

–The entrance jacket speaks to your style I think. 

YOH: It’s kind of a mountain climber look, something that I might actually wear in my day to day life. I’ve heard the old school stories of guys that finished their matches, hopped in a cab ad went straight to the bar. You can’t have that kind of look today, but that coat is something I could pull off away from the ring as well, heh. 

–Do you have any special gear for your singles matches?

YOH: Ahhh, you’ll have to wait and see…

8. From ‘Hilopapo’

What was the thinking behind the new RPG3K entrance music? It’s completely different to your earlier theme; was that your idea?

YOH: The piece is called Explosion. It’s from an instrumental band I’m friends with called Jizue. It’s quite delicate with its piano, but it definitely fires me up. 

–It’s very different from the old theme!

YOH: When we were talking it over, me SHO and Rocky, it hit me; Rocky likes hip hop, I like punk rock and SHO likes dance music. Put those all together and jazz is what you get. I think what stands out about it is the irregular meter. That’s different to other themes that are built around having the fans be able to chant or clap along. This is more about having us focused on the ring for the match to come. 

9. From ‘T’2’

Who in NJPW has really caught your eye of late?

YOH: Oh, well, right now I only have eyes for El Desperado…

–It was quite a situation for you to put yourself in, singles and tag championship matches set up back to back.

YOH: Well, I think that was a ‘best foot forward’ kind of situation. I really felt I needed to take a step forward, and I’ve always wanted to beat Desperado. 

–Did you keep track of what he was up to while you were away? Personal matters aside, what do you think of him as a wrestler?

YOH: He puts his matches together in a very logical way. I think we’re closer than he might like to admit in that regard. When we’ve been trading forearms I’ve found myself really enjoying it. I’m excited for us to finally be able to have that match. 

10. From ‘Fukuno’

Why did you quit Twitter?

YOH: Well, I quit Twitter on February 26, which was the anniversary of me joining NJPW. Back on that day, when we came in, we were told that until we debuted, we should only be focusing on getting stronger and getting ready. Our phones were confiscated, seriously! So I wanted to get back to that resolve. Looking at social media and whatnot would be a distraction, I figured, so I decided it would be best to do without. 

–So it was a focus thing. 

YOH: To be perfectly honest, I can get by just fine without it, and if you had to put me in a corner, I’m not a fan of the Twitter wrestling ‘sphere’ so to speak. Obviously it’s a promotional tool in a way, but I’d rather let my matches do the talking. 

–Desperado often uses his social media to trash talk his opponents…

YOH: I’m not tweeting at the moment, so if he says anything about me or RPG3K, it’s all lies! You know, saving the talk for a direct conversation in the ring, that’s what Direct Drive is all about. 

11. From ‘Occupado de dolumil’

What are your plans for the future?

YOH: Growing up I always envisaged myself as a champion, but chances don’t come to those who wait. 

–You have to jump on any opportunity that comes. 

YOH: Right. With Desperado, I challenged for the singles title, and he challenged for the tag titles in response. That was both of us seeing an opening and going for it. We kept our tag titles, now when the time comes I have to grab that chance to be a singles champion. Apart from that, I really want to be a ‘model wrestler’. 

–Meaning? 

YOH: NJPW is the King of Sports right? By being a model wrestler, I mean I want to live up to that name, that standard that the people before me represented and built. 

–Is Best of the Super Jr. on your agenda?

YOH: Of course, especially after I couldn’t be a part of it last year. 

–In the past, may has seen the start of the tournament, but this year’s schedule hasn’t been announced yet. 

YOH: The world is still crazy, but if it’s like last year, it’ll be winter time, so half a year from now. Plenty of time to get even better, and then show what I can do with the world’s best in that ring. And face SHO in the final.