Tetsuya Naito Responds to the Concern Kenoh Has About the Dangerous Nature of His In-Ring Moves

By: Lewis Carlan

On Nov. 9th, the Pro Wrestling NOAH GHC Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito will make his second defense of the title as he faces the challenge of Kenoh. Kenoh is a four time GHC Heavyweight Champion and will be looking to enter into his fifth reign at the expense of Naito.

Image Credit: Pro Wrestling NOAH

Naito is coming off a successful title defense on Oct. 25th against OZAWA in which many critics pointed out some of the dangerous moves performed by the champion on his challenger. During a press conference held by NOAH on Oct. 26th, Naito and Kenoh came face to face and Kenoh questioned the potentially dangerous moves by Naito when he defeated OZAWA.

Naito addressed those concerns at the press conference and offered up this response for Kenoh and his critics:

From Tetsuya Naito:

“Pro wrestling is dangerous to begin with. If you want to run away from that danger, you shouldn’t be doing it. Everyone should be stepping into the ring with resolve, so my only reaction is to wonder what on earth he is talking about. Fans can freely debate it however they like, but I wonder about a wrestler bringing it up publicly. If I said, ‘Kicking someone in the head is very dangerous, so please stop using high kicks,’ would Kenoh stop using high kicks? This is a match, and it is rare for the moves you have in mind to land at 100%. Those kinds of risks inevitably come up whenever you have a match, and I’ve been carrying that on my shoulders for over 20 years, so I feel like, ‘What are you making a fuss about now?’ I think we have to listen to the opinions of people who argue about the dangers, but if you worry about it too much, the sport becomes strange. Because we wrestlers constantly practice that much. We train to the point of sickness, and we step into the ring prepared and resolved. I do feel a desire for people to trust us wrestlers more.” (H/T goes to meraWRESTLING for English quote translation)

The Nov. 9th championship bout between Naito and Kenoh will be the second time they will face off in a singles bout. The last time they met was back on Jan. 21 2023 at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 In Yokohama Arena in a match won by Naito.

Naito is confident he will defeat Kenoh again by saying, “I’ve already beaten him once, so I don’t really have much to say about him.” This could be Naito playing mind games with Kenoh by trying to get into his head. But if Naito is over-confident and under-estimating Kenoh because of a victory over three years ago, this would be a crucial mistake that could cost Naito the GHC Heavyweight Title.