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Q&A with HENARE on Māori heritage, NJPW journey, United Empire + More!

10 months ago

Q&A with HENARE on Māori heritage, NJPW journey, United Empire + More!

By: Thom Fain

In the days leading up to the bloody battles that left Henare with a busted head, permanently scarred and a legion of fans in Osaka cheering him on in a steel cage I was able to connect with the Kiwi – ahem, excuse me – Māori wrestling star backstage at Korakuen Hall. We decided to continue the discussion over a video call which you can watch or listen to on YouTube, in which Henare talks at length about his decision to leave teaching Sociology and New Zealand’s public policy sphere to enter the Fale dojo and wrestle full-time.

Among the topics explored are his contract status and the fate of United Empire now that Will Ospreay has left, a man he calls a dear friend. Henare’s is a fascinating journey underpinned by a strong sense of moral courage, and he explains why even without gold around his waist, Henare is a champion for the people he left back home.

Monthly Puroresu:
We’re here with HENARE, United Empire’s enforcer, their brawns. How are you doing today?

HENARE:
Good, bro. It’s a nice day in Tokyo today. Nice and cool.

Monthly Puroresu:
It is, and it looks like you’re staying cool there at home. You’ve got a day off. It’s been a pretty aggressive tour. You were named the best match of December in that NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team match. You got to mix it up with Tomohiro Ishii, a man that you have little bit of history with. For everybody that’s listening or reading this I wanted to peel the layers back a little bit and give them a chance to know you a little better. Is that cool?

HENARE:
Hell yeah.

Monthly Puroresu:
All right. We’ve crossed paths a couple of times, but we’ve never gotten a chance to talk. I was at all those Vermont Hollywood shows, and I lived about a mile north of Venice Beach where you were spotted working out with Great O’Khan. He’s got some pretty fun internet content guy’s got.

HENARE:
He’s insane. It’s not just content, man. That’s how that guy lives his life.

Monthly Puroresu:
That’s just how he is.

HENARE:
He’s weird, but he’s so weird that it’s cool that he’s just himself all the time, you know?

Monthly Puroresu:
So he’s gonna be here in New Japan, your leader might be leaving, and your contract status is up in the air with New Japan. The United Empire is undergoing some changes. You’ve got your eye on some world championships, and I want to talk about all that.

But first: You’re a Kiwi guy. That’s been one consistent aspect of your presence in a ring. You blew the lid off Hokkaido when you came out to the ring with your new face tattoo, And I know you’ve done, you did a lot of media back home in New Zealand, Why don’t you tell us a little bit about what the process was, your thinking process, to get that. Were you nervous at all? Did it hurt? And what does it mean to you?

HENARE:
So, first thing: Kiwi is a different term. Kiwi is usually used to refer to New Zealand Europeans. Like Jay White, that’s a Kiwi. I’m a Maori, so I’m an indigenous person. So it’s a different distinction there.

I don’t really call myself a Kiwi. New Zealand is fine, but usually I say I’m Maori. If I’m in New Zealand, I don’t even say I’m Maori. I say I’m Ngāpuhi – my nation tribe. My tribe is what I call myself there. And that’s essentially what leads to this [pointing at his face tattoo], it’s a reflection of your genealogy, your ancestry. Aat the moment, this goes back 36 generations into the past. In New Zealand, we call it Aotearoa. No one really calls it New Zealand, back in New Zealand.

Monthly Puroresu:
Really?

HENARE:
Yeah, yeah. Aotearoa, “the land of the long white cloud”. Because when the first ancestors got to New Zealand, there was a big white cloud over New Zealand. Andthe chief’s wife yelled out, “Look! A cloud a long white cloud.” And that was the first name for New Zealand. So that’s a bit of background, cultural background I didn’t know you wanted.

Monthly Puroresu:
Coming out of the Dojo, you were the golden boy of that particular branch of the New Japan training. But you’re New Japan built up. You’ve been in Japan for seven years. Can you tell us how Fale’s doing? Have you heard from him?

HENARE:
Not so much. I think the tag league was the first time, but we were on opposite teams, so I couldn’t really catch up with him at all. I know there’s a few guys that have come through, for instance there’s not just me, there’s Hikuleo. He and I trained at the Fale Dojo in 2016 as well. Michael Richards was another one that came through, but I think COVID sort of stopped the ability for people to come through as freely as they did before, because every three months there’d be a set of Fale Dojo guys at the Dojo which is the way I came in. Fale was the one that got me my tryout, which was ten years ago now.

Culturally, New Zealanders and Japanese people are quite similar, which is why it’s been easier for me to adapt to the Japanese culture, their traditions, even the way they pronounce their words. We pronounce exactly the same, the word structure. Everything’s quite similar, but it’s a Pacific Island there. They’re a Pacific Island nation as well.

Monthly Puroresu:
You’ve talked about in the past the concept of kaizen and incremental progress. I’m a big baseball fan. I know the Japanese people are too. You know, you’ve got 162 game season if you’re the LA Dodgers, and the very best among them only hit the ball 30% of the time. So it’s a very humbling mindset when you say, and I think Shinto, Taoism, Buddhism – humility’s really well built in. And you seem like a humble guy too. Would you say that’s accurate?

HENARE:
Back home, I’m considered the cocky guy. But when I started wrestling with Americans and Canadians and British, I realized I’m super humble compared to these guys. But back home, I’m the cocky guy.

Monthly Puroresu:
You studied public policy back home.

HENARE:
Did you know that? Did I tell you that?

Monthly Puroresu:
I was a sociology graduate actually, myself.

HENARE:
Me too.

Monthly Puroresu:
I worked in state politics.

HENARE:
Oh, wow.

Monthly Puroresu:
I was a legislative staffer back at the Texas House of Representatives. And you’ve actually written a book, have you not?

HENARE:
Yeah, I tried Just during the whole COVID there was a lot of long bus rides. Because we weren’t flying. It was like a health risk because sharing spaces with the public, it was too much of a health risk during COVID. So we had 15 hour bus rides. So I put together a book. The book mainly focuses on our Maori perspective of things. We four pillars of health: Physical health, mental health, spiritual health and relationship health.

Keeping everything balanced and as long as everything’s balanced, you won’t tip over one way or the other. If you’re focusing too much on your mental health, but your physical health dwindling, then you’ll fall over that way if your family health’s dwindling, but your work, like what you’re doing day to day is too heavy, you’ll fall over that way. So it’s all about bringing a balance to your life. And I see that as a big detriment to a lot of kids, especially back in New Zealand. They get to much or too little one way or the other.

Monthly Puroresu:
We have a massive, especially young men, we have a massive mental health crisis back home in America. And I, the sociologists and, and social psychologists who I still read a lot of that. Of course, we love professional wrestling. We love the electricity in the music the fights and everything. But in our spare time, I’d like to think we’re both readers. And I’ve been kind of studying that.

I love that you tried to address that from your perspective, as not only somebody that’s Maori but somebody who’s world traveled and who has put a lot of thought into gender studies. So I think that’s really cool. We put a link up for anybody that wants to order the book, uh, so you’ll know how to get it. Fast forward out of the Fale Dojo – you had singles run where you were still mixing it up with a lot of the younger guys on the undercard. You had that radical match with Ishii. Not long after, the United Empire started. The United Empire’s had a hell of a couple of years. Three years now?

HENARE:
It’s been almost three years come April.

Monthly Puroresu:
I assessed that at Korakuen Hall the other night that you and the War Dogs, maybe there’s some genuine dislike there. Is that accurate?

HENARE:
They’re not the way I like to do things. I’m more of an honorable fighter. I mean I love fighting. I love standing and smacking until someone drops. I think what I hate the most about them is how they’re like outside of the ring.

They think they own the place. It’s just typical cocky foreigners that come to Japan and think they own everything. And they think their way of doing things is right to everybody. I mean, that’s your way. You wanna get drunk and stay out with girls all night, that’s fine. I’m more stoic in that sense, you know? But then, Gabe for instance, what has he accomplished? Nothing.

Monthly Puroresu:
I don’t know. I mean, he graduated from the dojo, I guess.

HENARE:
This is what he loves to brag about. I’m a dojo boy. I’m a dojo boy. But when you talk about Gabe Kidd – were you really a dojo boy? You, you couldn’t handle it. Your mind couldn’t handle it. He was there for one year and they had to send him home. They had to take care of him because he couldn’t handle it up here. I was there for two and a half years, and I still go back every day. I’m the only foreigner that goes there every day because I love it. That’s the grind.

In the dojo, there’s a big sign called “Toukon”, and that means fighting spirit. And everybody who comes through, every Japanese guy that comes through understands that fighting spirit. And I give it to guys like Tama Tonga, Fale, Hikuleo and our Pacific Island culture. We have that as well. We have the mana: the spirit, the soul. We understand that concept, but you get the foreigners from the UK and the USA that come in and they can’t handle it in there. So it’s just a different mindset that they have.

Monthly Puroresu:
A little bit entitled, wouldn’t you say?

HENARE:
He thinks he’s entitled to that mantle of “I’m the strong style foreigner, I’m the Japanese representative for foreigners”. It’s like, bro: You don’t have the money, you don’t have the toukon. Sure you are, you’re mad. Honestly, man, you’re mad. He’s mad, he’s tough. And he is talented in the ring. But what he doesn’t know is I’m not talented. I got there purely from grind, hard work and tough grit is how I got there. That’s the difference between Gabe and I. But I’m looking forward to our singles match in Korakuen.

Monthly Puroresu:
You’ve got a lot of things I’m sure you’re looking forward to. One of them probably isn’t your leader, another guy that grinded for year after year. We saw him bulk up, overcome all kinds of injuries, set the world on fire with a very unique wrestling style. What’s your relationship like with Will Ospreay, and are you gonna be able to stay in touch?

HENARE:
Yeah, man, I love that guy. One thing that I’d like to say is that he never once said, “I am the leader of United Empire”. He was just in charge of putting everybody together, you know? And from the start he was like, “No, I’m not. I’m not any better than you guys. I’m just bringing everybody up to the same level.” So that’s one thing that I’ve really enjoyed about United Empire. We’re all just kings representing different parts. Like Jeff Cobb, nobody, not even Alex Coughlin – nobody’s as strong as that guy in the entire world. O’Khan – nobody connects with the fans as much as him. Nobody can get people riled up as much as him. I don’t think anybody can strike as hard as I can or take a hit as hard as I can.

Monthly Puroresu:
I’d like to see Ospreay get you in there with Miro.

HENARE:
Yeah, man!

Monthly Puroresu:
That’s my personal dream. One of my personal dream matches.

HENARE:
Yeah. Miro’s one of my favorite guys in the world. He was probably one of the last people I was engaged with watching as a fan. Maybe 10 years ago or so when he came out in a tank. But even his athletic background and where he is from. It’s not hard to come from that part of the world at that point in time, go overseas and become a star. So that’s another guy.

Monthly Puroresu:
He trained down in SoCal with Rick Drazen, didn’t he?

HENARE:
Oh, wow. I’m not too sure about that.

Monthly Puroresu:
Famous powerlifter. He started in the bodybuilding scene. And then, like you said, it wasn’t very easy for somebody like Miro to come over and he became a legitimate star, getting a connection with the fans. So not a bad guy to look up to.

HENARE:
Yeah. And coming from where he came from, it’s like you have to have that fighting spirit to be able to do that, you know? Other people, for example, Callum Newman, he’s only 21 and he is already in singles, matches with the IWGP Global Heavyweight champion, David Finlay. So that’s just a testament to how Ospreay’s just got an eye for picking people all around the world. And he’s gone all around the world. And New Zealand,, “Oh, that HENARE is a good dude.” Like he’s just picked and he’s traveled, physically been to, every part of the world to try find these people. And it’s just amazing. He’s an absolute savant. He’s like goodwill hunting. He could just figure things out.

Monthly Puroresu:
New Japan Pro-Wrestling – they’re gonna miss him. They’re gonna miss Kazuchika Okada. Those are generational talents. That’s like losing Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels at the same time, wouldn’t you say?

HENARE:
Yeah.

Monthly Puroresu:
So they’re losing two of the top guys. But like you said, there’s a lot of talent that’s hungry. Some of them have that fighting spirit, some who don’t. Who do you think in your mind, is it HENARE who’s gonna step up and fill that void?

HENARE:
I’m happy with being the King of the Pacific, man. That’s my domain. I’ve still got a lot to try and do here. Well, whether it’s here or somewhere around the world. But I feel in some sense, if Bushiroad, if New Japan had given me more opportunities to prove that I could take that right now, then I could’ve. The whole of last year I was chasing championships and came up short.

I’m not one to make excuses, but let me ask you a question: Was anybody else as active as I was last year or the year before? Did anybody else have as many matches as I had last year or the year before? The answer is no.

Monthly Puroresu:
Extremely dependable. You’re always on the card. You’re either in a tag match, if they need you, they call you up. You fight singles matches like you had with Shingo Takagi – one of the best matches – I think that sometimes goes overlooked. But that one really set the internet abuzz. Did it not?

HENARE:
I almost killed him and he almost killed me. I was actually in the hospital the morning after that, that match. I had never fought a 40 minute match before in my entire career. Not in wrestling, not in MMA. The closest was rugby, but it’s his sort of different conditioning. That wasn’t me just putting on a, a facade. I actually collapsed at the end of that match there. And I went to the hospital the next day and my lungs were just super inflamed, just because I wasn’t used to that level of intensity. But I had Ishii the very next day and he elbowed the out s***t out of me. It was like a shark smelling blood. “I’m gonna get this guy when he’s weak”, he beat the crap outta me the next day. I was like, “motherf***er”. So I brought it back to him in the G1 one because of that.

Monthly Puroresu:
He needs to teach some of those lessons to Gabe Kidd sounds like.

HENARE:
The thing I like about guys like Shingo, Ishii and Gabe Kidd is they’re not afraid to take a headbutt. Which is sad for them, because one thing you should know is you shouldn’t headbutt a Polynesian.

Monthly Puroresu:
Take me back to the pandemic. One: you do have some weaknesses. You’re not just a total tough guy. You did have to overcome a neck injury, you tore your achilles. Did you ever think about hanging ’em up or did you always still maintain that fighting spirit and try to come back better than ever?

HENARE:
I’ve always had this ability to come back from injury or come back from some sort of crisis. The first crisis I ever underwent was being burnt in a fire when I was 10. Um, you can’t see any scars or anything now from the fire, because I had to wear plastic skin for about three months. But that regenerated on my skin, so I don’t have any scar. That was the first one. But that’s when I first taught myself, “I can come back from anything”.

So the achilles that was nine months out, that cut my excursion as well. Usually when you’re at that point in your young lion career, you’d be sent off to excursion. But my excursion was in a hospital bed in a sumo wrestling hospital. Then coming back and I finally get some steam leading up to 2020. I’m in the best shape of my life. I had abs shredded, jacked, tagging with Tanahashi, what happens? Pandemic. And then that cuts the matches. I was supposed to actually have that main event match in New Japan Cup with Ishii.

2020, cut it off so that that delayed the chances as well. And then 2021 finally the shows start getting back to normal, crowds start coming back – then bam, SANADA injures my neck. That almost paralyzed me. That was probably the closest one. Luckily specific treatments were available, so I didn’t have to do any surgery, but it just meant the rehabilitation process was a bit longer. So another delay. And then come last year, finally, finally recovered. You saw the proper HENARE last year. I’m not trying to make excuses for the past few years, but 2023 was like the first real year I could show people what I was about.

Monthly Puroresu:
I think you did. I think you did an excellent job. And sometimes timing is everything.Interesting time for United Empire, interesting time for New Japan. They’re transitioning right now, but for HENARE, can you tell us a little bit about your contract and some of the things that you’re considering for 2024?

HENARE:
Well, to be honest, the whole pandemic era sort of put a cap on the amount of money that the people could make here. It’s the credit to New Japan, the Japanese company and Japanese style. If people are giving you their lives, you don’t fire them. It’s not like other companies where if the profit margins are down, you just release some of the guys at the bottom. Japan’s not about that. They’re all about servitude. So that’s one thing that I’m grateful for them. But in saying that, I’ve been outworking everybody, every single person, Japanese, all gaijin, I’ve been there, I’ve been hustling. I moved my whole life to Japan. [New Japan] is struggling with money, I’ll help you guys out. You don’t have to fly me every few
weeks back to New Zealand.

So I did that for them. And now it’s just like, “Am I being appreciated? Am I being given the opportunities that I deserve or that I’ve fought for?” I’m not one to say like, “Please, sir, can I have another?” Sort of thing. I’m a go-getter. But when you see guys like Tsuji coming in, he was technically below me, but then it gets thrown right into the match with SANADA. He lost, but he still got given that opportunity and not many people get that opportunity. I get it, he’s a Japanese guy. He’s the guy you wanna push, you need a evil gaijin and I’m happy to be that guy for you.

I’m saying that trying to be the nemesis is sort of… the Japanese love an underdog, and if you were there at Korakuen Hall, lot of foreign fans don’t understand just how connected I am with those fans in Tokyo, with the fans in places like Osaka, Hiroshima, Hokkaido – places that we go very often. And it’s because the Japanese people have seen us grow. They’ve seen me grow from the young lion to the middle and then now, so it’s a bit different.

But contract-wise, I have had interest from quite a few other companies. At the same time yesterday I got a call for a movie, a Hollywood movie that’s being shot in New Zealand. I had a call from the producers yesterday. So I’m like, “Wow, there’s so many different options”. But I’ve done so much work here, I’ve hustled for so long, I’ve grinded for so long that I just want to see the end of that, the end of that path before exploring other options. But at the same time, if I go to other places with more global outreach, that Maori kid in Northland that’s struggling, that has nothing, they might just turn on his Netflix and see another Maori kid, you know? Like, “Hey, that guy looks like me.”

Monthly Puroresu:
So you’re fighting for more than just HENARE. The people that you’re fighting for and there are other opportunities out there, but would it mean as much then if you made it to the top of the mountain of New Japan?

HENARE:
For me, the selfish thing would be to stay here. My whole why for starting this journey was that I could inspire a lot of Maori and Pacific kids. I could inspire a lot of people back home. I’ll be the first male New Zealander signed to a major company apart from Ja White, but Jay does not care one bit about New Zealand. But that’s just different. All power to that guy. He’s accomplished so much. But if you go back to New Zealand, you and I go back to New Zealand right now. We walk down the biggest mall and you ask people at the mall, “Do you know Jay White or do you know HENARE?” Most people that you talk to would know me before they know Jay White in New Zealand. And that’s not a knock on Jay, man. I respect the s***t of that guy. He’s still my senpai. I wrestled him even before he was a star here.

Monthly Puroresu:
He’s of course gone on to AEW and he’s continued the Bullet Club in some way of his own there. Do you think Will Osprey will continue United Empire and keep that a little bit going in both places?

HENARE:
You’re onto it, man. You’ve done your research and who’s talking to who. No matter where we go – I could stay in New Japan. I could go to WWE, anywhere we go, we’ll have a United Empire guy in every company man. Maybe even CMLL might open up. RevPro is the hub for United Empire. Everybody in the United Empire has wrestled there. It’s just that I don’t think it’s something like that would end just because Ospreay leaves New Japan. NJPW is only one place.

Monthly Puroresu:
It’s only been three years, but it’s a pretty powerful brand. And let me ask you, who sells more in merch in United Empire?

HENARE:
I got my royalties. I was doing the maths last night on all the royalties, and it’s a lot higher than I thought it would be, to be honest. So it has sort of swayed my contract negotiations to that side a little bit. You come to a show at Korakuen, you see how many towels, how many of those people holding up United Empire towels? How many T-shirts–

Monthly Puroresu:
There’s green glowsticks too.

HENARE:
Yeah, green glowsticks. Catch 2/2 are quite popular. They just released a new one. Also O’Khan; he’s always got some new shirt, you know. Yeah. I’m more the in ring guy. I give you the entertainment in the ring.

Monthly Puroresu:
I like guys like that and like Ishii and going all the way back to Shinya Hashimoto and people that really just give it everything in the ring and let the branding and the marketing and the gimmick and everything fall into place as it may.

HENARE:
I mean, I’ve talked a lot of crap about Gabe Kidd but one thing that I do like about him is that he does bring the pure wrestling to the ring.

Monthly Puroresu:
110% every night.

HENARE:
What I like about him stylistically, not as a person, is that he molds what he’s learned in the UK and with Shibata, with the New Japan style and he’s not just one-track minded. I just like to stand there and bang, bro. if you could stand there and take a kick, I’ll let you hit me. Because I know that my chin’s stronger than anybody else’s. I know that my head’s stronger than anybody else’s. Are you familiar with Mark Hunt?

Monthly Puroresu:
No, I’m not.

HENARE:
He’s UFC fighter. From Samoa Cook Island, actually. So he’s quite the same as me. He’s got the same square head that I have. He was real famous for just being able to take a punch. There was a famous fight with him and Ray Sefo where they both just dropped their hands and just like punch each other square in the face. And neither of them dropped either. So that’s just back in New Zealand. If you got two island guys that wanna fight, that’s how we deal with things.

Monthly Puroresu:
You can take a beating, you’ve been taking a beating. It’s been a few years, and now we’ve come to a critical 2024. We’ve talked about that. What’s something you think that fans might get wrong about HENARE, or that they don’t know about you? Can you share something like that? The perception is different. The Japanese people – they have a connection with you. The Western fans may not, like you said. They know Jay White in America.They put the two sweet. But how about HENARE? What is something maybe fans in the West get wrong about you?

HENARE:
Fans in the West are wrong about most things, man. I think it’s that they live in Twitter too much. Who I am in the ring is just my outlet. The ring is the outlet, all the anger. Like a Japanese fan asked me at a talk show a few weeks ago, “Why are you always so angry?” And I’m like, “I don’t know”. But I think it’s all of the stresses of outside the world, all the, uh, the culture wars and everything that’s going on. Tthey’re actually trying to suppress my culture in New Zealand, by the way.

Monthly Puroresu:
I saw that. I saw that was trending and they had the graphic. Apparently there was some kind of vote that was lost. So that it’s been 200 years of oppression and you still, you still can’t just be yourself as a Maori person in New Zealand.

HENARE:
For Western fans it’s because Maori were systematically killed, alot of our culture is still unknown to the majority of Westerners. I mean, Australians get it. The British kind of are quite open to it because we’ve been country partners for a long time now. But I think American and Canadians don’t really know. And that’s probably the basis of most pro-wrestling fans, they’re Americans and Canadians.

But it’s just the cultural perception is that not everybody thinks the same way about some things. Our culture: Mana is like the central aspect. And Mana can be heaps of different things. It could be the respect you have for someone, the respect somebody has for you the honor that you carry from your ancestors. You’re American… French?

Monthly Puroresu:
I do have actually a little bit of indigenous blood, Cherokee. I spent a lot of time on the Otoe reservation in Oklahoma. And I actually have a tattoo when after they blessed me when I moved to California with everything in my car. They played some eagle bone flutes. They prayed for me, I helped them build a sweat lodge. Willow trees are really sacred for them, so, I went with their leader. His name is Sid Armstrong, and we went and cut down the willow trees and built the lodge ourself and it was an amazing experience.

I’m mostly Irish, French Irish, but I do have, grandmother’s mother’s or my grandmother’s grandmother, one of the two, I’ve got a little bit of indigenous blood in me, but a lot of respect because people talk about oppression a lot in America. I mean it’s every day you see it online, but the Native Americans, they’re the OGs. And I know that obviously with the way things are in New Zealand, it’s still very much felt by your people. So Yeah.

HENARE:
It’s still going. Colonialisms still ongoing but that’s the thing I like to tell, I have a lot of people of European descent ask me for advice as well, and I say, “You’re still indigenous to somewhere, you know?” I hate how there’s this big war about you’re not from here. In Maori culture, for instance, we invited the English and we said, “We’re one, no problem. You could come here, you could live here.” But that doesn’t discount your heritage either, you know? Which is why I like heritage, anthropology, history is what I like outside of the ring. It’s probably what I spend most of my time reading about.

Monthly Puroresu:
Same. So we both found ourselves here in Japan. We both connected over that, and we both connected over a love for the squared circle. I, for one, would like to see you re-sign with New Japan. What’s your schedule like coming up? What do you think fans should tune into in New Japan? You’ve got Osaka and Sapporo. What do we need to get invested in right now?

HENARE:
You definitely want to tune into me and Gabe Kidd, man. Because that guy he loves to throw and he doesn’t mind dying. And I love to throw, and I don’t mind dying in that ring. So that’s Korakuen Hall I think that’s on February 4th.

Monthly Puroresu:
Somebody’s leaving on a stretcher, maybe.

HENARE:
I mean that’s if we leave because the other day I saw him trying to bait me to the of the arena. And in Japan, they don’t disqualify you for using chairs on the outside. But you got that. And then you got the Osaka, we’ve got the steel cage match. I’ve never done a No DQ match. I’ve never done a cage match in my life. So this is gonna be interesting.

Monthly Puroresu:
You don’t see that in New Japan very often.

HENARE:
I think it was Ospreay’s last goodbye ask. I think he asked for it. Akira’s pretty standoffish about wanting to do it. So he does not want to do it at all, and I don’t care.

Have you seen the Haka? It’s a war dance. It’s called Ka Mate. And the lyrics are, “Ka mate, ka mate, ka ora, ka ora”, it’s like “Whether I die or whether I die, whether I live or whether I live, I’ll come, the sun’s gonna rise tomorrow.” It goes back to the warrior culture. But it’s also like tomorrow’s the new day. If I die today, I’m alright with that. And that’s sort of the philosophy I bring to the ring all the time, as you could probably see by how I wrestle.

Monthly Puroresu:
I have been watching you since about 2017. You’ve come a long way. I’m glad to be here in Japan to be able to document it further. HENARE, thank you so much for joining us, and until next time.

HENARE:
Thank you brother.

Date:

February 14, 2024

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