Head booker of New Japan Pro Wrestling, Gedo, recently spoke with SI.com. Here are the highlights.
On Shinsuke Nakamura leaving New Japan for NXT:
“I am happy he’s doing well,” said Gedo. “He is my friend, and I hope he’s successful.”
On the comparison between WWE and NJPW:
“We are not a soap opera,” said Gedo. “We are not sports entertainment, we are not acting and not dancing. We wrestle and we are wrestling – we are New Japan Pro Wrestling. Watch a Shibata match and the way he kicks, that’s New Japan Pro Wrestling. [Tetsuya] Naito, [Hiroshi] Tanahashi, and [Tomohiro] Ishii all wrestle and fight. That is entertaining, but it is not entertainment. It’s wrestling. Most important thing in Japan is spirit—the fighting spirit,” said Gedo. “We have wrestling, not dancing. New Japan is fighting. New Japan boys have fighting spirit, and that leads to great wrestling. They can’t handle the New Japan style. New Japan wrestlers could wrestle in WWE, but they can’t handle our style.”
