YOSHI-HASHI Talks About Trying Out For NJPW In 2005 With Tetsuya Naito

In an interview with NJPW’s official website, YOSHI-HASHI spoke about his NJPW tryout in 2005, which also included Tetsuya Naito and SANADA at the same time. Here are highlights:

On his 2005 tryout: “That’s right. Out of all the people taking that tryout, only Naito made it through. Apparently they were thinking nobody might make it through.”

On what he remembers about it: “Everything! Middle of December or not, it was really hot in Korakuen, I remember that. They made us do 500 squats at first, but it was the pace they went at that was crazy. Really fast. I just about made it through those, but my legs were on fire at that point. Yeah. Next we had push-ups, and then we got in the ring and did back and forth bridges. That’s when you put your head on the ground, and you bridge yourself backward, then flip back and forth. I’d never done that before so I couldn’t do it. I knew right then I was toast.”

On his debut three years later: “Well, until you debut, you aren’t allowed to leave the Dojo. When you have debuted, you can actually go out. So it did hurt a little, Okada was able to leave and have that freedom I didn’t. Devitt really looked out for me at that point. He was much better at everything than me, and I looked to him as a senpai, but he said ‘I’m a foreigner, all this senpai kohai stuff, it’s different with me. I’m your friend, and that’s it’.”