Konosuke Takeshita On Competing In His First G1 Climax: ‘The Timing Was Good’

Konosuke Takeshita is competing in the NJPW G1 Climax this year, and he recent spoke about competing in the tournament for the first time. Takeshita is set to compete in this year’s tournament, and he spoke with Tokyo Sports for a new interview about the tournament and more. You can see highlights below (translation per Google):

On competing in the G1 Climax for the first time: “This is my third year in the U.S., and I am slowly gaining recognition in the world of professional wrestling as a whole. I wonder if the rest of the unappreciated demographic is the fans of New Japan Pro-Wrestling. I had the sense that I was actually approaching my physical and mental prime, so the timing was good.”

On competing in the B Block of this year’s tournament: “My impression was that there were many young players, and I really felt that this was the G1 Climax of a new era. I objectively felt that there would be comparisons among wrestlers of the same generation, including Yota Tsuji, Ren Narita, Yuya Uemura, and Shota Umino from another block. At least for the next 10 years, this generation will make the wrestling world exciting, and I think it will be an opportunity to show that I am by far the leader of this generation,” Takeshita said.

On his goal of winning the tournament and IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: “I think it’s meaningless to move up to another organization unless you are aiming for the championship belt there. I thought the four letters “IWGP” was a good title to have since I had a match with [Jon] Moxley in the Eliminator Match. As a man who has been a wrestling fan in Japan for many years, I felt that I could not ignore this, so I will definitely aim for the belt with the IWGP name on it.”