Tetsuya Naito Says He Went Through a Crisis of Confidence in 2019, Didn’t Think He Could Wrestle Anymore

– Tetsuya Naito spoke with NJPW for a new interview ahead of his Double Gold Dash shot at Wrestle Kingdom 14. Naito will be facing Jay White on night one for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship and, if successful, will challenge the winner of Kota Ibushi vs. Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and the Intercontinental Championship.

Highlights from the interview are below:

On his mental state going into the match: “It’s just like every year, I start getting pretty excited around this time. But just like every year we’ve had a few days off, and I don’t like that. I always feel being in the ring and wrestling is the best way to be in ring shape … Before the Tokyo Dome, there are one, two weeks without any matches. It gets to me every year. I’d rather be wrestling right up to January 3.”

On not being certain if he could compete anymore: “I don’t want to go into specifics, but for a while I thought I couldn’t wrestle anymore … Truth is for about six months, maybe since May, I had this kind of crisis of confidence. From about May, I’d felt something was up, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. I thought I could cover it up, but I think the result was that it did come through. I was constantly wrestling in that state of unease. I hate going to the hospital, but I really wasn’t myself for a time.”

On recovering from that: “It’s like any injury, and I’ve had bad knees for a while, things don’t get back to 100%, but when it comes to this issue I’ve had, I’ve managed to recover well enough during the time off. Bear in mind, 100% or not, I came pretty damn close to zero. I realised not speaking was just as effective … Like I said before, it was a lot of mental strain. I really thought I might not be able to get in a ring again. I don’t want to say something for the sake of saying something. I want to put 100% into my matches and my promos. That’s 200 total, but if I can only put out 170 in this mental state, and I’m giving 100 in my matches, well I don’t think it’s worth giving a half-assed comment backstage, after I’ve given it such importance before. ”

On if he has any worries heading into his match: “Well, obviously it would be better for me to come out here and say ‘I’m 100%, I’ve got this!’ But what I can say is that I’ve recovered. Most of the issues I’ve had are behind me.”