YOSHI-HASHI Reveals the Matchup That Got Him Into Wrestling, Discusses Pursuing His Training

– NJPW1972.com recently interviewed NJPW star YOSHI-HASHI, who discussed how he became a fan of the business and pursuing training while he was still in school and almost getting a chef’s license. Below are some highlights.

On what got him into wrestling: “It was the big NJPW vs UWFI Tokyo Dome card, when they ran a prime time special. Nobuhiko Takada vs Keiji Muto in the main event. … So that made me go ‘oh, hey, wrestling’s on TV!’ and then I saw a caption advertising the regular show late at night. … I begged my parents to buy a VCR so I could tape it every week. … Right. Like Muto was the top guy, but I didn’t know his name when I was watching before. He was just the dude in orange pants to me when I was a first grader. Masahiro Chono was ‘that guy who grunts weird’. (laughs)”

On how he and his friends watched a show called Ring Spirits as a lead-in to World Pro Wrestling: “Back then there was a show called Ring Spirits as a lead-in to World Pro-Wrestling. It was a variety show, but with a combat sports theme. That got a lot of friends interested, and drew them in. I had a few friends in middle school I could talk wrestling with.”

YOSHI-HASHI on joining a dojo out of high school: “I figured I’d enroll at an MMA Dojo or something out of junior high. My mom told me to at least get through high school, but there wasn’t one nearby with a wrestling club, so I went into a vocational school. … Yeah. If I had to go to school, cookery school was best, I figured. I didn’t hate cooking, and the exams were simple enough for me to pass. I thought if I could find a gym and do some wrestling on the side then I could get through it. … Right. I didn’t have the internet back then, so I phoned directory services and asked for wrestling gyms. … As it happened there was an MMA gym about ten minutes bike ride from my house. The Yamada Sports Club. It’s still around, actually. … Actually for some reason, it was free for students. I just had to enroll in insurance, which was like 1400 Yen a year. … PRIDE had just started, yeah. I saw some of that stuff, but it didn’t do it for me like pro-wrestling did.”

YOSHI-HASHI on pursuing cooking and almost getting a chef license: “Yeah, I just about got a chef’s license, but because I couldn’t put on weight, I thought physical work would be best. My mom complained, but after talking it over, she just about agreed to it. It was really hard work though.”