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allgoldenelite · 25 days ago

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Ibushi as a guest on Nagata's channel translation/summary

I wrote up this summary of the two part video featuring Ibushi as a guest on Nagata Yûji's channel. There's some nice stuff in here, especially about his relationship with Nagata and how he came to ultimately sign with AEW, but some real bummers as well, such as injuries and NJPW history. Read at your own discretion.

Give the videos a view and a like here and here

Part 1

After a bit of a sneak peek for what's ahead in the episode, Nagata introduces Ibushi and they both share how happy they are about meeting each other and that this video happened. Nagata makes some remarks about Ibushi's weight that I'm gonna spare you. They last saw each other in person 2 1/2 years ago and Nagata was really sad that Ibushi disappeared from NJPW and the wrestling world in general because he's such an outstanding talent and person. It was sad but he knows a lot (in the negative sense) happened.

(as a side note this video was made with permission from NJPW; Ibushi seems a bit apprehensive/surprised about that but Nagata is like "we're friends so of course this is okay"; take that however you will (Nagata's channel, like many wrestler channels, is tightly scripted and controlled))

The first segment is about what Ibushi has been up to lately. He moved, although not far away from where he used to live, like it's still in the same area. The new home has a garage so he has made that his training compound now, but he still goes to the secret base for wrestling training etc.

They talk about the IPWRI and how there's lots of MMA fighters coming to him cause they want to try out or be serious about wrestling. There's been more and more people joining, and Kikutarô (you saw him last in a short multiman with Ibushi at GLEAT Version Mega) and 2 wrestlers from West Gate Wrestling Federation (where the Golden Lovers once had a very entertaining tag match against Hachimitsu Jirô and Antonio Koinoki; not that's not a typo) are also part of the "roster" now.

It's not really relevant but I gotta mention it for the comedy and the brainrot: the 2 wrestlers from West Gate are called Nakamura Chinsuke and Tanabota Hiroshi ("chin" here means "weird but interesting" and "tanabota" means "godsend") and Nagata mentions he has a knockoff called Nagata GU lmao.

Ibushi gets asked if anyone can join, and he says yeah, if the vibes match. That there hasn't really been anyone he hasn't been on the same wavelength with except maybe [this part is censored, I assume it's something business related since he mentions a place]. Anyway, he loves people so there isn't really anyone that he thinks won't fit.

Nagata talks about how he knew about Ibushi even 20 years ago because he had heard there was a really good wrestler in DDT who was skinny but was doing all this amazing highflying moves and kicks and stuff from Nakajima Katsuji, who is a reporter and former board member in NJPW.

They talk about how they randomly met on a tour when NOAH was also doing a tour in the same city and he saw him at a convenience store, some time in 2009 after Ibushi had made his debut for NJPW as a junior heavyweight. Ibushi on the other hand remembers Nagata from watching him on TV, like his match in the finals of the Young Lion Cup against Kendô Kashin. Those are unforgettable matches for him. It's cute because he came up to Nagata as a fan even when he was in NJPW because he wanted to ask him about this match and that. Makabe and co used to joke around with him like "bro you're stanning".

Next they transition into talking about his time under double contracts. I won't bore you with some of this because it's well-known I think and if you wanna brush up you can always check out this page from my translations (ctrl + f for "double contracts"). The short of it is that Ibushi made an impression on NJPW with his Best Bout against Nakamura during the G1 2013 among other things, and when they offered to sign him he was like, I'd rather stay with DDT also.

Nagata mentions that Ibushi's match against Nakamura at the Dome in 2015 saved him. He had been in the main event at the Dome 7 times until then, and that year was the first year he was in the royal ranbo (before the start of the official show). He won that match but implies he felt down and dejected, like he was just doing a job. But he saw Ibushi and Nakamura in the semi main and it re-ignited his fighting spirit. Like he had been feelings the effects of aging and had no real aspirations in wrestling anymore, even wondering if he should quit altogether. But that match gave him his will to keep wrestling back. Ibushi is an important person for Nagata because he would tell him how much he respects him to his face and mean it. There are several wrestlers in NJPW that are special to him, like Nakamura, but Ibushi is extra special in that sense.

For Ibushi, Nagata also means a lot because he represents the kind of wrestling he loves the most (leaving the highflying aside), like the ground wrestling kind with lots of kicks and suplexes (he talks in his book about how much he loves taking suplexes lol so I'm not surprised).

They begin talking about Ibushi's time as double champion and his unification of the belts (they keep kayfabe for this but you should know NJPW made him do this as a scapegoat for the decision), and how much of a pressure that was for him to deliver as the first ever IWGP World Heavyweight champion. There were so many tough, big matches he had over a long time so he had his moments of thinking that this is just too much. He considered it an honor to be one of the wrestlers who carried NJPW through the early pandemic but at the same time there was an imbalance between his body and his mind, eventually he just broke. Nagata says he can relate because he defended the IWGP belt 10 times when he became champion in 2002. Especially with this being during the dark age when wrestlers left NJPW to go to other promotions or found their own MMA promotions during the MMA boom, so there was a period of half a year when he could only sleep with sleeping pills. After he dropped the belt he slept for 3 days straight. They talk a bit about Ospreay since Ibushi dropped the belt to him but it's mostly in kayfabe and I'm gonna spare you that as well.

Ibushi's last match in NJPW, in other words the botched Phoenix Splash that would put him out for a long time, is the next topic. He mentions how he doesn't really remember anything surrounding that accident because he hit his head on the mat, he believes. He thought he could still go but then his shoulder hurt like hell and the match was over before he knew what was happening. Nagata watched the match backstage and he told Ibushi afterwards, "You got this, what makes one truly strong is getting back up from setbacks like this", and Ibushi really really appreciated that because it wasn't just a pat on the back and a quick "Hang in there". Like Nagata was about the only one who would always have something positive to say to him in situations like that. Nagata wanted to say something that came from the heart because Ibushi was one of the young people keeping NJPW going as the next generation, and because the 2013 match had helped him out so much and he wanted to repay the favor.

It was a time for Ibushi (as you know) when he contemplated retiring altogether, and Nagata was the first one to contact him after the whole Kikuchi/exploitation thing. Nagata was worried cause he saw his tweets, and he knew how he felt and everything but he wanted to tell him that he is a pillar of NJPW. Nagata is like "I know you're sensitive and that all that weight they put on your shoulders was probably too much", and Ibushi agrees. He says that throughout NJPW's history there's always been these singular people who carry the company, that he can relate while he was still at the top and that it's often hard (he doesn't exactly criticize it—keep in mind what I said in the beginning—but still it was nice to see them rightfully "bashing" NJPW's style here for a bit).

Part 2

Then about a month or so after leaving NJPW, Ibushi was contacted by Kenny/AEW. Kenny was like, "How about wrestling for AEW?" and Ibushi was like "Uh, sorry, maybe it's time for me to quit wrestling...", so he refused the offer at first. When asked by Nagata why he says that he tried to not confront wrestling itself, it wasn't just the NJPW thing.

So [AEW?] kept offering, and one time Kenny is like, "All right, come to hang out in the US" and so he went there, assuming it would be nothing, and then Kenny was like, "Okay, Ibushi, do or die." He says he got "tricked" (in a positive sense). Kenny was like, "We'll go and watch an AEW match", and since that was a match that Kenny would be in, Ibushi was like, "Oh, where should I stay in the meantime? Like, the hotel or...?" and Kenny is like, "No, you're coming with." So he went to the venue and watched it (backstage I assume) and it made him want to do wrestling again (hard to pin down the time frame of this).

He was thinking like, Kenny is my friend and he's working so hard, what am I doing here not working hard? They talked about it and he made one-off appearances in AEW here and there after that, and then by the 2nd or 3rd time he signed with them. Nagata is like, that sounds just like when you saved me back in the day, that's what friends do for each other. Ibushi thought that he wouldn't fall back in love with wrestling but (watching this match) made him fall back in love with it. His in ring instinct is slowly coming back as well and although he hasn't returned to AEW yet he hopes to make more things happen in the future.

He gets asked how his injuries are going and he says his right ankle, the one he got surgery for, is doing well, it healed really fast (was supposed to take a year but took 4 months), but it's his left ankle that's bothering him now, it's been hurting for a long time because he kept working through it (you can see he's walking weird now because of this, like in the match at GLEAT). When asked if he feels in shape (for wrestling) he says he doesn't, like his current 100% was his 60% back when he was in top shape, but he is doing his best to get back there.

The next segment is about how wrestling styles (have to) change with age. Nagata basically says that a highflying style is as risky as it is devastating and enticing, but Ibushi has a knack for always reinventing himself and if he thinks back to someone like Kobashi, who would do moonsault over moonsault when he was younger but became unable to do them when his knees got worse, he remembers thinking that this is what it means to build a career and legacy when he saw how loud the crowd would get for just one moonsault once kobashi was older, because it was so special. So he thinks Ibushi should use that to his advantages and build a new, nice style for himself in the ring. He says he hopes he keeps hanging in there after everything that happened.

Ibushi says that he has also grown estranged from wrestling in many ways but he will always wrestle he thinks, and he hopes to come back with a new style. Nagata is really happy that he seems to be doing so much better and that he wants to keep wrestling and that Kenny was there for him as his friend to give him that motivation back.

They talk about how Ibushi posted pictures of them on Instagram the other day and he gets asked about how Kenny is doing health-wise. He says Kenny told him he'd be able to come back in about 2 to 3 months from now, something like that. Nagata is like, that must be really hard for him, I heard it's rather gruesome, and Ibushi is like, it's still bothering him a lot, like sometimes he takes an hour in the bathroom, he has to find out what kind of food he can absorb and what kind is a no-go, stuff like that.

Ibushi gets asked if he can see the Golden Lovers making a comeback and he's like, "Absolutely." He thinks that no doubt, once he himself comes back Kenny will also come back. He says they are rivals but they're also friends. They're friends who carry a bit of a sense of rivalry towards each other, so for him it's like, he has no doubt in his mind that Kenny is thinking, "If Ibushi comes back I gotta come back as well." Nagata is like "Wow that guy is a trooper. You got yourself a good partner and friend there" and Ibushi is like "He really is" (you hear that? that's the heart of the homo writing this bursting).

Ibushi is like, I guess I'm banned from appearing in NJPW lol? and Nagata is like, why'd you have to say something like this just when we were talking about something nice??? and everyone laughs. He says he brought it up thinking about what (they?) wanna do in the future, and he would really love to face Nagata + someone (as the GL). So he was like, well I guess that won't work in NJPW. Nagata is like, as long as it's on my own produce show it should be possible. He asks if Ibushi would like to tag with him or face him and Ibushi is like, I'd love to do both.

They talk a bit more about how Nagata doesn't think the president (Tanahashi) would say no to this (it's unclear if he still means just his own produce show (since he gets permission from the company for these if there are wrestlers from other promotions on them) or Ibushi actually appearing in NJPW proper) and that it'd be such a waste since Ibushi has gotten back his positive mindset and has dreams for wrestling again. They thank each other for the nice talk and express once more how glad they are to have been able to meet.

Nagata jokes that Ibushi is his senpai when it comes to YouTube since his channel has existed longer than his, but Ibushi is like, I'm so bad with uploads tho and then he points at Imanari offscreen and jokingly yells like, "Upload a new video!" (btw a little behind the scenes look for this video also landed on Ibushi's channel lol). They do the ゼァ together and it's very cute. Fin.

#rasslin #ibushi kota #nagata yûji #translation tag #translation #kota ibushi #/long

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