Saturday 7 December 2019

"Noah Wrestlers Association"


I am unsure of what exactly this is, but Go Shiozaki is the chairman of the committee (I believe that Takashi Sugiura is also on the board). I believe that this deals with protecting the rights of the wrestlers, dealing with pay issues and health insurance.

The association is not exactly a union (it's not going to tell them to strike), but tends to lean more towards speaking for them as a whole, and ensuring that they are taken care of. One thing that Mitsuharu Misawa, the company founder, was always concerned about was what would happen to wrestlers when their in-ring lives were over. Before he died he had planned to open a restaurant which would have been staffed by veteran wrestlers, which would have given them an income and a purpose, so it is conceivable that the new Noah would create something to take care of its roster, the way old fashioned All Japan did not.
In the past Go Shiozaki has been the one to address the crowd at the Christmas shows, and present flowers from the roster as a whole at various events. In short it gives them a voice. The Noah Wrestlers Association is not the booking team.

Naomichi Marufuji may also be on the committee, as he is the roster manager (Takashi Sugiura held this position from 2011 until 2016), and so would deal with any issues and personal concerns in the day to day life of the roster whether in the dojo or on the road, and probably mediate disputes amongst people jammed together for such a long period of time. He would not get involved in anything regarding pay, health insurance etc.

"Talking like Kenoh"

A phrase coined by Yoshinari Ogawa in an interview with STINGER in "Weekly Pro" in 2022, when he and Chris Ridgeway teased HAYATA ...