Episode 159: Pro-Wrestling at the Airport
September 25, 2026
I love the "time before the match." There's a unique sense of tension at the venue; wrestlers prepare for their matches, and the staff make their final checks.
The fans also hold that sense of anticipation—"What kind of matches will we see today?"—and even though nothing has started yet, it's already fun!
I believe this sustained feeling of exhilaration is one of the massive charms of professional wrestling.
And on a certain day, pro wrestling was held at New Chitose Airport. Thinking about it all over again, it's insanely interesting, isn't it?
An airport is a place of encounters and farewells. People arriving in Hokkaido, people departing from Hokkaido. People welcoming someone, people seeing someone off. Every day, so many people's lives cross paths.
Right in that very place, there stands a New Japan Pro-Wrestling ring.
Maybe today, someone who just happened to be at the airport might pause in their tracks, thinking: "What are they doing?"
Someone who has never watched pro wrestling even once might see a wrestler's entrance, hear the cheers, and think, "That actually looks pretty interesting."
To New Japan Pro-Wrestling, that is a truly precious encounter.
We aren't fighting matches solely aimed at people who already know pro wrestling.
We are always fighting with all our power so that the moment someone who doesn't know NJPW yet catches even a single second of a match, its charm reaches them instantly.
That's precisely why I was looking forward to it even before the matches started.
Before the matches, there was also a talk event with Ring Announcer Abe and me. There, I wanted to get people interested in NJPW even just a little bit, and having them watch actual matches, I didn't want it to end with just "That was fun."
"I wanna see it again!"—If you felt that way, nothing would make me happier.
An airport is a place of encounters and farewells, so we want to connect those encounters to what comes next.
If someone who saw New Japan Pro-Wrestling for the first time here today visits a venue somewhere down the road, that would be absolute perfection.
And if that person brings someone else along next time, that would be even more perfect ♪ Sharing what you love and expanding empathy.
That is how the circle of pro wrestling spreads.
Now then, it's about to begin.
Turning this pre-match exhilaration into the heat of the ring. And delivering that heat to as many people as possible.
And just like that, from New Chitose Airport, a brand-new form of New Japan Pro-Wrestling took off!
"This is your Captain, Tanahashi speaking. It's getting way too hyped—Attention please!!"