Episode 87: The Ace Typhoon

June 11, 2026

June 3rd. A typhoon was approaching the Kanto region. Because the morning was expected to be the peak of its approach, an announcement was sent out via our internal Slack stating, "Check the situation around noon and do not overdo it when commuting to the office (summarized)."

Pro-wrestling is an indoor sport, so it is rarely affected by the weather, but there are times when public transportation to the venue shuts down. Over my 26-year career as an active wrestler, an event was canceled due to a typhoon only once. I feel like it was an Oita show during a Kyushu tour... (though my memory is a bit hazy).

As I write this column, we have a Korakuen Hall show tonight. Since the typhoon is expected to pass by early afternoon, I am currently letting out a massive sigh of relief—or rather, gently stroking my pectoral muscles in relief.

Now, what comes to mind when you hear the word "typhoon"? Naturally, it’s the classic pro-wrestling manga series Giant Typhoon and Ricky Typhoon, right? (I'm declaring this as a fact).

...Well, actually, I fell in love with pro-wrestling without ever going through those specific series, but when you read pro-wrestling manga, it makes the rules, the damage of the maneuvers, the personalities, and the storytelling (like bouncing back from a setback) incredibly easy to understand. In fact, I'm sure there are plenty of wrestling fans among my peers who grew up watching the anime versions of Tiger Mask or Kinnikuman.

Furthermore, around that same era, many of you must have taken the route of Pro-Wrestling Superstar Retsuden or 1, 2 no Sanshiro.

If a highly popular pro-wrestling manga were to start running today, I can clearly visualize a sequence where people who get interested through the manga find World Pro-Wrestling on terrestrial TV, discover New Japan Pro-Wrestling World, and finally come to watch a show live at the venue.

I really hope our wrestlers deliver matches that can thoroughly fire up the fans who have taken these step-by-step phases to come to the arena. This exact line of thinking suddenly came to me just the other day when I had the opportunity to give a lecture to the students at the "Manga Career College," who are aiming to become manga artists.

By the way, as for myself, I used to read Makoto Niwano-sensei's THE MOMOTAROH all the time. Monga! Monga!

I believe it was Bushiroad’s President Kidani who recognized the deep affinity between character businesses and pro-wrestling ahead of anyone else. Looking back at it now, his foresight is truly terrifying.

I feel like he taught me the importance of "looking a little bit into the future from where you currently stand."

I’m going to give it my absolute all and become the eye of the storm!