Tetsuya Naito Addresses Criticisms Of His Physical Condition & In-Ring Ability
Candid interview with Naito and BUSHI.
The current GHC Tag Team Champions in Pro Wrestling NOAH are Los Tranquilos de Japon (Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI). They were interviewed by NOAH’s official website.
As the conversation moved along, Naito addressed criticisms of his physical condition and in-ring ability at this stage of his career.
“It’s true that there are moments where I think, ‘I could do that back then, but I can’t do it anymore.’ But I think that’s something every wrestler has to go through at some point. However, when I thought, what should I do now? Because I could no longer do that, I think I am who I am today because I was able to compensate for it with something even better. If I hadn’t found that ‘this is it’ moment, I don’t think I’d be here right now. So, the fact that I’m here is proof that I was able to change my style, or rather, successfully switch gears… I feel like I’m only now starting to understand things that senior wrestlers told me ten years ago.”
Elsewhere in the chat, Naito and BUSHI spoke about their experience in NOAH thus far. Naito admitted that before arriving at NOAH The New Year 2026, he was not that interested in the promotion.
Naito: “I didn’t know much about the wrestlers who are competing in NOAH, so it’s really refreshing. It’s fun to compete in venues I’ve never been to before, and above all, I’m really happy that I can show the Japanese audience who Tetsuya Naito is now and who Los Tranquilos de Japon is. To be honest, on January 1st, I wasn’t all that interested in NOAH. But after stepping into the ring and catching a glimpse of the other wrestlers’ matches, I’ve become really interested, and I’m having a lot of fun competing in Pro Wrestling NOAH right now. That’s exactly why I want to defend the GHC Tag Team Championship—it’s my reason for being here—and I feel really fulfilled.”
BUSHI: “I had a certain encounter last November that led to my joining NOAH, and I feel like my life has really changed over the past six months. Take the recent defense match we had at the Kobe Sambo Hall event—I heard it was the biggest crowd in Sambo Hall’s history for a NOAH show. I feel like I still have room to grow, and I want to see things I’ve never seen before… So, as long as we have a reason to be here, you should really use us more. While we still can. Yeah, because we’ll draw even bigger crowds.”
Naito and BUSHI successfully defended their titles on April 12th at NOAH’s Apex Combat event. They defeated Team 2000X (Jun Masaoka & OZAWA).
