Tetsuya Naito: “I Have Absolutely No Lingering Feelings Toward New Japan Pro-Wrestling”

Tetsuya Naito explains why he has kept mentioning NJPW.

It is official that on October 25th, Tetsuya Naito will defend the GHC Heavyweight Championship against the 2026 N-1 Victory tournament winner, OZAWA. The match is taking place at Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Wrestle Odyssey II show at Ryōgoku Sumo Hall.

At the post-N1 Victory final press conference, Naito and OZAWA both fielded questions from reporters. It was brought up that New Japan Pro-Wrestling will be running Sumo Hall on October 12th for their King of Pro-Wrestling event.

Naito then responded to OZAWA’s remark that he is still hung up on his former promotion. He added that Naito is a free agent, so he’s in it for himself, and that’s why he always mentions NJPW. The current GHC Heavyweight Champion said he wants NOAH to surpass NJPW, and it would be a cop-out not to mention the company. He added that he has no lingering feelings toward NJPW.

“Personally, I think it’s actually more of a cop-out not to mention New Japan Pro-Wrestling—which is currently the number one promotion in the country—so I’ve brought up the name New Japan Pro-Wrestling myself many times. But for the past two days or so… there’s been a wrestler who’s been going on and on about ‘New Japan Pro-Wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling’ even more than I have. You know who I’m talking about, right? It’s the guy next to me. I heard he wanted to become a pro wrestler in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, but maybe he couldn’t? I don’t really know. There’s no need to hide that past, and I think it’s fine to bring it up. So I wonder why there’s so much criticism and negative opinions when I mention New Japan Pro-Wrestling. I’m serious about making Pro Wrestling NOAH the number one promotion in Japan, and to do that, there’s no way around New Japan Pro-Wrestling. That’s why I’ll keep mentioning New Japan Pro-Wrestling over and over again, but I have absolutely no lingering feelings toward New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Absolutely none.”

Naito had been part of New Japan from 2005 to 2025. He made a one-off appearance for the company at Wrestle Kingdom 20 for Hiroshi Tanahashi’s retirement ceremony.