Tonight, Tetsuya Naito will fight to regain the IWGP Intercontinental Championship for the fifth time in his career. Should Naito beat his rival, Jay White, then the Los Ingobernables De Japon leader will go on to Night Two to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against either Kota Ibushi or Kazuchika Okada.
For Naito, it’s been a dream of his to hold both the IWGP Intercontinental and Heavyweight titles at the same time; however, the 37-year-old has had some setbacks in 2019, including a loss of confidence.
During an interview with
njpw1972.com, Naito revealed that he had a “crisis of confidence” and was constantly “wrestling in that state of unease”. For a while, the challenger of the IWGP IC Championship thought he couldn’t wrestle anymore:
“No, not really. I don’t want to go into specifics, but for a while I thought I couldn’t wrestle anymore.” Naito revealed.
“Truth is for about six months, maybe since May, I had this kind of crisis of confidence. From about May, I’d felt something was up, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. I thought I could cover it up, but I think the result was that it did come through. I was constantly wrestling in that state of unease. I hate going to the hospital, but I really wasn’t myself for a time.”
Luckily, the Los Ingobernables De Japon leader recovered and no longer has those issues going into his match-up against Jay White; however, Naito ensures that he came pretty damn close to zero:
“It’s like any injury, and I’ve had bad knees for a while, things don’t get back to 100%, but when it comes to this issue I’ve had, I’ve managed to recover well enough during the time off. Bear in mind, 100% or not, I came pretty damn close to zero.”
Check out the full interview where Naito talks about his mental state with the Tokyo Dome and the Double Gold Dash, his preference for regular tours, and so much more!