Kojima still finds wrestling fun and interesting and wants to continue pursuing it.
Satoshi Kojima is in the midst of his 32nd year as a wrestler. He is with New Japan Pro-Wrestling while continuing to work dates for other promotions and companies in Japan and in the USA.
As of this writing, Kojima is the reigning MLW World Heavyweight Champion. There is a joint feature he’s a part of for Relaaaax magazine and he discussed his future in wrestling. He feels his time as a wrestler is limited. He added that he’s still interested in it, finds it fun and wants to pursue it.
Last year, Keiji Muto retired… In my mind, he retired when I thought he would be active forever. Mr. Muto is eight years older than me, but I’ve come to think that such a time may come for me someday. Wrestling is a physically demanding job, so it inevitably leads to fatigue in various parts of the body. When I think about that, I feel that my time as a pro wrestler is limited.
I have to be conscious of how I will end my career. However, even at my age, I still find wrestling fun and interesting, and I would like to continue to pursue it. I am really enjoying wrestling right now. That is why I am thinking about what I can do now and hope to share that with as many people as possible.
One of the questions posed to Kojima was has he been in a match when he’s had to balance his opponent, the crowd and his own emotions at the same time.
He named his match against CM Punk from AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door II. He called it amazing and said it was meaningful to have a match with that much excitement attached to it.
Yes, I have (had matches when I’ve had to balance the audience, my opponent & my own emotions). Most recently, I had a match in Canada last June with the world-famous CM Punk. I was very happy to have a match with such a famous person, and more importantly, the match was amazing. I was fighting CM Punk in the ring where tens of thousands of people were cheering… In the end, I lost, but I think it was very meaningful for me to be able to have a match with such excitement in my professional wrestling career.
MLW ran an injury angle with Kojima. He had to pull out of NJPW dates to recover from an MCL injury. Kojima is scheduled for MLW War Chamber on March 29th.
