Endo states that he was ‘heartbroken.’
Back in 2022, CyberFight Festival took place and it featured talents from promotions under the company’s umbrella such as Pro Wrestling NOAH, Tokyo Joshi Pro and DDT Pro-Wrestling.
One of the matches on the card saw then-KO-D Openweight Champion Tetsuya Endo, Jun Akiyama and Kazusada Higuchi take on Katsuhiko Nakajima, Atsushi Kotoge and Yoshiki Inamura. There was a strike exchange between Nakajima and Endo that resulted in Endo being knocked unconscious.
Endo was deemed unable to continue. He was later diagnosed with a concussion and had to vacate the KO-D Openweight Title. He dove into that as he was the subject of an interview for DDT Pro-Wrestling’s official website. He started off by saying he does not hold any resentment towards Nakajima. Even if he was not the champion at the time, he would still feel the same about it as it does present-day.
If it is one of the two you just mentioned (either being afraid of being concussed like that again or being afraid of Katsuhiko Nakajima), it would have to be something I felt towards Katsuhiko Nakajima. I had never experienced being so disoriented on such a big stage of competition before, and to be honest, it is difficult even for me to narrow down what the source of my fear was. It is difficult, but… for me, the loss was not an accident, but only the fact that I couldn’t handle Nakajima’s slap. I don’t have any resentment toward him… I’m simply just frustrated that I lost. Especially since I was the DDT Champion, I have to take responsibility for losing when I’m someone who is equal to strength in DDT.
I’ve been hit by slaps in matches many times before, and I’ve been hit since that incident, but it’s not the same. Whether or not you can accept your opponent’s attack depends on your own skill. Nevertheless, as DDT Champion, I couldn’t do anything about that situation. I have fought against many strong opponents in the past, but because of the result like that, Katsuhiko Nakajima has become an opponent that makes me fear him differently from any other opponent I have fought before. There was a tense atmosphere even before the match…
Even if I had not been the champion, I would have carried the responsibility of DDT itself, considering the fact that it was a rivalry match. Even if I hadn’t had the belt, I think I would have felt the same way after that result.
He would reveal that he considered retirement, but knew if he did that, he would be running away. Endo stated that there was a period of time when he began to ‘hate’ pro wrestling.
To be honest, I thought about retiring… I was really heartbroken. If I just retired like that… well, to put it simply, I would be running away. If I run away, I can be released from this mental state I was in… At that time, I really hated wrestling. Well, not just professional wrestling, I started to hate myself too.
I was responsible for that (continuing to sit in that mindset), but more than that, I think I lost faith in professional wrestling because I had been emotionally scarred by the sport I loved so much… Yes (I lost faith). Both in wrestling and in myself.
What kept him moving forward were his fans and parents. He shared that those same feelings still reside in him. He tried to fill those gaps with accolades, but it did not help.
Endo feels the only way those feelings could go away is to have a match against Nakajima. He added that even if it does happen, the memory will still be there.
It was really the voices of my fans and my parents (that kept me going through that time). They didn’t tell me anything specific, but when I announced that I was going to become a professional wrestler and leave for Tokyo, all they said was, ‘Do your best,’ and I remembered those words. I thought to myself, I can’t just quit wrestling on my own will when I have my parents’ feelings entrusted to me. I also received words of support from fans on social media, and it is because of them that Tetsuya Endo is able to be a professional wrestler. So I thought quitting would be the biggest betrayal of all… Yes. If I had not realized, I would not be doing it now.
I still feel that pain. I said that I tried to make up for it with my other accomplishments, but when I tried, I found that winning the tag belts did not make up for it. Of course, I was happy to win it with (Yuki) Iino and it was fun, but it did not resolve the negative mentality I had from that incident. There’s only one way to do that. The only way to make up for it is to have a match with Katsuhiko Nakajima and see what awaits me. But that is just ‘filling in the blanks.’ It doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. That memory will remain with me and my fans. But I thought that if I got revenge, I might be able to wipe it away a little.
It was difficult for Endo to not speak publicly about the incident for two years. It was first mentioned on the build-up to his KO-D Openweight Title match against Shinya Aoki on September 8th.
Endo believes it’s not impossible for the match to take place as Nakajima is the current LIDET UWF Champion for GLEAT. He thinks if he beats Aoki and wins the belt, that’ll be one-step closer to the match with Nakajima.
That’s right (it was hard not to speak publicly about the Katsuhiko Nakajima incident since it happened)… Considering the current situation over there, I think there are hurdles to overcome, but since we are both in the Japanese wrestling ring, I don’t think it is impossible, and we had an exchange match between DDT and GLEAT recently. I think that both beating (Shinya) Aoki and winning the belt will lead to the next step.
DDT held a show on 9/7 and they’re following it up with their 9/8 event. That show is also going to feature Kota Ibushi in action.
