Takeshita touches on a number of topics in a lengthy interview.
In November of 2022, AEW pushed out the announcement that they signed Konosuke Takeshita. There was a point when Takeshita had the options of AEW or WWE and he recounted that time period during a lengthy interview with DDT Pro-Wrestling’s official website.
After Takeshita lost the KO-D Openweight Title to Tetsuya Endo in March 2022, he felt it was time to start a new chapter. Takeshita thinks that if he would’ve waited a year longer to make a move, the opportunity he’s had in AEW might not become a reality because the roster size increased. He stated that it is all about timing.
Takeshita first appeared for AEW in April 2021. When the restrictions were still in place in Japan regarding crowd noise, Takeshita had enough of competing under those circumstances. He went to the U.S. and believes everything unfolded how it was supposed to.
When I lost the KO-D belt to Tetsuya Endo at Ryogoku Kokugikan last March, I said, ‘This is the second chapter for Konosuke Takeshita…’ As a champion, I had already been around the world one or two times, so I felt that the only way to show what I could do was to cross the ocean. So the choice was WWE or AEW. At that time, there were not that many main male wrestlers in AEW, and moreover, there were no Japanese who wore the singles belt, except for women. I wanted to do something that no one else was doing. At that point, I wasn’t sure if AEW would become as huge as it is now, but it was still a choice I made. Then, over the next year or so, the number of wrestlers steadily increased, and I don’t think I would have had a chance if I had waited another year. It was all a matter of timing… When the Coronavirus pandemic made it impossible for Japanese professional wrestling to make its voice heard, I thought to myself, this is no good for me to be wrestling. I’ve been doing it for 10 years, so I’ve had enough. I went to the U.S. because I wanted to give it one last try, and I think that may have been my destiny. I wouldn’t be where I am today without AEW, which guided me, and DDT, which sent me here, so the best way for me to repay them would be to fight Chris Jericho.
Coming up on November 12th, Takeshita is set to be in the semi-main event of DDT Ultimate Party at Ryōgoku Sumo Hall. His opponent is going to be Chris Jericho. Takeshita was happy to see the reaction to Jericho coming to DDT.
He said the company has often had parodies of former WWE talents or parodies of big names in the industry but not the actual wrestler themself. So to now have the actual big-name talent come into the promotion makes him happy.
First of all, I wanted to fight Jericho in a singles match, which is what I had wanted to do when I became a member of AEW. I had reached the point where I could imagine myself doing that in the AEW ring, but I wanted to do it in a DDT ring.
In the past, DDT has done things like parodying WWE superstars, but when you think back to the beginning of the organization, it was unthinkable to have an active superstar appear instead of an impersonator in the ring. So it was a secret ambition of mine to make it a reality. I felt a sense of accomplishment when I saw it come true… So when I felt the reaction at that moment, I was honestly happy.
The idea for a match with Jericho in DDT first popped into Takeshita’s head after Jericho tweeted in August 2022 that Takeshita is a future world champion. At the time, Takeshita had been wondering if he was giving back enough to DDT because they sent him to the U.S. and he garnered a great deal of fanfare.
When Jericho sent that tweet, he thought instead of it being big-name talent versus DDT’s Konosuke Takeshita, he was thinking that it could be an even playing field if DDT hosted the match. He felt that by getting that done, it would be a way for him to repay DDT for sending him to the USA.
It was a very long year for me. The days go by quickly, but with AEW, you have to go to the venue every week not knowing if you’ll be performing that day, and you are locked up there (at the venue) for at least 12 or 13 hours. You have to think about what you can do if there is a match, or what you can do even if there is no match. So it feels like a really long time. One of my missions was to keep in touch with Jericho. I have been doing that for a year since I joined the team. Let me tell you why I chose Jericho in the first place. Before I became a member of AEW, I came to the U.S. from DDT in April of last year, and I was there for about four months… and I completed those four months, but… I wonder if this is something that is reaching the fans in Japan. I had gained recognition in the U.S., but there were times when I wondered if I was giving back to DDT. At that time, Jericho tweeted that I was a ‘future world champion,’ and when I saw that, I felt like I was rewarded for the hardest four months of my 11-year wrestling career. At the same time, I thought, if he said that, there must be something I can do with Jericho that no one has done yet… Jericho came to Japan several times after he became a world superstar, and he was always in a very special guest position, wasn’t he? I think I could fight him now as an equal. I thought that if we were in the ring, instead of superstar versus DDT’s Konosuke Takeshita, we could really go at it on an even footing. Of course it would be a hot topic in the U.S., but what I could do in DDT would be a way to repay DDT for sending me to the U.S. I wanted to do that, and that’s what I did. That’s what solidified my desire to invite Chris Jericho to DDT.
The topic of his in-ring future came up in the conversation. The 28-year-old Takeshita has it in his mind to retire at the age of 40. He thinks his prime years will be his early 30s. Up until a few years ago, Takeshita felt like he was behind on his plan as a wrestler, but being in AEW has made him feel like he’s caught up.
I’ve decided that my true goal of retiring as a professional wrestler is at age 40, so I wonder if I still have 12 years left or if I only have 12 years left. I’ve always been in a hurry to live, so I think I only have 12 years left, and my prime will be here in four years. Up until two or three years ago, I thought I was lagging behind in my life plan as a professional wrestler, but I feel like I’ve finally caught up by appearing in AEW. It’s still not enough though.
Along with Takeshita versus Jericho, here’s the advertised lineup for DDT Ultimate Party on 11/12:
- Five-Way Tag Team Match: Damnnation T.A (Kanon & M.J. Paul) vs. Naruki Doi & Kazuma Sumi vs. Toy Kojima & Yuki Ishida vs. Yusuke Okada & Yuya Koroku vs. Takeshi Masada & Rukiya
- Yuki Arai, Moka Miyamoto & Shino Suzuki vs. Suzume, Arisu Endo & Wakana Uehara
- Sanshiro Takagi, Akito, Makoto Oishi & Shinichiro Kawamatsu vs. Yoshitatsu, Yoshihiko, Danshoku Dino & Super Sasadango Machine
- Jun Akiyama, HARASHIMA & Yukio Naya vs. Voodoo-Murders (Jun Saito, Rei Saito & Toshizo)
- Kuroshio TOKYO Japan vs. Takeshi Masada
- Daisuke Sasaki vs. Tetsuya Endo
- DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship: Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. Kazuki Hirata
- KO-D Tag Team Championships: Soma Takao & Shota (c) vs. Masahiro Takanashi & Antonio Honda
- DDT Universal Championship: Matt Cardona (c) (w/ Steph De Lander) vs. MAO
- Saki Akai’s Retirement Match: Saki Akai, Yukio Sakaguchi & Hideki Okatani vs. Naomichi Marufuji, Kazusada Higuchi & Miyu Yamashita
- Chris Jericho vs. Konosuke Takeshita
- KO-D Openweight Championship: Chris Brookes (c) vs. Yuki Ueno
