“It would have been first or second year at junior high, I watched World Pro-Wrestling on TV,” said the former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, 5x NEVER Openweight Champion, IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champion, and 2x IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hirooki Goto during the first part of a Chain Reactions interview with the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) website.
“Right. Back then there wasn’t just All and New Japan, but I’d watch Michinoku Pro and a bunch of other promotions. The first stuff I watched was joshi wrestling, JWP (Japanese Women Pro-Wrestling Project). Actually, the first thing that got me into wrestling was video games. It was all thanks to Fire Pro [Fire Pro Wrestling],” Goto said when asked about rumors he also watched All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) growing up.
The Fire Pro Wrestling franchise first launched in June 1989 and recently partnered with NJPW and World Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom) with their latest Fire Pro Wrestling World release.
“For me it’s got to be January 4 1994. [Hiroshi] Hase and (Keiji) Muto vs the Steiner Brothers. Man, that Steiner Screwdriver was something else,” Goto said when asked if there was a specific match that stood out to him as a young fan. Earlier in the interview, Goto stated the third NJPW Noge Dojo graduating class was picking up steam during the time.
“Right. I loved his match with Antonio Inoki in ’96, and Muto vs [Nobuhiko] Takada when NJPW took on UWFi. There was a prime time special on TV for that event, and being able to watch pro-wrestling in prime-time was really special for me,” Goto continued when asked about Big Van Vader. “Dr. Death, yeah! His dangerous backdrop suplexes were really popular, I got dumped on my head on those crash mats more than once,” he responded when asked to comment on his fandom for “Dr. Death” Steve Williams.
“Yeah. It was always NJPW. They always had the biggest crowds, and the loudest reactions. I had this idea in my head of wrestling in front of all these people,” Goto said about his professional wrestling goals after deciding to begin amateur wrestling to set up his future career.
“Yeah. I first saw him after the induction ceremony. Shibata had been scouted by the high school coaches. He had played basketball in junior high, and really looked it. He looked like an athlete,” he responded when his meeting of NJPW Los Angeles (LA) Dojo Head Trainer Katsuyori Shibata became the topic of discussion. “Our coach invited [Yuji] Nagata, Shibata’s dad [Katsuhisa Shibata] and (Tokimitsu) Ishizawa to our dojo before they had a match over here.
Throughout the rest of the interview, Goto would go on to speak about his amateur wrestling career, and how advice from Nagata led to him wrestling in college to help him progress before entering the NJPW Noge Dojo.
