Fun fact: Naito was in the same New Japan tryout as Yoshi-Hashi and SANADA

6 comments

1. Sanada always struck me as the most athletic out of the three, strange he didn’t pass the same time they did.

2. Makes you think about the alternative reality where SANADA passed the try out: would he be the same man/wrestler he is today? Bigger and better possibly? Would he have been the guy in Okada’s place? All things to think about; he was super young at the time tho, so I understand NJPW passing on him at the time.

   I also think Naito had a leg up on some of the other guys trying out in that he was originally trained by the great Animal Hamaguchi in Hamaguchi’s dojo/gym (other trainees of his are Shingo, Kojima, Bushi, Takao Omori and Shinjiro Otani); Hamaguchi was a great tag team wrestler/specialist, primarily during the 80’s, and was good friends with Riki Choshu, who I believe was booking at the time (not 100% on that tho); surely Naito had the raw talent, but being a Hamaguchi trainee definitely carried weight.

3. From the first workout you can see that Naito had absolutely no regard for his neck, even back then lol

4. sanada looks like an absolute baby.

   thin hashi is weird to look at.

5. SANADA has had quite the wrestling journey. It’s cool to see that after failing to get into new Japan he ended up at the top of new Japan. Feels like a few years too late but as a big The Revolution fan it’s nice to see our boy standing tall.

6. I remember when they showed snippets of this video before a YH-SANADA match in 2016 but I had no idea Naito was part of the tryout too lol