July 16, 2022. Pro-Wrestling NOAH is hosting their event “Destination” and the pro-wrestling legend Keiji Muto is having a modern classic at the Nippon Budokan. Surprisingly, the crowd is not in his favor, but in the favor of a young man. The battle is what people consider a 5-star bout, appropriate for Muto’s opponent’s nickname, the Supernova. The roar of the crowd resonates through every fiber of this young man’s body, as he gives Muto the final blow to defeat him and cement his legacy in Pro-Wrestling NOAH as the next star in the promotion, making a name for himself on the biggest stage imaginable. The crowd applauds and cheers for this man’s name, and the next destination on his road is unparalleled stardom.
After years of struggle, after years of not being able to write his own name in the history books, the people have chosen, and have given this young man a cross that he must carry. A cross that has his blood, sweat, and tears. A cross that he carries for the love of pro-wrestling even to this day. The young man’s name is Kaito Kiyomiya, and his cross is being The Ace of NOAH.
After Kiyomiya’s match with the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada at Muto Final, many people saw a man that promised to be NOAH’s hope getting reduced to nothing by a disrespectful Rainmaker. The consequences of this crushing defeat came instantly, as NOAH’s new acquisition and former AJPW Triple Crown champion Jake Lee decided to challenge Kiyomiya to a GHC Heavyweight Championship match and even defeated him, to everyone’s surprise.
This was a tough situation, but what we could consider Kiyomiya’s struggle is not recent. There has been a curse in his career that he doesn’t seem to overcome no matter how hard he tries. The curse of being The Ace. Kiyomiya has to represent NOAH, therefore he has to represent Mitsuharu Misawa’s philosophy, Naomichi Marufuji’s heart, Kenta Kobashi’s spirit, and Go Shiozaki’s soul. But he doesn’t seem to be able to do it at his full potential.
This is not necessarily his fault. Despite the really good things Muto-ism brought to the company, there has not been a real GHC champion like Shiozaki or even Katsuhiko Nakajima. The transitional champions were not able to give NOAH an identity of its own in the world of pro wrestling, and no matter how much Nippon Budokans they would get, no one was qualified for such a task.
As NOAH entered a golden era thanks to Muto’s star power, Kaito Kiyomiya couldn’t have the spotlight he deserved, and his match with former GHC champion Kenoh was doomed to be just a “Double Main Event” spectacle. Despite these implications, Kiyomiya and Kenoh blew it out of the park and gave a match worthy of such a prestigious belt. One of the quotes that Kenoh said on the road to this amazing bout was stuck in my mind, and after all these months it can be used to explain Kiyomiya’s curse in the promotion.
Kenoh: “The GHC champion is called the exalted champion, but I think it’s more than that. To me being exalted is like being a god. I think a champion is like a god, but the current champion is not a god. It takes time to be a god.”
If being a champion is being like a god, being The Ace is being the god among gods. That’s not something many can say about themselves. You just don’t become a god just because you want to. In NOAH, there have only been few to have that honor, and it was thanks to their impeccable work and fighting philosophy.
Despite being the youngest GHC champion, Kiyomiya found his fighting philosophy after his match with Muto. One of Kiyomiya’s issues throughout his career was that many considered him a “Misawa clone” and he was not able to evolve. His longtime rival Kenoh was the opposite. He once declared that the era of Misawa-ism was over once he won the GHC belt, and that surely felt like a refresh for the company. This fight to be The Ace between Kiyomiya and Kenoh can be considered a fight between philosophies, but it’s also a race to see who’s the real Ace, as both men have lost important matches these last months.
The curse of Kiyomiya is that he’s not able to be the one and only Ace in his company, and that makes him a target because his position is not secure by any means.
We have seen this phenomenon with Nakajima in the past. He had an amazing title reign in 2021, but the second Go Shiozaki came through that curtain he was no longer NOAH’s temporary Ace. Kiyomiya suffers the same fate.
His match with Jake Lee finished the Supernova’s championship run because at this point of his career, the pool of talent that NOAH disposes can make Kiyomiya just a name in a long list of hungry contenders such as Katsuhiko Nakajima. What we know is that Kiyomiya can’t be considered The Ace yet, as there are many challengers that want to take his spot and lead NOAH’s new era in 2023.
Time will tell if Kiyomiya has what it takes to lead the ark. Muto gave him his blessing, Tanahashi believes in him, and the Nippon Budokan crowd didn’t chant his name for no reason. They saw something in Kiyomiya that can’t be put into words. They saw the fire of the Supernova. But if The Ace is a god between gods, and a god controls all the elements, it will take more than that to be the hope for Pro-Wrestling NOAH.
Just like his longtime rival Kenoh said, working hard is not enough, and we know that working hard is never enough for Kaito Kiyomiya.
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