Chatter With: Gabriel Kidd (Part Two)

Hi guys,

Last week I posted part one of my interview with Gabriel Kidd (https://wrestling-chatter.blogspot.com/2019/03/chatter-with-gabriel-kidd-part-one.html) and spoke to him about his wrestling beginnings, his influences and taking part of World of Sport. So, as promised, here's part two where we got to the nitty gritty of Kidd's wrestling career, especially his time at the NJPW Dojo, dream opponents and what the future holds for someone with such a long and thriving career ahead of them!

I am a massive fan of NJPW, so can’t not mention the fact that I saw on Twitter that you spent 12 days in LA at the NJPW Dojo training under the legend that is Katsuyori Shibata, what was that like?

Easily the best and most eye-opening experience so far of my young life. That’s the kind of style of wrestling I watch, I love the Japanese style and old and new Japanese wrestling style. When I got the opportunity to go there and train with Shibata-san, it was just a really eye opening experience and just little things that he taught me which I can take away and use in my work now, I just noticed an instant improvement to my work and how it looks with just like the tips he gave me. You hear the stories about the dojo and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I got there and knew it was going to be hard, but then I was doing it and its very difficult but I think that, to get up to that level, that’s the kind of training you need to do. To be there and train with everyone 6 days a week was just truly a fantastic experience and one that’s really helped me over the past few months.

Credit: @WrestlingGabe on Twitter

If you ever had the opportunity to go over to NJPW, who would be your dream opponent?

That’s a question. I’d say for someone I haven’t wrestled before, Jushin Thunder Liger has to be on the top of that list. He’s just a living legend really, I’ve had the pleasure of being on shows with him and he’s phenomenal. He’s been doing it for 30 years now, maybe even well over 30 years and he came to the UK in the World of Sport days and he was doing it back then and that was years ago. Yeah, it'd have to be Liger, but someone I have wrestled before would probably be Zack Sabre.

Who's been your favourite opponent?

Linking back to the last question, I’d have to say Zack Sabre is probably my favourite opponent. I’ve had three matches with him now and I enjoyed each one. The first two I enjoyed and the third one was like the icing on the cake. He’s just phenomenal and the things he’s done for British wrestling are amazing. I think people do it know it but some people might not. Just the way he’s taken it to America, Japan and Mexico and all over the world and flew the flag for British wrestling. He’s helped a lot of people get to the point they are now as well as Doug Williams who was over in Japan and the US as Ring of Honor champ and Jody Fleisch in Michinoku Pro Wrestling. They were all flying the flag for the UK guys and putting the words of British wrestling in people’s mouths.

We’ve spoken about your amazing matches with ZSJ who's obviously in Suzuki Gun. How would you feel about getting into the ring with Minoru Suzuki?

That’s another one at the top of the list! I actually had the pleasure in 2016 when I was doing some shows for WCPW (Defiant), and he was there for a weekend of shows with El Desperado of Suzuki Gun. Suzuki was sparring with El Desperado and just kept hitting him in the leg and Desperado kept shaking it off and Suzuki just carried on kicking him in his legs to a point where he couldn’t stand up because Suzuki was going hard on him. They had a break and I just asked Suzuki if I could get in and he could show me some stuff and he showed me a bit of catch wrestling and we just sparred. He said he’d just teach me as I go and we just sparred and he’d tap me out, I’d get up, he’d tap me out again and we kept going got 20 minutes. Then, when when Desperado’s leg was okay again, he showed me actual holds and techniques and stuff that I still remember to this day. It would be a nice full circle moment to be in the ring with Minoru Suzuki, but we’ll see if that happens!

With everything we've spoken about, your career has already been so amazing for someone so young. Is there anything that you want to tick off a ‘wrestling bucket list’? I mean what’s the goal for Gabriel Kidd in the future?

Wrestling in Japan definitely. That’s my aim and that’s what I’m working towards. It’s kind of like when I started taking wrestling a lot more seriously and decided I wanted to pursue this as a profession, the wrestling I was watching and style, it kind of just fit hand in hand. I just love all kinds of Japanese wrestling and how respectful it is and how big of a thing it is out there and almost like how many promotions there are over there, like people only see the big ones like All Japan, NOAH and NJPW when there’s so many other promotions. There’s literally wrestling going on pretty much every day in Japan. I love the whole culture of wrestling over there so it’s definitely on the bucket list. I just want to go over there and wrestle and, after training with Shibata-san, I love the Japanese Style even more. I want to mix the Japanese and British Style together, because you’ve got to stick to your roots. The goal for me is to be in Japan, however long it takes, I won’t stop working until I get there.

Credit: @WrestlingGabe Twitter

As a massive fan of NJPW, the prospect of seeing Kidd at Korakuen Hall in the future is something I would love to see. However, no matter where the journey takes Kidd, the future is so bright and I can see gold galore from different promotion across the world. It's nice to know that the British wrestling scene is in good hands for the future.

Hopefully you enjoyed this interview and I've got a few more British wrestler interviews on the card! So, to keep up to date with all things wrestling and to be first to know when I post something new, follow me on my social media (@Wrestling_Chat on Twitter and Wrestling Chatter on FB and WrestlingChatter96 on IG)!

Until next time,

Bye!