Joy (noun):
1a. The emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune, or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.
(Merriam-Webster)
b. The expression or exhibition of such emotion
2. A state of happiness or felicity
3. A source or cause of delight
We are all chasing something.
Fame, recognition, something that tells us that we matter, that we have made a mark on this world, that we lived a life worth remembering. Proof, often intangible, but still real, that all of it was not in vain.
But at the end of the day, maybe we are all just chasing joy.
That inscrutable, fleeting feeling, that everything is finally as it’s meant to be, the satisfaction of a goal achieved, a dream realized, a life well lived.
As scholar Michela Summa puts it, “The self realization that occurs in joy is related to a sense of achievement, which also entails a sense of unity and sharing.1” True joy is found in the journey, in knowing that every day, every step, brings you closer to where you are meant to be. To who you are meant to be.
These are powerful mysteries. The bellowing of bulls, springs of honey bubbling from the ground. If we are strong enough in our souls we can rip away the veil and look that naked, terrible beauty right in the face; let God consume us, devour us, unstring our bones, and spit us out reborn.
Donna Tartt, The Secret History
As it goes, who you are meant to be is rarely ever who you started out as.
In a lifetime, so many parts come together, driven into each other by the stubborness that comes with being human. Some good, some painful, some you wish you could let go of, leave behind, but that will always remain, stuck there with the rest.
For almost twenty years, Kzy has been a singular presence in the colorful and ever-shifting landscape of Dragongate.
An iconoclastic figure, half enthusiastic hip-hop MC, performing his own theme song – sometimes live on his way to the ring, half scrappy underground fighter, all wide-eyed idealist, Kzy might be one of the most recognizable members of the Dragongate roster today, embodying the constant state of metamorphosis the promotion embraces. He has become an unlikely cornerstone, whose ascent to the top of the card has been nothing short of miraculous. The road to where he is now has been as bumpy as it has been rewarding, all because he took everything in stride and, instead of letting himself fall by the wayside, decided to change things for himself – and for everyone else around him.
But it wasn’t always going to be this way.
From his rough start as a tough-talking BBoy under the name of mc.KZ, Kzy has worn his heart on his sleeve – and though it might not always be in the right place, it is his guiding force. He is spurred on always by a desire to make his mark, to leave a trace of himself in the mind of everyone he encounters.
Debuting in 2006, but hopelessly stagnating, Kzy misses out on being part of the group that would lead Dragongate into the next decade. He watches, angry and resigned, as his peers, particularly YAMATO and Akira Tozawa, climb up the ranks, become the future, and then the present, while he remains stuck in place. Throughout the early 2010s, a new generation has started to come in, take shape and stake their claims, and Kzy, still, stays where he is. This feeling of not belonging plants itself into him and grows, ever deeper, into the confines of a heart that is screaming out for someone, anyone, to see him.
Generations come and go, units form and disband, titles are won and lost, and through it all, Kzy is there.
For the first few years of his career, after a failed run in then-top babyface unit WORLD-1, it can feel like Kzy is barely even trying, satisfied with sowing the seeds of chaos.
A long, long time passes, heel units come and go, and Kzy is a card-carrying member of all of them. He jumps from one to the next, seemingly not even really thinking about why he does it, content to sit on the sidelines – or rather, stand on the apron, with a plastic box or a bag of powder, ready to cause mayhem and get away with letting himself go. By the time his classmate YAMATO wins the Open the Dream Gate Championship, Dragongate’s top title, for the first time, Kzy has yet to achieve any kind of title success – and his first time, a Triangle Gate reign alongside Deep Drunkers acolytes Yasushi Kanda and Takuya Sugawara, lasts a measly eight days.
By 2014, eight years out from his debut, Kzy has been a member of no less than four consecutive heel units, and the highest he’s ever reached is the Triangle Gate – once with the aforementioned Deep Drunkers, once as part of Blood Warriors (with Naruki Doi and Naoki Tanizaki), and once more as a member of Mad Blankey (with Naruki Doi and Cyber Kong). Each time, he was merely there to fill in the third spot, never more than what he was told to be. Not even given the chance to rise above his station.
Something’s got to give.
When he gets injured in the fall of 2014, there’s little question about what’s going to happen. He disappears quietly, slipping under the radar as he often did, and the world keeps on turning. It would only take one person to care, one person to show him there is another path, a better way.
Weighed down by years of doing almost nothing, withering away on the sidelines as his peers and his juniors alike all pass him by, Kzy finally finds the strength to cast away his former self, and with it, all of his doubts.
He does as any artist would: he reinvents himself, moves on to the next phase.
Here’s the story: in December 2014, then Open the Brave Gate Champion Flamita vacates the belt after his defense against Mad Blankey’s Punch Tominaga ends in a disqualification, refusing to accept such a dishonorable victory. As is customary, a tournament is held to crown a new champion, and the person who comes out on top is… Dr Muscle. One of a few recurring characters taken on by several wrestlers over the years, a convenient disguise when one wants to get away with less than honorable deeds, it was not the first time the Dr had won the Brave Gate – Masato Yoshino having donned the costume to achieve that feat in 2008. But, unlike then, the newly crowned Brave Gate Champion does not unmask, and does not vacate the belt either, as Yoshino had. Instead, Dr Muscle goes on carrying the Brave Gate under his lab coat, and the identity of the champion is kept under wraps until the following week.
Dr Muscle has historically been a heel character, and everyone expects this one to be no different, least of all Mad Blankey. When the group faces the spunky congregation of rookies known as Millennials on 16th January 2015, the masked, boiler suit-clad figure competes on the Mad Blankey side, and keeps to his plan.. It’s easy enough for him to lure Mad Blankey into resorting to tried and true tactics, only for the powder to directly hit CIMA instead, giving Millennials member Kotoka enough of a chance to get the win for his team.
The shock sets in, the mask comes off, and underneath is Kzy.
Reborn.
Now aligned with former Mad Blankey unitmate BxB Hulk and his dia.HEARTS group, Kzy starts again.
Though he quickly loses the Brave Gate Championship, he establishes himself in different ways, becoming the heart of the place, and a booming voice of support for anyone who stands by his side. He grows into himself at a rapid pace, overcoming the fate that he seemed to have saddled himself with, all those years ago. It’s a constant choice that he must continue making, an active decision to not only do better, but also be better. Showing up for the ones who extended a hand for him, Kzy keeps on his way with dia.HEARTS, strengthening his bond with BxB Hulk, a friend from another time, but the same place – the two of them dubbing themselves “North Tribe” when teaming together, as a nod to their shared home prefecture of Hokkaido. He learns how to hold his own alongside two of Dragongate’s most well-established icons, Dragon Kid and Masaaki Mochizuki, and forms a friendship with Flamita that would last, holding strong through time and units.
All good things must one day come to an end, and on February 4th, 2016, it’s dia.HEARTS’ turn. Tensions have come to a head and the unit finds itself in a three-way match opposite Monster Express and especially Verserk – the spiritual successor to Mad Blankey – looking for revenge. As the action accelerates, a whirlwind of drama and emotion unfolds in the ring, and soon Kzy is the last man standing for dia.HEARTS. And try as he may, fighting with everything in him, it’s simply not enough. Not yet.
The first heartbreak is always the hardest. All of this work, all of this hope, thrown away and stomped on in just a few moments where he wasn’t able to be quite strong enough to protect everything he had finally managed to get for himself: a real home, some real friends, a real sense of purpose.
But as tragic as its conclusion is, it seems like the match lights a new kind of fire in Kzy. This cannot be how the world is, hopeless and cruel. It won’t be, as long as he has a say in it, as long as he has something to fight for.
It’s never the end, not really. Not when you’re Kzy.
In May 2016, at Dead or Alive, all hell breaks loose in the cage as YAMATO is cruelly betrayed and brutally beaten by the rest of Verserk. Someone had to pay the toll for this battle of egos, and it seems that Shingo Takagi and Naruki Doi manage to see eye to eye for long enough to collect on YAMATO who, right up until the climactic moments of the match, seems bound to lose the fight, and his luxurious hair along with it.
That is, until Kzy decides the world has seen enough injustice for one day. He descends on the ring, quickly assisted by BxB Hulk and Yosuke♡Santa Maria, and together the three of them manage to foil Verserk’s relentless assault long enough for YAMATO to escape with his dignity, his hair, and a debt to be repaid.
YAMATO is the man who debuted alongside him but quickly outpaced him, who had, just a few months prior, been responsible for the disbandment of dia.HEARTS. The man who Kzy has no reason, personal or otherwise, to help, to rescue. And yet, he is also his classmate, his peer, someone he has a connection to and a respect, however begrudging, for. If they don’t stick together now, especially in the face of such a threat as Verserk, none of them is going to make it. Sticking to his new direction, Kzy forgives the past, faces the present, and embraces the future.
The resulting unit takes on the name Tribe Vanguard, and it’s with them that Kzy takes his true first step towards becoming the person he was always meant to be, the one who lay dormant just below the surface, who just needed someone to believe – even if maybe that person was himself all along.
Even as he sits behind Hulk and YAMATO, watching as the latter goes on, that same year, to win the King of Gate tournament – in which Kzy would also have a statement to make – and later dethrone Verserk’s big bad boss Shingo Takagi for the Open the Dream Gate Championship, Kzy grows. He takes charge of the unit’s young guns, first Yosuke♡Santa Maria, and then U-T, and even reunites with another former dia.HEARTS member in Flamita – continuing to forge connections that would stick, stay with him through the years.
In early 2018, Kzy gets his first big chance to apply everything he has learned.
Building himself up alongside Tribe Vanguard, flanked by two of Dragongate’s pillars in YAMATO and BxB Hulk, he finds himself wrestling in higher profile matches, eventually crossing paths with then-reigning Open the Dream Gate Champion, Masaaki Mochizuki.
If Mochizuki still needs an introduction, let it be this: he came into professional wrestling from a Karate background, is nicknamed the Ironman (鉄人 Tetsujin) of Dragongate, and this Dream Gate reign, his third, started when he ended YAMATO’s fourteen months-long run on top of the company with a kick to the head. In other words, Masaaki Mochizuki ain’t nothing to fuck with.
And yet, on a chilly January day in Korakuen Hall, Masaaki Mochizuki gets caught in Kzy’s firecracker offense, and eats an elbow strike to the jaw for the three count. Not willing to waste any more time, Kzy lays down the challenge. It’s now or never; he wants that chance, and Mochizuki is more than happy to oblige.
On February 7, 2018, the winds of change are blowing through the very same venue. Kzy, a little over three years after the day he decided to turn his life around, has become a contender. The key he wears around his neck is heavy with all the dreams that, just a few years ago, he probably wouldn’t have allowed himself to dream. But things are different now. He is different now. As he sits cross-legged in his corner of the ring, eyes closed, taking in the moment while Mochizuki’s theme fills the arena, it’s hard to look at Kzy and see the same man that once used to kneel on the apron as the big boys were talking.
But it is.
Despite everything, it is still Kzy. And he’s ready.
It’s Mochizuki who kick-starts the festivities this time, the veteran unwilling to get taken by surprise again. He takes this seriously, takes Kzy seriously, and Kzy, for his part, is more than ready to give as good as he gets. Driven by his hunger, by this chance to finally prove, not only to the world but to himself, that he belongs here, Kzy throws himself into the fight. He returns every single one of Mochizuki’s hardest blows, stubbornly getting up, each and every time, countering with strikes of his own, even at one point using Mochizuki’s own Twister move against him. It doesn’t go unforgiven, and as Kzy seems seconds away from securing the victory, Mochizuki counters the Skayde Schoolboy for the three count, dashing Kzy’s first dream to pieces.
It’s an intense affair, the crowd in Korakuen Hall left breathless at every turn, torn between pushing for their champion and getting pulled towards an impossible dream.
Even as Kzy lies defeated, overwhelmed by Mochizuki’s power and experience, there’s still a feeling sweeping through the crowd, like something has shifted. Like the world will never be the same.
Now, it’s all his for the taking.
Mochizuki feels it too. After gathering himself, he takes to the microphone, thanks Kzy for a match well fought, and even raises his hand and leads the crowd into congratulating him too. He may be the victorious champion, but Mochizuki has seen many of these kids come and go, and understands the importance of these moments. It’s not about lamenting the defeat, but rather celebrating that he made it there at all.
Kzy, for himself, has already decided what the next step will be. Struggling, but alive, he addresses the crowd, and declares that today he will be leaving Tribe Vanguard. He is grateful for the help they gave, the platform they provided, but now it’s time for him to find a path that is truly his, to prove that today was only the start. While YAMATO and Hulk initially try to stop him, Hulk pleading because they’ve made it this far together, North Tribe through and through, YAMATO eventually allows it – not that anyone or anything could have stopped it – but makes it clear that he will be watching, daring Kzy to go further still, and waiting for him at the top.
Things almost go south as Antias make their way to the ring, attempting to recruit Kzy, to remind him of where he came from, of who he is, always doomed to be. Or so they think. Those days are long behind him, and Kzy, with the help of veterans Susumu Yokosuka and Genki Horiguchi, fight off the red and black-clad unit to declare a new era has begun.
The time for doubts and laments is over, and the future will not come unless you grab it yourself. Kzy ends his time in Tribe Vanguard – a unit that had seen him grow to reach heights no one had ever bet on him to reach – not with bitterness but with a sense of accomplishment, and a newfound purpose. Still looking for his place in the world, but that much closer because he got to have this experience. There’s no point in looking back. Only forward, always, with new friends, and new dreams, and the weight of all his wasted years finally shaken off of his shoulders.
It doesn’t take long then for Kzy, Susumu and Horiguchi to announce their new venture. In April of 2018, just in time for the advent of Spring, their new unit, Natural Vibes, is unveiled to the world in a joyous explosion of color and music.
If dia.HEARTS was all about BxB Hulk, sparkling in the darkness, and Tribe Vanguard was all about YAMATO, making amends and finding his way again, Natural Vibes is, finally, for the first time, all about Kzy.
What does the light want? More of its kind? Yes. Yes, and, a wish to disturb the dark.
Kimiko Hahn, Resplendent Slug
Founded on his principles, Natural Vibes is, more than a unit, a place where anyone can come, and feel free to find refuge, find solace, and above all, find themselves. In it, he is supported by Susumu and Horiguchi – two men who have been around for everything, have watched him at his worst and seen him at his best, and whose previous unit, Jimmyz, was also a bastion of understanding for some who felt forgotten, like time had passed them by. The two of them could have easily chosen to take the lead, and Kzy would have probably let them, but there seems to be a mutual understanding that only one person can be the leader of this new group, and so Kzy, just three years after changing the course of his own life, steps up to the challenge.
Because the unit follows his own, newly strengthened values of love, compassion, and understanding, of finding yourself and pushing through the limits others might want to impose on you, he is the one who finds himself at the center, and the people who gravitate towards the unit do so because they’re drawn to him, to what he has proven is possible. It is his voice that carries it, in the form of yet another self-made theme song (featuring booming guest vocals from Misako Honjyo) which he often performs live, inviting the audience to join the party. Whole arenas, big or small, it doesn’t matter, turn into a festival of lights and love, and for as long as Kzy has a microphone in his hand, everyone’s voices will be heard.
They kick off their time as a unit in a big way, Kzy, Susumu and Horiguchi capturing the Open the Triangle Gate championship in May of 2018 and defending it all the way through to the end of the year. To this day, it’s still Kzy’s longest reign with a Dragongate Championship, and perhaps the most meaningful too – starting off his new era in earnest after a touch and go first few years. If he had to grow through the pain during those, he fully embraces joy during this time, making Natural Vibes the unit to watch and proving to his older, more experienced teammates, and also to the roster – and audiences at large – that he has arrived, and he is here to stay.
At the end of the generation war that tore through Dragongate for all of 2020, during which every unit save for the dastardly R.E.D was disbanded, Natural Vibes was the only unit that actually reformed, coming back together almost exactly as they were. In the whirlwind of change that was sweeping through the place, there needed to be at least one symbol that persisted – of companionship, and of hope. To kick off the new year, Natural Vibes holds an audition for new members, who bring with them new possibilities and new dreams to chase.
Of all the members of Natural Vibes who came and went over the years, there is perhaps no one who connected with Kzy on a deeper level than U-T.
Whether it’s teaming together in the ring, their determination and never say die mentality mirrored and pulling each other upwards, or sitting at the commentary booth, trading snacks, inside jokes and shouting expletives in English to amuse themselves, there is a tangible connection between the two of them. It’s a relationship that’s as precious as an uncut gem, the prism of love reflecting outwards on them, and on everyone else around.
It would have been the easy way out for U-T to give up, to resign himself to a path that he didn’t choose but that fate seemed determined to push him along on. Always narrowly missing opportunities, always just a little too late, a little too weak. But, as we now know, that’s not how things are done around here. In Natural Vibes, alongside Kzy, he finds his footing again and begins the climb upwards to his dream.
Both almost forgotten, both fighting desperately to catch up to respective generations who seemed to have moved on and left them behind, Kzy and U-T find solace in each other. When the pair win Ryukyu Dragon Pro’s Souryuo Tag Team Championships together, reigning with them for a year at that, Kzy makes a point of putting U-T front and center. Neither of them have held Dragongate’s own tag team championships at this point, but you have to take your chances where you can rather than wait for them to come to you. They make the most of it, defending against any challengers. In May of 2022 in U-T’s hometown of Nagoya, they put the titles on the line against the HIGH-END team of Dragon Kid and YAMATO: the former whose Brave Gate title matches in that very city had been the catalyst for U-T’s professional wrestling dreams, and the latter who had debuted alongside Kzy sixteen years prior but had long surpassed him in the hierarchy of Dragongate. If they can win this, then they can achieve anything – and they do. After a back and forth that calls to the years of history carried on each man’s back, U-T gets the upper hand and traps Dragon Kid in the rolling pin he had inherited from the veteran’s historic rival – and Kzy’s mentor – K-ness., bringing his story full circle for the first time. Together, they overcome their shortcomings little by little, forging a bond that survives through to this day as they stand, unwavering, by each other’s side.
When Kzy challenges Mochizuki for the Dream Gate, U-T is right there at ringside, watching him grab hold of what had previously seemed unreachable. When Kzy announces his departure from Tribe Vanguard, U-T is the last to leave the arena, bowing to Kzy before he does, a silent acknowledgment of all the things that have been shared and learned. When U-T celebrates his tenth anniversary, in August of 2023, he chooses Kzy as his opponent for the match. In May of 2025, when U-T finally, finally clears the last step towards the childhood dream that had led him to becoming a wrestler in the first place, and wins the Open the Brave Gate Championship on his home turf, Kzy is right there with him, cheering him on, embracing him, sharing the joy. The seeds planted during the short time they spent together in Tribe Vanguard, what feels like two lifetimes ago, are now in full bloom.
Taketo Kamei joins Natural Vibes on the same day as U-T, but for him, the stakes are entirely different.
Debuting right as Dragongate is plunged into a three-way all out war of generations, Kamei spends his first year trying to find his footing. He forms a partnership with fellow rookie Madoka Kikuta, which quickly falls apart when Kikuta is recruited by the R.E.D side. And though he tries his best, the midst of war is not quite the place for a young man to grow up with any kind of stability. So, when the newly revived Natural Vibes announces that they are holding auditions for new members, Kamei finds himself with an opportunity.
In his first unit, Kamei finds his way. While most of its members had a fairly strong grasp on their identities prior to joining, most of them simply needing the stability to fully embrace those identities or the support to pursue dreams that previously felt out of the question, for Kamei the unit reveals the potential that was just waiting to burst out. Renaming himself – twice, first to Funky ‘Jacky” Kamei, and then to Jacky “Funky” Kamei – he comes out of his shell in an explosive way.
Natural Vibes, and especially Kzy and U-T, become like brothers to him, older and more experienced, but all of them still always looking for their own place in this vast world. Together, they win the Triangle Gate championship and Jacky establishes the start of his own path. Maybe most significantly, he forms a friendship, and a tag team, with someone else who had been looking for a reason to keep believing in himself.
Jason Lee may not have been born in a Dragongate ring, but he has fit right in from the start. Steadily growing into a key part of the new guard since his arrival in 2017, he has also tasted for himself what it’s like to be caught up in the intense melodrama that often characterizes the promotion. In 2022, as he is being psychologically torn apart, extending himself over to several units who want to recruit him – chief among them Shun Skywalker and his recently rebranded Z-brats, claiming that Lee simply belongs to him after their time spent together in the now-defunct Masquerade – Natural Vibes throws their lot in for the contest.
It will be Lee’s decision in the end, although the units fight over him like they’ll get to pick him up regardless. Skywalker continues to act as if this is merely a formality and that Lee will, of course, join him in the end. Kzy, just as implicated as the rest of his own unit, still approaches the situation in his own way. On April 21st, 2022 in Kobe, as Lee is being aggressively courted even mid-match, Kzy takes to the mic and gives the Hong Kong native a simple and resonant piece of advice: “Don’t think, feel”.
A quote from the 1973 Bruce Lee vehicle Enter the Dragon, these are three simple words that mean oh so much to Jason, who has modeled much of himself and his fighting style after the martial arts icon. It’s proof that Kzy has been watching, listening, and, above all, trying his best to understand where Jason might be coming from and how he tries to navigate this situation. It’s Kzy saying, maybe not in his own words but in ones he knows will reach Jason’s heart, that he sees him, and will not force him into anything. Rather, he offers Jason the luxury of choice, of listening to his heart.
With the unit, Jason finds his confidence again. He forms a tag team with Jacky “Funky” Kamei, the two eventually scoring a big win for themselves, and at the time, a personal victory for Jason, when they defeat Shun Skywalker and Diamante to win the Open the Twin Gate championship in the summer of 2022. It’s a victory over the past, opening up a new path for both men, free of the terror at last. The following year, Lee scores his first ever singles title in Dragongate, defeating Minorita to win the Open the Brave Gate championship. Everything seems to be looking up, and although there are losses that must eventually come, Jason Lee is home.
Isn’t that what everyone is looking for?
Someone who would come to embody the spirit of Natural Vibes almost as strongly as Kzy himself, Strong Machine J also took his own road to find home. A second generation wrestler, son of 1980s New Japan Pro Wrestling mainstay Super Strong Machine, the masked powerhouse debuted in Dragongate in 2019 with a massive amount of pressure pushing down on his padded shoulders. First gaining some measure of success as the leader of a short lived group named and fashioned after himself and also his father (who had had his own Strong Machine stable in the 1980s), always looming above, defining his identity and guiding his every step, J soon finds himself longing for something else entirely.
For his own dream, his own path, his own identity.
Natural Vibes, ever buoyant, welcome their new member. Kzy is the one who makes the introduction, leading the crowd into cheering for Strong Machine J, who finally sheds his coat of metallic armor and with it, all the expectations to become anyone but himself. Finally, he is given a space to simply be, without compromise, without having to push anything down – you don’t have to be what they want you to be, what fate thinks it can dictate for you. Your path is yours to choose. On that day, Strong Machine J reveals the heart underneath the machine facade. A fighter, yes, a dreamer, most definitely, but also a dancer, a passion he had kept hidden away, now fully revealed. When J removes his mask to reveal another, in signature Vibes green, and begins showing off his breakdancing prowess to the cheers of the crowd and the ever-present encouragement of his new unit mates, Kzy chief among them, a whole new world opens up in front of him.
It should be an easy road from here. It isn’t.
Motivated as he might be, opening up and finding new ways to express himself in the ring, Strong Machine J finds himself hitting wall after wall. A particularly painful defeat is handed to him by then Open the Dream Gate champion Shun Skywalker in early 2023, just months before the two find themselves named as part of a new generation that will lead Dragongate into the future. This lack of results takes its toll on J, slowly but surely, and he is not the only one.
By that same time the following year, everything has started coming unglued.
At that point, Kzy would probably tell you that Natural Vibes is fine. No, really. Even though both Jason Lee and Strong Machine J find themselves growing more and more exasperated by the unit’s recent lack of results, even though they keep falling for the underhanded scheme of a still bitter Shun Skywalker, everything is fine. Kzy tries his best to keep the unit together, promises that better things are coming, but eventually everything boils over.
Lee takes events much harder. Caught in confusion and friendly fire, he lets the anger bubble up inside of him until finally, during the final stages of the 2024 Rey de Parejas tournament, everything spills over in the ugliest of ways. During the last block stage match, against Z-Brats’ Shun Skywalker and ISHIN, Lee finally snaps and betrays his partner Jacky “Funky” Kamei, and everything they had worked, for two years, to build together. Realigning with Skywalker, Lee vows to bring destruction to his former family, kicking off the events that would lead them to that year’s cage match at Dead or Alive.
The look on Kzy’s face that day tells a hundred stories.
The pain of feeling cheated, the heartbreak of betrayal, the loss of a trusted friend. The crumbling, in one instant, of the peace he had tried so hard to find for himself and provide for others. The burning realization that this, too, is a part of life. It’s not a failure on his part, rather than a choice Jason made that might have been inevitable, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less.
Despite it all, Kzy tries to keep a defeated and dejected Natural Vibes together, because it’s all he can do. Nothing will make Jason come back. Not now. And all they can do is to keep going.
But Strong Machine J is also angry. J is desperate to prove himself, to make sense of what is happening around him, and he wants more for himself and for his people. He wants Natural Vibes to find their way again, to not bend under the manipulations of Shun Skywalker, to not dwell on Jason’s betrayal. Eventually, it’s too much, and J walks out on Vibes, frustrated and irate. A match is set for Dead or Alive, May 5th, where he faces U-T – someone who, despite it all, has never lost his belief in the unit, never doubted that they could make it work through everything.
Strong Machine J wrestles the match like a man possessed, overtaken by his anguish. He punishes U-T as if daring his dance partner to show him his resolve, to prove that there is still a reason to believe. U-T, who wants nothing more, does just that. He lets J take all his emotions out on him, even at one point standing with his arms outstretched, ready to receive the full force of J’s feelings, to take them inside himself and turn them back out into better ones. U-T who, by this point, has stood by Kzy’s – and J’s – side the longest, has become a symbol of resilience for their unit, has stood by watching these past few months as his friends tore each other apart, is the one who ends up scoring the victory. His expertise – and his cooler head – ground Strong Machine J just long enough, but his words following the match don’t seem to reach him quite yet, J refusing to even look at him as he leaves the arena.
His present unraveled, and his future uncertain, Strong Machine J still has a lot of thinking to do, and a decision to make. Later that same night, as the rest of Natural Vibes come out to support Kzy and Jacky as they step inside the treacherous walls of the cage, there is a noticeable absence, and a foreboding sense of dread different from the one usually carried within these wires. As always, the cage promises to be unforgiving. On that night, on top of the usual mask vs hair wager, Kzy has also put his membership in Natural Vibes on the line, a decision he made himself to prove that the situation had not diminished his belief in the unit, that he was not, nor would he ever be again, someone who runs away from his responsibilities.
Even though Shun Skywalker and a now fully transformed Jason Lee stalk him like prey, ripe for the hunting, even though Jacky himself wrestles with his doubts and his place within Natural Vibes, Kzy keeps his faith close to his heart, and enters the fight determined to keep it alive.
Just as Kzy is about to reach the top and make his escape, Skywalker is there waiting to knock him all the way back down – a recurring theme for these two men whose lives and careers could not be more diametrically different, yet so intrinsically linked. But someone else is there too. Strong Machine J climbs the exterior of the cage, reaching the top with his intentions still unclear, and it is evident from Skywalker’s reaction that he has already foreseen the outcome.
Except he hasn’t, and as is more often the case than he would ever admit, Shun Skywalker is wrong about this one, too. Strong Machine J takes the aluminum sheet from Shun’s hands, and promptly caves it in over his head, sending the raving maniac to the floor, and offering a hand for Kzy to escape for good. As they embrace atop of the cage, there is still a lot left unsaid between them, but some things don’t always need words.
In the end, Hyo, who had been courting Jacky for months and thus also found himself embroiled in the inter-unit drama and resulting cage match, is the one who pays the price. After sacrificing a chance to escape to save Jacky instead, he finds himself at the mercy of Jason’s anger and Z-brats’ overwhelming numbers, and ends up losing his hair.
After Z-brats leave the desolate scene in the cage, there are more difficult decisions left to make. Hyo is picked up by his tag team partner Luis Mante – another victim of Skywalker’s never-ending rampage, the former Diamante having lost his mask in that same cage the previous year – and the two wait at the top of the entrance ramp, expectant. Jacky has to decide, and all can tell it weighs heavy on his heart.
His brother helps him through it.
In one final act of unconditional care towards the kid he helped bring up, through moments of joy but also moments, just like this one, where their futures seem so uncertain, Kzy relieves Jacky of the last of his doubts and gives him his blessing to go join Hyo and Mante. It’s a necessary goodbye this time, and one that happens on their own terms. Moving on is the only way to keep growing, and Kzy had learned that himself years prior, leaving Tribe Vanguard of his own accord. If this is what Jacky wants, what he needs, if this is his next chapter, then who is Kzy to deny him that?
When Susumu was forced out of Natural Vibes in May of 2022 after losing to KAI in a Dream Gate match, Horiguchi went with him. They might still have needed each other, brothers from another time, but they trusted Kzy to take care of the haven they had created together. He has grown into someone who can do for others what they have done for him. For many who come and go through the ranks of Natural Vibes, the unit presents a unique opportunity to find their place, and find themselves, in a place where they won’t be judged for simply trying.
At the end of a grueling day, to be able to even do this for Jacky, to be someone who can inspire and uplift others, is because others have been there to inspire and uplift him. Kzy lets himself become part of that cycle, a mosaic of everyone who has come and gone from his life, everyone who has ever loved, or even hated him. It doesn’t really matter, not as long as they touched his soul,and left him with something to remember them by.
Just four days after the chaos in the cage, Strong Machine J captains a Natural Vibes team, including U-T, to victory over Z-Brats capturing the Triangle Gate titles – J’s first taste of championship glory with the unit. Following the win, an emotional Kzy, who had been watching and taking everything in, makes an announcement: he will be stepping down as Natural Vibes’ leader. And as his final act, he bestows the position onto Strong Machine J.
Because he’s finally ready.
Strong Machine J’s ultimately unwavering belief in Kzy, in spite of Shun Skywalker’s machinations and J’s own doubt, is part of what brought him here. But it’s also because J was able to go on the journey by himself, finding the answers to his questions and his doubts in his own way, that Kzy finds the strength to let go of the pressure of being Natural Vibes’ leader. Maybe it has become a heavy burden to bear, for him, another thing that makes him needlessly doubt himself, but in that moment he sees it won’t be the same for Strong Machine J, who would later prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that he can thrive in the role. The machine who became a little more, who found his humanity through the power of Kzy and Natural Vibes’ love, in turn shines his light on Kzy, the relief of understanding.
Where many units demand a certain image, a certain style, a certain way of being, Natural Vibes, as its name so straightforwardly implies, only demands that you come as you are, with your strengths and your flaws, your dreams and your doubts. Everything will be worked out in time.
Hope is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all.
Emily Dickinson
Through the years, Kzy earns his keep, his fair share of wins that will stay with him and with everyone who is there to witness them.
The first one comes with his victory over then Open the Dream Gate Champion and seemingly all-powerful dragon Shingo Takagi in the 2016 King of Gate tournament, right on (or at least, close to) his home turf, in Sapporo. It isn’t just a win over a man who had tormented him for years, always needling at his flaws and his shortcomings. It is a victory of the self, over so much of the remaining doubt that still lives in his heart, over the person so many had claimed he would always be doomed to be. Proof, in every way, that the risk he took by taking a chance on himself could pay off in a big way, that there is value in doing things you’re scared of, in taking leaps of faith.
Takagi, as is his way, doesn’t pull any punches, and doesn’t miss any opportunity to try and remind Kzy exactly where he belongs. He may have strength and status on his side, but Kzy has guts, enough to withstand the champion’s relentless assault, to get back up every time Takagi thinks he’s finally put him down. He’s done getting thrown over and discarded. Using up every bit of energy he can muster, Kzy catches Takagi by surprise in his trusted Skayde Schoolboy flash pin and ekes out the victory, beaten and bruised, but alive. Still alive.
As his gear – and much of his merch – proudly proclaims, Kzy is “Straight out of Ebetsu City”, a small town in Ishikari Prefecture, Hokkaido, just 12 miles North-East of Sapporo. It is the place he calls home, and that he carries with him everywhere – through the symbols on his ring gear, the motifs on his robe, and maybe, most importantly, the presence on said gear of Ebechun, the city’s mascot. A square-headed bird who cannot fly and carries a wheat stalk around, Ebechun will often shed tears of joy when it witnesses something wonderful, like farmers working hard or children being born. A reminder to appreciate everything in life, that even the smallest, most mundane events can bring you joy as long as you know how to look for it.
It’s something that Kzy, through his journey, has made into a goal in itself.
Maybe one day, Ebechun will also cry for Kzy. In the meantime, it will continue to accompany him on his journey through life.
In 2021, long unburdened of so much of the doubt that was holding him back, Kzy enters King of Gate once again. In previous years, he had managed to reach the final stage only once, losing in the semi-finals of the 2019 tournament to eventual winner Ben-K. This time around, things aren’t looking so bright, as he finishes the block stage with only two wins, the trophy seeming so far away still, for another year.
However, as the tournament consists of only three blocks that year, a battle royale is organized to determine the remaining semi-finalist – and if there’s one thing Kzy will never do, it’s pass up a second chance. In the end, it’s only him in the ring with then reigning Open the Dream Gate Champion Shun Skywalker, young and skilled, but not quite clever enough yet. The champion gets outwitted and eliminated, and Kzy punches his ticket to the semi-finals. There, he makes quick work of another young up and coming talent in SB Kento, showing everyone that his time can still come, even if the new generation is ready to make its mark. In the finals, he faces Kota Minoura, yet another upstart, another reminder of the time that is passing but that he doesn’t let pass him by. Minoura is strong, and his time would come, but Kzy’s not quite done yet. He withstands the assault, launches one of his own, and locks Minoura in a hold that forces the young, still uncrowned prince to tap out.
Like the nana-kamado (ナナカマド, 七 nana: seven, 竈 Kamado: hearth or oven, Japanese Rowan, Sorbus Comixta), the official representative tree of his hometown of Ebetsu, so named because its fruit can be heated on the stove up to seven times without burning, Kzy takes on the pain, fuels it towards the fire burning inside, and wins King of Gate on his seventh attempt.
It’s a sight to see as Kzy is carried around the ring by Natural Vibes, all of them delighted for him, this firecracker of a man who nearly burned out, who could very well have fallen by the wayside, but who found a reason to keep going, a way through the darkness within, into the light above.
There’s one person who knew all along how high he could go.
In the Spring of 2022, Kzy finds himself at yet another crossroads when he is called to compete in what would end up being – and perhaps, was always destined to be – one of the most significant matches of his career.
April 7, 2022. K-ness., a long time fixture of the Dragon System, one of founding father Ultimo Dragon’s prized pupils, takes the final step of his storied career. Broken down by years of dutiful service and mounting injuries, the iconic masked man, the artist formerly known as Darkness Dragon, chooses to exit on his own terms, teaming up with his historic partner Susumu Yokosuka to face not only his fated rival, Dragon Kid, the light to his now fading darkness, but also the man whose life and career he inarguably helped pull out of the shadow and into the blazing sun: Kzy.
When Kzy was reflecting on his life up to that point, on what could be the next step for him, an artefact of a man stuck between generations, before his reinvention, before all his success, it was K-ness. who became his inspiration. It was K-ness.’ work ethic, his determination in the face of adversity, that showed Kzy there could be a different path.
K-ness. knows all too well how the power of love and connection can move mountains. Back in 2015, it was his own feelings towards Susumu that had finally put an end to Mad Blankey, the force that had terrorized Dragongate for years – and the last heel unit Kzy had been a part of – when he turned on them to give the Jimmyz a decisive victory in a highly emotional Losing Unit Disbands match at Dangerous Gate.
On this final day, it’s only love that surrounds and then floods the ring and gives K-ness., his partner, and his opponents the strength to even stand here when all of them are clearly overcome by emotion. Love for this place, and love for each other.
Dragon Kid, overcome with emotion, nearly freezes on the turnbuckle during his introduction. Kzy, his usually unshakeable smile faltering as his eyes shine with tears, shows off special gear made for the occasion, in Dragon Kid’s white and green, but hiding the grin of K-ness.’ Darkness Dragon persona underneath the apron. Knesuka come out flanked by the all their friends from the good old days to the present, matching masks concealing the weight of the moment written on their faces.
It’s a spectacle, to be sure. K-ness. fights like he’s been transported back in time, like the weight of twenty-five years has suddenly been lifted off of his weary shoulders. He and Susumu move in perfect sync like they always have, like they never stopped, and their opponents give back as good as they get, Dragon Kid continuing his and Susumu’s eternal game of cat and mouse, Kzy going at his current stablemate Susumu with as much intensity as he can muster, even as his facade slowly crumbles.
As the match winds up to its grand finale, both Susumu and Kid understand that there is one last thing that must be done, and, respecting K-ness.’ wishes one last time, they exit the ring, to let the veteran fulfill one last promise. Battered and exhausted, K-ness. calls for his protege, for the man he invests all his hope into, for one last battle one on one with Kzy, eager to make sure, for the final time, that the message has been received, and that it will be carried through.
It’s tragic and poetic, and it’s a whole lifetime of possibilities unfurling in the ring as Korakuen Hall, like a cathedral, echoes only with the sounds of the promise they made to each other.
These are two men fighting, not against each other, but against time itself, against the inexorable ticking of the clock that brings us all to the end we have to face one day. K-ness. knows that end is here for him, after years of putting off the inevitable, of trying to hold on to the years that were slipping him by. Kzy, for his part, has let too many slip by also, and now he wants to stay in this moment forever, unwilling to be the one who has to do this. But deep in his heart, he knows that he must. It has to be him, a final promise to be upheld. So, he stands up, red eyes looking straight ahead, forcing himself, through tears, to honor K-ness.’ wish. Hit me with everything you’ve got, K-ness. Dares him, arms outstretched, calling for the only end he has made peace with. If it truly has to be over, this is the only way. They both know it. And yet K-ness. keeps getting back up, and Kzy keeps charging up and hitting him, elbow strike after elbow strike, in between sobs and pleas. As K-ness. uses the last of his strength to get up, again and again, there’s a smile etched on his face. He’s seen and felt what he needed to, and he’s ready now. This world is in good hands, and he knows that Kzy will never again shy away from its hard and sometimes ugly truths if it means finally uncovering the beauty and the joy underneath.
How do you say goodbye to someone who has shaped your very being, whose fingerprints are everywhere on your soul, whose footsteps formed an arrow for you to follow when everything seemed lost?
You honor them with your own life. You keep on living, because it’s all you can do.
In the end, K-ness. doesn’t take his final bow without leaving a few artefacts behind. His partner Susumu inherits both his necklace and his ring – symbols of not only K-ness’ power, but also of their bond, K-ness. plainly stating “in this ring, although you are alone, you are Knesuka”. Some of his most iconic moves and maneuvers also find new masters, his innovations continuing to impact the Dragongate ring long after he is gone: Yuki Yoshioka, whose run as Dia Inferno, the tormentor of Dragon Kid’s protégé Dragon Dia, had led him onto his own journey of self-discovery and companionship, inherits the Darkness Buster, and U-T, his in quest to become Dragongate’s ultimate llave specialist, receives the Hikari no Wa, which he would later rename Paciencia.
In hindsight, there is some poetry to be found in the fact that Kzy’s closest, and at the time of writing, longest remaining ally, inherits a move from Kzy’s mentor the original name of which translates to Circle of Light (光の輪 Hikari no Wa). Although K-ness. is gone, the light he shone on Kzy remains, always present, always illuminating the way forward, visible in the people he loves, and in the person he became.
Just like how K-ness. picked him up, took him under his wing, and led him on his way to living a life that would be worth remembering, Kzy does his best, always, to do the same for everyone else around him.
There are massive stacks of bad choices in my backyard.
Buddy Wakefield, Human the Death Dance
Haven’t finished cleaning the place up
but I’m workin’ on it
and clearly I have not yet reached enlightenment
for more than a fleeting moment
but I’m tryin’
and I found somethin’ here I want ya to have.
It’s not much
just a story
but it’s all I’ve got
so take it.
Through all of this, it’s probably not a coincidence that Kzy finds himself consistently embroiled in a battle of wits, wills, and ideals, with one of the new generation’s most colorful characters – one Shun Skywalker.
In many ways, Shun is the exact opposite of Kzy. They debuted ten years apart, and their paths could not have taken more different directions. While Kzy spent the first decade of his career hopelessly toiling away on the undercard, never amounting to much more than the third man in a Triangle Gate team, Shun quickly became one of Dragongate’s top prospects, growing first under the watchful eye of Masaaki Mochizuki, who hand-picked him as a partner on multiple occasions for title challenges and visits to other promotions (such as the 2018 edition of All Japan Pro Wrestling’s Junior Tag Battle of Glory), then alongside dojo classmate Yuki Yoshioka during an eye-opening excursion to Mexico. When Shun returns to Dragongate to challenge Eita for the Open the Dream Gate Championship, it’s after Kzy has just been defeated in a title match.
Two weeks later, Skywalker would go on to defeat Eita for Dragongate’s top prize, becoming the then-youngest champion in the history of the Dream Gate (a record broken by Madoka Kikuta in 2023). He was 24 years old then, just four years older than Kzy was when he debuted, fourteen years earlier.
In the eyes of so many, above all his own, Skywalker is everything Kzy has never been able to become.
But as this story goes, the opposite is also true.
Shun Skywalker may have ascended to the top of the mountain in record speed, but as he was faced by the realization that not everything comes easy even to a prodigy, he left behind everything that made him human in the process.
So, when they clash, and Shun inevitably finds himself confronted with Kzy’s unwavering optimism – and often, his humorous disregard for Shun’s antics – the truth of their dynamic is revealed, plain as day.
Shun often, and loudly, looks down on Kzy, believes him to be weak and unworthy of even standing in the ring because he places love and compassion above strength, which Shun holds as the most important thing of all. The strong will rule, the weak will be eliminated, and there is no place in this ring – in this world – for fools who waste their time on such silly things as friendship. He constantly berates Kzy in every way he can, from in-ring promos to long-winded social media spiels, about all of this, and in doing so fails to realize what is, and has been, right in front of his face the whole time.
A few months prior, Skywalker had knocked Kzy out of the King of Gate tournament, utilizing any means necessary to achieve his goal – par for the course for the masked man at this point. Kzy looks to settle the score. He has yet to beat this new, post-excursion, and especially post-sanity slippage Skywalker, who has bested him in both title and tournament singles matches. But that ends right here, right now.
There’s only so much disrespect a man can take, even when carrying out a message of positivity and good vibes only.
Although their rivalry hasn’t yet quite reached the fever pitch it would in following years, it’s already clear how fully opposed to each other they are. The match drips with bile, with all the spite accumulated between the two of them, all hard blows and blatant contempt, a snapshot of two paths diametrically opposed, yet forever intertwined.
Skywalker and the rest of Z-brats eventually do as they do best, taking out the referee and covering the ring in chairs for maximum punishment. Shun is already reveling in the eventual victory when BxB Hulk – then back to his old, devious ways – whiffs a chair shot and hits him instead of Kzy. The situation now turned on its head, it doesn’t take much time for Natural Vibes to take care of the rest of Z-brats, Jacky and Jason wiping them out on the outside with tandem dives, and for Kzy to plant Shun right on his head.
As soon as the bell rings, all of Natural Vibes are embracing him, celebrating, sharing a moment that Kzy had been chasing since the previous summer. Meanwhile, still laid out in the ring, Shun Skywalker refuses to believe that it could even have happened, and blames the rest of his unit, nearly coming to blows with BxB Hulk before having to be carried out like a petulant child.
When Kzy closes the show, he takes the opportunity to reaffirm the principles that have carried him and Natural Vibes for all that time, the values he still holds above everything else. No matter what comes at them, no matter the danger or the threat, no matter if they’re all they have left, they will not stray from their core message of unity and respect. He will never let it happen, not after he spent so much time building it up, but especially because he wants to give back. Has to. Needs to. It’s how he feels alive.
Shun consistently fails to see that all the things he treats with contempt and disgust are the reason Kzy has been able to survive this long, the reason Kzy is able to stand back up and continue standing up to him. That this love, this understanding, even at his own detriment, is what draws people to Kzy – and that Shun’s own rejection of them – and sometimes, his plain inability to even truly understand them, is what, eventually, ends up pushing everyone away. Yes, Shun Skywalker is a domineering and seemingly all-devouring presence, but time and again, he fails to make meaningful connections, or, worst of all, loses the few he does have, all because he is blinded by his desperate need for power and control.
When Jacky (no longer Funky) Kamei left Natural Vibes at the conclusion of the 2024 cage match, because he had felt and received the love that Hyo had been desperately trying to convey and found himself finally ready to move to the next chapter of his career, he did so with Kzy’s blessing. Moving on doesn’t mean losing sight of what got you to that point, and the symbolic moment between Kzy and Jacky simply meant that both of them could find closure, take new steps separately, always knowing that their time together meant something.
Skywalker, of course, would try to twist the moment by claiming that Jacky had simply abandoned Natural Vibes, that Kzy had failed as a leader, by failing to to keep him in the unit, that his weakness had cost him yet again – all yet more evidence that Kzy is simply not fit to lead, or even exist in Skywalker’s world. Nevermind that Shun had failed miserably at recruiting Jacky for his own unit, that he had been thoroughly rejected, not just by Jacky but also by Strong Machine J, gained only the sick yet temporary satisfaction of seeing Hyo humiliated.
At the end of the day, Natural Vibes reaffirmed their commitment to each other, Jacky found a new home built on love, and Shun Skywalker had only his delusions to comfort himself.
There lies the real difference, the reason why, regardless of wins and titles and status, Kzy keeps running ahead always to new and often better things, while Shun runs in circles, holding on to grudges, always sinking deeper into the quicksand of his resentment.
He will have to learn, in time, that this is not the way, no matter how easy it is, no matter how sweet the instant gratification. Maybe there is a future where Shun Skywalker lets love in, finds the beauty in the simple things rather than in the abundance of accolades and fair-weather friends that still fail to fill the void in his heart. Kzy learned this a long time ago.
At the core of Kzy’s story as the motor of his reinvention, is this love, unshakeable and all encompassing. Love that breaks down the barriers of people’s hearts, that rallies and encourages and pushes not only himself, but everyone who allows it and him into their lives, to become more than they are, regardless of what the world at large may first see or say. It is this hope, that things will change, that they can be different, that they have to be – otherwise, what is it all for?
Here is my hand, my heart, my throat, my wrist. Here are the illuminated cities at the center of me, and here is the center of me, which is a lake, which is a well that we can drink from, but I just can’t go through with it. I just don’t want to die anymore.
Richard Siken, Saying Your Names, Crush
What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do?
Was it leaving your hometown, going far, so far away, in search of the path that was right for you, and would lead you to a future you could barely yet envision? Was it changing jobs, realizing that your vocation might lie elsewhere, and having to leave behind all the work you’ve done up until this point to take a chance on a new idea of happiness, despite nothing being certain, no success being guaranteed? Letting go of a relationship, because although you’ve had many good times, you know that the roads that lie ahead for each of you have to split so you can find the place you’re meant to go? Accepting that not everyone can come along with you, even though it feels, so deeply, that they are a part of you?
Is it, simply, to keep on living despite everything? To keep on hoping, and keeping your eyes on the line over the horizon that calls your name, beckoning you towards better days. To remember that, although “there are far better things ahead than any we leave behind2” those things will always be here, a part of you, and a part of the journey.
To take all the parts of your story, and become someone who can be proud of each and every one of them, because nothing – and no one – else can make you who you are.
In Eichiiro Oda’s long running action/adventure manga One Piece, protagonist Monkey D. Luffy, a scrappy, headstrong dreamer assembles a crew of misfits, forsaken by the world and chasing seemingly impossible goals, to take on the high seas. As his journey goes on, and as he grows along it, Luffy taps into untold potential, eventually unlocking the full power that always lay dormant within him. He inherits the legacy and takes on the mantle of Joy Boy, a legendary figure whose return signals an irreversible turn in world events, and his heartbeat takes on the sound of the Drums of Liberation, leading all those who need to hear them towards freedom.
There is a raging, ongoing debate among the fan community about whether professional wrestling is more like movies, or theatre, or anime or video games, and about whether it should even attempt to be like any of those things. Opinions may vary (and oh, they do), but in the end, the truth is that at its best, professional wrestling, much like all the aforementioned mediums, is a mirror of life itself. It is a dramatic sublimation of the events and the trials we go through and that make us tragically, beautifully human. Beneath the smoke and mirrors, beyond the costumes and the songs, every wrestler, every character, is just a person trying to find their way into the world, trying to find the place where they belong. And if it doesn’t exist yet, they’ll simply have to make it, carve a space for themselves with their own two hands.
A story being largely fiction doesn’t mean it can’t touch your heart in a real, tangible way. For so many, in and outside of the ring, professional wrestling can, and has, and does, reflect the pain, the loss, the change and the growth, the multitude of events that make up a human life – for what is a life but a story we write ourselves?
So, here’s the story: a man picks up the broken pieces of himself, and, with the help of friends who know exactly what it feels like, puts them back together, refashions himself into something more, something better, something no one ever expected him to become. The gold threads of these relationships become the glue that holds this new version of him together, stronger for the things he has been through, wiser for knowing those things make him who he is.
In the traditional Japanese art of kintsugi (金継ぎ, lit. “golden joinery”), the act of repair is not meant to erase the cracks or the scars, but rather to highlight them, to honor their importance, the fact that they make us who we are, beautiful and imperfect and whole. It teaches that instead of trying to hide the faults, which will always make their way to the surface if you simply try to ignore them, you should embrace everything that has contributed to making you, you.
When Kzy makes his entrance at Kobe World in 2021 to face Shun Skywalker for the Open the Dream Gate Championship, fresh off winning King of Gate, his 15th anniversary in professional wrestling just a few months away, and his dreams still very much alive despite everything, he does it with his head held high. He’s been working his entire life for this moment, for the main event of Dragongate’s biggest show of the year, for one chance to prove that all the trials and tribulations, all the mistakes he made along the way, and all the choices he made to correct them, were worth something in the end.
It’s easy to say that it’s not about the result, especially when he loses, when he’s crushed yet again under the weight of the world and the future. There will probably always be a portion of the audience who ask themselves, what if it had been his time, what if finally, after everything he has gone through, everything he has had to face, he had been able to reach the top of the mountain. It is a competition after all, and this is the one last prize that eludes him.
But it’s also of utmost importance to remember that despite a late start, despite so much standing in his way, not least of it himself, at least he got there.
And, best of all, he did it his own way. Eventually, he found the path he was always meant to take, never again bending to tired expectations, determined to always prove that it’s no use trying to fit into a mold, breaking yourself down for people who would never look twice at you even if you crawled at their feet.
He got there by knowing that no matter what happens, getting back up is the most important part. That as long as there is one person by your side, one voice cheering in the crowd, one chance to make things right again, you have to keep going.
After all, are we not all just going from trial to trial, doing our best to survive, to thrive? Can it not be enough to find joy in a life that’s full of meaning, rather than cling to shiny material things that will be gone sooner or later, long before we are? Shouldn’t it be all we aim for, to live, just to live, free and unburdened of expectations, going at our own pace, finding our own way?
No matter what, you have to live. You have to keep going, to tell this story so that others might hear it, and know that theirs is worth telling too.
Lead the way. Become the light. Let everyone know, this path is paved with love. Do it for the 20 year old kid, lost and afraid, who can’t even begin to imagine what the future looks like, who is just looking for something to believe in. Do it for the one who feels like his dreams are slipping away. Do it for those who don’t even dare to dream, to become all they’re meant to be. Do it for anyone, anyone at all, looking for a place to lay their head, even if it’s just for a moment, even if your paths have to split eventually.
Show the world that it’s possible, to pick yourself back up, again and again, to build something new, to prosper, just because you can, because you want to, because you’re alive. It’s the secret to being human, after all. Despite everything, we carry on.
Regardless of victory or defeat, there is value in knowing that in the middle of it we found a reason to keep going.
Time passes, and we carry on. Friends leave, new ones come into our life, families expand and break apart and put each other back together, and we carry on. Life comes and it goes, and it keeps on going, and we carry on.
We carry on.
Author’s note: this is not intended to be a biography, or even a fully chronological record of events. Examples and details were chosen for their thematic relevance, but it does not mean that those I omitted are any less important. If I did decide to include everything, this probably would never have gotten done, plus isn’t it also the point: to lead people into discovering the rest for themselves, to live through this story in turn?
2. Due to the unclear circumstances surrounding BIG BOSS Shimizu and his current suspension/hiatus, I have chosen to keep him mostly out of this piece.