一期一会

一期一会

There’s a moment of darkness before the screen slowly fades in on Hideo Shimada sitting in what appears to be a shopping mall food court. In his hand is a McDonald’s cup as he sucks down a milkshake. Hideo takes a moment to consider his words, looking around the large shopping mall he’s found himself inside of.

America is a strange place.

He laughs.

I arrived here a little more than a week ago and I have never felt so lost in my life. It’s just so… vast. Everywhere I turn there is something new. It’s intimidating, daunting… but also very, very exciting. For years I have dreamed of reaching for the stars and yet up until now I had never left my home of Japan. It sounds difficult to imagine but it’s true. I grew up lonely in Japan. I did not have many friends, nor much of a family beyond my little sister. My parents had their own aspirations for me and they differed greatly from my own. They wanted me to stay in school and focus on an academic career but I could not find it in myself. Every night I spent gazing up at the stars, all I could think about was how that’s what I wanted to be. I wanted to be a star. A superstar. A professional wrestling superstar. That was my dream, my ultimate goal. Even when doubt crept in through the naysayers and an endless line of hurdles stood in my path, I refused to give in to such disparaging thoughts. No one was going to keep me down, not even myself. Whatever hole I would dig for myself when I was made to feel worthless and that I wouldn’t make it in this business I knew I had to dig myself out of. No one else was going to, were they?

There’s almost an air of frustration in Shimada’s voice… but it’s very much overshadowed by his light-hearted demeanor as he looks back on the past, knowing it no longer defines him.

Being put down. Being worn down. Being beat down.

Those were the three things that defined the early years of my training. I could have quit. If I had given up then and there no one would have blamed me. Every night I’d come home with fresh bruises and muscles so sore I could barely stand on my own two feet… but that is why we do this. We dedicate ourselves to this — bleed for it — in hopes that one day we will find our big break and make it in this industry like we always dreamed of. We are all dreamers, after all. That’s what brought us to professional wrestling. What allowed us to climb through the ranks, though, is our hard work. There are those of us who are naturally talented, athletically gifted, or have the right connections… but time and time again we see that it is the hard work that pays off. It is not being gifted with natural athletic ability or knowing people in high places that earns you the glory of being a world champion.

That is why I feel a certain sense of pride knowing that I will not be making my debut in APEX against one of those people. I came here to have the fire burning inside my stoked, to have my strikes sharpened against the whetstone until they are identical to freshly forged blades. Harvey Kennedy, a man who came to APEX through scratching and clawing, with blood, sweat and tears drenching his body nightly? Now that is an opponent worth the utmost respect. I do not expect it to be mutual. I am an unknown. My skills are unproven beyond my brief appearance as a Young Lion in the hellish landscape of SSW. Those are not representative of what I could have been, let alone what I have become now. I was told I’d be nothing but when you reach for the stars you soon realize that anything is possible.

His tone slowly turns serious.

That includes victory in my debut match.

I do not expect this to be an easy venture. My life has been a constant uphill battle, after all… but that is how I know I am heading in the right direction. “The only way is up”, as they say. Well up is the only way I’ve ever intended to go, as far as I can, no matter the odds or how the cards are stacked against me. I was born just as much a fighter as I was a dreamer and that’s what has and will continue to drive me to be the very best. That drive will never stop, nor falter, because my aspirations are too high and I have put in too much work to give up now. Harvey Kennedy, you are the first man standing in my way but you will not be the last. That is why I know I cannot afford to fail here. To stumble at the first hurdle is something I cannot stand to afford if I want to ascend up into the twilight sky. This is a test for us both but only one of us can pass it… and rest assured that the man who does will be Hideo Shimada.

It will be a pleasure to step in the ring with you in my first match here in America, Harvey Kennedy, and it would be an even greater pleasure to defeat you.

May the best man win.

With that, Hideo returns to drinking his milkshake. The screen fades to black.