Report: Update On NJPW Star Tetsuya Naito Nearly Retiring in 2019
He was suffering from an injury for over six months...
Jan 7, 2020
On January 3rd, Tetsuya Naito revealed that he almost retired in 2019 because of an injury which caused him to have a "crisis of confidence."
Ultimately, Naito sought medical assistance which allowed him to continue wrestling and on January 5th he won the Double Gold Dash and became New Japan's first-ever Double IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental champion.
In an interview with Yahoo! Japan yesterday,
Naito revealed that he was suffering from an eye injury from May 2019 which prevented him from being able to concentrate during his matches for much of the year. He explained that during his matches he could see six ropes and the second and third rope overlapped each other, making it difficult to wrestle.
The Leader of Los Ingobernables De Japon sought medical assistance but did not receive a diagnosis until October when he was told that the muscles behind his right eye had loosened, causing the eye to be paralysed. He then continued to wrestle and competed on November 27th as he teamed with BUSHI against Jay White and Gedo. After the match, he travelled to Tokyo to undergo successful surgery on his right eye.
This meant he was able to get back to feeling like his old self and he returned to in-ring action on December 19th.
