Welcome back to our interview with Baliyan Akki. The ace of the Chocolate Square took the time to talk to SteelChair about all things ChocoPro. In part 1, we discussed his rise in wrestling and finding ChocoPro. In part 2, we’ll dive more into the world of the Asia Dream Tag Team champions the Best Bros, the benefits of the ChocoPro system, and how hard it is to adapt to it, and a little look to the future as he prepares for a new season of ChocoPro before ending on how different roles can lead to self-improvement. Enjoy!

How hard is it to adapt a normal wrestling style? I can think of a lot of people who would be lost without a ring. How would you adapt to that, you’re quite the high flyer so you have the windows but there are no ropes to bounce off of? How does that work as a thought process?

“I really don’t know. It’s hard to believe I can wrestle her for thirty minutes, and I don’t do a single thing that I do in a ring, almost. A ring seems easy after doing this. That’s the relation, a ring seems so easy after this. A ring is like, ah, twenty, easy, no problem. As long as I do the random stuff, I’ll still make it. You can get away with so much when it’s a ring. You can just do what everyone does for most of the match. The corner, the ropes, the mat, you can just do the casual stuff you’ve learned for many years, and that’s okay. Here, you have to dissect wrestling. You take the whole of wrestling, and you can do this much in the Chocolate Square. You need to compress all that wrestling into this small amount. Then you need to expand that small bit so it fills the whole match. If you can do that well enough, people will forget there is not a ring. That’s how it is, at least in my head.”

That sounds so hard…

“Oh, it is hard. You have to think a lot. That’s basically what you do. You just think and think and think. I think all the time literally of what I’m going to do all day, every day. That’s what most guest wrestlers that come here will do too. It expands your creativity. It makes you think in a way you never did before. In my head, every wrestler should wrestle in Ichigaya Chocolate Square once a month to stay on top of their game. That’s how important I think it is.”

That actually sounds like quite a good idea…

“It really is because I know a lot of our guests who feel that way too.”

I can totally agree. It was a Chris Brookes guest match against Mei Suruga that convinced me to start reviewing the show full-time…

“The pinata match? That singles match was in season two I think…”

Was it that long ago? I forget how quickly the seasons move…

“Right, it feels like tomorrow and decades ago. When you’re doing it feels like a year. When we did ChocoPro #100, everyone felt like it had ended. We were so busy, ChocoPro #100 was crazy. Then we remembered no, there are still eight more shows this season. Everyone was super tired. Then I remembered Best Bros vs. Egg Tarts was actually season 6 episode one (ChocoPro #91), and I went, hold on a sec, we just wrestled them. It feels like a year when we are doing the season, and when it ends, it feels like we’ve just started it. Looking back, it’s a very weird place, ChocoPro, it really is.”

Speaking of Mei, it would be remiss of me not to ask the origin story of The Best Bros, the current Asia Dream Tag Team Champions, and probably the most dominant faction in ChocoPro…

“Thank you for saying that. Nobody thinks that, by the way. It’s a compliment almost. We’re a team in such a natural sense that nobody ever considers us when they talk about teams in ChocoPro. Me and Mei, we fight so much generally in our everyday life that people, especially the backstage people, the wrestlers, the guests are used to us bickering about absolutely anything every day. The thought of us being a team doesn’t really show up that much in everybody’s head. So, when they talk about teams, Egg Tarts would be brought up, Pencil Army would be brought up, or even the newer teams like Fujita and Honda, or Fujita and Yunamon. They forget Best Bros because we’re always just there. It’s like your home couch that you forget is there. That’s how Best Bros are in ChocoPro when we talk about teams. So, you saying that we are the most dominant, thank you for saying that. We don’t hear that at all. For us, our origin story would be, we actually didn’t tag together at all in Gatoh Move, we always fought. Like even when ChocoPro started, I actually had a singles match with Mei. I love that match, it’s one of my favourite matches. We had so much fun in that match. We always fought, we only tagged once. My last match before I left Japan was Emi Sakura and Masa Takanashi against pre–Best Bros, so just Akki and Mei, which is now my dream match for Best Bros. That is the match for Best Bros, that is THE match.

“Those two people made what is called intergender wrestling to this day. I don’t know why because wrestling is wrestling, literally. Those are the people, they’ve been doing this for ten years even before this was a thing, they’ve been a team. They’re not an intergender team, they’re just a team, and they’ve wrestled like we wrestle for ten years now. They’ve wrestled Joshi teams, mixed teams, guy teams, they’ve wrestled everybody. Just a team. They’re just a team. For Best Bros, I think they’re the pinnacle of a mixed team. Emi Sakura and Masa Takanashi are the pinnacle of mixed teams in the world. No one can even come close. We did that match, and I think it was the first time we tagged together. We would be here a lot, we’d hang out a lot, we were kind of friends but not really. In ChocoPro, we’d both be here every day, and we’d hang out, fight, or talk about something.

“We started doing live streams a lot, and someday somebody said, I was teaching Mei English, and somebody said, dude, and I explained to her what a dude is. Like how you use the word dude. Then bro and mate came up, and I explained to her what a bro is in Japanese. What is a bro, who you call a bro? The whole culture behind the word bro, and then because we were such friends someone called us Best Bros. Somehow that just stuck. I don’t even know the first match we used Best Bros in. I think it was last year on our birthday because we share the same birthday. I think we tagged for that, and somebody called us Best Bros. I don’t even know who, but somebody did in the chat or something, and then that got stuck. Now we’re Best Bros. Literally no one came up with it. Somebody in the chat randomly said it, and then everybody else started using it. We just went with it. I don’t even think we got called Best Bros the first match we did as Best Bros. Along the way, we somehow ended up as Best Bros, and that’s now the team’s name.”

I love how a lot of the dynamic is just you trying to keep Mei from breaking rules. It’s a lot of no don’t do that, stop…

“She is just a bratty kid. That’s the whole thing. I don’t even have to do anything, she’s just a kid. Somebody has to go, don’t do that. You know when kids start eating mud or something? You have to go, don’t put that in your mouth, it’s not good for you. That’s basically what I am doing most of the time.”

Which wrestler would you like to visit Ichigaya? Who is a dream opponent for the Chocolate Square or who would fit nicely as a guest?

“I got asked that recently, and I think I should keep my answer the same. We’ve been watching a lot of AEW Dynamite these days because Emi Sakura is an AEW wrestler, actually, half coach, half wrestler as an officially appointed coach and wrestler, and we do watch parties of them. She wants to do something for them to boost their popularity in Japan. To do that, we do the watching parties, and as a pure wrestler, I love Fenix. Not because he is a high-flyer or anything, we love the fire in him, the desire to be the best. You can see it in his face. He’s just going fifth gear, very ChocoPro in that sense. Bringing his A-game day in and day out. Never a slow start just go go go. We love it here. To me, he’s also really creative in the way he does high-flying. He can fly, but most people can fly. If I have to think about move-set, most people can do a Shooting Star Press with practice, a moonsault with practice, people can walk the rope if they practice. If they practice, and if they’re athletic, like if they’re a generally athletic person, they should be able to do that. It’s not about moves in my sense.

“The way Fenix uses himself is very creative. He tries to do things himself, and he does them well enough that they don’t look hard, which I think is the best part. Somebody like Fenix uses the ropes in the way some people previous to him have never used them most of the time. He found a new way of doing things people normally do. I would be really impressed to see what his mind brings out of this if I ever get the chance. So, Fenix would be the best person I would bring here because he would try to use it. At least. He has the spirit to be the best wherever he is. You can tell it in his face. He looks around and goes I want to be the best here or anywhere I am. That is what would bring him to not ignore what he could do here. To try and be the best here, and that would be one of the most fun things to see.”

Now I have the mental image of him trying to do a Moonsault off the corner tables or something…

“The problem is you can’t jump here. If I jump here like I’ve broken things jumping in here. I was practicing with a few wrestlers doing jumping exercises, and I don’t like to really jump. If I really jump my head will go through the ceiling. I was trying to get a good 70% jump, and yeah, hit the ceiling.”

As we’re looking towards future things, what do you hope happens with ChocoPro as we head into season 7 and onwards?

“I hope to see ChocoPro being the most popular thing in the wrestling industry, and I think it can. It might be really bold for me to say so, but to me, ChocoPro could be as famous as the most popular drama on Netflix. It has the capacity and most likelihood of crossing the boundary between wrestling and normal entertainment. I think ChocoPro is the closest thing wrestling has produced, or somebody has produced in wrestling that can just be something, a fun entertaining concept. It doesn’t have to be confined by the very strict community of professional wrestling. Also, in professional wrestling, it could be the most fun and talked about thing as well as the most accessible. You need nothing to watch it. Let’s start there. You need something to watch everything else. No matter what you talk about, you need something to watch it. Either you need to go live, you need a place or a platform or an on-demand service. You need something to watch, any product in the world of wrestling. With us, it’s one click. Open YouTube. It’s all you need. Two, I think it has a charm that is good for the way wrestling is moving. The direction wrestling is moving in. I really do feel that ChocoPro is going to be on the right side of the history when pro-wrestling is considered. It’s very serious but doesn’t take itself seriously. It’s very entertaining, but not trying to be. It’s wholesome, but not in a cheap way. It’s just its own thing, and it’s entertaining and good enough that you can get into it, but it’s also a product you can visit once in a while and still feel good about it.

“You can watch one show and feel very happy about it, or watch the whole season and be super impressed. It’s up to you. It’s not forceful. It’s relaxed and normal. When I watch ChocoPro, it feels normal to me. I don’t have to prepare myself to watch something intense, though it can be very intense sometimes. That’s how I end up feeling when it ends. Also, I feel something when I watch it. It’s not something I just watch because I’m a critic and want to know how they wrestle and how was the chops etc. I don’t give a damn about those things. I feel something when I watch ChocoPro. No matter who it is. If I’m watching Antonio Honda, I feel giggly. If I’m watching Lulu Pencil, I’m feeling the underdog in me. No matter who I’m watching, if I’m watching Mei, I feel she’s kind of annoying but kind of cute. I get that vibe. You feel something. There is an energy that you can really feel that is very genuine and hard to come across. In my view, where ChocoPro needs to be and what the future should be 10,000 people watching every ChocoPro live and ChocoPro having like 200,000 subscribers. A genuine YouTube monster is what I want ChocoPro to be. I think it’s going to take years to get there, but I think if we keep doing it, ChocoPro can get there. ChocoPro will probably be the place everyone wants to be. The venue where you see people who are in the buzz perform. It will be a hub, a place where people will want to wrestle.”

I do love the sense of community. You all feel like one big wrestling family…

“At the end of every show, Emi Sakura would make a joke about it, like, “what the hell is this? Why are we on one of those shows where people get angry now, they’re friends? Now, someone else is angry.” Things just keep revolving in that sense, an endless cycle.”

My last question is about what you’ve been doing elsewhere. You’ve done the Brookes-produced DDT shows, and now you’re doing commentary for an all-English weekly TJPW show. How’s it been taking on a commentary and production role?

“I don’t even know how I feel about it. I think people liked what I did with ChocoPro, but I did nothing at ChocoPro, which is the funny part because I don’t feel like I did anything. They would say it, and I would change it. I do like it because I get better at communication. I love communication. I love languages, and I like putting things in a way that would convey the most information in the least number of words. I like making things sound as good as they actually are. You can really make or break something when you explain it. You can make something cancellable or the best thing in the world. A move can be ruined based on how a commentator sells it. Sell has become such a cheap word, but when they convey it to you, it makes you feel how it must feel to be taking the finisher of the most dominant wrestler in the world. It doesn’t matter the finisher, that is how it must feel like the world has fallen down on you. To me, it matters because I’m a wrestler. I know if the person watching me wrestle Fujita and I’m out of my mind because I can’t find that next step to beat him and get what I want so badly. This whole one-year path of ChocoPro has been leading to beating someone like Minoru Suzuki, who is a legend in Japan and the dream of wrestling in Japan. It’s not just a match, and if the person sells it, it fills my heart with happiness. That’s the job of commentary, and I love the commentary. One of the biggest reasons I learned Japanese wrestling was because I was watching so much of it, and I love Japanese commentary. I love it.

“If someone hits a dropkick, especially in NJPW. NJPW commentary or old-school All Japan commentary from the ’80s. That is my favourite commentary in the world because if I hit a dropkick and a good dropkick in a NJPW match, they’re going to sell that dropkick until I have gotten up from it. I’m going to stay in that moment because it’s a heavy move with a heavy feel. If you’re in the venue you feel heavy. You get taken aback, familiarise, and then when I’m ready to watch the next bit. It took twenty seconds for you to go through all that when you’re watching on TV, you don’t feel that energy. To them, you just jumped, so it’s the commentator’s job to make you feel that weight, to take that time. I love figuring that out. It makes me a better wrestler because it gives me a better perspective on what I’m doing as I’m watching as a third person. That’s what I did in ChocoPro, and that’s why I say I got ten years’ experience because not only did I wrestle, I became a cameraman for ChocoPro. I saw how different things looked from different angles. From here, it’s the sharpest thing ever, from here, eh, he did something, I don’t know what he did. It’s the same thing with commentary. It really emphasises what I knew about wrestling. The fact that I was able to do it at least good enough that other people recognised it and wanted me to do it for them really brings me great happiness. Apart from the fact I have to do it with Chris Brookes. Even then, I’m happy to do it and hope it helps me get even better than I am right now.”

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All images courtesy of Gatoh Move, Chie Koishikawa, Emi Sakura Videos courtesy of Gatoh Move YouTube