Pro-wrestler Aaron Henare returns to the ring in Aotearoa

Aaron Henare - better known in the ring as HENARE - is a Kiwi who's been lighting up New Japan Pro Wrestling, winning an impressive two world titles in the last there months.

The pro-wrestler from Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Kurī and Ngāi Takoto will be bringing his two world championships back to New Zealand for the upcoming Matariki Rumble on Saturday in Pakūranga - where he'll challenge for the Aotearoa New Zealand Heavyweight Championship.

Henare told Afternoons he spent 13 months out of action after an injury at the end of 2024 but had come back strong this year.

"The physical side of it sometimes you just get too used to all the bangs and bruises and the pain that your body just shuts it all off. So that warning system of hey maybe your knee is going to blow out just sometimes doesn't exist for us [wrestlers]."

He said he played a lot of Playstation while off injured but the main thing was keeping up his training and diet.

He admitted he doesn't play wrestling games instead opting for RPGs like Elden Ring.

Henare said the world titles happened really really quickly so he wasn't expecting it. In the space of just over a month he picked up the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship and the IWGP Tag Team Championship.

"I got in the best shape of my life so, you know, I fit the bill but also my body can last a lot more. And it was pretty much since April where we did a big gig in AEW which is the biggest competitor to WWE in the world right now, and then we just took off, our whole team just took off."

Japan and Mexico were the two big pro-wrestling hubs outside of North America, he said.

"In Japan it's a lot more sport based, so you see a lot more martial arts strikes, we are actually hitting each other for real as opposed to the like soap opera American style."

It was that martial arts style that first drew him to Japanese Pro-wrestling.

"I loved the Japanese style, like I said I'm a combat sports athlete before becoming a professional wrestler and companies like PRIDE and all the rising MMA companies were blowing up at the time... I loved that martial arts foundation so I wanted to go there because I knew this is more competitive."

Henare said it's great to be home, especially coming home to Northland after his hectic travel schedule overseas.

"It's good to be back but it's also good to try and foster this new generation, try helping them with training, helping them level up so that we can build back to the old days when wrestling was like huge in New Zealand. That's my big goal."

Henare will take on Ringo Ryan in the main event of the Matariki Rumble, with the prize being Ryan's Undisputed Aotearoa New Zealand Heavyweight Championship.

"I'd say he's the biggest challenge in New Zealand, I'd say he's the most experienced guy who's been wrestling since he was in his teens as well, his trainers were a lot more experienced than my trainers."

He said it's their first one on one fight so he was expecting it to be a fun one.

"People turn up to the events thinking 'wow wrestling is fake' they leave it thinking 'wow I though wrestling was fake,'" Henare said.

Tickets for the Matariki Rumble were available now online.