Former WWE NXT 2.0 Superstar KUSHIDA recently spoke with NJPW1972.com to discuss his time in WWE, the change in the company’s philosophy last year that led to him not wanting to re-sign, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On the turnover in WWE and their change in thinking last August: “Well, to set the scene a bit, the turnover in WWE is really relentless. In August of 2021, there was a really sudden change in thinking there. Essentially they wanted to train young wrestlers, under 30, that didn’t have pro-wrestling experience and had come from other athletic backgrounds. When it comes to me, I don’t think it’s controversial to say that left me redundant, effectively. You have to remember I was 36 when I got an offer from WWE. It still really seems kinda hard to believe that HHH would reach out with an offer…So with this youth push on over there, it wasn’t like I had a shoot time machine of my own, so it became ‘OK, what can I do here?’. Everyone was asking the same questions, I think, actually. And NJPW immediately popped in my head. I felt really strongly right away that LA would be the best place to base myself. Even when I was in WWE, I had wanted to move from Orlando to LA, but the company wouldn’t let me; that hurt my motivation a little, heh. I think there’s a little bit of magic around LA that made it somewhere I always wanted to live.”
On if other promotions contacted him after his WWE deal expired: “Right…. right. To be honest as soon as the news broke my phone kept ringing and ringing, so I turned it off. I’m really grateful for that, but turning my phone off was more a thing of not wanting other people’s voices to influence me. I figured that this is one of those crossroads in life, somewhere where I had to really think about what I wanted to do next. If I couldn’t be true to myself, I couldn’t be a pro-wrestler anymore.”
On if he ever planned to make the move up to heavyweight: “Not at all. Never. HHH and Shawn Michaels would always say this when I was in WWE- ‘make it organic’. Me coming back to an NJPW ring having died my hair blonde and with new gear, entering the G1 and then challenging a heavyweight champion. That might be the organic path for a wrestler that came through the Dojo system. But I didn’t. It wouldn’t be the organic path for KUSHIDA. In the end, KUSHIDA is KUSHIDA. It’s me, it’s organic. My whole life story is me being a short, small guy who took himself to Mexico and got on this road of being a professional wrestler. I didn’t come through the NJPW system, and I have pride in that too. All of that is how I’ve managed to survive in the business. I’m not going to deny all of that.”
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