IWGP NEVER Openweight Champion Tama Tonga recently spoke with Fightful on a number of topics including how he likes seeing NJPW work with other promotions in the wrestling industry.
Tonga said, “That’s what I like, New Japan working well with others. We’ve always been team players and I love that face that, they know, coming to the States, this is not their territory. We like to play nice with everybody, just like when they come to Japan, hit us up, we’ll play nice with everybody. We’re good dudes, right? New Japan is good guys.It’s a great time. With everything that is happening in wrestling nowadays, it’s a great time to have [partnerships]. It’s a perfect time, especially with New Japan coming to this new market in America, why not have as many partnerships as you can to introduce yourself to a new market?”
Why he has not been appearing in AEW as part of the NJPW/AEW partnership:
Tonga said, “It is obvious. The focus with me has always been New Japan to America. We have other guys ahead of me, doing the leg work, like Will Ospreay and Zack Sabre. These guys, they love the crossover. Everybody knows that I’m a New Japan guy and I’ve always been committed to New Japan first and foremost, but here we are. This is a new stage, we’re doing new things. I don’t want to give out too much, but there is definitely a future there. We don’t want to shoot all our bullets all at once. New Japan plays the long game. So do I.”
You can check out Tonga’s comments in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
