NJPW star David Finlay recently chatted with the NJPW press to hype up his IWGP U.S. title match with Will Ospreay at the promotion’s upcoming Burning Spirit Tour. Finlay, who has held tag team gold for NJPW, is ready to finally prove himself as a singles wrestler and become the snakebitten title’s next owner. Highlights from the interview are below.
On wrestling Adam Page in AEW and how he wants to face the Hangman once again down the line:
I really enjoyed it, it was really cool. It was my first time, doing like big time American TV wrestling. So uh, it was cool to get the opportunity to do that. I got the call from the office like three days before, ‘Hey, there’s an offer for you to wrestle Hangman Page, do you wanna do it?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ No hesitation. He beat me unfortunately but I’d like to run that back with him.
How the IWGP U.S. title has been snakebitten, but says he his healthy enough to have a proper reign:
I mean you say that but I feel like we’re still at risk, because Ospreay’s kidneys were failing him a couple months ago. Anything can happen, it feels like that title is a little snake bit. But rest assured, I am in perfect health, there’s nothing you need to worry about there. I’ll defend it every single time. As for the lineage, I hope that Ospreay is 100 percent. I know I said I hope he’s burning the candle at both ends, but I want the Ospreay that was in the G1 Climax finals against Okada. That’s the guy I want to beat. I don’t want some medical problem to come up and have a match against someone who didn’t deserve a title shot and say, ‘Oh, well, who’s gonna be the champion?’ No. I wanna beat the champion. I feel like I want it to be undeniable, definitive, I am the champion.