NJPW star Henare recently joined Monthly Puroresu for an in-depth interview about his career, what his status is with the company, and how he has received interest from outside companies. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
On his current status with NJPW:
Well, to be honest, the whole pandemic era sort of put a cap on the amount of money that the people could make here. It’s the credit to New Japan, the Japanese company and Japanese style. If people are giving you their lives, you don’t fire them. It’s not like other companies where if the profit margins are down, you just release some of the guys at the bottom. Japan’s not about that. They’re all about servitude. So that’s one thing that I’m grateful for them. But in saying that, I’ve been outworking everybody, every single person, Japanese, all gaijin, I’ve been there, I’ve been hustling. I moved my whole life to Japan. [New Japan] is struggling with money, I’ll help you guys out. You don’t have to fly me every few weeks back to New Zealand. So I did that for them. Now it’s just like, ‘Am I being appreciated? Am I being given the opportunities that I deserve or that I’ve fought for?’ I’m not one to say like, ‘Please, sir, can I have another?’ Sort of thing. I’m a go-getter. But when you see guys like Tsuji coming in, he was technically below me, but then it gets thrown right into the match with SANADA. He lost, but he still got given that opportunity and not many people get that opportunity. I get it, he’s a Japanese guy. He’s the guy you wanna push, you need a evil gaijin and I’m happy to be that guy for you.
Says he has interest from other wrestling companies:
But contract-wise, I have had interest from quite a few other companies. At the same time yesterday, I got a call for a movie, a Hollywood movie that’s being shot in New Zealand. I had a call from the producers yesterday. So I’m like, ‘Wow, there’s so many different options.’ But I’ve done so much work here, I’ve hustled for so long, I’ve grinded for so long that I just want to see the end of that, the end of that path before exploring other options. But at the same time, if I go to other places with more global outreach, that Maori kid in Northland that’s struggling, that has nothing, they might just turn on his Netflix and see another Maori kid, you know? Like, ‘Hey, that guy looks like me.
