NJPW star and former two-time IWGP U.S. champion Juice Robinson recently spoke with Fightful about tonight’s Windy City Riot event in Chicago, which the Juice reveals will be his final date for the Japanese promotion. He also discusses his run with NJPW after initially signing there in 2015. Highlights from the interview are below.
On his journey in NJPW:
Man, I started with New Japan in September of 2015 and I’ve been with them ever since. It’s been a crazy, crazy time. I’ve grown so much as a man, as a performer. It’s really crazy. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it’s all come to now, having a street fight in Chicago, my home area. I got fifty people coming from my friends and my family. They’re getting a party bus. It’s gonna be a ruckus, sold-out crowd. We got Brody King and Finlay and me against Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste and JONAH. It’s gonna be insane with all kind of street fight weapons. Are you kidding me?
Hopes fans support him one last time at Windy City Riot:
This is it. Support me one last time in Chicago for the Windy City Riot. It’s sold out. You can get it on Fite TV if you want to support me.
On the contract extension he signed with NJPW:
Yeah. It ended January 31st and then it was a three-month extension. So that puts me at the end of April. I will no longer be with New Japan as of April 30th. So this will be my last match, April 16th in the street fight. It’s pretty cool. My whole family’s gonna be there. It’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be pretty emotional for me. It’ll be a great time,” Robinson shared.
How he’s leaving NJPW on gootd
It’s on good terms. It’s just I’ve gotten to a point where I understand what the job entails and I don’t know if I want to do that still. I don’t know if I can continue to do the job in which it needs to be done as far as travel, being away from home and it’s not fair [to them] if I can’t do the job, I can’t have the contract saying I do. So, yes, it’s on good terms.
Says he’s not fully retiring, but definitely taking less dates:
Definitely taking far, far, far less dates. Moving onto something else, pending and in the process of. But definitely far less dates.