“The Rain Maker” is ready for “The American Dragon.”
Ahead of his rematch against Bryan Danielson at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18 on Thursday, January 4, 2024, Kazuchika Okada spoke with the official NJPW website for an interview.
During the discussion, the Japanese legend spoke about the American legend and how he wanted to challenge him before Danielson extended a challenge first, and how Danielson has vowed to break his arm when they meet in the ring again this week.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On being thankful that Bryan Danielson challenged him to another match because he wanted to challenge him as well: “I wanted to challenge him, so he helped me out. It’s a chance for revenge. There have been no preview matches, so it’s a bit tough to hype up and maybe fans feel the same. But when you feel the atmosphere on the entrances, then you’ll know what a big deal this match is and that’s when I’ll be pumped up as well. I lost against one of the best in the world, that makes NJPW look bad and all of Japan look bad. So, I need to get revenge for that. I know he broke his arm and fractured his orbital, but I lost to him. Tapped out. Last time he had the home promotion advantage, now it’s my home. So it seems only right I get the win back.”
On Danielson mentioning his intentions to break his arm: “He should go ahead and try to do it. I can dropkick on a broken leg, rainmaker with a broken arm. If he thinks he can do it, I want him to try.”
Check out the complete interview via the YouTube player embedded below. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.