NJPW English-commentator Kevin Kelly recently appeared on The Wrstling Podcast to discuss the NJPW return of former multi-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion KUSHIDA, and what it means for the company’s junior-division. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
It’s an exciting time. After wrapping up the Best of Super Juniors tournament and then Dominion where a new world champion was crowned in ‘Switchblade’ Jay White, then we move to the New Japan Road, we have a spectacular main event with Taiji Ishimori outlasting Hiromu Takahashi when all of a sudden, who returns? KUSHIDA. So again, that’s just one of the many stories that are going on in wrestling right now with a shift away from WWE as the true power and dominant force in garnering always the best wrestling talent in the world and now there are so many other options. KUSHIDA coming back home at the perfect time. And it’s one of those things where he’d accomplished everything he could accomplish and wanted to kind of complete his wrestling journey. I always believed he would come back, but then you never say, ‘Oh, well now is the time’ and then of course, you know, when he stepped away, we had hoped, we had thought maybe but didn’t know when and now all of a sudden he’s back and a challenger for Taiji Ishimori and who knows what will happen in the future but it was so exciting.
On working with Caprice Coleman and the work Coleman and Riccaboni did in ROH:
So having had different voices [to work with] all throughout the years, you know, Caprice Coleman was a part of it and now, I — some of what me getting to work with him I think set the stage for what he and Ian [Riccaboni] were doing in Ring of Honor and I hope they get to continue when Ring of Honor gets relaunched again.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling)
