During his recent interview on Keepin It Strong Style NJPW star Rocky Romero spoke about his desire to have another run as IWGP Junior heavyweight champion (he previously held the title as Tiger Mask) before retiring, as well as his thoughts on IMPACT’s Josh Alexander, who Romero compares to the legendary Kurt Angle. Highlights from the interview are below.
Says he still desires a run as IWGP Junior heavyweight champion before he considers retirement:
I would like to be that [similar to Hiroshi Tanahashi always proving people wrong as he ages]. Or not — at least like find my little story within that and kind of use that as some kind of inspiration. So I’ve kind of put the pressure on myself like, ‘Do it before 40’ [win the IWGP Junior Title]. I don’t know what the stakes are because I don’t wanna say, ‘Oh, I’m gonna retire at 40’ but maybe it’s something I should think about to really put the pressure on or at least it’s something I should have a real serious conversation about because [it’s] fun to do it but if you still can’t do it in certain ways, like it’s hard for me to find the motivation after wrestling for so long, you know? It really is so if I’m not gonna do it at a top level then maybe I shouldn’t be doing it.
Praises Impact X-Division champion Josh Alexander and compares him to Kurt Angle:
Opponents? Josh Alexander is definitely somebody who stands out. I think he’s kind of on the cusp of doing something really big I feel like. Yeah, he does [have an IMPACT World Title match coming up]. That’s gonna be huge! Huge, huge. So, I don’t know. I think he’s kind of like our generation’s Kurt Angle if you — well think about it and not just because he broke his neck and he’s like an amateur wrestler, but he’s just so solid and I think his story is really good that he’s not an overnight sensation. It took him 12 years, 13 years to get to where he’s at just right now and he’s still not even there, right? We still haven’t seen his full potential but he’s obviously a super hard worker, he’s really gifted and I think that there could be big things coming for him and I would like to see him make that trip over to Japan and wrestle all the guys. Imagine him and [Tomohiro] Ishii. I mean there’s so many guys he could wrestle and have really dope matches. Him and [Hirooki] Goto would probably be really sick too, and that’s just a guy that I think that would make that crossover really easily.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling
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