NJPW superstar and OG Bullet Club member Tama Tonga was a recent guest on the Wrestling Inc. Daily. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
NJPW still paying talent to stay home during the COVID-19 crisis:
They are letting us stay home and be with our families and not coming into work, No. 1. No. 2, they are taking care of us by paying us to be at home during this hard time when the company’s not making any money. That’s really big. They’re not firing any of us right now so I’m very grateful. I think we’re just taking it month-by-month and week-by-week and adjusting. I think they’ve just put out that they’ve cancelled the Super Juniors until June. So, we’re gonna go until June and see how the situation is. We’re just taking it day-by-day and step-by-step.
Wanting to inspire people:
I want that to be known to the world. It wasn’t easy to get here and I want to inspire people that if I can make it, you can make it. I know we touched on the dojo, but I brought him back to what was right before the dojo. To me, the in-between is what’s important to me and what’s important to me to give out to the people. Nobody ever knows the in-between and that’s what I wanna do.
His new podcast with Ross Berman:
I’m interested in people and you brought your friend Ross in and I asked him some questions to see who he is and what he does and what he’s about. Real easy and simple. From that first meeting, I felt right and felt that things would come on naturally. Getting to work with somebody, you’re gonna figure out how to mesh together and I think we figured that out pretty quick. It can only grow from there. When talking to Ross, I’m not talking just to talk. I want Ross to know me too and there will be times when I’m gonna pick his brain because I like to know who I’m talking to. As we get deeper in knowing each other in this relationship, it will get better. When I tell this information, it’s not just for the fans as it’s for Ross so we can mesh better.
Full interview below. (H/T and transcribed by Wrestling Inc.)