And I know you guys stayed busy as a unit together, but Karl,
correct me if I'm mistaken, you currently still hold a title for New Japan.
>> [LAUGH] I am the New Japan Pro Wrestling NEVER Openweight Championship,
and big LG is my heater at all times.
>> Okay. >> And that will continue, and
that will continue until we see otherwise.
>> How does that work?
Do you have to go back?
>> I'm gonna go back on my time.
So New Japan Pro Wrestling usually strips strips their champions when they can't
make a show.
And they threw a leniency in there because they announced a match for
me when we hadn't totally agreed on what we're gonna do.
>> The dates coming up and some and this is, well,
this will be good to explain this, I'm gonna come back and
I'm gonna defend my championship but- >> On your terms.
>> Give it- >> Just relax.
>> Give it a second, Brother Graves, not you, the people that are really getting
I've got- >> The people.
[LAUGH] >> I've got some slanderous tweets.
>> [LAUGH] >> I can't wait to announce this date
because these people are just really, really hating me right now.
>> We're coming for your throat, New Japan loyalist.
>> [LAUGH] >> I'm keeping this title,
I'm keeping this title, never given it back to Japan.
>> That's right, we're keeping it hostage in America, damn it.
>> There we go.
>> [LAUGH] >> I love it, I wanna get your thoughts as
guys who have spent a significant amount of time in your careers in Japan.
The announcement that was made last week that Nakamura is gonna go to work for
NOAH, with the Great Muta on The Great Muta's retirement tour.
How weird is that, and how weird is the timing of you guys coming back under
the WWE umbrella as the same time that the world is sort of opening?
You hear the term forbidden door, but when WWE, this is pretty unheard of.
Do you guys have optimism?
Do you think this is something that could be big going forward for the business?
>> I think it's huge, and Karl can speak even further on to it, but I mean,
the fact that that's being allowed to take place is monumental in wrestling history,
if you will, I think.
As long time fans we can probably, most of us agree it's huge.
>> No, it's like I saw Shinsuke at NXT about a couple weeks ago, and
even he, he pulls me aside and he goes, Chatto, big problem,
you're New Japan big heats because of- >> [LAUGH]
>> Never title because even shit,
even Shinsuke doesn't know.
>> He doesn't know what's going on, yeah.
>> And just for anybody listening- >> Yeah.
>> For the sake of anybody who may not be familiar,
the Japanese as a culture do business very differently.
>> Right.
>> And that includes the sports entertainment industry.
There are certain lines that you don't cross, and
it's very different than it is here in the United States.
And the brand that you work for, there's a loyalty goes very far, and
there's a lot of separation over there as opposed to kind of a big business.
So continue, I'm sorry.
>> No, but I told Sheamus, I said yeah, I'm gonna go back at some point.
We're just trying to work out the dates because WWE is,
man, you're live every Monday.
You're live, you gotta go to Saudi Arabia, you gotta do these,
Survivor Series is coming up.
So you're trying to think of what days you can go, and with Japan,
you're knocking out four days at least cuz you gotta travel the day before.
Two days before to get there, the day before to work the day of,
cuz if you leave the day before, you're not gonna make the show the next day.
>> Yeah.
>> It's 13 hours ahead. >> Yeah.
>> And then maybe you have to get on a six-hour train when you get there, so
people don't understand, just to get to the show is a day and a half sometimes-
>> Get on one of those-
>> Before anything happens.
>> [LAUGH] >> Bullet train.
>> Bullet trains to Hokkaido. >> [LAUGH] Right, exactly.
>> That's easy.
>> Take me north, brother.
>> [LAUGH] >> You need four or five days for this
whole trip to happen, and then sometimes with the WWE schedule, it's not possible.
But then Shinsuke told me before it was announced, Shinsuke goes,
I'm going to wrestle Great Muta for his retirement.
I said, wow, that blew me away, too.
>> Sure.
>> And I'm like, this is pretty cool, and I mean, cuz WWE hasn't really
done stuff like this, and this is pretty- >> It's been a long time-
>> Pretty cool.
>> And that's another thing. >> In a while, yeah.
>> I think a lot of people seem to realize it, and it's understandable, it's-
>> Yeah.
>> Seemingly ancient history, we're all aging ourselves here.
But you look back at, I believe it was WrestleMania 5, and you had Tenryu and
Koji Kitao- >> Right.
>> Against Demolition, and I'm getting a note that was WrestleMania 7.
Thank you, Alex, for correcting me.
>> There you go.
>> [LAUGH] >> Whether it be Mexico or Japan,
there have been forays out there where even Vince would say, hey,
let's do a little business, let's try to help everybody grow.
Because you know the old adage, a rising tide rises all ships.
>> Sure.
>> But for one reason or another,
business, usually, it just never really worked out.
>> It moves on.
>> Particularly for any sort of tenure, no sort of time.
So all of this is, when I read the news, I saw Shinsuke's tweet first that just said,
miracle.
>> Yeah.
>> And I went, what?
What is he talking about?
>> Yeah. >> And I said, my God, Muta.
It's crazy to me as a guy, I haven't spent nearly the time in Japan.
You guys have, but just as a fan, it seems almost hard to fathom.
And now you guys are back on this side of the world, under this umbrella.
Is it exciting for you guys for the possibility of what could be?
>> 100%.
>> Very, yeah.
>> Yeah, I think that it's cool, too,
because you're kind of cross-pollinating audiences.
Where WWE is so big and so broad, and we talk about demographics and
the children and stuff like that.
And then these hardcore, serious wrestling fans like that are a big part of
the Internet community and all of that.
There's like a cross-pollination with the casual fan to these serious hardcore
fans, too.
So I think it's gonna be really cool from a fan perspective as well,
because these are like, if any of them are possible,
they're true dream matches that you can't see in these, the big number one company.
It's phenomenal, to use Uncle Allen as an example.
[LAUGH] >> Yeah, I think through the years WWE
always took in this smarter fan community.
He would take flak for not working with other people or not doing this or that.
But being in the WWE system, the amount of time that we had been, and
seeing how busy the WWE is, I mean it's hard to find time to do this other stuff.
>> Yeah, it's a machine.
>> Yeah, and if you wanna be 100% honest too, right?
I think we even talked about this with New Japan,
anything WWE does with other companies is gonna help the other company.
>> Correct.
>> Yeah.
>> But that's just an obvious thing.
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