Ahead of his match with Will Ospreay at this weekend’s 2019 G1 Climax Tournament, I spoke with Lance Archer about how impressive the A Block of the tournament is and “The American Psycho” went on to say that both blocks of this year’s tournament is stacked, but there are a lot of enticing elements that makes the A Block stand out in it’s own right.
“The whole card is stacked. ‘B Block’ is stacked as well. I think it’s just the fact that Okada and Tanahashi and a debuting KENTA and ‘The Golden Star’ Ibushi, the hot-as-fire Will Ospreay, it’s all in the same block. I think that’s what’s getting people excited about ‘A Block’ and then you throw the two monsters of New Japan, [Bad Luck] Fale and myself in the same block, you would think one would be in the other and so on and so forth, but no we’re in the same block so at some point you’re going to have a super mega heavyweight match between Fale and I which is something none of the other G1 is going to get, you know? And you don’t get to see that very often in professional wrestling anyways so…”
Archer also talks about his excitement for getting the challenge of singles competition. Today is actually 19 years to the day since when he first stepped foot in the ring.
“I see it as a challenge. I’ve been lucky enough to be in this business 19 years, eight years with NJPW. July 5 when we’re doing the press conference will actually my 19th year anniversary in this business, so a lot of my time in this business has been associated with tag teams from Kid Kash, to Jimmy Rave, to Curt Hawkins and now you know Davey Boy Smith Jr. Most of my career has been very much tag team-oriented and so I see this as a true opportunity to kind of create a new ‘next chapter’ in my career and to show people that even though 19 years has gone by and even though my age a little more than a lot of the younger generation that’s competing now that I have so much more left in me and in the tank and I’m ready to prove myself yet again in this business. I just see it as an awesome cool challenge and it’s on a stage that very few people get to be a part of, a lot of people wish they were a part of and I’m actually out there and gonna be a part of this so I’m excited.”
