The Good Brothers will return to New Japan Pro-Wrestling so Karl Anderson can defend the NEVER Openweight Championship, but it will be done on their time.
Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson were the latest guests on WWE After the Bell with Corey Graves to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked about the fact that Anderson still holds gold in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, The Machine Gun confirmed that he’s still the NEVER Openweight Champion and intends to return to New Japan to defend the title in the future.
“I am the New Japan Pro-Wrestling NEVER Openweight champion, and big LG is my heater at all times,” Karl Anderson confirmed. “I’m gonna go back on my time. So New Japan Pro-Wrestling usually 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 were going to do.
“The dates are coming up, and so this will be good to explain this. I’m going to come back, and I’m gonna defend my championship, but I’ve gotten some slanderous tweets. I’ve messaged Rocky Romero, who’s a great friend of ours who’s one of the office brothers at New Japan Pro-Wrestling, and I go, I can’t wait to announce this date because these people are just really, really hating me right now.”
A contracted WWE talent still working dates for a company like New Japan Pro-Wrestling is usually unheard of. But with the new regime in place right now, it’s clear that things are changing, and The Good Brothers aren’t sure that some people understand the magnitude of how big something like this is.
“This is so big I don’t think people understand the magnitude of how big this absolutely is,” Luke Gallows said. “And I think that six months ago, this would have not been a scenario at all. I think it’s huge, and Karl can speak even further on it. But I mean, the fact that that’s being allowed to take place is monumental and in wrestling history, if you will.”
“I think as longtime fans, we can probably most of us agree it’s huge,” Karl Anderson said. “I saw Shinsuke [Nakamura] at NXT a couple weeks ago, and even he pulls me aside, and he goes, ‘Chado, big problem, New Japan big heat because of NEVER title?’ Even Shinsuke doesn’t understand what’s going on.”
Good work #BrotherYujiro ….!
Beat @Hiku_Leo up!
I am still the greatest #NeverOpenweightChampion of all time.
Please message my agent @The_BigLG , so we can work on an date I can can whoop @Hiku_Leo ‘s butt!
Anyways, catch me on #WweRaw from Dallas, Texas on Monday ? https://t.co/STbcFvAOqT— Karl Anderson (@MachineGunKA) October 29, 2022
Karl Anderson admits that due to New Japan “kayfabing the boys,” there have been some people who’ve gotten mad at him regarding the entire situation. The Machine Gun explains the WWE schedule, mixed with the time it takes to travel to Japan to compete, can throw wrenches into things. This makes landing a specific date on short notice extremely difficult to do.
“So yeah, which can also teeter into personal life where the boys can get mad at you thinking you’re actually doing something, and they kayfabe the boys,” Karl Anderson said. “But I told Shin I said, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna go back at some point, and we were just trying to work out the dates.’ Because WWE is you’re live every Monday, you gotta go to Saudi Arabia; 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 because you got to travel the day before, two days before to get there the day before, to work the day of because if you leave the day before, you’re not going to make the show the next day. It’s 13 hours ahead.”
“And then maybe you have to get on a six-hour train when you get there, so people don’t understand like just to get to the show is a day and a half sometimes,” Luke Gallows chimed in.
“You need four or five days for this whole trip to happen, and sometimes with the WWE schedule, it’s not possible,” Karl Anderson admitted. “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. And I’m like, this is pretty cool. And I mean because WWE hasn’t really done stuff like this. This is pretty, pretty cool.”
READ MORE: Karl Anderson Won’t Defend NEVER Openweight Title At NJPW Battle Autumn
What do you make of The Good Brothers’ comments? Are you hoping to see Anderson and Gallows at Wrestle Kingdom next year? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
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