Yuji Nagata was recently interviewed by NJPW1972.com about his experience in AEW. Nagata challenged Jon Moxley for the IWGP United States title on AEW Dynamite but according to him, he had thought his entire trip to the US was to film shows for New Japan Strong.
“I honestly had thought the whole time we were going to do it on NJPW STRONG. However much I thought about how NJPW and AEW relate, I didn’t think we would do it on Dynamite at all,” Nagata said during the interview.
Nagata was also asked about having returned to TNT in the United States. Nagata regularly appeared on WCW Nitro as part of his excursion to the United States in the 1990s.
“It was a nice piece to that story. In a real way that was part of a warm welcome from them, to have that touch of having that match live on TNT,” Nagata said.
“I’ve always believed in showing that Yuji Nagata has a lot more fire than the average wrestler. That’s the same for every match, but this time in particular, I was back on TNT for the first time in 23 years.”
“It was being broadcast across the US, and there was a big reaction before the match even started, with social media I definitely got that impression. It was just a shame with COVID, the crowd was pretty limited.”
Yuji Nagata On Wrestling in the United States
Nagata continued to talk about how he was wrestling for the cameras and TV audience while in AEW.
“When you wrestle over there though, it isn’t as much about wrestling to the people in the building as it is wrestling to the cameras and the TV audience. That’s what had me fired up.”
Nagata continued to talk about meeting Moxley in June of 2019 when he ran into the former AEW World Champion at a World Tag League show.
“I thought I would just say hello to be polite, but we ended up chatting for a while. He said he had been watching my matches for a long time, that he had wanted to meet me for a while.”
“I’m a different generation to him, but apparently he saw recent matches of mine and got drawn in,” Nagata continued to say of Moxley.
Nagata also mentioned that he got to meet up with his old WCW manager, Sonny Onoo at the AEW show. He also was visited by Shinsuke Nakamura.
“Sonny isn’t in the best of shape with his heart, but he made it all the way from Iowa to Jacksonville. Shinsuke Nakamura came by my hotel as well.”
