Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s #1 ranked wrestler of 2017 Kazuchika Okada spoke with the magazine about topping this year’s list, the possibility of joining WWE and more.
Several of WWE’s top Superstars, including AJ Styles, Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura wrestled for New Japan Pro Wrestling before signing with the company. Okada has worked with them all and would love to compete against them again, but he’s not sold that WWE is a good fit for him.
When asked if he’d consider working for WWE, he said, “It’s not something I think about. New Japan is far superior to WWE when it comes to the quality of the roster and the quality of the matches.”
Okada follows the WWE product and has been backstage for several WWE events over the past year. He attended last year’s NXT Takeover: Brooklyn and SummerSlam shows (photo) was backstage at RAW and SmackDown in July (video) when NJPW was in town for the G1 Special tournament in California. He keeps an eye on what Balor, AJ and Nakamura are doing in WWE and says they look like they’re having fun.
“One thing I will say is that I do pay attention to what Finn Balor, AJ, and Nakamura are doing, and they look like they’re having fun. I might want to wrestle them again someday, but I might want to do that in New Japan.”
With so many big name wrestlers crossing over into other fields like movies and even UFC, Okada teased that he might follow in the footsteps of guys like The Rock and Batista.
“Hell, I might want to be like some other people and become a movie star or join the UFC. You never know.”
The @OfficialPWI 500 is ready for order right now in print & digital at https://t.co/Ip3ocrA39F. Congratulations, Kazuchika Okada! pic.twitter.com/LZiKfvIOSg
— PWI (@OfficialPWI) August 30, 2017
