Hikuleo discusses his talks with WWE.
In the early months of 2023, Fightful Select reported that WWE had interest in both Tama Tonga and Hikuleo. Many people around the world of wrestling thought that both stars would end up signing with WWE, but fast foward to November 2023, and both Tonga and Hikuleo are still active for New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Back in October, Tama Tonga confirmed these rumors in an interview with Fightful. Hikuleo also recently spoke with Fightful, where he also lent credibility to Fightful Select's reports.
"It was true [Tama Tonga and I were speaking to WWE]. I think it added more value to the match. Everyone had their idea of who was going to win and who was going to lose, but the fact that, right after that Jay announced the loser leaves match. The next day, we were getting ready to leave from Tokyo. I was sitting on my bed, bags packed, on my phone, and then Tama texted me, ‘Did you see the internet?’ ‘I don’t want to see the internet right now.’ ‘Just open it real quick.’ I look at it and my notifications are blowing up and I’m like, ‘Damn, did I do too much and tell somebody? What the hell is coming on.’ [Fightful] reporting it just added more wager to the match itself and kept everyone guessing what was going to happen."
Hikuleo went on to say that he thinks talks broke down due to communication, saying that it wasn't quite the right time.
"Just the communication and a lot of factors. We were weighing it out and we talked about it for a while too. It was a lot of things. It wasn’t quite the right time. Not sure there will ever be a right time. It was a lot of factors at that time didn’t play out how we thought it would. There is loyalty, there is trust you build with New Japan or any company and you don’t want to break that off and just jump right now when something seems good. It just fell through and we’re where we are supposed to be."
Hikuleo then went on and praised New Japan Pro Wrestling, specifically for having faith in him during an early period in his career.
"I got injured when I first started at the Dojo, I fractured my wrist, and I was struggling through the workouts. I was one of the last ones to finish everything. Usually, when that happens, they’ll cut you. They’ll fire you within the same week. They had a lot of faith and wanted to see me out and see how we did. For those two reasons, plus, what they did to help my father and our whole family, we can’t be quick to make decisions off money right away. You have to wait things out a little bit."
Hikuleo and El Phantasmo are set to defend the NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Team Championships against Jorel Nelson and Royce Issacs at NJPW's Lonestar Shootout event, which will take place on Friday, November 10.
Fans can see Fightful's full interview with Hikuleo in the video linked at the top of this article.
Furthermore, fans can check out Fightful's recent interviews with Rocky Romero, Jordan Oliver, Heath Slater, and more by visiting our YouTube channel.
