Shane Haste says he proved himself with his win over Tetsuya Naito.
On the eighth night of the NJPW G1 Climax 33 tournament, Haste, formerly known as Slapjack in WWE, scored a major upset when he beat former world champion Tetsuya Naito in D Block action. Haste is one of several wrestlers who are making their G1 Climax debut in 2023; Eddie Kingston, Ren Narita, Gabriel Kidd, Alex Coughlin, Kaito Kiyomiya, Shota Umino, Hikuleo, Mikey Nicholls, and Yota Tsuji are also first-time participants.
In his post-match comments, Haste shared his thoughts following his victory. First, he highlighted his special hat.
“Ain’t nobody touch my hat and get away with it. You know how expensive that hat is? I’ll tell you what, you can’t just get them off the internet. No, no, look high and low. That’s a one of a kind Shane Haste sexy boy party hat. It’s my lucky hat, and I assure, if you put that luck on, you try to mix my luck with your luck, that’s like two negative lucks, like a luck magnet, and you touched it with yours, and it went out, and it’s done," Haste said.
Haste then noted that he had kept his mouth shut, but he was aware of the way Naito had complained about the number of competitors in the G1 Climax 33. He referenced Naito questioning whether all of the competitors belonged there. Haste made it clear that he believed he proved he deserved to be there, both in the G1 and in NJPW itself.
"Naito, mate, I have kept my mouth shut because I don’t know if it’s just translation or what, but I keep seeing you complaining about how many people are in this G1, saying a bunch of us don’t belong here. I know you’ve said my name. So I’ll tell you what. I hope I proved to you, actually I don’t care if I proved to you, I showed you I belong here. My aim for this G1 might not have been to win it, that would have been nice. That would have been something fancy. But I knew [I had] pretty low chances. What I wanted from this G1 was to show the New Japan fans that I belong here. Tag, singles, six-man, eight-man, nine-man, ten-man, 11-man. 13-man? 14-man? Sure. 15? I suppose that’s a possibility. But I showed you that I belong here. Next time you want to run your mouth about me, I’m gonna get my clippers, and I’m gonna shave your head bald because you need a hair cut. You look like a straw man out in the field, scaring off the crows," Haste said.
Catch up on our coverage of the eighth night of the NJPW G1 33 Climax here.
Fans can find updated standings and the results archive for NJPW G1 Climax 33 by clicking here.
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