Tetsuya Naito says he can't lose to Zack Sabre Jr.
Zack Sabre Jr. won the NJPW G1 Climax 34 to earn a shot at the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. Rather than waiting for Wrestle Kingdom, he said that he wanted his title match to be at NJPW King of Pro-Wrestling on October 14th. There, he will challenge Tetsuya Naito for the gold.
Speaking with Tokyo Sports, Tetsuya Naito discussed his upcoming match against Sabre Jr. He noted that he wanted to "stop the outflow of the strongest foreigner. He also commented on why he can't lose to Sabre Jr. (Translation via DeepL)
"Of course, the first thing is for myself. But for the sake of the Japanese fans who support Zack, and for the sake of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, I think I have to stop him here," Naito said.
Naito also responded to the trend of foreigners like Jay White, Will Ospreay, and Kenny Omega leaving NJPW after headlining Wrestle Kingdom and noted that it was natural to move on after achieving a goal. He expressed that he did not want to see Sabre Jr. leave.
“I think everyone had the Tokyo Dome main event as one of their goals. It is natural for people to move on to the next stage after achieving a goal, so it is possible that Zack will do the same. But I don't want that to happen to him, as he is loved in Japan. For that reason, I think it would be better not to let him achieve all of his goals yet. think it's great, but I'm not without concerns. I wonder how many foreign wrestlers have said that they love Japan like Zack does and that New Japan is their home?" Naito said.
Sabre Jr. recently vowed to lead NJPW to new heights. Check out his comments here.
Click here to see what Sabre Jr. had to say about NJPW being at the highest level of wrestling.
Check out Sabre Jr.'s comments about Kazuchika Okada and Will Ospreay leaving NJPW here.
