Tom Lawlor explains his hopes for NJPW STRONG and hopes for his own career.
Tom Lawlor is currently the NJPW STRONG Openweight Champion. With a career that includes time in Major League wrestling and a full-on mixed martial arts career, Tom Lawlor it's helpful to help New Japan Pro Wrestling grow by working with New Japan STRONG
Tom Lawlor, speaking to Denise Salcedo, says he equates NJPW Strong to NXT for NJPW.
"I like to equate New Japan Strong to NXT, for the New Japan audience. A lot of times guys just get stuck in NXT and right now if you look at NJPW Strong, we're stuck there, but it's a different situation. I think once I go over there, and some of the other guys from New Japan Strong go over there, you're gonna see a lot more wrestlers in the U.S in the independent scene who want to be part of the New Japan Strong roster. I think you're gonna see professional wrestlers take the same path that I am gonna take over there, " he said.
Talking about his own career goals, Lawlor looks toward Minoru Suzuki as inspiration for who he wants to be I see advances in age. Tom Lawlor still wants to be wrestling by 55 and he will be 40 next year.
"I'll be 40 next year, which sounds kinda old, but physically I felt worse when I was doing MMA,” Lawlor said. “I was more beat up, so this is being a little easier on my body right now, and when I look at guys like Minoru Suzuki, Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima, these are guys who are in their fifties, and Suzuki is a huge star over here he just had an awesome match with Hiromu Takahashi and you wouldn't know that this is a guy in his fifties. So when I look at that I don't think I've even come close to overstaying my welcome in the pro wrestling world, because I've only been here a few years. My long-term goal is to still be wrestling when I am 55, traveling the world. In the short term, my goal is to take the NJPW Strong Openweight title to Japan and in the shorter term it's to kick Clark Connors’ ass on Sunday at Strong Style Evolved."
We will have spoiler results of NJPW Strong Style Evolved after the event concludes. You can stay up-to-date with all New Japan results for the Japanese branch as well as NJPW STRONG in our results section.
