Zak Zodiac reflects on missed opportunities with Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Zak Zodiac, brother of AEW's Saraya, is himself an accomplished professional wrestler. While his sister's career may have gone in a different direction, Zak also has had opportunities to wrestle top Superstars such as WWE's Viking Raiders throughout his own career.
Appearing on Chris Jericho's Talk is Jericho podcast, Zodiac reflected on some of the decisions he made in his career and how he missed out on opportunities with top promotions such as ROH.
"The Hooligan phase taught me so much. I got to work some of the very best in the industry. One of the highlights for us was when we worked War Machine [Viking Raiders in WWE]," said Zak. "We had an absolute belter of a match. So much so that Delirious was actually there, and he was like, ‘We need to get the Hooligans over to America.’ My brother, the end of the night, he went to the bar and ordered a drink. Delirious went to the bar without his mask on and said to my brother, ‘What do you think of Ring of Honor nowadays?’ He said, ‘It’s a load of shit. I miss Nigel McGuinness.’ [Delirious] went back to the promoter and was like, ‘We don’t want the Hooligans now.’ We sit and laugh about it now. We shot ourselves in the foot. We did the same thing with New Japan. We wrestled Jushin Thunder Liger in a show at Super Clash. He loved us. He loved how unique we were.
"We have our own style in Norwich, just hard-hitting and technical brawlers. We’re hybrid athletes," he adds. "Liger loved us. He went back to New Japan and said, ‘Why don’t you boys come live in the Dojo for three months?’ We grew up old school, you’re not going to pay for yourself to stay with their boys and live in a Dojo. What a moron. This was ten years ago. I should have jumped at the opportunity. Sometimes, I was led a little too old school. I’d never pay for myself to go anywhere. If they want you, they’ll come for you. Now, I realize, you have to market yourself and get out there. It was that old-school way."
Elsewhere in this podcast, Zodiac talks about being promised at least competing in a dark match for AEW. Chris Jericho has gone so far as to guarantee that it will happen. Learn more here.
AEW will head to England for AEW All In at Wembley Stadium in August. Learn more here.
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