By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

Roderick Strong gets a second ROH World Title shot against Jay Lethal Friday night in Philadelphia. The title shots and his career resurgence almost did not happen because of what happened in January 2014.

Strong suffered a neck injury during a match against A.J. Styles, which nearly ended his career, he told Vaughn Johnson for Philly.com. That near-escape and personal maturity has contributed to one of the best stretchers of his career in 2015.

“When that happened to me and there was a possibility of me never wrestling again, I told myself, ‘When I come back, I’m going to be a better version of myself than I’ve ever been,’” Strong said.

“There are times in your career when you kind of take this stuff for granted. I made a promise to myself to just go and work as hard as I can and put myself in a position where nothing has to change. When I can’t be the performer that I am and perform at the highest level, that’s when I will be finished as an in-ring competitor.”

Strong admitted to not performing at his best in recent years, especially not growing into a more dynamic personality. But, he says he realized "there were things I needed to improve and that I needed to be a little more aggressive when it comes to that."

Now, Strong is locked in a title program with ROH champ Lethal. Then, he faces IWGP World Hvt. champion Kazuchika Okada Saturday night in New York.

“I find it to be a big honor that the Ring of Honor officials and the New Japan officials agree to these matches, and I think it’s an opportunity to test myself against the best,” Strong said. "Those guys are second to none when it comes to professional wrestling, and those are great learning experiences as well."

Strong also talked about facing Okada in an interview with the "Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast: "It's another situation of facing somebody that many people consider the best or one of the best in the world. I am a competitive person so for me to see the match-ups he has had with other people and the type of wrestler he is it's a challenge for me to top the type of stuff he has done with other people around the world. It has people talking about us, having one of the best match-ups in Ring of Honor history if not in the world and to prove that I am one of the best wrestlers currently participating in professional wrestling today."

[ LINK: Full Interview with Strong reflecting on changes to his outlook HERE at Philly.com . Strong on Okada HERE ]

{Torch photo credit Wade Keller (c) PWTorch.com]

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