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New Japan Pro Wrestling star, David Finlay, said that this year’s G1 Climax tournament run had many memorable moments for him, but the biggest was defeating IWGP United States Champion, Will Ospreay.
In an exclusive interview with PWTorch Assistant Editor, Zack Heydorn, Finlay discussed the G1 in detail, including insight on managing the grind of the tournament and his match against Juice Robinson.
“I feel I had a lot of really good moments in the G1 this year, but I think the most memorable moment would have to be beating Will Ospreay,” Finlay said. “Not just because I beat Ospreay, but because I beat Juice Robinson (3x IWGP US Champion), Shingo Takagi (Former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion), and Will Ospreay (former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion and current IWGP US champion) consecutively. I feel that’s when I had the most momentum and after being away from Japan for over a year, it was the perfect way to show the fans and the roster that I mean business. I said all tour that this is my year and this is my time. I feel I proved that.”
Regarding the grueling G1 Climax tournament schedule, Finlay simply said that it didn’t affect him very much.
“Managing the grind of the tournament was easy, honestly,” Finlay said. I hadn’t been to Japan in about 14 months so I actually missed being on the road and wrestling most nights. Wrestling makes me happy and the G1 was a great opportunity to prove to everyone that I’ve leveled up, so I welcomed the grind with open arms. Yes, the travel and hotels suck and your body is constantly hurting from fighting your heart out every night, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Don’t forget, I grew up in and around wrestling. I was built for this.”
Finlay’s match against Juice Robinson was a classic and something rooted in a deep history between both men.
“That match was building from the first day we were in the dojo together,” Finlay said. “Seven years of being on the road together. We won World Tag League together. We won the Impact world tag team championships. We were even IWGP Heavyweight tag team champions at one point.
“Juice and I had been through a lot of hard times and done a lot of hard things together and I viewed him as a big brother. Then one day juice said he was retiring but a month later he joined Bullet Club instead. He then went on to win the IWGP US championship for the third time. He then claimed I was dead weight and that my greatest accomplishment was tagging with him. This got me fired up because I was tired of being stuck in his shadow. I always believed I was better than Juice and I proved that when I beat him at Korakuen.”
Because he defeated Will Ospreay in the G1 Climax 32 tournament, he’s likely in line for a shot at Ospreay’s IWGP United States Championship at some point this year.
Part two of Zack Heydorn’s interview with David Finlay will drop on PWTorch.com later today.
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