Fred Rosser: The Sky’s The Limit With NJPW, Says Rocky Romero Facilitated His Deal
Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for The Trevor Project
Fred Rosser, formerly known as Darren Young, recently spoke with Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful and discussed several topics, including his debut with New Japan Pro-Wrestling and the planned Nexus reunion. Here are some highlights:
On his NJPW debut:
Rosser: “I’m still on cloud nine, man. I finally did it, you know, I did my thing with WWE, and now to have this opportunity thanks to Rocky Romero with New japan, the sky’s the limit for me, man, and the response so far as been tremendous, man. Everyone’s been saying that I’m a great fit there, and that means the world to me, you know, especially the respect of your peers, for them to say that everything that they’re watching is really translating well on TV, so you know, it means the world to me. ”
On how his deal with NJPW came about:
Rosser: “Yeah, well how it all happened was last year, September, I had ran into a show with Lance Hoyt in Pomona, California, and him and I came up in the FCW system in 2010. So fast forward to 2019 in Pomona, California, when I ran into him at a show, and he had gave me this flier, this New Japan flier ,that they were doing a show at the Globe Theater, he gave this to me September 2019 and November 11, at 7 PM, at the Globe Theater, New Japan was doing a show, so he gave this to me, I held onto it. The show was at 7 and I got there at 5 to meet all the wrestlers and to kind of feel the ring out a little bit.”
“I wanted to be able to watch the show from beginning to end to see if I fit in. And that was the one question that was going through my head because I was in their little VIP section watching the show from beginning to end, and that same question, ‘I’m here to see, do I fit in, do I fit in, do I fit in,’ and after it was all said and done and the show was done, I said to myself, ‘Man, I can hang with these guys. I can really do this,’ and I talked to Rocky Romero after the show and I said, ‘Man, I’ve wrestled all over the world but anytime WWE was doing a tour of Japan, I was always on a different tour. I was either on the UK tour or not on tour at all, so it’s always been a bucket list of mine to compete for New Japan,’ and I told Rocky that and this was November of 2019.”
“Fast forward to May of this year, May or June of this year, Rocky Romero had called me up and he told me about this opportunity with New Japan, and I was on cloud nine. I said, ‘Rocky, let me just get back to you. I gotta talk to my family,’ and my family gave me the blessing to give it a shot. It sounded like a great opportunity because they were following the protocol with the COVID testing and all that stuff. And I called up Rocky, actually I hadn’t told my family, so Rocky told me about this opportunity and then two days later, Rocky texts me again and he’s like, ‘Have you talked to your family?’ I said, ‘Rocky, I’m gonna talk to them this afternoon or at night and get their blessing.’ And I finally talked to my family and they blessed me with the opportunity to compete in New Japan. And I called up Rocky, and I said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.'”
On the NJPW roster:
Rosser: “The entire roster is one of the hardest-working rosters that I’ve ever been a part of, and I’m not just saying that. Because I’ve watched these guys, Jay White, [David] Finlay, I’ve watched all these guys, and now that I’m part of the roster, you know, Jeff Cobb, I love Jeff Cobb. Before actually meeting him, but just watching him on television I’m like, man this guy’s a killer. But when you share a locker room with him, he’s a jokester, he’s very calm, cool, and collected. Like man, awesome roster, man.”
On who he wants to face in NJPW:
Rosser: “I always say I’ve enjoyed his matches with Kurt Angle, [Yuji] Nagata, Nagata, you know, he’s an O.G., but it I could just grace the ring with him, just give me ten minutes with him, you know what I mean? I would have had my dream match because Nagata’s someone that I would love to share the ring with. Ibushi, who knows, KENTA, there’s so much talent there that I definitely want to share the ring with.”
The full interview is available here:
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