Pre-Sendai press conference a high tension affair
December 13 saw a public press conference for the Super Junior and World tag league finals in Sendai, respective finalists giving their thoughts before the December 14 double main event.
Watch the Super Junior and World Tag League finals LIVE in English on NJPW World!
The junior heavyweights were first to the table, with the BULLET CLUB side of Ace Austin and Chris Bey confronting a team that beat them during the league phase, YOH and Lio Rush of CHAOS.
Ace Austin & Chris Bey
Bey: Tomorrow is going to be the biggest match in Lio and YOH’s career. I say that because they are going to have to fight the toughest version of the ‘A-B-C’ that has been presented up to this point. You see, I expected to get a little more respect coming here, but I understand why I don’t get it.
It’s because I show up on chill mode, sometimes I skip the gym, hang out with other people’s girlfriend, because I’m your girlfriend’s favourite wrestler. Yet I still get the job done, still stand head and shoulders above the rest with my best friend, Ace Austin.
Austin: Before this tournament, Chris Bey and I didn’t have much tag team experience. We had just started as a tag team in IMPACT Wrestling.
Bey: Facts.
Austin: We’d had what, maybe five matches as a tag team, and yet here we are headed to the finals, beause individually we’re a force to be reckoned with, but together we’re unstoppable. You can ask about strategy for tomorrow, and the strategy is what got us here. It’s as easy as this- A, B, C equals 1,2,Sweet.
YOH & Lio Rush
YOH: Good evening. Tomorrow is the finals, for both the heavyweight and junior teams in a double main event. That means a lot. I really do believe there is no border between junior heavyweights and heavyweights, and that’s why I think this distinction of being a double main event is so important. Me and Lio have really come along and grown a lot closer together day by day. I’m enjoying wrestling, truly from the bottom of my heart in this team, and I hope we can take that to the trophies tomorrow.
Rush (to Bey and Austin): Hey, I’ve got the microphone, so shut up. This is where things get real in this tournament. See you two clowns, I am sick and tired of these two underestimating CHAOS. Chris, you want to talk about respect? You of all people should know, from where we come from, to get respect, you have to give respect. My friend, there has been no respect shown for the two of us in this tournament. You walk up and down boasting that you’re the best team in this tournament when in reality, just look at the records. We both have the same number of losses, but you walk around like you’re better than every last person.
I look at the both of you and see two scared little boys, scared because you know deep down that we’ve got your number. Me and YOH are the team to beat and you know that of all the teams, we are the ones who are going to dethrone BULLET CLUB’s new… members? Acquisitions? A-B-C? Go on to D-E-F because you’ll fail in this final. CHAOS is for life and BULLET CLUB can get ready to go down the drain.
–Can you reflect on your league so far?
Austin: The records don’t lie. We did in fact suffer a loss to YOH and Lio in this tournament. We call that a lucky win. Guys like us don’t need luck. We may have lost to you two, but if I’m not mistaken our most recent victory was over the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. One lucky win doesn’t make you the best. I’m sorry we have to embarrass YOH in his hometown, I’m sorry we have to make his friends and family cry about it… Wait, why am I saying I’m sorry? I don’t care, I’m not sorry at all.
I don’t care whose home town it is. Everywhere we go in japan, they know who the man is. Every single curtain I walk through, people cheer for me, and people cheer for BULLET CLUB. For how many years now has BULLET CLUB been on top in Japan? It’s going to stay that way.
Bey: To piggyback of what my oh-so-handsome tag team partner had to say, the stats don’t lie. And yeah you may have beaten us early on. We had to go through some of the best tag teams the world had to offer in this tournament. And yeah, you guys got lucky, but I always say that luck is for losers, and you two are losers. YOH, your hometown? Look at me. We don’t care, OK? I’ve made a career of going to people’s hometowns and embarrassing them in front of their families. Making children and siblings cry because ‘oh my god, I thought they were going to win!’ That’s the reality that you are going to live. I’m taking you back to school and teaching you the alphabet. Like he said, they know who the man is. I’ll make you famous in Sendai. In Sendai you will meet your senpai, in the form of the A-B-C. Make no mistake, and listen to this. That lost you gave us motivated us to beat the tag team champions, to make us better than we were going in.
Lio, you said to get respect you have to give respect? You know I respect you, you know I do. But I respect you so much that I refuse to go back to our home and let people know I didn’t make it to that trophy because of you. I respect you so much that I have to destroy you, I have to embarrass you the same way you did us two weeks ago. The difference is when we win, we’ll have the trophy and the bragging rights, and you’ll have nothing.
–To YOH and Lio Rush, your thoughts on this tournament?
YOH: As I said before, my real goal in this tournament was to really enjoy pro-wrestling. I’ve won this tournament three times, and I’ve been tag champion five times. Every match we’ve had in this league has been a great one. But how will it turn out tomorrow? I look forward to it, and I’ll enjoy it.
Rush: Every single day on this league, I’ve had to look at these two faces and I’m sick of it. You want to know what I think of this tournament? It was made for me and YOH. This moment was created for us. I’m a big believer in fate, in this happening for a reason. We made the finals in YOH’s home town. This is more than a home field advantage, this is fate. This is what is meant to happen. (to Bey) I should snatch that chain off your neck. You don’t deserve it, and you don’t deserve these damn trophies.
I want to say thank you. Thank you for awakening something in me that I have been searching for for a long time. These people know what CHAOS is all about, and they know exactly what I bring to the table. Some people call me the 28 year old piece of gold. Some people call me the man of the hour. But come tomorrow, you’ll find out excactly why they call me the Bad Child.
–What vision do you have of yourselves as winners?
Austin: When the Inevitable happens, which is A-B=c walking out with those (trophies) right there. We already beat the tag champions once.
Bey: Did it already.
Austin: So when we win junior tag league, we might go to Tokyo Disneyland maybe, but after that, January 4, Wrestle Kingdom, your new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions right here.
Bey: After we do that, we’ll probably go to Lio’s house and show his family what daddy couldn’t bring home.
YOH: Winners. Me and my partner Lio will go and take those titles in the Tokyo Dome. That’s the vision.
Lio: After me and YOH successfully win these and shut up BULLET CLUB for good, we are going to do what we do best. Continue to flourish in the world of professional wrestling. Continue to make the name and faction of CHAOS bigger better and greater than ever before. And maybe we’ll go out get a little sushi, sashimi, laugh about how we beat these two, and then me and you, CHAOS for life all the way.
