Anthony Greene also shares that he was not informed ahead of time that he’d be in the N-1 Victory.
Today was the start of Pro Wrestling NOAH’s N-1 Victory tournament and in the A Block is Anthony Greene. The 10-year veteran is in the same block as Go Shiozaki, Hideki Suzuki and GHC Heavyweight Champion Kenoh.
Prior to the tournament getting underway, Greene joined The Wrstling Podcast and spoke about how the conversations between himself and NOAH began. He shared that when he was released from WWE, he was asked by current NXT 2.0 talent Ikemen Jiro what his goals are, to which he said wrestling in Japan for NOAH. Jiro then put Greene in contact with the NOAH office.
Oh man, this goes back a year [talks with Pro Wrestling NOAH]. A year, yes. So, I got released by the WWE and that night, I was hanging out with a friend of mine named Ikemen Jiro and he is a — he’s very popular in Japan. I mean, everyone knows him. He asked me what are my goals, what’s my plan. I told him I wanna get to Japan and he goes, ‘For who?’ And I said, ‘Pro Wrestling NOAH.’ He said, ‘Really? All right’ and he kind of opened the doors to talking to the Pro Wrestling NOAH office and then between COVID and between allowing new visas into the country, it was a one-year process and it was June 25th was the day the conversations started in 2021 and I landed here on July 9th, 2022.
Being announced for the N-1 Victory tournament came as a surprise to Anthony. He was not informed beforehand and found out through social media notifications.
He went on to share that originally, his tour with NOAH was supposed to be for two weeks, but after his singles debut against Stallion Rogers, he was extended to two months.
So, the night before [the N-1 Victory participants were revealed], I’m wrestling at Nippon Budokan in front of however many thousand people were in attendance for the beginning of Great Muta’s final run and I get the pinfall victory for the international invasion, woop, woop and I was never told I was entering the N-1. I don’t know if anyone was told they were entering the N-1, but the next day, I’m out and about and I get a notification. All I see is the picture of me and then the next thing I see is a picture of me and Masato Tanaka and I keep getting tagged, Go Shiozaki, Kazuyuki Fujita, Kenoh, El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. ‘What is going on?’ So, it was a surprise for me, especially — I don’t know if it’s too insider baseball but this trip was only meant to be two weeks for me and then after my singles debut, they asked me to extend for two months.
Results from the N-1 Victory will be posted here on POST Wrestling throughout the tournament.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The Wrstling Podcast with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
