Alexander speaks about his colleagues on the Battle in the Valley card.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling is one day from the presentation of their Battle in the Valley show from San Jose, California.
The event is sold-out and the top billing is a double main event featuring Kazuchika Okada versus Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title and KAIRI versus Mercedes Moné for the IWGP Women’s Title.
The reigning IMPACT World Champion Josh Alexander is going to be in action on the show and he previewed some of the card with Sporting News. He shared his thoughts about Jay White and Eddie Kingston’s match. Josh recalled his history with Jay and admitted that he’d be sad to see him depart NJPW but feels Jay will be valuable wherever he lands.
It’s all been the Switchblade Era for the past half a decade. I first wrestled Jay early on in Ring Of Honor and that was a completely different Jay from what we have seen these past three or five years as he has ascended to the very top of New Japan. It’s just a testament to the guy’s talent and ability – much like I just said about Mercedes, Jay can call his shot and work wherever he wants. He is a valuable commodity in this business, no matter what company it is, and I would be sad to see him go.
The upcoming IWGP Women’s Title match is going to be Mercedes Moné’s first sanctioned match since May 2022. Alexander is ‘super excited’ to see the match with herself and KAIRI and added that he’ll have a front row seat at the monitor to watch.
I’m super excited – I think women’s wrestling as a whole has taken leaps forward in the past 10 years. For Mercedes stepping out of WWE and coming over to STARDOM and New Japan Pro Wrestling, I think it’s an excellent way for her to showcase her talents. She is obviously doing it for a reason, because she wanted to be a part of that more than anything else. Someone like her, she can call her shot and go and work wherever she wants – but she chose this for a reason. I don’t know what fans are familiar with anymore, because there is so much pro wrestling to consume on a weekly basis. If they are just taking a chance because they were solely WWE fans and they want to see Mercedes Moné, the entire card will seem like something fresh to them. I think everyone is going to get to see something special and I’m excited to get a front-row seat at the monitor in the back to see it happen.
Coming up for Alexander on the IMPACT Wrestling front, he’ll be defending the title against Rich Swann at No Surrender on February 24th.
