Cody Rhodes heaped praise on the upcoming match between AJ Styles and Naomichi Marufuji, and in the process showed interest in a match against the prolific Japanese star.
This weekend, WWE’s Styles will make a high-profile crossover into Japan to face Marufuji at Pro Wrestling NOAH’s “Destination” card in Tokyo. The event will be Styles’ first broadcasted match in Japan since leaving NJPW for WWE in 2016 (this not including the seven house shows he has worked since then).
Rhodes spoke about the skills of the two wrestlers ahead of their match for Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Youtube page. He first started by comparing Styles to one of the most prolific wrestlers of all time.
“I refer to him as a modern excellence of execution,” said Rhodes about Styles. “Bret Hart was the original excellence of execution and I feel AJ really follows that greatly in terms of, AJ was already somebody who was doing new things and breaking the rules and part of the revolution of the industry … And then finally here we actually saw a better version of him, that’s not always the case. With age, his game is complete in terms of how he is as a performer and a competitor.”
Rhodes then shifted his focus to Marufuji, who he wants to face in the future.
“It’s not hyperbole to say Marufuji on the other side of the ring is how important he is to modern pro wrestling and modern sports entertainment. I mean, if you hit the ropes behind another guy, you call that a ‘Marufuji.’ That’s what I do. That’s part of my comeback that I have in my own matches. The fact that I’ve never gotten in the ring with him, that’s something that could happen down the road.”
Rhodes also spoke about his enthusiasm to perform in Japan again, what it’s like to wrestle there, and more. You can watch the full interview here.
