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Fred Rosser, fka WWE's Darren Young, has had a successful year thus far by realising one of his dreams and wrestling for NJPW.
Rosser signed with New Japan Pro Wrestling earlier this year. On August 27, it was announced that Rosser had signed with the company and would make his NJPW debut on the September 4 edition of Strong.
In a recent interview with Michael Morales Torres for Lucha Libre Online, he talked all about his NJPW story and what it took to get there.
Wrestling for NJPW has always been a dream for Fred Rosser
During the interview, he spoke about how working for NJPW was always a goal of his. Rosser said that a chance meeting with Lancer Archer, fka Lance Hoyt, got his foot in the door for NJPW, as he inviting him to their LA show in 2019.
The former WWE Tag Team Champion went on to explain that he attended the show and although he wanted to get to NJPW, he wanted to find out if he would fit in first.
"After the show was done and all the smoke was clear, I said to myself: 'Man, now I can really hang with these guys man. I really want to try out'."
Once Rosser knew that he would be a great fit in NJPW, he reached out to Rocky Romero. He invited him to try out in the LA Dojo earlier this year, but then the pandemic put a halt to those plans.
"This year Rock Romero reached out to me and asked me if I wanted to be a part of this New Japan Strong show and once my family blessed me, I've reached out to Rocky Romero and said yeah, let's do it."
Rosser had finally got to NJPW after years of hard work, but as a veteran of the wrestling business, he knew that the grind had only just begun.
"I've been going hard man. I've been going hard that I've been loving every minute of it. I've been loving every minute of it and I always say whether it's in front of ten people, ten thousand people or no people, this is still fun for me and if I really did this all for the money, I would have complained a long time ago. I really love this business. I really love putting on the best matches possible."
In his matches for NJPW, he has mixed it up with an array of new and exciting opponents. But one who especially stood out to him is Filthy Tom Lawler, who Rosser likened to Kurt Angle.
"Recently with Tom Lawlor, who was almost like a Kurt Angle to me. A dream match that I shared the ring with and everything felt good. Everything looked good. Everything was just mean and nasty and he won. Hopefully I can wrestle him at second time, this time in Japan, this time in front of a crowd and because I haven't I haven't made it to Japan yet. I haven't been there yet. I've just been doing American New Japan Pro Wrestling Strong show. So my goal is to go out there and hit another home run with Filthy Tom Lawlor. Keep my fingers crossed and pray every day."
You can view the full interview with Lucha Libre Online and Fred Rosser below.
What would you like to see Fred Rosser achieve in NJPW? Sound off in the comments.
