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Seasonal vaccines are available seven days a week with evening hours. Care is giving you a shot at staying healthy this season. Walk in whenever is best and get multiple vaccines in one visit at your local King Super's Pharmacy. So come and get the protection you need while protecting those around you. King Super's, a world of care, is in store. At king supers dot com slash vaccines for more restrictions and exclusions apply seaside for details. What's up you guys, Sean Ross Sapp. Welcome to Fightful here with a name. You know, you're going to see him this Friday at New Japan's Capitol collision in Washington, D.C. We got the man, David Finley. How you doing, man? I am doing great, probably not as good as you because you have the global heavyweight champion on your show. So, I do have the, I do have the global heavyweight champion on the show. It's, it's interesting you mentioned that because that is going to be a topic I referred back to multiple times. First, I definitely want to talk about a new Japan in America, obviously they have increased their foothold. That's got to make you feel good that you are such a big part of that and your success like inside the ring and sort of helping lead the charge as a brand has made them feel even more comfortable in, in doing shows like this. Uh, yeah, it's been pretty cool to see where Strong has gotten to because I remember the pandemic days where we were filming in front of literally nobody. So, uh, it's always good to have any amount of people there as opposed to no people. You're in a six man tag this week. Uh, how, how do you approach that while being a global champion as opposed to maybe how you did before or is there any, any change? Well, uh, in this particular match, we got, uh, myself, Dan Maloney making his U.S. debut. Uh, and Clark Connors, we are three parts of the war dogs. Um, going up against Yoshi, Hashi, Kevin Knight and Rocky Romero. Now, uh, we just had, you know, the G one come and go and on the last day of the G one. I had a bad night. I slipped up Yoshi, Hashi pinned me in the middle of Rio Goku. Okay. I just lost the semi finals to make it to the G one finals. Uh, so yeah, now he's challenging for my global heavyweight championship. So I gotta give him a little taste of what's to come. How do you feel after sort of finishing out that G one tournament physically? Because I mean, listen, I know it's, it's one of the most, it's one of the most exhausting things, not just in wrestling and all of sports, keeping that type of schedule. And then you're even, even when you're not doing tournament matches, you're still wrestling other types of matches. Not to mention the travel on top of it, the tiny Japanese hotel rooms. I think we were in, uh, at least I was in 15 different hotels over the course of a month. So, uh, yeah, G one is the most prestigious, the most difficult, the most taxing, tolling whatever, whatever you want to call it, tournament in the world. Um, yeah, I liked that this year we went back to 20 people as a, and two blocks as opposed to whatever we were doing the past couple of years. Uh, it makes a few more prestigious, but man, it's so much harder on the body. But I was built for this. I was made for this. So, uh, outside of losing the semi finals, I was pretty happy with my, uh, performances here. And I mean, you, you kicked off the tournament. I think it was like three or four days after the, the match against Sonata that went like 25, 30 minutes as well. Yeah. Well, there was actually like a couple of weeks in between that, but you're right, you're right. That's okay. You're right. That was so man, my summer ran away from me. So yeah, you all had, you had about a month to recover there. Yeah, but I was chilling at home, not wrestling. So, uh, so is that works for you? Yeah, I would, I would much rather stay active, uh, keeps the rust off. Um, I had a guy, I had a guy I was talking to you recently and he said, man, people always accused me of being injury prone. He was like, I think it's more because when they do bring me to wrestle, I haven't wrestled in so long than being able to work regularly on TV. So I mean, like an absence like that, like, yeah, you got to get your reps in to stay crisp and, uh, you know, really, I feel, you know, the more active I am, the better I am at wrestling. Uh, if I don't like having long breaks, usually if there's a long break, I got to go take a flight down to Tampa, go see, uh, Natty Knight, Hart and TJ Wilson get a couple, uh, get a couple reps and aren't they jams, aren't they the best? Or I have known them since I was like 13, I remember watching them wrestle at six legs over Georgia for deep South wrestling. I, that's how I know them. Yeah. So I was one of those six leg shows and it was sweet because I got to go ride the rides for free after too. I, I don't talk to TJ as much and Addy is just one of the, the most kind, like generous, like human beings on the planet, uh, not, not shocking to see them, like have such an influence now. And I always love it because you'll see people from everywhere going and training there. And it's, it's like their Instagram stories are appointment viewing at this point. Yeah. It, it is not, it was, cause I lived in Tampa for about a year and a half as well. So I was, um, I was kind of during when Japan was still going through the pandemic, but we were over it. Uh, so it was good for me to get my reps and none. And like I said, like they've been family friends for decades at this point. It's just wonderful people. Like if Rocky Romero is the forbidden door outside of WWE, those two are, uh, within it. I would, I always love to just look back at like early matches from people's career. And I find EWP Christmas wrestling 2012, David Finley. Okay. And as it turns out, the current global champion, David Finley took on a fellow by the name of big van Walter, who happens to be the WWE world heavyweight champion, like imagine at that point, imagine being somebody that went to that show in 2012 and you're flipping through the channels today. And you just happen to see, Oh, well, there's Finley on one and Oh, well, there's goonther on another. What was that experience like for you? And did you all both kind of know probably going to see this guy down the road? So that was actually my first match ever. Um, that was me breaking this. Yeah. So what happened was my dad was like, he got released from WWE for whatever. So you went on an indie run and he hated so much that he was like, I'm retired. So, uh, he was like, do you want to, do you want to do a tag match to me? It's going to be my last match. And I, my dad's kind of whimsical sometimes he'll be like, you know, some, not everything comes to fruition. So I was just like, Oh, yeah, sure. That sounds great thinking it was never going to happen about two weeks later. He was like, all right, we're going to Germany. Uh, you got a, you got a singles match and we're going to a tag match in the main street flight tag match. So I was like, Oh, okay, cool. I, uh, don't have any gear. So I used like one of my high school wrestling singlets, uh, got kick pads from high spots and he was my little shooter boots. And yeah, big van Walter just beat the shit out of me. And, uh, yeah, I, I still remember like just not being able to chew for like three days after. Oh man. But yeah. And then later that night did a tag match against, uh, Robbie Brookside with my dad. Uh, and that was my entry into the business was getting flown out to Germany to work twice and do a main event with my dad for his retirement match. So yeah, it was, uh, very memorable night for me. That is, that is quite the introduction, which I mean, obviously not your introduction to wrestling. But a first night, like to look back on that, like my God, like that is, that is quite notable. Yeah. Uh, but you know, if someone's going to get flown out to a different continent for the first match, it's going to be for general like myself. And then I see like some of the, uh, now this was quite a bit removed from that, but like I'm seeing some of your other early matches, like your team of a Johnny Swinger, who is still somehow still at it that guy, uh, like you're doing a tour in 2014 that has people like Sam Adonis and, and Andre Chase now and Oliver Gray, who was really good. Like, John Skyler was on some of those, uh, who else that Gibson, like, would you break? Yeah. Yeah. When you were, when you were on like these early tours and you guys are locking it up, obviously you're very young in the business for a lot of you, but is it a situation where you're like, yeah, we can talk, kind of tell who's got it here and who we're going to see down the road. Uh, maybe they could, but I was like so early in my career that it was just like just go out there and wrestle. So it was just like, oh, maybe it was like Jay White was, uh, in England with me. So we actually met in England before we both started the dojo together. I remember like, it's back when we were still friends. Uh, I remember like, he was, I was like, oh yeah, I might go to new, not understanding how difficult of a task that is to just be like, yeah, I'm going to casually go to New Japan. He was like, oh, me too. So then like, I was like, oh, well, this guy's going to. So like it must be like easy to get in. And then, uh, it was literally just the two of us and another dude. That is, it's just wild to see who ends up locking up that earlier in your career. Because it can be a crapshoot sometimes obviously, but I mean, man, it makes sense because it's the guys that, you know, they put the work in, they put the miles in and, you know, they went and wrestled for no money and way too many miles and, you know, like it was all the guys that wanted it from the go that, you know, continue to rise. I mean, you've had quite the year, I mean, kicked it off at, at Wrestle Kingdom, working with John Moxley, Will Osprey and beaten both of them, by the way, yes, to be in a spot like that is it's clear that New Japan has had confidence in you in a long time and you have earned that confidence. How was it for you working on that stage with that level of talent and New Japan knowing that you're the guy that should be carrying that to work? It was a lot of years of hard work that finally paid off for me. You know, I came into New Japan, April of 2015, did a best of the Super Junior's tournament. It wasn't really quite good enough to not be a young boy, so I kind of got like backtracked, you know, young line status and then like I went through the whole system and, you know, a lot of years were hard, there was a lot of, you know, spinning my wheels and treading water. So to like be on the stage that big in a match with John Moxley, who, you know, is great and Will Osprey, who is also great and to come out on the top, you know, just confirmed everything that I believed in myself for years. And I like that it kind of pissed people off that I beat them both after they tried to gang up on me. So that always makes me happy. People who watch AEW obviously got a look at you briefly as well. And I had been told around that time they're like, yeah, we want Finley against Hangman. Like it's something that they wanted. They wanted you on their programming. How does that feel when it's like this American company who you had not worked with before was like, yeah, we want you facing our top guy. Yeah. I mean, it's a cool opportunity. I've known Hangman since he came to New Japan. So it was kind of just like, oh, well, I guess we're doing it here now. You know, which we've been around long enough. It's just kind of the letters change, but the people kind of stay the same. But yeah, I mean, AEW, the connection or the relationship that New Japan and AEW have is really, really good for wrestling as a whole, I would say, you know, having other people show up in different places is always cool to me. But yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, I'm a prize fighter. So if you're going to pay me to come wrestle, I'm going to come do it. Speaking of, you've been teaming with Gato an awful lot lately. And this is, gosh, like nine years ago, you were facing him. And back when I was a kid, I was watching him compete and WCW around the same time your father was. So obviously an awful lot of knowledge, awful lot to learn there, but how has it been teaming with him after really one of some of the first matches in New Japan you were having were across the ring from it. Yeah. Gato is a master, I believe that we briefly lost David Finley. We got it back. Oh, cool. Look, we got. All right. I don't know. All right. What did I, when did I cut out? So the Gato is a mastermind, which I, yeah, Gato is a mastermind when it comes to wrestling and a lot of my success is because he's been in my corner. One was an attitude change of just like, you know, the imaginary carrot that's been dangling in front of me is imaginary and two has been Gato in my ear and, you know, really helping me accomplish my goals, whether they be by nefarious ways or not. Another insane moment this year, New Japan is not like, you're not going to see a lot of stipulation matches or anything of that sort. So when, first off, we hear that this cage match is going to happen and unfold. How is it like sort of thrown to you all? Yeah, this is, this is something that, that we're going to do. And the story surrounding war dogs, which has been an integral part of New Japan is sort of going to be like the integral factor of this, that thing that we never do. Well, when passion, drive and patience, the formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive. eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance. Superchargers, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED headlights and more, whether you're into speed, power or style, eBay Motors has you covered. With over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die, you'll always find exactly what you're looking for. And with eBay guaranteed fit, your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back. Because with eBay Motors, you're burning rubber, not cash. With all the parts you need at prices you want, it's easy to make your car the MVP and bring home huge wins. Keep your ride or die alive at ebaymotors.com. Eligible items only, exclusions apply ebaymotors.com. At King Super's Pharmacy, care is making it easy to get vaccinated. Care is helping you stay protected from flu, COVID and RSV. Seasonal vaccines are available seven days a week with evening hours. Care is giving you a shot at staying healthy this season. Walk in whenever is best and get multiple vaccines in one visit. Get your local King Super's Pharmacy. So come and get the protection you need while protecting those around you. King Super's, a world of care is in store. Visit KingSuper's.com/vaccines for more. Restrictions and exclusions apply seaside for details. What's next? At Moss Adams, that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future. As one of America's leading accounting, consulting and wealth management firms, our collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry-focused insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance, uncover opportunity, and move upward at MossAtoms.com. I took over a bullet club. I understood that that was going to be an uphill battle and I knew I was basically drinking from a poison chalice. But who better to take on that task than me? But part of it was like I'd also seen Gabe Kidd, Alex Coglin, Clark Connors just spinning the wheels like I had for years. So it was kind of my idea. We came together and it was like, all right, how do we set ourselves apart from the star power that bullet club used to have? And I was like, well, we're all ass kickers. Let's just be really violent. And so the culmination of that violence was the cage match. And I think that's when we really started turning heads and people really understanding our vision of what we feel our bullet club should be. I would love to know your general reaction whenever you see or hear a Gabe Kidd interview or headline, because I can tell you, as a guy who writes headlines for a living, when they offer me Gabe Kidd, I go, okay, this will be fun. I believe I was the first one to see the potential in Gabe Kidd. He was my first pick for being a war dog, and that has been a great pick, a great pick. Hell of a first rounder. When it comes to recruiting people and seeing untapped potential, I am the greatest at it. Like if ESPN did like the fantasy draft grade, that's an A+ right there. I mean, what a star player we haven't gave, plus he does literally anything I tell him. If I'm like, yo, go with that dude's ass, like Don, no questions asked, like he loves it. But yeah, Gabe Kidd has been, what a pick by me, what a pick by me. Dude, like he's, he sells a fight like no other, like I, there are times I get sincerely concerned for the person that he's facing, one, that the feelings are going to get hurt before the match even happens. But too, like what is this guy going to do? He's wonderful. And I mean, the war dogs are, I mean, anytime there is bullet club and then anything else attached to it, you're going to have people that side-eye it. And then what you guys have done is really deliver on that and sort of throw it in the face of naysayers. Is that satisfying for you to see that through and realize it? Of course, anytime you can give a big metal finger to people who, you know, gave it to you first is a very satisfying feeling. And this year has been just that moment again and again and again and again. But going back to Gabe Kidd real quick, he's new Japan strong open weight champion. He is the champion of strong for a reason, like he's a crazy person, like in like real life crazy person, I am concerned for him, five, six days out of the week, he usually has like one recovery day, but he is a madman for real. So of course he's going to be strong open weight champion, you know, like again, I am so good at recruiting people. I mean, Drilla Maloney, just yes, incredible, like he's stolen from Osprey. Stolen from Osprey, like you mentioned this weekend Capitol collision, his first US appearance, he will hit with a US crowd. For sure. This guy, like he's, he's got it. He's just when you talk to him, even off camera, he's got this like natural charisma. Somebody once told me, they said, I just want Drilla Maloney to think I'm cool. And I was like, you know what? That's what he exudes. Yeah, that's a tough ask. That's what the people are cool. That's why he left Empire. He's got their own nerds fair, fair. So there's the natural bullet club civil war that everybody talks about. Now I once asked Adam Cole about his thoughts on a bullet club civil war and he goes, how about a bullet club group hug? He's like, what if all of his stuff just got together in hug, which is if you've ever talked to Adam Cole off camera is the most Adam Cole thing humanly possible. But you know, we've, I've, Gabe said some stuff that maybe isn't so nice about other bullet club versions switch blade back when he was leading the charge. He said, you know what? The OC there us as well. He said that me a M mission was in it. I want to know your thoughts, David Finley's thoughts. What does he think of bullet club gold? What does he think of the OC these days being bullet club, but not really being named bullet club, all that stuff. I want your feelings, thoughts and emotions. All right. Well, when I took over, I pretty much excommunicated all other groups. So I in New Japan, we've also got house of torture. None of us get along. None of us like each other. They don't represent anything that we represent besides maybe bending the rules here and there. So you know, you got, was it bang bang gang? Are they even still bullet club? I don't really care what goes on them on their on their video. It still says bullet club gold. All right. Cool. I'm the leader. So all those royalties come to me anyways. So like, if you want to fly my flag, go for it. But in my eyes, war dogs is the only group that matters. If you're not my dog for real, you're not my dog at all. You know what? I appreciate that and admire it. It's just like I've seen at this, like it used to be like if you weren't in bullet club anymore, you became acutely aware by the form of an ass whipping, but there have been some people that have sort of snuck off and snuck away without catching that ass whipping. I don't think Scott DeMoor ever got jumped out of the group. I don't think Scott DeMoor in the group. I feel like a day for a day when I was there, but not when you were there. It's the thing. They didn't even look Jay's ass on the way out. I had to do that myself before I even joined the group. You know, I felt bullet club went soft. And I fixed that, man, it hurts my heart to see, but you know what? You guys have done very well for yourselves. One of those things that you did very well for yourself, you mentioned having that absence coming back to the G one, you had that mattress, Suji, who is very clearly also a guy that much like you, people looked at and said, probably next up for that guy. When you have a match like that right out of the gate, even if it doesn't go your way, are you like, well, yeah, that builds up my confidence pretty well after having a month off? Yeah, a little bit, obviously, if I would have won, I would have been a little more confident, you know, but I do well being back into a corner as well. But yeah, Suji is, I hate to admit it, but he's very good. He's got a bright future. He's someone that came into the dojo after me and I remember during the pandemic, we actually had to go back and stay in the dojo. So I was like, I'm just back at square one, but he was a young boy there at the time. I think it was man. So, you know, seeing him progress to what he's progressed to now is a testament to the system that New Japan has very good at reloading, like incredible reloading. Yeah. I would say, especially like they've got this unique knack for if they happen to lose an English speaking star, my God, they've got somebody's ready. And now in this sense, they, you know, they lost a couple, but they had like, you were ready. Gabe Kidd was ready. Drilla Maloney was ready. Like basically your group was ready. Yes, Clark Conner's ready, you know, Clark Conner's ready. We are, we are carrying this company on our backs. And is that something that you take pride in? Is that something that you're like, hell yeah, I'll do that. I want that. Yeah, of course. Of course I do. I mean, the rest of the kingdom on my, what is it, Titan Tron, a big bold letter, savior of the company. That is what I am, whether people want to admit it or not. I am the one that's going to drag New Japan up and make us the number one company again. How do you feel when you see people like Mr. Ali pop up in on these US shows? Is that something like sort of like a my territory? If I wanted that title, I'd take that too. But you're welcome to be here thing, or is it a we'll wait and sort of see how he lands after this home with Takahashi Matt because he's a guy that when naturally when he popped up, I saw a lot of people say love to see him involved with war dogs or opposite war dogs. I think my stuff, Ali is very talented. He beat Haruma Takahashi in his first match in New Japan, which is no small task. Possibly the greatest junior heavyweight of the last decade, him or Daspie, you know, one and two respectively. So yeah, that's pretty good. Although I don't think with stuff Ali is war dog material, you know, he's a good. He's a good Muslim boy, you know, he sticks to his morals that he does war dogs go out. We drink. We smoke. We party. We fight people. We say bad words. I don't think he would be a good mix. We'll just pick on him for being, you know, a good headline that's going to be the headline for being a good person and that is as political as I will get with that. But here's the thing. He's talented, but I don't really rate anybody that comes through, you know, the doors of New Japan until they actually go to mainland Japan and do a tournament of some sort. You know, whether he does, it's a best of the super juniors or a G one, like that's where you really cut your teeth. That's where, like, you know, you separate the boys from the men. Is there anybody that you see in the wrestling world, whether it be New Japan or outside of it, even on the independence that you look at and you're like, even if they're not war dog material, there's potential, there's hope and maybe a sliver of possibility that one day they can be war dog material. Nobody really comes to mind to be completely honest with you. There was a little bit there where I wondered if Shouta Amino would benefit from being a war dog, but his heart is still too pure. You know, he still believes the lie. Bolt and Oleg ranked fifth in the world for freestyle wrestling, an actual killer from Kazakhstan. I kind of unofficially extended an offer to him when he was ready for it during the G one. But again, his heart is too pure. I don't think he's going to take me up on it. But outside of that, I mean, the war dogs is pretty stacked, New Japan is pretty stacked, you know, like they have all the talent we need in house. So I don't think we need to look outside for that. You mentioned like hearts not being pure funny enough on this show, Fred Rosser's teaming with Tom Lawler. Fred Rosser cut a pretty hard is not pure promo on Tom Lawler once upon a time. Said he was going to break into his house and do some pretty crazy things, like honestly, if you were to have put like pasted gave kids face over Fred Rossers, I would have been like, yeah, it's a gave kid promo right. Yes. 100%. I know exactly which one you're referencing. And I was around the corner and heard it was just like, can we say that? I mean, he can, I guess I can't. So when when I asked Rocky about it, I was like, did you think that would make air? And he goes, no, because he's like, that was surprise number two. Surprise number one was that it even got said. Yeah, it's airing is the crazy part because he's also like, Fred is a very nice person. I didn't know he had. Sweet guy. I didn't know he had that fire in him. I want to see more of that. That's cool. I just love that Tom Lawler heard that. He's like, maybe I should just team with this guy instead, like maybe that's the best course of action. Safer. Oh my God. He's August 30th, New Japan, strong capital collision, Washington, DC, David Finley, you've been doing some kick ass stuff, War Dog's killing it again, as said, nailed all your draft picks. You've been leading by example here and you're going to compete in a six man tag team match against Yoshi Hashi, Rocky Romero, Kevin Knight. And we look forward to it. Thank you so much for taking the time. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Tune into the show at Washington, DC and if you're in town by tickets, that will have my beautiful white and gold belt with me. The War Dog's will have their beautiful white and silver tag team championships. You're going to see Gabe Kid defend his championship successfully. It's going to be a great night. Come to see the War Dogs. You know, the rest is just a bonus. Until next time, my friends, we are out. There's no sponsor that I use more while I'm awake, the Nord VPN dot com slash Fightful. Man, this is like the Swiss Army knife, the multi tool of applications. It does a little bit of everything. You always get a great deal at Nord VPN dot com slash Fightful. You can listen to your favorites abroad. You can shield your data from snoops and criminals, protect yourself on public Wi-Fi and it works on all your devices and operating systems. It doesn't end there. Change your virtual location and then get pay per views at a much more affordable price. TV services at a much more affordable price. You got a password manager, a file encryption tool, threat protections and on top of that 24 seven tech support. So if for some reason you don't know exactly how it works, Nord VPN dot com slash Fightful will help you learn how to do it. Check it out, NordVPN dot com slash Fightful at King Super's pharmacy care is making it easy to get vaccinated care is helping you stay protected from flu, COVID and RSV seasonal vaccines are available seven days a week with evening hours care is giving you a shot at staying healthy this season walk in whenever is best and get multiple vaccines in one visit at your local King Super's pharmacy. So come and get the protection you need while protecting those around you King Super's a world of care is in store. What's next at Moss Adams that question inspires us to help people and their businesses strategically define and claim their future as one of America's leading accounting consulting and wealth management firms are collaborative approach creates solutions for your unique business needs. We leverage industry focus insights with the collective technical resources of our firm to elevate your performance uncover opportunity and move upward at Moss Adams.com
