Davey Boy Smith Jr. on When His Relationship With NJPW Began to Break Down, Issues With Gedo

– Speaking With The Hannibal TV, Davey Boy Smith Jr. discussed how his relationship with NJPW began falling apart to eventually lead to his departure last month. Smith said that the issues started back in 2017 when he and Lance Archer, who teamed as Killer Elite Squad, returned to NJPW from Pro Wrestling NOAH. Highlights from the discussion are below:

On why he left NJPW: “Yeah, you know, unfortunately I was in a situation where I almost couldn’t win. New Japan, towards the end they were only giving me four tours a year. And what they had told me or expressed to me, was that there was no way they could increase the workload of KES — Lance Archer and myself as a tag team. And there has been a lot of things happened before this … but I had my back against the wall and it was a business decision that I had to make for my future. And I felt that the tag team with Lance Archer and myself had expired, and we did all that we could in Japan and in the USA, because we are just not that very well known over here or Canada as a tag team.”

On Lance Archer’s injury sidelining their return in March of 2017: “I guess this will all date back to when Lance Archer injured his back on a New Japan tour, I believe it was March of 2017. And believe me, when Archer and myself returned to New Japan after a two year stint in NOAH, I myself was very fired up, pumped up, ready to come back, take New Japan by storm. I had done a really crazy diet during that time. Like I’ll tell you, I didn’t even have a Diet Coke for about a month. Absolutely no crap, nothing. I was lean-cut, down to about 248, really happy to be back in New Japan. And unfortunately as luck has it, Lance Archer got injured, finally I guess it was the straw that broke the camels back. He had to get emergency back surgery over in New Japan.”

On his issues with Gedo: “I was told that I was going to be, I was on the rest of the remainder of that tour, and I was told by the new person in the office named Saito that I was going to be on the next tour. That was a little over four weeks. And he gave me a schedule, I wasn’t on the Super Juniors tour. I think I was on something in June. So, when I went home, they had owed me merchandise money from that tour, and they said, ‘Okay you’re coming back next month?’ I said, ‘Yeah I’ll be back there.’ So I went home, and was waiting for my flight, and no one gave me any flight information. I sent Kumiko, the office lady, an email and said ‘Where’s my flight,’ and she said, ‘Well did you talk to Gedo-san or Hitori? You’re not on the tour’. And I said ‘Well, that’s news to me, because I was told that I am.’ And not only that, I was told I was on the full tour, which was over a month long. So I tried to send Gedo a Facebook message, because that’s how him and Lance Hoyt communicate. And Lance sent some ideas. So I got on Facebook, I’d sent Gedo a message. He never even read it or responded.”

On finding out he wasn’t booked: “I spoke with Hitori, who luckily had the balls to call me back. And he said, ‘We’re sorry.’ He put it on this office person named Saito, that it was his fault that he told me I was on the tour, and I wasn’t. I just would’ve appreciated them to be honest with me, and when I was going home, if they said ‘Hey listen, Lance, he’s going to be out for however long. We don’t have anything for you, because you guys are a tag team. We’re sorry, please get booked by yourself.’ I would have said, ‘Okay, I would have gotten bookings like that. But when there’s that lack of communication, what am I to do?”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Hannibal TV with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.