Fred Rosser On What Being NJPW Strong Openweight Champion Means To Him, Possibly Defending Title in AEW

Fred Rosser is the NJPW Strong Openweight Champion, and he recently talked about what that title means to him and the idea of potentially defending it on AEW TV. Rosser recently spoke with Steve Fall for WrestlingNewsCo and talked about his reign as champion and whether NJPW’s relationship with AEW could see him defend his title on an AEW show. You can check out some highlights below:

On how important the title is to him: “It means the world to me, because it’s my first major singles championship. I held the tag team title with Titus O’Neil in WWE, I’ll never, ever forget that moment. And now being the Strong Openweight Champion, it’s like — New Japan is sacred to me. That’s what it means to me, it’s sacred to me. And you know, when something is sacred to you, you treat it differently, you know what I mean? Whether I’m champion or not, 20 years in this business — [since] September 11, 2002 I’ve been rocking and rolling — I still get to the building early. I don’t want special treatment, meaning staying in fancy hotels and stuff like that. Let me stay with the Young Lions, the New Japan Young Lions. So no special treatment for Mr. No Days Off.”

On the possibility of defending the title on AEW TV:“Oh man. You know, just because moves aren’t being announced doesn’t mean moves aren’t being made. I’m trying, I’m trying, I’m trying to really shut up my biggest hater, which is my dad, who actually got me into wrestling, you know. My dad is always like — if you and I were sitting right here, I would show you the phone and show you the text messages that he would send. He would say, ‘Why ain’t you doing anything with AEW? All of your New Japan friends are getting signed. How come you’re not getting signed?’

“I said, ‘Dad, I’m very happy with New Japan.’ WWE is great, AEW is great, NWA is great, Impact is great, but I’m very happy here. So, I just wanna focus on this.’ But he’s always pushing me in a good way.”

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