Freddie Prinze Jr. On Why Vince McMahon Had Issues Getting Japanese Talent Over

WWE has always had an issue getting over talent who couldn’t speak English as clearly as others, and Freddie Prinze Jr. recently shared his thoughts on why. Prinze discussed the matter on the latest episode of his Wrestling With Freddie podcast when asked why Japanese stars like Asuka and Shinsuke Nakamura have had WWE careers that have fallen a bit below what many expected of them.

“So I have an honest answer, but I feel like when dirt sheets pull it from our podcast, it’s gonna come off like brutal and rough,” Prinze said. “So the funny answer was, ‘Oh well, well it’s just super racist.’ But if I say that, then they’re like, ‘Freddie says WWE is super-racist!’ in giant black or white letters [laughs].”

He got more serious then, saying, “Yeah, it’s just a cultural ignorance, man. Vince always felt — and this is public — if English isn’t their first language, the American fan is always going to look at them as a heel. And if they are a babyface, he wanted them to be funny and goofy. And I think that’s why there was a lot of goofy Mr. Moto BS when it came to Japanese wrestlers over here.”

The comments were said in the context of Asuka’s match with Alexa Bliss on last week’s Raw running a short running time. The two did battle on Raw with the match going just over two minutes before ending in a no-contest, which Prinze noted was a very “Attitude Era” aspect of last week’s show.