Minoru Suzuki On What’s Wrong With The Newer Generation Of Pro Wrestlers

During a recent interview (via wrestlinginc.com), Minoru Suzuki spoke about his issues with the newer generation, beating people up, and making money…

On What’s Wrong With The Newer Generation Of Pro Wrestlers: “There is one thing about Japanese wrestling lately that so many wrestlers were just fans first,” Suzuki said. “You don’t get what I’m saying, do you? They’re making money because of who they learned from. That shouldn’t matter. They say they can because they learned it. But that’s not it. It comes from work. They say they learned this move from their master. That’s not it. It came from practice. They don’t get it. They’re just wrestling fans, every single one of them. And they never talk about money. What’s interesting about wrestling done by wrestling fans? Why don’t you just play at home? I do this to make money and more of it and I will step on your head to get it. ”

On Beating People Up & The Commercialization of Wrestling: “It’s fun to beat people up that’s honestly why I do this for decades. They do it for the chants, when they lose there’s always tomorrow. What are you talking about? That’s how I see it. If I lose, if I’m not popular, if my merchandise doesn’t sell then I have no commercial value. If I didn’t have commercial value then I wouldn’t be standing here right now. But I’ve always been here so that proves my worth.”

On People Calling Him Dirty & Making Money: “People say I’m dirty, pro wrestling fans don’t like to talk about money. The way I see it you can’t talk about money if you’ve never made any. People who make the least always say it’s not about money. That’s total BS. Then go ahead, take it from here, do it for free. That’s how I see it. They’re fans first then wrestlers. I don’t even want to see them wrestle in front of me. Ultimately, I don’t want them to stand in the same ring I do. And they still think the money comes from the owner… I run a business, I have employees, but the money doesn’t come from me. It comes from the customers. If they don’t get that money comes from fans and not the company then they are not wrestlers.”