Post by AJ Knight on Oct 13, 2024 0:54:29 GMT
AJ Knight recently sat down with Max Japan to discuss his acclaimed run in the J1-Summit, and what's next for him in Max J.
Interviewer- AJ, thank you for joining us tonight!
AJ- My pleasure. Always nice to talk to the media when I'm not trying to go through the airport.
Interviewer- Of course, it was certainly a tough tournament in the J1. A number of great matches came out of it, with your only loss in block competition being to coming to the legendary Junior Heavyweight Thunder Mask under the pro wrestling format.
AJ- Honestly him beating me under pro wrestling rules kind of surprised me. I've always struggled quite a bit with shoot style wrestling, so I thought Sport Form would undoubtedly give me more issues. I guess the work with Bastian Krull is paying off. He certainly lived up to the hype, I definitely felt the experience difference there with him pulling out a lot of tricks I didn't expect. We're 1-1 now so if the Max J office is willing, I'd certainly be up for a rubber match under whatever rules he sees fit.
Interviewer- I'm sure the Max J office would be more than willing to oblige at some point. Now I want to touch on something. You just mentioned your difficulty with shoot style wrestling, one of the highlights of the entire tournament of course was your third-place bout against notorious shoot wrestler and your longtime nemesis Alexander Irvine. He's long been something of a boogieman for you in ring, but during that match you finally managed to score a decisive victory over him. Would you say this puts an end to the rivalry?
AJ- No. The basis of my feud with Irvine is one of philosophy. It's about whose style of wrestling is superior. It's not going to stop until one of us proves ourselves right. Irvine believes that my style of wrestling is too soft and too weak. I believe Irvine's style is too rigid and too predictable. The way I beat him validated his philosophy in ring, because I had to fight him on his terms to beat him. Which means to him I won, but I didn't beat him.
Interviewer- So what do you think would constitute "beating him"?
AJ- Pinning him in the middle of the ring with a Knightfall DDT. That's my way of wrestling, that's my way of winning. So if I win on my terms, that means I've truly beaten him. It means my "soft, weak" style of wrestling beat his rough and rugged "real man's" style. If I were to guess for him it would be a matter of breaking my spirit in the ring and forcing me to truly quit. He's made my body quit on me before, but he can't say he's ever made me truly quit, which would mean he's proven his point that my style has made me weak as opposed to his which strengthens him. I don't know if that makes any sense, but that's just how I view it.
Interviewer- I see. Now, going into the J1 Summit you had some rather harsh words for the eventual tournament winner ZENKI. When the two of you went at it in the semifinals ZENKI won in one of the most intense bouts of the tournament. Have your feelings on him changed at all in that regard.
AJ- Not really, I always viewed him as a fantastic professional wrestler, but his mama's still a hoe for the bullshit he pulled with the scales a few months ago. His match with Tiger Mask Red was a classic, but I absolutely do want a rematch with him as soon as I get the chance.
Interviewer- Final question, you're set for a trios tournament what are your thoughts on your partners?
AJ- Eiichiro and I are on pretty friendly terms. We've always had good chemistry between the two of us. His powerful, high impact style has always complimented my technical style pretty damn well. I can wear people down to set him up for his offense, or he can beat them down to soften them up for me. It's a good system between the two of us. Masters I think has the opportunity to either add to that dynamic or get in the way of it. It's going to really depend on if the kid's grown up at all since the last time we met. If he has, maybe Yamazaki and I can teach him something. If not it's going to be a long weekend.
Interviewer- Thank you for your time, AJ we look forward to seeing you in the ring.
Interviewer- AJ, thank you for joining us tonight!
AJ- My pleasure. Always nice to talk to the media when I'm not trying to go through the airport.
Interviewer- Of course, it was certainly a tough tournament in the J1. A number of great matches came out of it, with your only loss in block competition being to coming to the legendary Junior Heavyweight Thunder Mask under the pro wrestling format.
AJ- Honestly him beating me under pro wrestling rules kind of surprised me. I've always struggled quite a bit with shoot style wrestling, so I thought Sport Form would undoubtedly give me more issues. I guess the work with Bastian Krull is paying off. He certainly lived up to the hype, I definitely felt the experience difference there with him pulling out a lot of tricks I didn't expect. We're 1-1 now so if the Max J office is willing, I'd certainly be up for a rubber match under whatever rules he sees fit.
Interviewer- I'm sure the Max J office would be more than willing to oblige at some point. Now I want to touch on something. You just mentioned your difficulty with shoot style wrestling, one of the highlights of the entire tournament of course was your third-place bout against notorious shoot wrestler and your longtime nemesis Alexander Irvine. He's long been something of a boogieman for you in ring, but during that match you finally managed to score a decisive victory over him. Would you say this puts an end to the rivalry?
AJ- No. The basis of my feud with Irvine is one of philosophy. It's about whose style of wrestling is superior. It's not going to stop until one of us proves ourselves right. Irvine believes that my style of wrestling is too soft and too weak. I believe Irvine's style is too rigid and too predictable. The way I beat him validated his philosophy in ring, because I had to fight him on his terms to beat him. Which means to him I won, but I didn't beat him.
Interviewer- So what do you think would constitute "beating him"?
AJ- Pinning him in the middle of the ring with a Knightfall DDT. That's my way of wrestling, that's my way of winning. So if I win on my terms, that means I've truly beaten him. It means my "soft, weak" style of wrestling beat his rough and rugged "real man's" style. If I were to guess for him it would be a matter of breaking my spirit in the ring and forcing me to truly quit. He's made my body quit on me before, but he can't say he's ever made me truly quit, which would mean he's proven his point that my style has made me weak as opposed to his which strengthens him. I don't know if that makes any sense, but that's just how I view it.
Interviewer- I see. Now, going into the J1 Summit you had some rather harsh words for the eventual tournament winner ZENKI. When the two of you went at it in the semifinals ZENKI won in one of the most intense bouts of the tournament. Have your feelings on him changed at all in that regard.
AJ- Not really, I always viewed him as a fantastic professional wrestler, but his mama's still a hoe for the bullshit he pulled with the scales a few months ago. His match with Tiger Mask Red was a classic, but I absolutely do want a rematch with him as soon as I get the chance.
Interviewer- Final question, you're set for a trios tournament what are your thoughts on your partners?
AJ- Eiichiro and I are on pretty friendly terms. We've always had good chemistry between the two of us. His powerful, high impact style has always complimented my technical style pretty damn well. I can wear people down to set him up for his offense, or he can beat them down to soften them up for me. It's a good system between the two of us. Masters I think has the opportunity to either add to that dynamic or get in the way of it. It's going to really depend on if the kid's grown up at all since the last time we met. If he has, maybe Yamazaki and I can teach him something. If not it's going to be a long weekend.
Interviewer- Thank you for your time, AJ we look forward to seeing you in the ring.