Why Tyler Breeze Thought WWE NXT Match With Jushin Thunder Liger Was A 'Joke'

Retired Japanese legend Jushin "Thunder" Liger made his WWE debut in 2015, defeating Tyler Breeze at "WWE NXT" TakeOver: Brooklyn in front of over 15,000 fans at the Barclays Center. Breeze spoke about finding out he was facing the WWE Hall of Famer, who was performing for NJPW at the time, while appearing on the "Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling."

"I thought it was a joke at first because nobody would really tell me," Breeze said. "I think at that point, I'd wrestled basically everybody. I'd been on almost every TakeOver wrestling everybody. So I think at that time I looked at the landscape and I went, 'Alright, well, this guy's with this guy, this guy's doing that, this guy's doing this, so there's nobody really around, so I'm probably not gonna be on TakeOver, I guess.' And I remember, I think Hunter even said, 'Hey, we're working on something for you. You'll be on it; just don't worry.'"

Breeze, a recent guest coach at the WWE Performance Center, went on to say it was Finn Bálor who first mentioned that he was facing Liger at TakeOver: Brooklyn. Breeze admitted he was a little perplexed at first until the current Judgment Day member, who was trained by Liger and reached out to the former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion about the potential TakeOver match, confirmed it was the Japanese veteran himself. Breeze said he was informed about the plans for his match with Liger a couple weeks later by management.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit the "Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling" Podcast with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.