Davey Richards Talks About WWE Tryout And Why He Didn't Sign, Working In New Japan Pro Wrestling
TNA star Davey Richards spoke to The News Hub recently about his career prior to TNA. You can read the highlights below, and check out the full article at this link.
Working in New Japan:
"It was a great experience. It was absolutely phenomenal. I was pretty much there full time for over two years. That was always the one company in Japan that I wanted to work for. I always wanted to be in the Super Juniors and I did that and wrestle in the Tokyo Dome and I did that. It was great and it really helped me to understand how a big company like that works. I always did the independents so it was a phenomenal thing and I learned a lot from those guys and I still carried a lot of what I learned there and work ethic and the professionalism that they embedded in me there carried it on to now. It approaches my style a lot to where wrestling is first and foremost as a sport and a time that I hold very near and dear to me."
WWE Tryout:
"We couldn't commit to going down there and going into their system. I can't go down there and train 5 days a week at NXT because I'm in school, I'm in medical school full-time. It is very important for me to get my doctorate and I'm also a full time firefighter/paramedic and that's something that's very near and dear to me to. For me, I operate best just in life just to being having Davey time, wrestling time, and then coming home and having Wes time. I love wrestling, I also love saving people's lives and helping and medicine and things like that. So I don't love one more thing than another so for me it's just doesn't work out for me to go 100% into wrestling and that's just my personal thing.
They were very kind to us. They were very generous. They were very fair and nothing to absolutely have to say to them. They were absolutely great people. They are obviously doing great so were all very happy for them. It's just didn't work for me personally. Pursuing my doctorate is kicking my butt, so I have a full time job and I wrestle full time and I go to school full time so for me to give up all of that just to go to NXT wouldn't work out. I have to concentrate on that. They had some names and I said well could I be something Billington because well Tommy Billington is The Dynamite Kid, my number one inspiration in wrestling. They were cool with it and it was all good."