Davey Richard Reveals Why He Didn’t Think He Would Get Booked After Return
Davey Richards has three major reasons as to why he's taken on such an intense wrestling workload since returning to wrestling. "The American Wolf" had a conversation with USA Today about MLW Battle Riot IV this weekend as well as pursuing a career as an emergency physician. The host, Phil Strum, noted that Richards has wrestled for 22 different promotions in 2022 and had a dance card full of eight matches for WrestleMania weekend. Strum asked Richards how he could handle so much and if he was making up for lost time.
"When I came back, I didn't know if anyone was going to book me," Richards said. "I didn't know if anyone was like, 'Man, who is this guy?' Cause when I left I felt like my style was not en vogue at all and I didn't follow wrestling at all because I didn't want to watch it cause I didn't want to get that itch and I had to really focus on school," he said. To his surprise, his popularity reignited on the independent scene and he eventually signed a deal with MLW.
"Two, I guess I come from a different generation (I sound so old) but you're supposed to get out there and you're supposed to wrestle, that's our job that's what we do and I guess third and most personal for me is that I want to get better. My main motivation in wrestling nowadays is to just give back and just to get better," he said. "Training with Barnett and those guys has really opened my eyes as to what is my place in the business."
Richards realizes he has a bigger motivator to keep sharpening his blade on the canvas.
"Barnett really opened my eyes to, like, I'm carrying on a lineage of the real wrestlers from Gotch and Thesz and Billy Robinson, Suzuki and all those guys. Guys that can really go out there and wrestle and uphold the art and the sport of professional wrestling stemming from like the catch-as-catch-can days. So that's really been invigorating for me to just learn more about our lineage and sport and put that into practice and hopefully inspire others. I feel like it's so easy to wrestle so much nowadays cause I have great opponents and I'm doing something I truly believe in."
Richards started the week off by being a surprise return to Impact Wrestling at Slammiversary and will endcap it with Battle Riot on June 23 from New York City's Melrose Ballroom as he'll participate in the 40-man fight and challenge Alex Kane for the National Openweight Title.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Under The Ring" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.