Jushin Thunder Liger Speaks To NJPW About His WWE Hall Of Fame Induction
WWE officially announced the list of inductees for the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2020. Jushin Thunder Liger is the newest name added to the list that includes "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith, Batista, The nWo (Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Sean Waltman), The Bella Twins, and JBL. The ceremony is scheduled to take place on April 2.
Triple H and William Regal gave their praise for Liger. Liger spoke to New Japan Pro Wrestling on his WWE Hall of Fame induction.
"Wow! This was really a huge surprise. There are tons of better wrestlers to give this honor to than me. After Antonio Inoki and Tatsumi Fujinami were the first two into the Hall of Fame, for me to be number three is just a huge shock.
"That's not fake humility, I'm not putting up a front. It's honestly how I feel. I spent my whole career just having fun. I always loved pro-wrestling, and just did what I loved all these years," Liger said. "The thought process was just 'this sounds like fun, let's do it'. And then a lot of people were willing to co-operate with me to make things happen. So in that sense, it really feels strange I should be the one to be honored here."
Many former New Japan wrestlers or wrestlers that have wrestled at NJPW are at WWE. Liger talked about getting the chance to meet those wrestlers and living up to the prestige of the WWE Hall of Fame and his name.
"I know a big ceremony is planned, and as of right now, I'm planning to go. I'm looking forward to seeing Kushida, Shinsuke [Nakamura], and a lot of the foreign wrestlers I know, as well as some of the legends that'll be there too.
"It really is moving to be given such a grand award. I'm quite nervous," Liger said. "I definitely want to live up to the Hall of Fame name, and the reputation that the wrestler Jushin Thunder Liger had. I'll definitely be on my best behavior."
Liger talked about his potential speech regarding whether it would be in Japanese translated into English or just in English. He lightheartedly said that his son speaks English and may have him do the speech for him.
"The only other thing is the speech. How are we going to do this? Does it have to be in English? Can I do it in Japanese? Apparently Fujinami wrote a speech, got it translated into English and then practiced it a million times," Liger said. "My kid speaks good English, I might put him to work so I can do the speech in English. Ah, worst comes to it I'll just do it in Japanese!"