Davey Boy Smith Jr. reveals reasons for leaving NJPW, has aspirations for an MMA fight

Davey Boy Smith Jr. recently sat down for an interview with Devon Nicholson from The Hannibal TV. Davey Boy revealed his reasons for leaving NJPW.

In the 25 minute chat, Davey Boy tells a few stories that basically boil down to lack of communication, miscommunication, lost in translation, and feeling disrespected. The difficulties with management arose after his tag team partner, Lance Archer, was injured. Smith had to make business decisions that were in his best interest, since NJPW would only give him four tours that year.

A few points that stuck out to me were:

• Smith got the runaround and felt lied to about methods of communication, then Gedo (the main booker of NJPW) briefly pretended he didn’t know how to speak English when confronted. Smith explained by doing a Gedo impression like Cartman from South Park.
• Smith suffered a hand injury from a kendo stick whack. In the back, Gedo was upset that Smith didn’t sell it long enough. Smith felt disrespected that Gedo didn’t even ask about how his hurt hand was doing.
• At the very end, NJPW started jobbing Smith out. It sounded like Smith was okay with losing hard fought matches to top level guys, but he was losing to lower level wrestlers.
• Smith believes he got heat for signing with MLW due to NJPW’s partnership with ROH. Smith said that ROH never booked him, and he didn’t want to be somewhere he wasn’t wanted.
• Smith consulted everybody’s favorite “People Power” General Manager of both Raw and SmackDown John Laurinaitis for advice. I always pop for the name-drop of Big Johnny. Johnny Ace had a lengthy wrestling career in Japan and was paid well for his services.

For fans that will miss Smith wrestling in Japan, he may not be gone for long. MLW’s new alliance with NOAH could see Smith grace their ring soon.

Don’t worry, Japanese fans! I will return soon! Activities are expected.

Davey Boy providing his reason for leaving NJPW is the newsworthy part, but the idea that stood out most to me during the interview is that he has aspirations to take an MMA fight. Smith has been training with Jack Swagger (2-0 as a professional) and the two have discussed heading over to American Top Team.

It would be very interesting to see how Smith fairs in the cage. Outside of Brock Lesnar, I’d be most intrigued with Smith out of all the professional wrestler crossovers into MMA. Smith does come from a long line of Hart family shooters, and it would be neat to see his training put to the test.

Of course, the topic of AEW was brought up. Smith is interested in working with them as long as it doesn’t interfere with MLW. He feels AEW’s roster is lacking big guys, and he could fill that role.

Will you miss Davey Boy Smith Jr. in NJPW? Would you like to see him join AEW? What do you think his ceiling is for MMA?