Clark Connors discusses replacing Tomohiro Ishii at the Forbidden Door pay-per-view.
When it was first announced that Tomohiro Ishii, Miro, PAC, and Malakai Black would be competing in a four way match at the Forbidden Door pay-per-view, fans around the wrestling world rejoiced. In the days leading up to the event, it was revealed that Ishii would not be a part of the bout due to injury. He was replaced by Clark Connors, who started out as a Young Lion in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Although he didn't go on to win the match, Connors' performance in the match was universally praised around the world of wrestling. In a new interview with Fightful, Connors recalled the days leading up to the match.
"I think that they found out Ishii was injured. If Forbidden Door’s on Sunday, then they found out on Thursday, told me on Friday and I was out the door on Saturday morning. So I had no idea. I found out, actually, maybe fifteen to thirty minutes before everybody else did on Twitter or whatever the release was. They were like, ‘Clark, can you go?’ ‘Yep.’ ‘Alright, you’re going,’ and then boom, they just announced it. So not a lot of time to think about it, not a lot of time to prepare. Which, I think for me, was a good thing. Because I was just focused on getting to America and making sure I had my gear basically. The wrestling part, for me, is the easy part. I knew that I could fit in to wherever I needed to. I knew the expectations are very low. Loved that. I love it when you have low expectations and you can just jump over them. So I used that to my advantage as well. I think it went well. Obviously I would like to win. Who wouldn’t like to win? But in terms of making a first impression and making new fans, getting new eyes on myself and the New Japan product. Think I did a pretty good job with that."
Connors went on to praise the guys he was in the ring with, while also revealing that he enjoyed not getting his ass kicked the whole time.
"Yeah, no, it was cool. Those guys are all, obviously, phenomenal wrestlers. They’ve been doing it forever. To get in there and then there’s obviously there’s parts of the match that I liked because I was not getting my ass kicked the whole time, and then parts that were better than others. I knew that no matter what you know you’re in something pretty fun and will leave an impact on someone. So feeling that in there and feeling it in there with guys who know what the hell they were doing was that much better."
Connors has yet to return to All Elite Wrestling since the match at Forbidden Door, as he has been out of action with an injury since July.
Elsewhere in the interview, Connors discussed his contract with NJPW. To learn more, click here.