Juice Robinson talks everything about the IWGP United States Championship.
Just days away before he s set to face Jon Moxley at NJPW King of Pro Wrestling for the IWGP title, Robinson spoke with NJPW and gave his thoughts on where the U.S. title sat in the company's landscape. Robinson said the title was currently the third-best title right now, but then shifted his focus on his critics who already had counted him out when Moxley first appeared at NJPW and targeted Robinson.
In their first match earlier this year, Moxley ended up beating Robinson to win the IWGP title, but Robinson got the win in their rematch during the G1 Climax.
"I would say it?s the number three championship, as far as significance. Right under the Intercontinental I would say. Perhaps equal. It?s not the granddaddy of them all, not the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, but it?s up there. I know I said I never thought about the US when I had the title. That was right after the match, and I was angry. I had a lot of critics after that, people that were only talking about Moxley and crowning him champion before the match happened. A lot of those people were American so-called ?journalists? and ?experts? and people that think they know everything. When I said that I was talking directly to those kinds of people. The IWGP means a lot to me because this was the place that gave me the platform, and an actual chance to be a successful pro-wrestler, so that?s why those letters maybe mean more than the USA to me. Or, that?s what I meant when I said it," Robinson said.
Robinson would later go on to criticize Cody Rhodes for not "being a champion" during his IWGP U.S. title run when he briefly held the title from September 2018 to January 2019 given that he never successfully made a title. As for Moxley, who is making his first title defense since winning the belt in June, Robinson called him out for sitting "on his ass" and not fighting through injury.
"And what?s Moxley done? Sat on his ass, getting his triceps stapled up. Injuries happen, but at least when I had that belt I defended it as much as I could. I was on the road up and down Japan, a fighting champion, and damn it, I should be the champion again. Forever. When you think of titles, you think of people. Like when you think of Ricky Steamboat you think of him as an Intercontinental Champion. Think of the IWGP title and you think of Okada, or Tanahashi. I want people to think of me when they think of the US Championship," Robinson said.
The full interview can be read at this link. Moxley vs. Robinson for the IWGP United States Championship will take place at King of Pro Wrestling on October 14.