During his stint in the indies, Bronson Reed faced off against Kazuchika Okada, the current IWGP World Heavyweight Champion twice, scoring a shocking upset win over him in the G1 Climax 2022 tournament before losing to him in a rematch at NJPW Declaration of Power.
In a recent interview with Overnight Crowd, Reed looked back on his experience with Okada and what it meant for his WWE return.
“These are things that are unprecedented. People didn’t think that I would be able to do it, but I knew that my time away from WWE, I needed to make sure that I was staying impressive.
Being able to get a victory over someone like Okada, who you rarely see lay on his shoulders for three seconds, meant a lot to me, but it also meant a lot to me to be able to come back to WWE with purpose and with a newfound chip on my shoulder,”
Bronson Reed
Bronson Reed was released by WWE along with several other NXT talents in August 2021 due to budget cuts. Following his release, he changed his ring name to JONAH and worked for various promotions such as IMPACT Wrestling and NJPW.
H/T to Fightful
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