On the latest episode of Pro Wrestling 4 Life, two-time WWE Hall of Famer Sean “X-Pac” Waltman sat down with former Pancrase Openweight Champion Josh Barnett. Barnett is still active in the combat sports world as a fighter for Bellator and the promoter of Bloodsport.
Barnett previously served as color commentator for New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV. Pro Wrestling 4 Life co-host and Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman asked Barnett about the noticeable friction that he had with the Young Bucks.
“I don’t know what their deal is. I don’t know who riled them up into thinking that me and JR (Jim Ross) were burying them all the time because we weren’t,” Barnett noted. “One of the things that I think was a problem is they wanted to be cool, but I’m like, you’re heels. You’re constantly cheating, and breaking the rules and doing heel stuff, so we’re gonna say you’re despicable.
“We’re gonna say you’re terrible and horrible and you’re bad people. We didn’t say that you sucked. We just said that you’re bad guys because that was your job. Your job was to be bad guys, but it seems like no one wants to be an actual heel anymore. Everyone wants to be the cool anti-hero or cool bad guy. They want to sell all their merch. No, I’m sorry, if you’re a heel, be a heel.
“Stop trying to worry about whether the fans like you or not. You have a role to fill here, and if you want to run around telling people to ‘suck it’, then people should want to see you get your your teeth kicked in. That’s just the way it is, and nobody wants to be a heel and that’s a problem. And somebody riled up The Bucks. I don’t know how, whatever. They used to get into Twitter fights constantly anyways.”
Barnett continued as he spoke more on what his goal was on NJPW commentary.
“I’ve never actually had a discussion with them, and yet, I would constantly cover for them in their matches,” Barnett stated. “They go to hit their Meltzer Driver. They do all this crazy stuff that just gets them a two count. My thoughts are, ‘well, I don’t want this to seem like it was s**t,’ or it’s weak or it’s just a hope spot or it’s just getting their s**t in. I don’t want people to view that. I want to say, ‘well, okay, you can see that Matt, when he came off the ropes, he didn’t get the feet all the way on the help on that piledriver.’
“I don’t want to belittle what they’re doing. I want them to feel like, okay, if they had hit it perfectly, that match is over, but they’re tired. It’s tough. People are sweaty. Things are happening. This dude’s in air flipping to give the assisted tombstone. Okay, a lot of things can happen, can miss, and you get guys that always got to knock a dude out the ring. They always got to flip over it. Okay, fine, regardless if this has happened in every match leading up to this, but whatever, I’m not agenting things."
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