AEW Star Lance Archer Explains What He Learned Wrestling In Japan

As a veteran of TNA, WWE, and now AEW, Lance Archer has seen and done it all when it comes to the American wrestling scene. But even Archer will tell you that the most formative years of his wrestling career came while he was well into it, when he competed in Japan for promotions such as New Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling NOAH for nearly a decade.

On the latest episode of "The Hawk's Nest," Archer talked about what he learned from his time in Japan, revealing the biggest lesson he took away was learning to keep things simple, and draw on emotion.

"I think the thing that I always talked about with Japan and my career and what it helped teach me was it helped me simplify things, to the point where I wasn't relying on...having to communicate action, emotion, and thing that was going to happen in a match," Archer said. "And the simplification of my style allowed more character to come out. And again, people respond to that, and I've told guys and girls throughout whatever seminar I've ever done, or somebody comes and asks me questions. 

"If you can draw them in emotionally and make them care about you or hate you or love you or whatever the case may be, you don't have to do a thousand things. Because they want to love you so much, or they want to hate you so much that when you do one thing, they explode upon that. Because they go 'I hate you, so I hate that you did that, so boo to you!' or 'I love you, so I love that you did that, so yay to you!' And if you can, like I said, draw that emotional connection from that audience, it transcends languages."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Hawk's Nestnd" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription