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Shane Haste/Slapjack: NJPW Contract, Retribution, More

Added 2022-08-18 22:27:39 +0000 UTC

Fightful spoke with Shane Haste, formerly known as Slapjack.

He noted that he's enjoying his time with NJPW Strong, and hopes to return to Japan to do some work, but is actively working without a contract and is technically a free agent.

We spoke about his time in Retribution, and he said that at the time of the creative pitches, the debuts on Raw & Smackdown of the masked individuals, they had never been told as of that point that they would be Retribution. In fact, he said that T-Bar actively pitched several of the members to be in the group. They wanted to go by different names, but said their monikers were handed down by Bruce Prichard. They all thought the names were pretty goofy, but he said he was happy to appear on the main roster, and would gladly work as Slapjack again if it meant being back on Raw/SD.

He also appeared on Raw early in the pandemic, and said it was a product of WWE using people who lived close by. He didn't have anything going on in NXT, so didn't see any harm in that or losing. As for his TM-61 partner Mikey Nicholls leaving NXT, he wasn't bothered by it because Mikey had missed his family and that was more important. He also recalled being told they weren't being used in NXT because they didn't have enough ideas about their characters.

He confirmed John Laurinaitis called him to give him his release, but said Laurinaitis was a big supporter of his and a likely reason he lasted as long as he did.

We also spoke about his 2012 ROH appearances. He said nothing more came of that as he didn't have a visa.

The full interview drops on Friday and is available now for tier 2 subscribers of Fightful Select.