Lance Archer: WWE Told Me ‘Go To Japan, Find That Killer, And We’ll Bring You Back’

Lance Archer’s run in WWE lasted just over a year and while he had a good look, he never elevated past the lower midcard. 

Archer wrestled primarily on the ECW brand before he was put in a tag team with Curt Hawkins. Archer debuted on ECW in November 2009 and was released by the company in November 2010.

Speaking on Talk Is Jericho, Archer recalled his final days in WWE and the advice given to him by John Laurinaitis. 

“Everything had gone downhill, somebody was pissed at me for something. I was doing less and less on TV and then they weren’t really doing anything with Curt [Hawkins] and I. They randomly stuck [Luke] Gallows and I together. It was a dark match against The Dudebusters [Trent & Kaylen Croft]. We have this match, they almost cut the match, we do the match and everything is good. Our agent Jamie Noble pipes into the ref after the match, ‘Make sure to tell them good job.’ We’re feeling good. Came through the curtain, maybe it was just one of those days, Arn [Anderson] catches us and wasn’t happy. ‘What the hell was that?’ Things just went downhill, came to TV a couple of weeks after that and didn’t do anything. Got the phone call, ‘Can you hold for Johnny?’ You know what that means. Johnny goes, ‘Hey kid, sorry, just something we’ve got to do. Why don’t you go to Japan, find that killer, and we’ll bring you back.’ I went to Japan, found that killer, and they didn’t bring me back. Thank goodness at this point,” he said.

Archer ended up going to NJPW in May 2011 where he started to find himself as a performer as a member of Suzuki-gun. He found plenty of success in NJPW, winning the IWGP Tag Team Titles and IWGP United States Title during his run.

He signed with AEW this past year and is currently aligned with Jake Robers. Elsewhere on the podcast, Archer discussed signing with AEW over NJPW. You can find his full comments by clicking here.

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