Speaking to Tokyo Sports following Hiroshi Tanahashi’s retirement match, WWE’s Shinsuke Nakamura revealed that he did everything he could possibly do to be part of it.

But while Nakamura was previously given permission to work and appear at shows by Pro Wrestling NOAH in Japan, appearing on a New Japan Pro-Wrestling broadcast, a company with big ties to competitor AEW, was going to be difficult.

“I thought I did everything I could,” Nakamura told Tokyo Sports. “But the fact that it didn’t come to fruition makes me think that there was a (other) mission that was imposed upon me. That’s the only way to look at it. I think that’s dramatic in itself.”

Nakamura was, at one point, in consideration to be Tanahashi’s final opponent, but that spot unsurprisingly went to AEW’s Kazuchika Okada.