Exclusive: Oba Femi On Match With TNA's AJ Francis: "I'm Open To It"

The longest reigning NXT North American Champion spoke to the Takedown about TNA's AJ Francis and Alex Hammerstone.

Oba Femi / WWE.com

NXT Superstar Oba Femi says he's open to a match against TNA star AJ Francis if the opportunity presents itself.

"[I'm] always going to appreciate the complementary words," Femi said in an exclusive conversation with The Takedown. "I hope we get to have a hard-hitting big man/big man match."

In a recent interview with Wrestleholics, Francis named Femi specifically as an opponent he'd love to face should he be chosen to crossover back to WWE.

"Trick [Williams] is in the middle of another great NXT Title run, and it’s looking like he’s about to face Oba Femi, which is cool," Francis said. "I’d love to wrestle Oba Femi. Oba Femi be bullying these boys. I’m bigger than Oba. So there’s a lot of things that could be really cool when I go back."

Femi is ready for the challenge and thinks it would amazing to give fans an opportunity to see two modern big men in a solid match.

"It's very rare that we get those. It's always big man/small man, or both regular-sized guys," Femi said. "The true potential of big man/big man matches is definitely something that's still untapped in the recent years. I'm sure when you look back at the '90s and '80s, you'll see a thousand big men working with each other. That's one of the things that excites me about potentially working with AJ Francis is that it’s big man/big man, and you rarely get to do that. So I'm open to it.”

If a Francis/Femi showdown did take place, it wouldn't be the first time Femi had the chance to tangle with a big man from NXT. During his feud with Tony D'Angelo for the NXT North American Championship, he had the opportunity to work with TNA star Alex Hammerstone. Femi says it was a delight to work with him.

“He was a really nice man, lovely to meet him, lovely to work with him. I'm glad we get to expand our horizon because there's definitely a WWE way and a WWE formula. It's nice to work with these guys from TNA and find out how they do things and how they approach things. There's always something to learn from everybody. I love Hammerstone - lovely fellow, lovely bloke.”

Femi is slated to face Trick Williams for the NXT Championship at NXT New Year's Evil on January 7th, live on The CW. Check local listings for start time.

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