Report: Kazuchika Okada expected to sign with AEW

Kazuchika Okada may have already made up his mind between AEW and WWE.

Fightful Select reported on Sunday that Okada is expected to sign with AEW following his departure from NJPW later this month. According to the report, the deal between Okada and AEW was “effectively agreed to” in the last couple of weeks, but Fightful has not confirmed that the contract has been signed. Fightful also said AEW had been confident that they would sign Okada for the last several weeks, and creative ideas for him had been “tossed around” back in January.

Dave Meltzer wrote the following in Sunday’s Daily Update:

Everything we’ve been led to believe for weeks is that it would be Okada’s decision. We haven’t gotten that confirmed past as of Wednesday they were talking like he was coming but the belief was that he had not signed yet but was going to do so. One person with knowledge of the situation said that he hadn’t heard an official signing just yet, but that they had heard it was a done deal.

On Sunday, Okada defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi at NJPW’s New Beginning event in Osaka. He is expected to finish with the company following matches on February 23 and 24.