Kazuchika Okada update: AEW believed to have made stronger first offer than WWE
On Thursday night, massive news in the pro wrestling industry broke with it being announced that Kazuchika Okada is leaving NJPW.
Okada, the biggest star in NJPW, is departing the promotion when his contract expires at the end of January. He’ll still be working three February NJPW dates after that, appearing at the New Beginning in Osaka and New Beginning in Sapporo.
It’s expected that Okada will end up signing with either WWE or AEW. In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer confirmed that WWE and AEW have both made pitches for Okada. It’s believed that AEW has made the stronger first offer, but no contract has been signed yet.
Meltzer wrote:
Of course the big question is where is Okada going. Both WWE and AEW made pitches for him.
One person close to Okada ‘Nothing has started yet but seems both are gonna fight for him hard.’
It was believed that AEW has made the stronger first offer but no contract has been signed at press time.
As noted months ago, WWE was of the belief they had a strong shot at getting him, with the idea that they could convince him he had done all he could do in Japan and because of the economic differences in wrestling because sports rights fees just aren’t close to the same level in Japan, the American scene is far more lucrative.
Okada has made appearances for AEW before as part of AEW’s working relationship with NJPW.
Okada filed a trademark for “Rainmaker” on January 12.
NJPW has announced that a match between iconic rivals Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi will take place at the New Beginning in Osaka on Sunday, February 11.
Okada, Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii currently hold the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team titles together. They were originally supposed to defend against Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste & Kosei Fujita at the New Beginning in Osaka. That Six-Man title match has been moved to NJPW’s Road to the New Beginning show at Korakuen Hall on Wednesday, January 24.
Okada is also set to appear at the New Beginning in Sapporo on Friday, February 23 and Saturday, February 24. NJPW hasn’t announced his matches for that event yet.
