Kevin Knight confirms he’s signed to both AEW and NJPW

Kevin Knight revealed in an interview with Sports Illustrated that he’s signed to both All Elite Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling.

AEW announced that Knight was “All Elite” following his match against Jay White on the March 29 episode of AEW Collision. Shortly after, NJPW confirmed Knight’s participation in this May’s Best of the Super Juniors 32 tournament, marking his third straight appearance.

“Well I can actually say this right here, right now: I’m representing both AEW and New Japan. I’m still contracted with both companies, so there’s no threat—‘The Jet’ is still here to stay,” Knight said.

Knight spoke about the process of signing with both promotions:

“So it was just a matter of exploring all options and seeing where the best place may be for me. All respect to New Japan, all respect to all the places I’ve been before. You know I love going over to Japan, I love traveling the world, so it was just a matter of what works for my schedule and where do I feel most comfortable. And ultimately that led to me signing with both New Japan and AEW. It was definitely a different process because I’ve never gone through something like that.”

During a different interview with Adrian Hernandez, Knight also discussed WWE inviting him to a tryout at the Performance Center. When asked if he felt disrespected by the request, he responded:

“I wouldn’t say disrespectful in a way. I understand how the business works. WWE is a machine, and sometimes it may be a bubble, you know what I mean? So they may not know exactly what’s out there. I didn’t take it as disrespect. If anything, I took it as a challenge just to show what I’m about. And if they didn’t know me before, well they definitely do now—or they did when I walked through those doors. I’m going to make a statement anywhere I go. And that was a great experience as well. I’m glad I got to do that. I got to meet a lot of people in that company, and it was great just being able to work with people so closely that you see on TV every week, that you see on their PLEs and everything. For me personally, it was a great learning experience. I didn’t take any slight to it—I understand how the business works. It was, if anything, a networking opportunity. Again, exhausting all of my options. So I feel like I only grew from that.”

In February, Dave Meltzer reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that people within the industry believed he was headed to WWE.

“Lots of talk regarding Kevin Knight here [WWE],” Meltzer wrote. “We haven’t heard he signed but only it’s something being talked about within the industry.”

After reports surfaced in December that Knight’s NJPW contract was expiring, WWE’s Natalya praised him publicly on social media, writing that Knight regularly flies out to train at her Dungeon 2.0 facility in Florida.

“Kevin is so talented. He flies in to train. Has so much passion. And he’s really ****ing good. Brings so much to the table. (Plus a nice person!),” she wrote.

Following his loss to Jay White on March 29, Knight teamed with Will Ospreay in a win over Blake Christian and Lee Johnson on the April 2 Dynamite. He was later defeated by Ospreay in the opening round of the Owen Hart Cup at AEW Dynasty.

Knight’s full interview with Sports Illustrated is available here.