New Japan Pro Wrestling is looking to lock up key names as they battle against WWE and others looking to sign away some of their talent.
Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio that Juice Robinson has signed a multi-year deal that will keep him with New Japan Pro Wrestling for the next three years. Meltzer noted that there was interest from WWE but talks never got far enough to the point that they were directly talking with him. Robinson is a guy that All Elite Wrestling was interested in.
Robinson won the IWGP United States Championship last week at Wrestle Kingdom 13 from Cody Rhodes. He’s been with New Japan Pro Wrestling since 2015 and has reinvented himself since his time in WWE NXT when he was CJ Parker.
Rocky Romero has also announced that he has signed a multi-year deal to stay with NJPW. On Twitter, he wrote, “Happy to say I came to terms with @njpw1972 for a multi-year deal. RoppongiLights,RoppongiVice #RPG3k #CelebrateProWrestling.”
Happy to say I came to terms with @njpw1972 for a multi-year deal. 🍾RoppongiLights,RoppongiVice🎵 #RPG3k #CelebrateProWrestling pic.twitter.com/fhXrvF5AtB
— ROCKY ROMERO🇵🇷 🇲🇽 🇺🇸 🇯🇵“Chico El Luchador” (@azucarRoc) January 7, 2019
The multi-years are a change from how NJPW did business in prior years. This allows them more breathing room so they don’t have to worry about possibly losing talent to WWE every year.
Kenny Omega announced on Sunday that he is taking time from wrestling and seemingly implied that he is looking at going to either WWE or All Elite Wrestling.
As we wrote about earlier, KUSHIDA has already announced his departure from NJPW and the belief is that he is headed to WWE.
