January 2024 marks the start of the new year for New Japan Pro Wrestling and Wrestle Kingdom 18, their biggest event of the year. It is NJPW’s version of WWE WrestleMania. However, it also comes at negotiation time.
The promotion has contract talks with its talent at this time, including Kazuchika Okada, who has a lot of interest from WWE.
Fightful Select noted that NJPW Strong Tag Team Champion El Phantasmo heavily hinted to them that his deal was up on January 31 and that he was “certainly pointing” in the direction of not re-signing with them.
He noted to Sean Ross Sapp that he was headed into a contract period, although it’s unclear where he would land or all of the promotions that are interested in him.
AEW had past interest in him since 2019. It’s unclear what the contract status of his tag team partner Hikuleo, who had interest from WWE last year.
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