It was announced early Wednesday morning that Tesuya Naito is departing from NJPW. This comes after Tokyo Sport reported that Naito was working without an NJPW contract. Many people thought it was an April Fool’s Joke, but it was quickly confirmed to be legit.
Fightful Select reports that Naito and NJPW had been at an impasse regarding potential contract extensions. Per the report, Naito has explored his options over the last month.
In recent years, he has battled injuries that have affected his in-ring work, but has remained a draw for NJPW. Several NJPW stars are working without a contract with NJPW right now.
Back in 2018, WWE was interested in Naito, but he claimed to have turned down the offer. Naito is not expected to go to AEW after finishing up with NJPW in early May.
Fightful was told that eventually he could be back. Bushi is also leaving NJPW.
This is just a snippet of the story. For complete details, please visit Fightful Select at Patreon.com/Fightful.
