Kazuchika Okada is leaving New Japan Pro Wrestling. The Far East’s premier wrestling promotion announced earlier this month that Okada would be taking his talents elsewhere when his deal expired at the end of January, bringing an end to a working relationship that few believed would ever sever. Considering the magnitude of his star power, many believe that the only two companies that could financially court Okada are WWE and AEW. Okada has competed in AEW on a couple of occasions, wrestling on both editions of the AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door crossover pay-per-view event and has also popped up on two episodes of AEW Dynamite.
While that previously established relationship with AEW President Tony Khan came with an expectation that Okada would one day be #AllElite, a new rumor indicates that the former IWGP World Champion is favoring the other show in town.
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Kazuchika Okada Rumored For WWE NXT
Is The Rainmaker heading to the WWE Performance Center?
As reported by Monthly Puroresu, an English-language Japanese wrestling source, one source close to Kazuchika Okada has indicated that he “is WWE bound” and is “potentially starting in NXT first.” There is no confirmation or word from Okada himself.
WWE’s History of Top International Talent in NXT
While Kazuchika Okada has headlined NJPW Wrestle Kingdom eight times, New Japan’s equivalent of WWE WrestleMania, WWE rarely has any International signings completely bypass its developmental territory.
Current main roster standouts who had storied careers outside of WWE such as Finn Balor and Shinsuke Nakamura both had extended stints in the black and gold before competing on WWE Monday Night Raw and WWE SmackDown. The same goes for former indie stars like Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Damian Priest and more.
That said, there have been a couple of exceptions to that path. AJ Styles competed in the Men’s Royal Rumble just weeks after wrestling at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 10. Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows showed face on WWE Monday Night Raw without ever having a stint at Full Sail University. The argument for Okada going straight to WWE’s main roster is that his level of star power is on par, if not higher, than Styles’s was when he leapt to WWE in 2016.
Beyond that, WWE NXT is far from what it was when talent like Owens and Nakamura were starting there. From 2014 until 2020, NXT was an indie haven, hosting quarterly Takeover events that echoed the spirit of rabid ECW crowds with stamina-based, golden age Ring of Honor-style wrestling. Today’s NXT has embraced the developmental side more, molding its own superstars from the WWE NIL system rather than bringing in already-established talent from the greater squared circle world.
Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for updates on Okada’s wrestling future.
