First things first, this is from Tokyo Sports so proverbial salt grains…but they dropped a major New Japan bombshell RUMOR earlier today…Tetsuya Naito may be leaving the promotion soon. He actually has been a freelancer since the end of January when his contract expired and he hasn’t signed a new one. To an extent Naito confirmed the story and indicated a potential contract dispute, perhaps over the number of matches worked annually. He will be 43 later this year and his injury history (knees in particular, much like Hiroshi Tanahashi) is well-known. Negotiations seem to be ongoing on a new contract, which given he’s also coming up on 20 years with New Japan may be his last. He is half of the current IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions with Hiromu Takahashi with a title defense this weekend at SAKURA GENESIS, so what happens there could be a clue to his future.
Original story at the link below (in Japanese):
https://t.co/odbVunBqcj
4/3/25 UPDATE: In a social media post, Naito confirmed the story is accurate.
