An interesting tweet about Kota.

25 comments

1. Meltzer is known for being incredibly hit or miss on New Japan reports and reports about Japanese wrestling in general, so I would take this with a grain of salt. His connections in Japan aren’t nearly as solid as his ones in America.

2. Meltzer’s reliability in reporting on New Japan went downhill after his sources (the Elite) all left. He’s likely getting this from one of the foreigners who doesn’t speak for the locker room and certainly doesn’t know what the front office or Ibushi are thinking.

3. What happened with NJPW and Kota Ibushi? The last time I heard about him was when his mother tried to off herself about Ibushi not being treated right by NJPW

4. He will be in AEW soon enough.

5. I’d very much like to see him come back but I’m not holding my breath.

6. Honestly I’m over the Ibushi-NJPW stuff. If he comes back to NJPW, great, he’s one of the best in the world. If he leaves it’s not a problem, it hasn’t been a problem over the past 10+ months so NJPW will be more than fine. Just want this saga to be over at this point

7. I could be wrong but to me, Okada winning the G1 back-to-back and so soon feels like a power move by NJPW. Thus, from now on, every time they will talk about the last person to win the tournament twice in a row, they will mention Okada and not Ibushi. I mean, the G1 final was like Ibushi’s thing and it’s not anymore. Again, I could be wrong…

8. I hope he doesn’t have a non compete clause. If he is moving on, it would suck if he had to wait out his contract.

9. Strictly speculation, but I do know Okada mentioned him in the post-match comments. I’d like to think mentioning him would be pretty taboo if he wasn’t planning on coming back, or was still on bad terms with the company.

   I’m still finding it hard to believe that you can rehab a shoulder injury as severe as his, especially without any surgery.

   Then again, I’m just as much in the dark as everyone else. Including Meltzer, his NJPW stuff isn’t reliable anymore. For all I know, Ibushi went under the knife. He did post [that vid](https://twitter.com/ibushi_kota/status/1552299305696108544/video/1) of him doing a standing moonsault on Twitter last month.

10. LOL “meltzer….” spewing fictional news as always.

11. Never say never in wrestling, but this seems like Ibushi is gone for good. That stinks. Hopefully fences can be mended and he can come back one day.

    Side note, I really miss the IWGP Intercontinental Championship and that beautiful V4 IWGP Heavyweight Championship. I would not look at NJPW any differently if they decided to bring those belts back.

12. I was surprised to hear English commentary name drop him during the G1 finals. Thought maybe that was hinting towards things being fixed.

13. In my mind he’s already gone and working on his comeback in another promotion. NJ messed up on this one.

14. I don’t think I care anymore. If it’s because the injury is career ending, that’s terribly unfortunate. If it’s because he can’t handle the position he was in, mentally, thats on him. If he wants to go back to the Japanese version of outlaw indies, fine. He’s probably better off doing that, then.

15. He did say a while back that he was only going to do like 2 more years and then retire.

16. Those belts are pure works of art

    Ibushi too

17. Never say never!

18. I think he should surf around and wrestle a few more years then pull a Nakamura go to WWE get that easy money and pull out a banger every once in a while just to prove that you’re still Kota mf Ibushi

19. i hope to see him in WWE. i would hope he wouldn’t want to go to AEW just because of the fact that the backstage environment is dogshit and i know for sure no one deserves to deal with Crying Man Punk and his bullshit after what Kota dealt with in NJPW

20. I think it’s likely due to his injury as opposed to the backstage issues.

21. I thought he was done as soon as the news came out. I just want Ibushi to be well. Everything he’s gone through backstage, his mother’s suicide attempt, etc has been too much.

    There’s life after wrestling. I hope Ibushi finds peace and happiness.

22. I hope he goes back to DDT. Also would love for him to go to dragon gate!

23. Absolutely disgusting how NJPW handled this situation with Kota Ibushi. Despicable, disgusting, and pathetic. Unconscionable and unforgivable.

24. maaan. if haitch pulls kota.

    lol

25. Honestly just glad we got the time we did out of him. If he wants to head elsewhere I don’t know nor care all that much for the details of the story but he’s always been a bit of a free spirit for lack of a better phrase. A true enigma.