WWE News: Massive Update On AJ Styles And Shinsuke Nakamura Leaving NJPW For WWE
Unless you are living under a rock in the world of pro wrestling, you probably heard about the huge news that dropped regarding NJPW and WWE. It was rumored for some time that WWE was targeting a lot of major names around the world, including those out of New Japan Pro-Wrestling. WWE was having to wait until contracts expired to grab several of these people, but now that they have expired, we are hearing a lot of updates on people coming in.
News broke out of the Wrestling Observer Monday night that AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, and Doc Gallows would all be headed to WWE. On top of that, NJPW favorite Shinsuke Nakamura was also set for the jump as well. We heard rumors for months that WWE was interested in Styles and Nakamura, but most fans thought that WWE may never get them. Nakamura was doubtful due to his age, whereas AJ was doubtful for the same reason as well as the fact that he was dealing with some injuries and needed a lighter schedule.
Regardless, it appears as if all four men reportedly handed in their resignation to NJPW on Monday and were prepared to see NJPW write them out of television or do some sort of angle that would make sense. NJPW did just that but made some interesting decisions in doing so.
According to Puroresuspirit.net, a noted Japanese wrestling news source, NJPW decided to have The Bullet Club attack AJ Styles and have the turn as a way of writing him out. NJPW had Kenny Omega beat Nakamura, the current IWGP Intercontinental Champion, as a way for him to get a title shot soon so Nakamura could drop the title. On the show, Styles celebrated the win and was in the corner when Omega dropped him. Part of the Bullet Club in the Young Bucks attacked Styles while Anderson and Gallows tried to help AJ. Eventually, all of them turned on Styles.
Omega then appeared to become the new leader of the Bullet Club, which still had members Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson as part of the group. Both were part of the report of stars leaving NJPW for WWE, but it seems they might be staying. Omega declared he was done being a Junior Heavyweight and was coming for Nakamura’s title. On top of this, AJ was fired from The Bullet Club.
Omega clearly will beat Nakamura soon for his championship, which would allow Nakamura to finish up right with NJPW before leaving.
Meanwhile, AJ Styles could very well be done with the promotion altogether. Styles had been working without a contract for a little while now, and he was pretty much ready to go after Wrestle Kingdom 10. NJPW still needs to keep the very over Bullet Club going, so they had to pick a new leader. Omega is the obvious choice for this. However, NJPW could be pulling a swerve with Gallows and Anderson so that they can potentially finish up with their respective deal. However, NJPW may have been able to get them to re-sign as well, but there have been no reports of this.
AJ Styles is still set to finish out his Ring of Honor dates, which are also set to include The Bullet Club. A lot of people still wonder about Anderson and Gallows leaving, especially after their tease on Twitter regarding WWE NXT and NXT Champion Finn Balor, where they tweeted the following.
“They rumors may be or may not be true. I guess you’ll have to wait and find out.. #WhatsNXTForUs
“Keep a couple of them #BalorClub shirts handy we might be needing them.@wwebalor“
While clearly they might just be teasing this as a fun little dig to the reports going out about them, they really did not have to do so. What should be noted is that NJPW owns The Bullet Club name. Therefore, anything associated with them is an NJPW product. This very well could just be NJPW teasing fans and not the actual talent tweeting about their future WWE careers.
On top of this, the tweets were sent out a little before the show last night.
What can be known at this point is simple. AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura are leaving NJPW, and the writing with NJPW confirmed this. Meanwhile, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows are not yet done with NJPW but could still leave. We will have to wait on two of the reported four, but if WWE can manage to get all four men into WWE by WrestleMania time, it would be a huge deal for them.
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