Three years ago, four superstars arrived in WWE and have actually seen more success than some see in an entire wrestling career. Now, the contracts of all four of those superstars are going to be expiring soon, and many are wondering if they will stay with Vince McMahon’s company or head somewhere else. One would think that AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson would want to stay, but stranger things have happened.
There is still a bit of time until their contracts expire, but it is hard to think that all of those superstars would want to leave. At the time of this writing, AJ Styles is the WWE Champion and Shinsuke Nakamura is the United States Champion on SmackDown Live with things going quite well.
According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio , by way of Wrestling Inc. , all four of these superstars are set to have their WWE contracts expire in early 2019. Each of the men signed three-year deals back in 2016.
The contracts of Syles and Nakamura are going to expire in January while Gallows and Anderson actually started with the company in April. Currently, it appears as if Styles and the Good Brothers are likely to re-sign, but the lone question mark remains to be Nakamura.
For months, Nakamura feuded with Styles over the WWE Championship with multiple matches and even one on the grand stage of WrestleMania . He could never quite get over the hump and capture the title, but he did recently win the U.S. Championship from Jeff Hardy at Extreme Rules and some believe that was done to help convince him to re-sign.
Dave Meltzer did state that New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) has an “absolute interest” in bringing Nakamura back to Japan. Over the last three years, NJPW has undergone a serious expansion and grown in worldwide popularity which would only get bigger with the addition of Nakamura.
WWE’s exposure of the superstar has only helped his name become more known worldwide and NJPW loves that. AJ Styles, on the other hand, is in his second WWE Championship run and both of them have been quite lengthy. In the past, Styles has said he doesn’t see why he wouldn’t re-sign with WWE.
Meanwhile, Daniel Bryan’s contract with WWE is still set to expire on Sept. 1, 2018.
Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson aren’t on WWE television a lot, but they are former tag team champions who are very talented. Shinsuke Nakamura is one of the best wrestlers in the world and the current U.S. Champion. AJ Styles is the current WWE Champion on SmackDown Live and one of the most popular wrestlers around the globe. All four of their contracts/deals expire soon, and it is going to be interesting to see just who ends up coming back and who goes somewhere else.