Two of WWE’s most notable executives, Triple H and Shawn Michaels, are said to be very interested in soon-to-be free agent Kazuchika Okada!
Earlier this week, New Japan Pro-Wrestling dropped the bombshell announcement that Kazuchika Okada, its top star of the past decade, will be leaving the promotion when his contract expires on January 31st. Both WWE and AEW are expected to fight hard for him in what will be a major bidding war.
Now some new insight into the situation has come to light via a new report from Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso. Barrasso notes that, although AEW is currently the favourite to sign The Rainmaker, both Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque and Shawn Michaels have “significant interest” in Okada signing with WWE.
Okada is reported to have always wanted to perform at WrestleMania, per several NJPW sources, something which Levesque is aware of and would want to fulfil. Specifically, both AJ Styles and Finn Balor would be considered for such a match at WrestleMania 40 due to both men’s prior relationships with The Rainmaker.
Barrasso goes on to note that WWE securing Okada to a deal would go a significant way to building a proper relationship between Levesque, Nick Khan and New Japan itself.
This wouldn’t be to the level of AEW’s relationship with the promotion, so there’ll be no WWE x NJPW Forbidden Door events any time soon, but major trust could be built between the two promotions through WWE allowing Okada to return to New Japan annually.
WWE Would Require Kazuchika Okada To Move To The US
However, it was also reported that AEW has one big trump card over WWE when it comes to negotiations. Specifically, Tony Khan is open to Okada continuing to live in Japan if he signs with AEW. WWE, on the other hand, would require him to move to Florida.
This is on top of Okada having visited AEW Dynamite back in October to see how the company operated at a regular TV taping as well as his strong relationships with many high-level individuals there including Khan, Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, and Bryan Danielson.
TNA was also briefly covered in the report with it being stated that they sit at “a distant third” in interest, as they do not have the capital to outbid AEW nor do they have the “allure” that WWE holds.