New Japan Pro Wrestling & Ring Of Honor To Offer Joint Contracts

New Japan and Ring Of Honor won’t give up their stars without a fight.

It looks like New Japan Pro Wrestling is looking to lockup their talent for next year and who can blame them after the advent of their top stars leaving for WWE and beyond this past January. The Bushiroad owned promotion are looking to the American based Ring of Honor promotion of which they have a long standing relationship with to help keep their talent on the New Japan roster, or at the very least, out of the WWE. ROH is also facing a considerable amount of performers potentially leaving as several deals are set to expire at the end of the year. New Japan are looking to prevent another massive talent departure like the one shortly after Wrestle Kingdom 10 in which the former IWGP Intercontinental champion Shinsuke Nakamura,  former IWGP Heavyweight champion A.J. Styles, and former IWGP Tag Team champions Karl Anderson, and Doc Gallows left the company for the WWE. NJPW President Katsuhiko Harada had expressed in an interview earlier this year that he intends to hold solo shows in the United States next year and is looking to lock up American talent for such a venture.

Former WWE Superstar Evan Bourne, known now as Matt Sydal is the first of foreign talent to be approached by both promotions for a joint contract. Others who are being considered include reDragon, the tag team comprised of Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly; Fish currently the Ring of Honor TV champion. reDragon’s contracts expire at the end of this year. One would think that they will attempt to do the same with arguably the most popular tag team in wrestling today; The Young Bucks whose contracts are set to expire at the end of this year and their stable mate, former IWGP Intercontinental Champion; Kenny Omega who’s contract is set to expire in January; exactly one year after the purge.