WWE News: Former NJPW Stars’ WWE Contracts Expiring In Early 2019

Early-2016 was a tremendous time for the WWE Universe as we saw a number of WWE debuts by former top stars of New Japan Pro Wrestling. Current WWE Champion AJ Styles arrived in the WWE at the 2016 Royal Rumble as a surprise entrant, receiving a tremendous ovation from the crowd in the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida by entering the Royal Rumble match at the number three spot.

A couple of months later on April 1st in the Kay Hutchison Convention Center, Shinsuke Nakamura made his debut at NXT TakeOver: Dallas to the delight of WWE fans, defeating Sami Zayn. Ten days later on Monday Night RAW, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson came through the crowd and attacked The Usos, marking Gallows’ return to the company and Anderson’s first official appearance on WWE television. Since then, Styles, Nakamura, Gallows and Anderson have all seen varying degrees of success, winning various championships in NXT and the WWE’s main roster. All four men now call SmackDown Live their home every Tuesday night.

On the most recent edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that the contracts of all four men will be expiring in early-2019 after signing for three years, Styles and Nakamura’s deals both coming up in January. Additionally, it was noted that New Japan Pro Wrestling has “absolute interest” in bringing Shinsuke Nakamura back.

EA’s Take: It’s going to make me sound like a WWE “fan boy”, but I can’t really see any of them leaving. Out of the four, I think Nakamura would be the most likely since he is of course from Japan. I do think you could probably make a case for Gallows and Anderson as well, since they have had the least amount of success. At the end of the day however, this is their home country, so it really boils down to how happy they are. I’d say Styles is the least likely of the bunch to jump back because he’s clearly been the most successful with multiple WWE Championship reigns, in addition to being near the top of the heap when it comes to WWE’s highest earners.

Continue following TheChairshot for all the latest skull smashing opinion, news, reviews and so much more! @theCHAIRSHOTcom on Twitter
Always #UseYourHead