For months, ever since the first time he popped up on WWE television, Kota Ibushi has seemed destined to be a big star in WWE, and a talent that the company desperately wants to have on their roster. He looked WWE-bound since he first left Japan, and when he was announced for the acclaimed CWC, he looked like the overwhelming favorite to win it all. Then he failed to sign with the company. Now, despite still being on NXT television and entering the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, Ibushi has said there is “zero chance” he will sign a contract with WWE.
On Thursday, Ibushi elaborated on his comments with a longer statement about his situation.
Want another Ibushi statement about WWE? Here is another one. Of them. #ゴング pic.twitter.com/a3ZS2sbpGX
— chris charlton (@reasonjp) October 6, 2016
“We met in a hotel. They offered a full time contract, which I declined, and then went in all sorts of different directions and contract suggestions, all of which I declined. It was a case of them just going ‘Well, ok, how about this?’ over and over. I just said ‘look, I came here to say no’, and they kind of said ‘well, I guess we’re done for today’. Why no contract? At the end of the day, it’s a matter of ‘would this decision make me happy? Or make me satisfied?’. Thing is, doing the CWC, what I did learn was that I have no problem flying out to places to wrestle. I thought it’d suck, it didn’t. But i thought ‘is wrestling in that kind of circumstance, that environment really best for me?’ And it isn’t. Maybe for other people, not me. I really don’t wrestle for the money, anyway.”
It’s been a very long time that anyone has played hardball with WWE like this … only, he’s not playing hardball; he’s just not interested. A while back, our sources told us that Ibushi had been offered at least six figures to sign with WWE, but he just continually turned them down. At this point, it’s abundantly clear that he’s simply not interested … and that he’s definitely not in it for the money.
