Former IWGP Heavyweight champion Kota Ibushi takes shots at NJPW and “Sexually Harassing Bosses.”
The situation between Kota Ibushi and New Japan Pro Wrestling appears to be in a strange place after Ibushi released a set of surprising tweets on Tuesday.
Things began to heat up when the former IWGP Heavyweight Champion took to Twitter on Tuesday morning and vowed to expose what he described as “Cheaters-gun” and “sexually harassing bosses.”
Ibushi: I’ll expose all about the former cheaters-gun (already returned) and the sexually harrasing bosses, from the company president’s lies to his unreasonable power harrasments this time
Get prepared for this
ToSpo and TV Asahi too. I don’t care~
Four hours later, Kota posted another tweet, a screenshot of a line chat Ibushi had with a New Japan higher up only known as Kikuchi. It showed Kuchi suggesting to end of New Japan’s contract with Ibushi, which led to the following exchange.
“If I’m told so from the NJPW side, I can’t complain,” Ibushi said. “I’ll get things settled. It’s fine if you just fire me.”
“I don’t want to do that,” Kikuchi replied. “What happened to you?”
“There’s no reason whatsoever,” said Ibushi. “I have no excuse either and don’t know why but I can’t align with the company’s rules. If this atmosphere is too weird, then it can be quick, so you can cut me with no remorse.”
Kota Ibushi reveals more about NJPW with a series of tweets
Ibushi suffered a significant shoulder injury against Kazuchika Okada in the G1 Climax Final. Since then, he has not wrestled since the G1 recently said his recovery to be 80 %. Ibushi continued his response to another fan,
“You know what is going on behind the scenes if you’ve been in the business for no less than 18 years,” Ibushi said. “I don’t think it is a negative thing, I take it rather positively. I’m very, very calm. Thanks for your concern.”
After this, Kota posted one more tweet, which showed another line chat between him and Kikuchi where the two argued over an unnamed appearance
“Don’t you think it’s wrong to make an appearance (without permission)?” Kikuchi asked. “Maybe we should talk in the office.”
“You came at me to end the contract so I thought that was it,” responded Ibushi. “I’d accept it. I don’t think it changes if we talked.”
“It looks like you can’t have that conversation, so you cause problems and make it the other guys’ fault in order to leave the company,” Kikuchi stated. “I mean, you do have extra reasons or issues other than that, don’t you?”
“Nothing at all!” Ibushi responded.
“Because if you think you’ve done nothing wrong, and if suddenly a LINE message about ending your contract comes, wouldn’t you ask ‘did I do anything wrong?’” Kikuchi asked.
“I didn’t,” Ibushi responded. “I didn’t think it was a problem so sorry about that. I’ll talk to the higher-ups.”
The tweet in Japanese was translated by Twitter user @golden_kuma.
Thread notes about Ibushi’s tweet about cutting someone out of his life. He recorded his usual New Japan podcast on April 14, which went normal.
Ibushi signed a three-year deal with New Japan in 2019, which means that his contract will be up sometime this year. He is known for being the partner and friend of AEW star Kenny Omega. It is unclear whether Ibushi would join AEW if he left New Japan or how this could affect the ongoing relationship between these two promotions. The two promotions are holding the supershow, Forbidden Door, on June 26 from the United Center in Chicago, Illinois.
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