Top 5 Things We Know About Kota Ibushi vs NJPW
Ibushi tweets out frustrations and accusations about New Japan Pro Wrestling
Over the past couple of days, “The Golden Star” Kota Ibushi, has tweeted out spontaneous frustrations and accusations against certain NJPW roster members and upper management. Fans all around the world are intrigued, questioning, looking for answers, and are empathetic towards the whole situation.
Kota Ibushi has been out with a shoulder injury since last year’s G1 Climax 31. Ibushi fought Okada in the finals of the G1, did a Phoenix Splash but Okada rolled out of the way causing Ibushi to crash down on his arm. Ibushi’s injury would take 2 months to heal according to doctors. He suffered a dislocation of the right anterior shoulder joint, bone fracture, and damage to the joint labrum.
But that’s not the case as he’s still recovering and with his recent tweets, it seems like Ibushi and NJPW are at odds. Ibushi has provided the twitter world with photographic proof of his conversation with a management member.
There’s a lot of misinformation and wild narratives on the Ibushi-NJPW situation. Ibushi’s tweets defiantly rocked the wrestling world. This article is to keep the truth and facts going while others may twist words and narratives to paint a worse picture. Here are my top 5 facts that we know so far!
Kikuchi is a match maker of NJPW. Kikuchi also, according to Ibushi and wonderful Japanese to English translators, threatened Ibushi about his contract via the LINE messenger app. Keep in mind this conversation started on Feb 27th when Ibushi decided to replace his broken phone and then the conversation got picked up after Ibushi went to the March 4th JTO (Just Tap Out) event which is ran by Taka Michinoku.
Ibushi was supposed to return to the New Japan Cup to face Great-O-Khan in the first round, but plans changed due to doctor concerns about his shoulder.
Ibushi name drops Gedo in his argument with Kikuchi via the LINE messenger app.
According to Ibushi, no one in upper management wanted to talk with him or give him new information about the contract situation.
Ibushi suddenly drops the kanji character for “organized crime” which is another way to say Yakuza when in reply to a fan that mentions to Ibushi that the company should resolve this.
This situation between Kota Ibushi and NJPW is still ongoing. At this time and moving forward, these write ups will be facts and truth. No fluff. No bias.
I do hope that NJPW and Ibushi can reach a middle ground to sort this all out.
Source for further reading: Ibushi Timeline Oct 2021 - May 2022