Kazuchika Okada Reportedly Expected to Sign Contract with AEW Soon

As noted before, Kazuchika Okada’s contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling officially expired this past January and will be finishing up his commitments with NJPW this month. Both WWE and AEW have been very interested in signing Okada to a contract with their respective companies.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Okada is currently expected to be heading to AEW and that a deal between the two sides was effectively reached within the past couple of weeks. It was reported that their sources have yet to confirm if an actual contract has been signed but AEW officials had been confident in Okada joining their company as far back as mid-January.

It was reported that AEW’s plans for Okada’s debut under an AEW contract are currently not known beyond that it will be after Okada finishes up his commitments with NJPW. AEW officials reportedly have been working on ideas for Okada since this past January and held discussions this past weekend about the first half of next month would be a big one for AEW.

In regards to WWE, it was reported that WWE officials did have some conversations with Okada and several talent spoken to stated that Okada had been weighing his choices between WWE and AEW.

The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported in Sunday’s Daily Update that the belief from his sources over the past few weeks was that Okada would be heading to AEW for his official decision. One person close to the situation reportedly stated that while they had not heard of Okada signing an official contract yet, this was something they had heard being a done deal.