Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI Leaving NJPW Update – BUSHI Says He Signed New Deal with NJPW But Didn’t Want to Continue if Naito Leaves, Naito’s Career Future Update

As noted before, Tetsuya Naito will be leaving New Japan Pro Wrestling after their Wrestling Dontaku 2025 Night 2 event on May 4th due to the two sides not being able to come to terms for a new contract. Besides Naito, BUSHI will also be leaving the company after that event as well.

Tokyo Sports held a recent interview with BUSHI. One of the topics discussed included BUSHI revealing that he had recently signed a new contract with NJPW but did not want to stay in the company if Naito was leaving.

“If Naito wasn’t signing, I’d already decided I’d leave too. I couldn’t envision myself in NJPW’s ring without Naito.

I didn’t expect the contract to actually be terminated, but nothing’s decided yet. As of today, I’ve got offers from Gamma, Gurukun Mask, and Asuka Pro Wrestling, so I’ll think them over.”

Naito was also interviewed and gave his thoughts about his current plans for the future of his wrestling career.

“I was torn about whether it was okay to leave until the last moment. Just a few months ago, I thought I’d only leave NJPW when I retired from wrestling.”

In regards to Naito’s decision to leave NJPW, the Wrestling Observer’s Bryan Alvarez reported that his sources stated that Naito wanted a lot more money for a potential new deal than NJPW officials were willing to pay him. Alvarez speculated that these money-related issues has been something that had been in the making for awhile.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that despite the recent online speculation, Naito is still not expected to be joining AEW for his next destination and such a jump would come as a major surprise. It was reported that those within AEW stated that AEW officials have not shown significant interest in bringing him in for anything beyond sporadic appearances.

In regards to the future of Naito’s wrestling career, those spoken to reportedly stated that they believe Naito might be stepping away from at least temporarily from full-time wrestling. Those spoken to reportedly also stated that a return to NJPW in the future for Naito is a possibility.