Change is afoot in NJPW. It seems that the popular Japanese promotion is revamping its longstanding approach to contract negotiations.
The current model typically sees contracts expire after one year, with the Tokyo-based company looking to renew its roster’s contracts every January. But a report from Fightful revealed that a number of NJPW personnel’s contracts extended beyond that traditional January window.
If the report is accurate, this suggests that NJPW has made a significant alteration to its negotiation strategy. The Fightful report went on to add that several wrestlers didn’t sign new deals until after their initial contract expired, essentially working as free agents at the company.
NJPW supposedly uses this approach in coordination with Wrestle Kingdom – Japanese wrestling’s WrestleMania equivalent. With many of their signed talents working around the world for other promotions, NJPW operates on the basis that they can resign talents when they return to Japan to appear at Wrestle Kingdom.
However, after NJPW’s traditional negotiation strategy made headlines earlier this year for all the wrong reasons, perhaps the company has shifted its tactics ahead of 2026.
Are NJPW Learning from their Past Mistakes?
The likes of Gabe Kidd, Tomohiro Ishii, and even NJPW President Hiroshi Tanahashi have made a number of appearances for their sister promotion AEW in recent years, highlighting a strength of the New Japan contract model. The flexibility to work around the world in different promotions while maintaining a base in NJPW is an attractive prospect. But when those year-on-year negotiations don’t go to plan, it can leave NJPW in the lurch.
2025’s surprising exodus was an example of this. One of the company’s leading stars, five-time world champion Tetsuya Naito, stunned the company by refusing to renew his contract after several failed negotiations. His exit brought an end to his 21-year association with NJPW. And it went from bad to worse as Naito’s Los Ingobernables stablemate BUSHI followed him out the door shortly after.
Typically, misfortune often comes in threes, and that was to be the case for NJPW. WWE added to its growing list of 2025 acquisitions by coaxing Jeff Cobb, now known as JC Mateo, away from New Japan. Mateo has since been a central piece of Solo Sikoa’s new Bloodline, The MFT.
With WWE and AEW stealing a number of personnel from each other in recent years, NJPW’s partnership, by proxy, makes them a target for the opportunistic WWE. The traditional contract approach has made New Japan vulnerable to the likes of WWE, who remain the biggest attraction to most in the industry. NJPW’s seemingly altered strategy should provide a new layer of protection from the competition.
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Header photo – NJPW – Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can rewatch all NJPW events and plenty more tremendous wrestling content from New Japan Pro-Wrestling on NJPWWorld.com, The King of Sports Streaming.
