With the television deals for AEW and WWE coming to an end as well as numerous wrestlers’ contracts expiring all over the world, including NJPW, 2024 was predicted to be an interesting year for the wrestling industry.
AEW and WWE are expected to be active in the acquisition and retention of talent. AEW has demonstrated this by bringing in Deonna Purazso and being one of the frontrunners to sign Mercedes Mone.
Now that Wrestle Kingdom 18 has concluded, several of NJPW’s stars’ contracts will expire this month. At today’s event, Catch 2/2 (TJP and Francesco Akira) defeated Bullet Club War Dogs (Clark Connors and Drilla Moloney) to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships.
According to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select, Connors worked at New Japan Wrestle Kingdom this week without a contract and was told that his contract with NJPW had expired while he was still the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion.
According to the report, the two sides have been in active talks, though it’s unclear whether they reached an agreement this week.
Connors signed with NJPW in 2018 as part of the organization’s first class of the LA Dojo. He debuted in the industry in 2017, working for DEFY Wrestling and other independent promotions.
