Kevin Kelly recently spoke with Super J-Cast on a number of topics including how top NJPW star “The Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada should be the highest paid wrestler in the industry.
Kelly said, “Also, I think there is a part of that (Shohei) Ohtani factor, the number one star in Japan, in all of sports is Ohtani and he just got a record-setting contract, doubling the previous high or at least close to doubling and I think that (Kazuchika) Okada is in that same conversation with Ohtani. Should Okada be the highest-paid star in pro wrestling? I think yes. I don’t know who the highest-paid star in wrestling is now and I have no idea what that dollar figure is. But whoever is making the most, Okada should at least make one more dollar than him. The economics right now with Japan are a little bit of an issue because guys were getting paid in yen, the foreign wrestlers. So the wrestlers from the United States were getting paid in yen and then those yen converting to dollars and because the yen’s value to the dollar is less, they were getting a decrease in pay, less than their guarantee. So they had to adjust it and that’s just one of the realities that’s out there now.”
(H/T to PostWrestling for transcribing the above quotes)
