According to Tokyo Sports, former IWGP World Champion and top Japanese pro wrestling star Tetsuya Naito has been working as a freelancer with NJPW since his contract expired on January 31st. The report also mentioned that contract talks have been put on hold three times, and a fourth one will be taking place soon, but Naito’s #1 priority is NJPW.
Naito told Tokyo Sports, “I haven’t decided what I’ll do if I quit, but when I was younger I thought ‘maybe I’ll retire at around 40’, and it’s true that I can’t do things now that I was able to do a few years ago because of my physical decline. I really feel that the time I have left is limited, and rather than continuing with some weird dissatisfaction, I feel like it might be better to just do things the way I want to. I’m feeling at ease because I’m saying what I want to say. I haven’t decided whether to sign or not, but if I feel like, ‘OK, I’ll be in the New Japan ring for another year,’ I’ll sign, but if I have doubts I won’t, so I want to cherish how I feel at the time. In short, Tranquilo… don’t try to mediate.”
