Tetsuya Naito Addresses Negative Rumours Concerning His Departure From NJPW

By:Lewis Carlan

The world of professional wrestling was hit with shockwaves on April 16th when New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced that mainstay Tetsuya Natio would be leaving the company. Naito’s contract with NJPW actually expired on Jan. 31st and he has been competing as a freelancer.

There have been rumours concerning Naito that he was holding out for more money which ultimately led to his departure from NJPW. Naito addressed these rumours and more in a recent interview with Tokyo Sports. He outright denied that wanting more money played a factor in his leaving NJPW.

In addition, Naito indicated that he is frustrated with the spreading false narrative and laid blame squarely on media coverage of the situation.

From Tetsuya Naito:

“Let me be clear, in the five contract renewals I’ve had, I never once brought up money. It’s extremely frustrating to have people think I’m quitting because of money, and honestly, I think it’s Tokyo Sports’ fault. But if Tokyo Sports writes about it, it somehow sounds even more like a lie, so what the heck am I supposed to do? I never made any unreasonable demands. I never said, ‘Since I’m wrestling more, pay me more,’ or ‘That guy wrestles less, pay him less.” I just wanted them to properly value what a wrestler’s match is worth. I get that the number of wrestlers has increased, and there are unavoidable circumstances, but still.”

“Did they do that when other wrestlers left? I think it’s wrong that President Tanahashi got some heat from the fans because of that. Tanahashi only showed up during the final (fifth) contract negotiation anyway. Sure, maybe I made some selfish requests. They didn’t exactly work hard to convince me to stay. After my contract expired on January 31st, it took more than a month before they even contacted me for the next negotiation. I’m not trying to say, ‘Why didn’t you do this or that for me?’ now. But if they don’t change the way they handle contracts, I think the same thing will keep happening in the coming years. I really hope my departure prompts them to rethink how they approach contract renewals.”

Tetsuya Naito’s final scheduled match with NJPW will be May 4th at Wrestling Dontaku.