AEW's Tony Khan Expresses Interest In Kota Ibushi

One of the finest wrestlers on the planet is now a free agent.

by Andrew Pollard
Kota Ibushi Tony Khan
AEW/WWE

With Kota Ibushi not only one of the greatest pro wrestlers on the planet, but also now a free agent, it only makes sense that any and all wrestling companies would have interest in bringing in the Golden Star. And amongst those keen to work with Ibushi, is AEW's Tony Khan.

Speaking on Busted Open Radio (via WrestlingNews.co), Khan brought up Ibushi's name when discussing how the AEW President is always looking at what free agents are out there.

"There's a lot of great free agents in the world of pro wrestling, but certainly Kota Ibushi is a great talent. When you have a name like that, everybody in the world of pro wrestling would be very fortunate to have [them] in their promotion. I really wanted to work with him in the past, so I think that's something we'd certainly have to consider."

Given Kota Ibushi's extensive past with Kenny Omega - and, to a lesser extent, the Young Bucks - many had taken it as a given that the 40-year-old would compete for All Elite Wrestling at some point in time. Of course, there have been a couple of notable stumbling blocks to any such appearance for Kota in AEW.

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Unfortunately, Ibushi's career has been put on hold across the past year or more. Contracted to New Japan Pro-Wresting for the past few years, the hugely talented star suffered a serious injury during a match against Kazuchika Okada in October 2021. Following that, 2022 saw Kota lambast NJPW management in several public statements for how he'd been treated by the promotion, alleging managerial mistreatment .

It was expected that Kota Ibushi and NJPW would eventually end up going their separate ways, and that has now happened. Nearly as soon as that news was made public, it was announced that Ibushi would be working dates for GCW and Josh Barnett's Bloodsport over WrestleMania Weekend.

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Unsurprisingly, Fightful Select was quick to report that there is "major interest" in Ibushi by several promotions. In terms of WWE, the market leader was extremely keen to sign Kota back in 2016 following his participation in the company's Cruiserweight Classic tournament - where he lost to T.J. Perkins at the semi-final stage - though at that point the inaugural IWGP World Heavyweight Champion had no interest in committing full-time to WWE.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.