The big unconfirmed rumor today is that WWE has signed four of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s biggest stars – AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson. All four participated at the WrestleKingdom 10 event over the weekend which is NJPW’s version of WrestleMania.
AJ Styles has been one of the hottest free agents in the United States ever since leaving TNA. The former TNA and IWGP champion also wrestles for Ring of Honor, something that will obviously stop if he really is signed to WWE.
Nakamura is currently the IWGP Intercontinental champion and the 35 year old wrestled AJ Styles at WrestleKingdom 10, defending his title. He spent his whole career with New Japan Pro Wrestling and is one of the most popular wrestlers in the country.
Doc Gallows is not new to the WWE as he previously worked there under the names of Festus and Luke Gallows. Although he wrestled for both WWE and later TNA for around two years, Gallows’ popularity is more evident over in Japan where he has been wrestling since 2013 for NJPW. At WrestleKingdom 10, he and his tag team partner Karl Anderson lost the IWGP Tag Team titles. Gallows is also a big friend of CM Punk and the two worked together during the Straight Edge Society days.
Karl Anderson has never wrestled for WWE or TNA but has featured for Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, and Global Force Wrestling as well. He made his NJPW debut in 2008 and has been wrestling there ever since, forming part of the Bullet Club with Styles and Gallows as well. Anderson was also the tag team partner of Giant Bernard at NJPW, the man whose real name is Matt Bloom, the head trainer at WWE Performance Center.
If the rumors are true, WWE has managed to scoop up some of the hottest stars over in Japan and they would make a great addition to either the NXT or WWE main roster.
