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Kota Ibushi expressed his frustration with NJPW management yeterday on Twittter.
Ibushi, who has been out of action since suffering a shoulder injury last October in the G1 Climax finals, took to Twitter to voice his frustrations with NJPW management. Ibushi said he was upset intitially when he felt he was being rushed back to action too quickly by NJPW last December when they wanted him to wrestle at Wrestle Kingdom in January. Ibushi stated he didn’t feel that he was ready to return from his shoulder injury.
Ibushi then began showing text messages he exchanged with a member of talent relations named Kikuchi. According to Voices of Wrestling, Kikuchi threatened to end Ibushi’s contract with NJPW after he appeared at a Just Tap Out show on March 4 that Kikuchi did not approve of.
Voices of Wrestling is also reporting that Ibushi told the NJPW office he was ready to return for the NJPW Cup after not being ready for Wrestle Kingdom 16 in January. Ibushi was scheudled to win the tournament, but was pulled from the event by Kikuchi, who was following the advice of a doctor to not wrestle over what was described in the report as a minor concern.
The report also stated that there was massive heat between Ibushi and Kikuchi going back several years starting sometime around 2018. At the time, Ibushi felt that Kikuchi was shorting him merch money. At the time, Kikuchi was running NJPW’s merchandise department.
On Twitter, @golden_kuma has been translating the text messages between Ibushi and Kikuchi. In the text exchanges, Ibushi tells Kikuchi he’s going to discuss the matters between them with NJPW president Takami Ohbari. He also tells him that he has had a discussion with NJPW booker Gedo about his appearance at the JTO event and that Gedo had no issue with it. Ibushi texted Kikuchi, “I’m going to have lunch/dinner with the president (Ohbari) soon but I’ll never forgive you.”
Contact Sean at pwtorchsean@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @SR_Torch
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