NJPW Star Confirms Reported Talks With WWE

WWE/NJPW

A NJPW star has confirmed reported talks with WWE.

In the beginning of 2023, Fightful reported that WWE was interested in both Tama Tonga and Hikuleo.

Many pundits around the wrestling world believed the two brothers would sign with WWE, but both men have remained active members of the NJPW roster in November 2023.

As previously reported, Tonga confirmed the rumours that he had talks with WWE and was working without a contract with New Japan.

Speaking with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, Hikuleo also confirmed these reports and talked about how it played into his Loser Leaves Japan Match with Jay White earlier this year. He said:

“It was true [Tama Tonga and I were speaking to WWE]. I think it added more value to the match.”

“Everyone had their idea of who was going to win and who was going to lose, but the fact that, right after that Jay announced the loser leaves match.”

“The next day, we were getting ready to leave from Tokyo. I was sitting on my bed, bags packed, on my phone, and then Tama texted me, ‘Did you see the internet?’ ‘I don’t want to see the internet right now.’ ‘Just open it real quick.’”

“I look at it and my notifications are blowing up and I’m like, ‘Damn, did I do too much and tell somebody? What the hell is coming on.’”

“[Fightful] reporting it just added more wager to the match itself and kept everyone guessing what was going to happen.”

The NJPW star continued on to explain how communication breaking down led to talks ending, saying:

“Just the communication and a lot of factors. We were weighing it out and we talked about it for a while too. It was a lot of things. It wasn’t quite the right time.”

“Not sure there will ever be a right time. It was a lot of factors at that time didn’t play out how we thought it would.”

“There is loyalty, there is trust you build with New Japan or any company and you don’t want to break that off and just jump right now when something seems good. It just fell through and we’re where we are supposed to be.”

Hikuleo concluded by praising New Japan Pro Wrestling for having faith in him during the early part of his career. He said:

“I got injured when I first started at the Dojo, I fractured my wrist, and I was struggling through the workouts. I was one of the last ones to finish everything.”

“Usually, when that happens, they’ll cut you. They’ll fire you within the same week. They had a lot of faith and wanted to see me out and see how we did.”

“For those two reasons, plus, what they did to help my father and our whole family, we can’t be quick to make decisions off money right away. You have to wait things out a little bit.”

While Tama Tonga went on to win the NEVER Openweight Championship since those reports, Hikuleo captured the NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship in May and then won the STRONG Openweight Tag Team Championships with El Phantasmo last month.

Transcription via Fightful

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• hikuleo
• NJPW
• wwe

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