After nearly 16 years as part of New Japan Pro Wrestling, Hiromu Takahashi is leaving the company. It was announced on February 3 that the record four-time winner of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament would be finishing up with NJPW on February 11 following The New Beginning In Osaka event, causing many people to speculate where he might end up next. On the latest edition of “Wrestling Observer Radio,” Dave Meltzer commented on where Takahashi will go next, and in his mind, there are three possible options.
“Hiromu, we don’t know where he’s going. I’ve heard the Hiromu leaving stuff for I feel like two months at least, maybe longer,” Meltzer said. “The rumor was always NOAH. I’ve people talk about maybe WWE, I mean I could see him in AEW if he was available to AEW. I could see him going to WWE because there’s the money, but as far as WWE’s track record with Japanese junior heavyweights, I mean I know everybody thinks they’re going to be different because they’re really good, and he’s obviously really good.” Takahashi did tell Tokyo Sports after the announcement was made that he does have one major goal he wants to achieve, but didn’t specify where he would need to go in order to achieve that goal.
Takahashi already has a history with AEW thanks to the company’s working relationship with NJPW, appearing on three Forbidden Door pay-per-views between 2023 and 2025, including challenging Kyle Fletcher for the AEW TNT Championship at the 2025 event. Later on in 2025, Takahashi won the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship in Pro Wrestling NOAH, a title he would end up dropping to AMAKUSA at the company’s New Year event on January 1, but considering his former Los Ingobrenables de Japon stablemates Tetsuya Naito and BUSHI have also made their way to NOAH, that could be his next landing place. As for WWE, Takahashi has no history with the company, but he could follow in the footsteps of another former LIJ member EVIL, who is slated to be joining the company in the coming weeks.
Please credit “Wrestling Observer Radio” when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
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