Kevin Knight is pulling double duty.
Several weeks ago, Tony Khan confirmed the signing of Kevin Knight. But prior to that announcement, the 28-year-old was mainly working for New Japan Pro-Wrestling. The question about Knight’s New Japan status immediately popped up, but for all of the fans who enjoy his work then you shouldn’t worry one bit. Knight himself has confirmed that he also has a deal with New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
"New Japan has nothing to worry about. I'm not going anywhere. As I got the AEW graphic, I inked a deal with New Japan as well. New Japan gotta deal with me for another year or so, and so is AEW. I'm doing both. Best of both worlds. The Jet is intergalactic, interdimensional, interpromotional," he said to Adrian Hernandez of Unlikely.
Knight’s deal is similar to Konosuke Takeshita. Though the exact details of his New Japan contract are unknown (he likely has a yearly deal like most New Japan Pro-Wrestling stars), Takeshita is a prominent member of both the AEW and New Japan roster. In fact, Konosuke Takeshita is currently the NEVER Openweight Champion.
Knight was primarily a tag team guy as he regularly teamed with KUSHIDA and the duo was known as the Jet Setters. Both are former two-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. It won’t take long for New Japan fans to see Knight back in their ring as the promotion has confirmed that Knight will be one of the men in the 2025 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. It’s not clear how long Knight will be off AEW television during this tournament, but it’s scheduled to start on May 10th across 13 shows.
As for AEW, the newcomer is starting off relatively well as he just had an incredible match against Will Ospreay at Dynasty. Though he lost his second straight singles match (his first loss was against Jay White), that bout really put over just how talented of a performer the AEW newcomer really is. Hopefully, there’s genuine plans to use Knight in a meaningful way following his run in the Best of the Super Juniors tournament.
Check out the full list of names of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament below:
A Block:
- El Desperado
- Ryusuke Taguchi
- YOH
- Master Wato
- KUSHIDA
- Kevin Knight
- Ninja Mack
- Kosei Fujita
- Robbie Eagles
- Hiromu Takahashi
B Block:
- BUSHI
- Francesco Akira
- Taiji Ishimori
- Clark Connors
- SHO
- Yoshinobu Kanemaru
- Dragon Dia
- MAO
- Nick Wayne
- CMLL representative – A CMLL wrestler will be announced very soon.