Could Kevin Knight be the next talent on his way out of New Japan Pro-Wrestling?
Last year, New Japan took a big hit as Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada left the promotion for All Elite Wrestling. While Knight isn’t on the level of the former IWGP Heavyweight Champions, the 27-year-old is ½ of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.
Him and Kushida will be defending their belts at Wrestle Kingdom 19 in a Tokyo Terror Ladder match against Ichiban Sweet Boys (Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita), Bullet Club War Dogs (Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney), and Catch 2/2 (TJP & Francesco Akira).
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select reported that Knight’s contract is days away from expiring, though he doesn’t give an exact date. Ross states that New Japan is interested in keeping Knight, though there’s no word on whether the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion is interested in staying.
Knight got his start in New Japan. He trained at the New Japan Pro-Wrestling LA Dojo and has been a rising star since his debut in 2019. Knight briefly wrestled on TNA/Impact Wrestling, though he didn’t particularly do anything significant during his short time there.
The New Japan star stated on a Fightful podcast that he loves the promotion and is hoping to be an IWGP Heavyweight Champion, though his ultimate goal is WWE.
“Tokyo Dome is definitely something [I want to do]. I was trying to politick my way to get there this year [laughs], trying to talk to Gedo, ‘Let me get in a Rumble or something.’ But that’s always a goal. Now that I’m in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, I want to do it all, the Tokyo Dome. I’m riding with KUSHIDA right now, so I want to go for those belts, the Junior [Heavyweight] Tag belts, Best of Super Juniors, I gotta get in there and show people what I’m about.
It’s time to show people what I really can do on the one-on-one action. Of course, gotta go for those IWGP Junior Heavyweight, IWGP Heavyweight, everything. While I’m here, I want to do everything. Nothing is not impossible for me. Anything that comes my way, I’m going for it. That’s all the goals right there.
"When I got into wrestling, I didn’t know anything about New Japan Pro-Wrestling. So I’m still learning as I’m here. I’m still learning, but now that I’m here, everything in New Japan, I want to do and check it off the list. Always the goal, WWE, now AEW, so somewhere in the future, maybe. I don’t know. We gonna see where the journey goes. It’s my story that I get to write, so we get to see where we go. Of course, WrestleMania. I gotta go to the Royal Rumble once. I can’t tell you how many times I watched the 2000 Royal Rumble for the Rikishi/Too Cool moment. I gotta make one myself at some point. Of course, that’s another goal. I’m a wrestling an at heart, so I just want to make myself proud.”
If he drops the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team titles at Wrestle Kingdom then it’s a strong indicator that Knight’s time in New Japan is almost over.