{"id":170136,"date":"2023-12-04T16:50:04","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T22:50:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=170136"},"modified":"2023-12-04T16:50:04","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T22:50:04","slug":"kazuchika-okada-reportedly-seriously-entertaining-exploring-free-agency-when-njpw-contract-expires-in-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2023\/12\/04\/kazuchika-okada-reportedly-seriously-entertaining-exploring-free-agency-when-njpw-contract-expires-in-january\/","title":{"rendered":"Kazuchika Okada reportedly &#8220;seriously entertaining&#8221; exploring free agency when NJPW contract expires in January"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3665438322\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>NJPW star Kazuchika Okada is set to become a free agent in January 2o24.<\/p>\n<p>Okada, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/fannation\/wrestling\/news\/kazuchika-okada-will-be-a-free-agent-in-2024\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">report<\/a> by Justin Barasso Sports Illustrated is &#8220;seriously entertaining exploring free agency with the two top contenders to land his services being WWE and AEW if he decides not to sign a new deal with NJPW.<\/p>\n<p>Okada wants to continue to live at home in Japan according to the report, which would give AEW an advantage over WWE when it comes to landing Okada&#8217;s services. Given AEW&#8217;s lighter schedule compared to WWE, signing with AEW would allow Okada to continue to live at hom while travelling over to the U.S. to make his scheduled appearances in AEW.<\/p>\n<p>Signing with AEW would also allow Okada to work select dates with NJPW given the strong working relationship between NJPW and AEW, but a if he were to reach a deal with WWE, it would slam the door shut on any possiblity of him wrestling in NJPW.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-960785869\"><div id=\"pwtor-472896334\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>NJPW star Kazuchika Okada is set to become a free agent in January 2o24. Okada, according to a report by Justin Barasso Sports Illustrated is &#8220;seriously entertaining exploring free agency with the two top contenders <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2023\/12\/04\/kazuchika-okada-reportedly-seriously-entertaining-exploring-free-agency-when-njpw-contract-expires-in-january\/\" title=\"Kazuchika Okada reportedly &#8220;seriously entertaining&#8221; exploring free agency when NJPW contract expires in January\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":160837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prowrestlingnews","category-news_japan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2023\/06\/Okada-on-Dynamite.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170137,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170136\/revisions\/170137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}