WWE Rumor Mill: 3 ROH/NJPW stars reportedly not signing with WWE

What's the story?

Within the last few months, reports have come out stating that Tetsuya Naito, Flip Gordon, and Adam Page were either offered WWE contracts or opted to re-sign with the promotion they are currently with.

Page revealed in an interview with ESPN that he is fine with where he is:

“Going to WWE doesn’t feel important to me anymore. It’s not something I’m interested in. I really feel like in the past few years my goals have shifted from, ‘I want to accomplish X, Y, Z,’ to I want to make a good living for my family.

New Japan star Tetsuya Naito revealed in an interview with Tokyo Sports that he was offered a contract in June 2018 after the Dominion show. He turned down the WWE to focus on his home country. NJPW commentator Chris Charlton provided translations of the interview with Tokyo Sports.

Naito feels that he's already a part of the top promotion in NJPW.

And according to a Pro Wrestling Insider report, another ROH/NJPW star, Flip Gordon recently signed a new two-year contract with ROH/NJPW at the end of July.

Flip seems just as happy staying with ROH until 2020.

Gordon was indifferent with losing a bunch of big stars to WWE. It would open up spots atop the ROH roster if Page or any other stars jump ship, and is happy for everyone either way.

With pro wrestling free agency set to kick off in less than two months, these reports quell any rumors that Naito, Gordon or Page might join WWE in the near future.

In case you didn't know

With many contracts ending at the end of December 2018, January 2019 sparks the official beginning of pro wrestling free agency.

WWE has been very interested in signing wrestlers from other promotions like NJPW (Naito, Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kenny Omega) and from ROH (Flip Gordon, Adam Page).

They've already gobbled up guys like Adam Cole, Nakamura, Bobby Fish, Gallows and Anderson, AJ Styles, Keith Lee and Matt Riddle over the last two-plus years.

They've also reportedly been interested in Independent stars Shane Strickland, Fenix and Pentagon Jr.

Former independent stars like Riddle, Lee and Punishment Martinez have either recently debuted on NXT TV (Riddle, Lee) or a live NXT house show (Martinez).

Bidding wars might ensue in order to lock up big stars, so it's a good time to be a big pro wrestling star if he or she is looking to cash in on big money deals.

The heart of the matter

Any promotion hopes to keep it's biggest stars, but other promotions often come knocking on the doors of those huge stars.

Styles, Nakamura, Kevin Owens, Cole, Lee, Riddle, and Martinez must have been booked well in their respective promotions in order to jump onto WWE's radar.

The fact that the WWE comes calling to a lot of these stars shows that the home promotions have been doing something right in cultivating their young stars in order for WWE to make offers.

Gordon, Page, and Naito have all had great 2018s and appeared to help with the early housekeeping of locking up stars in both ROH and NJPW.

What's next?

The next few months will be filled with rumors galore concerning which wrestler may or may not be signing with WWE. Names like Pentagon Jr, Fenix, Kenny Omega, Cody and the Young Bucks will have every one of their moves scrutinized until they have been confirmed to either be staying home or joining the WWE.

Cody, Page, Omega and the Young Bucks have said that they made a verbal pledge to each other to stick with each other no matter where they go.

Will they all stick to their promise to each other or will some end the speculation and join the global juggernaut that is the WWE before the Royal Rumble?

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