VOW
On Tuesday, Kota Ibushi posted a series of tweets containing LINE (a popular social media app in Japan) screenshots of a rather contentious exchange between himself and “Kikuchi-san”, a New Japan official, in which it appears Ibushi nearly left the promotion. According to multiple sources, the tweets are not a work.
There is massive heat between Ibushi and Kikuchi going back several years, beginning around 2018, when Ibushi alleged Kikuchi, who at the time was running New Japan’s merchandise, was shorting him on merch money. Ibushi claimed that he wasn’t being paid the amount of royalties promised, in addition to being given no royalties at all on Elite/Bullet Club merch, which Ibushi felt he was entitled to as he had been working with Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks as the “Golden Elite”. At the time, Kikuchi defended this as an inadvertent oversight.
In 2019, Kikuchi’s New Japan contract expired and he was not renewed by the Harold Meij led office, due to what was believed to be a combination of mishandling Ibushi’s merchandise issue, plus multiple extra marital affairs that were brought to the companies attention by Kikuchi's wife. A pro wrestling lifer, Kikuchi then took a job writing and producing wrestling content for TV ASAHI.
Tiger Hattori, who in addition to refereeing held office positions as the foreign talent liaison and talent relations, retired in early 2020. Dick Togo was brought in to assume the talent relations position, in addition to roles as a part time wrestler and informal member of the booking team. As Togo gained more influence, he continually pushed to bring back old friends like Kikuchi and TAKA Michinoku. Kikuchi returned to work with Togo in talent relations after Harold Meij stepped down from his CEO/President position in late 2020. TAKA Michinoku would eventually return as a part time wrestler in 2021.
As Togo gained more influence on the booking side, Kikuchi eventually took over the talent relations position. When we asked for comment regarding Ibushi referring to Kikuchi as “booker”, which caused a social media firestorm on Tuesday as fans questioned whether Gedo was really the person in charge, one source noted that he believes Kikuchi has little to no creative influence, although the source did say it’s possible that Kikuchi offers ideas and participates in booking meetings. In the past, the same source, a native contracted Japanese talent, has noted that he usually is given his direction from Togo, who himself reports to Gedo. We have never been given any indication that anyone other than Gedo makes the final call on booking decisions.
According to a source close to Ibushi, while in the talent relations position, Kikuchi has gained a rep for being exploitative, unfair, and very “old school”. Kikuchi is very strict about maintaining kayfabe, including not wanting wrestlers to being seen with wrestlers from opposing units in public, once chastising Ibushi for being spotted as a bench press spotter for a heel wrestler in a public gym. Kikuchi is also very strict about the younger, good looking wrestlers keeping their romantic relationships private, fearing a loss in marketability to the female audience. The source noted that the strict policies would be one thing, but that Kikuchi enforces them selectively and unfairly.
A few weeks prior to Wrestle Grand Slam in the Tokyo Dome this past July, Ibushi fell ill with aspiration pneumonia, but told the office he wanted to move forward and wrestle his main event match against Shingo Takagi. Kikuchi made the call to not allow him to wrestle, based on not being medically cleared. Ibushi felt this was another example of Kikuchi being unfair towards him, especially when six months later Kikuchi allowed Katsuyori Shibata to return at Wrestle Kingdom, despite Shibata also never being fully cleared by doctors.
After Ibushi injured his shoulder in the G1 Final in October, Kikuchi told Ibushi that he needed to get back in time for Wrestle Kingdom, using what what Ibushi considered a disrespectful tone. Ibushi didn’t want to wrestle until the shoulder fully healed. Gedo was so sure Ibushi would be able to wrestle on January 4th or 5th that he booked an angle at the December Sumo Hall show to set up the match, but by mid-December Ibushi still wasn’t ready and they had to cancel the angle.
Two months later, Ibushi told the office he was feeling good and ready for New Japan Cup. Gedo not only booked him for the tour, but Ibushi was also the planned winner. Kikuchi, on the advice of a doctor who raised what was described to me as a minor concern, pulled Ibushi from the tour, infuriating Ibushi, not to mention causing a massive rewrite of plans. A fed up Ibushi then cut off all communication with the office, speaking to no one until Kikuchi texted him regarding an appearance at a Just Tap Out show and with the ultimatum to return by Dominion or be fired. Ibushi's tweet on March 16, saying that his shoulder was at "65%" (along with bantering Great O-Khan), is believed to be a kayfabe response to an O-Khan promo, as Ibushi had been set to face O-Khan in the tournament and then feud with him throughout the year.
Aside from Togo and the rest of the office vets (including Jushin Thunder Liger), Kikuchi does have other allies in the company, mostly the old NOAH crew of KENTA, Taiji Ishimori, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru, plus TAKA Michinoku & Taichi. Ibushi and TAKA have longstanding, on again, off again heat (the heat is back on). Ibushi has at times warned younger wrestlers to stay away from Kikuchi, TAKA, and Taichi, referring to them as “the cheaters gang”, describing them as people who will not only cheat you out of money but also cheat on their wives. After Kikuchi threatened to fire him, Ibushi threatened to expose Kikuchi’s extramarital affairs publicly. Even though a good portion of the crew dislikes Kikuchi, there is some heat on Ibushi for taking the dirty laundry public, with the feeling that he should’ve taken it up with the Bushiroad office instead.
Kikuchi taking issue with Ibushi appearing at a recent JTO show sparked the latest blowup between the two, with Kikuchi questioning why Ibushi didn’t clear the appearance with the office, and Ibushi feeling that Kikuchi was holding him to yet another double standard, as he didn’t wrestle on the show, while citing many New Japan wrestlers who have recently made appearances outside the company. The crux of Ibushi’s gripes with Kikuchi do not appear to be his strict, old school ways (one wrestler noted that he thought Kikuchi was actually an ex-wrestler because he’s always advising guys to sell more before making tags), but rather the inconsistent enforcement of what he perceives as double standards and unfair treatment due to their history of not getting along.
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