HHH approved this.  I think we will be seeing some interesting people in the Royal Rumble this year.  Muta retires before the rumble, but will likely be added to the WWE Hall of Fame next year.

Probably will get RVD and (maybe) Rene Dupree for the upcoming rumble, both work for NOAH. Dupree has been pretty respectful of WWE on his podcast as of late IIRC.

Dupree REALLY wants back. RVD back for the Rumble would be huge.  He is not a great guy to have week to week, but as a special appearance guy he is one of the best.

I am curious if this was just a Noah deal, or if NJPW and AAA reached out, as both companies worked with WWF in the past.  Not being real competitors to WWE, deals with these big international companies can lead to HHH doing real dream matches in WWE.

French Tickler in the middle of the ring.

Shame about those tattoos but maybe we get us a BOBCORE Fergus staredown to start the build.

🤯
System

Thoughts?

I guess, the audience state-side for this isn't exactly huge, but it could be a nice way to build a relationship between WWE and Japan.

But, let's not get carried away. Liger wrestled for WWE while contracted to NJPW in 2015 and despite all the hopes and dreams of some further crossover, it never happened.

That man looks like he's wearing Kane's old mask.

Remember that one time Muta showed up to great fanfare on a random AEW Rampage episode to save old rival Sting?

Yeah, that kinda went nowhere.

This is cool news though and very interesting. Former NJPW top star going to work for "rival" company NOAH. Clearly it's a one off and he's going back to WWE afterwards so doubt there'll be any hard feelings on NJPW's part. Not that Nakamura cares.