For several hours on Thursday afternoon Eastern Standard Time, current GHC National Champion, Katsuhiko Nakajima of Pro Wrestling NOAH (NOAH), had a profile on the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) English language website.
Nakajima won the GHC National Championship on May 9th from Takashi Sugiura. Along with being the second-ever GHC National Champion Nakajima has also been a WRESTLE-1 Champion, AJPW Junior Heavyweight Champion, All Asia Tag Team Champion, 3x GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion, 5x GHC Tag Team Champion, and GHC Heavyweight Champion.
Nakajima’s ties to NJPW began in 2004; when he took part in Best of the Super Junior XI, he would also take part in the 26th version of the G1 Climax in 2016. Throughout his career, he has taken part in 100 matches within the company.
With Japan recently lifting its state of emergency due to COVID-19, NJPW has had internal discussions regarding the when they will proceed running events, and if those events will have fans. NJPW President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Harold Meij recently gave a public address about the company’s approach to COVID-19.
The idea that NJPW could rust Best of the Super Junior (BOTSJ) and G1 Climax concurrently once events begin running. Earlier in the year, BOSJ was postponed due to the global pandemic. If Katsuhiko Nakajima is about to make a return to NJPW, it would likely be to take part in this year’s G1 Climax. It’s unlikely with him recently winning the GHC Global Championship that he would be parting ways with NOAH shortly.
NJPW and NOAH had a working agreement between 2015-2016 before NOAH was sold to Estbee (who recently sold the company to Lidel who then sold to Cyber Agent in a surprising move in January). Nakajima making a high profile appearance in NJPW would suggest a new agreement between the companies.
His profile appearing on the NJPW website may have been an accident, misdirection, or a purposeful slipping of his return to NJPW.
