Kota Ibushi insists his home is still with AEW, despite announcing an appearance with DDT.
The Japanese star has had a stilted career with AEW so far. He debuted for the company at Blood & Guts last year, as the final member of The Elite. He wrestled a handful of matches, all of them being multi-man matches alongside Kenny Omega.
Sadly, his performances were not what fans expected of Kota Ibushi. He was slower and sloppier than they remembered, owing to the horrendous injury he suffered in the final of the G1 Climax in 2021. He didn’t wrestle for two years after that match, and his performances have clearly suffered.
His last match was a street fight on Dynamite in November last year. However, AEW took Kota Ibushi off TV after Kenny Omega’s health forced him to step away from the business for an extended period of time. There have been no updates on Ibushi’s return to AEW, although he insists the company is his “home”.
Kota Ibushi was recently announced for a match in DDT in Japan. He he will team up with Danshoku Dieno and Akito to face Tetsuya Endo, Yuki Iino, and Yuya Koroku, in an event of the same day as AEW All In 2024 in London. His Twitter bio also claimed he will be wrestling for DDT on a regular basis going forward.
One Twitter user questioned whether his move back to wrestling in Japan meant that Kota Ibushi’s time with AEW was over. Despite Fightful confirming that he had permission from AEW to wrestle at the show, Kota Ibushi himself responded on Twitter.
He said “No, my home is AEW. We’ll see a full comeback with Kenny.”.
It seems that he is teasing a return of the Golden Lovers in AEW. With that, we can expect to not see Kota Ibushi until Kenny Omega recovers from his diverticulitis.
