AEW President Tony Khan said he would have to consider talking to Kota Ibushi now that Ibushi is no longer under a contract with New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

Ibushi’s deal expired on January 31 and NJPW issued a short press release saying, “With the conclusion of his contract period on January 31 2023, Kota Ibushi has departed New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Ibushi had been recovering from injury since October 2021. We apologise to Ibushi’s fans for the abrupt announcement, and join them in wishing Ibushi the very best in all his future endeavours.”

“There’s a lot of great free agents in the world of pro wrestling, but certainly Kota Ibushi is a great talent,” Khan said on Busted Open Radio. “When you have a name like that, that is certainly somebody everybody in the world of pro wrestling would be very fortunate to have in their promotion.”

Khan noted that they wanted to work with him in the past so it’s certainly something they have to consider now.

Ibushi, on his part, told Dark Puroresu Flowsion that he has a lot of friends in AEW but he doesn’t want to go to AEW immediately.

“I want to have a school in Japan. Once that’s been worked out, I think I’ll talk with AEW,” Ibushi said.