KUSHIDA To Leave NJPW At The End Of January

Three days after losing the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to Taiji Ishimori at Wrestle Kingdom 13, KUSHIDA has announced that he will be retiring from New Japan Pro Wrestling at the end of the month.

The announcement was made during a press conference hosted by NJPW Chairman, Mr. Naoki Sugabayash, during which, new IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi appeared to ask a question to his departing compadre.

“What was enjoyable within New Japan Pro-Wrestling and what was painful? Please let me know if there is something," Tanahashi said - making KUSHIDA cry in the process.

"Nothing was painful," replied KUSHIDA. "Mr. Tanahashi, you are scary. After all, I love wrestling, so I can not have a difficult life in professional wrestling, because I even enjoy the difficult times. When I think about it altogether, this has been the best environment I’ve been in. Also, there were the fans, it has been a really good year for me as a professional wrestler."

What's next for KUSHIDA is a little up in the air at the time of writing, although it appears that a move to WWE could be on the cards. A little while ago, it was reported by many sources online that

and an interest from The Game et al was there.