AEW Rumors: Could Luke Harper join NJPW instead of All Elite Wrestling?
AEW fans have been salivating at the thought of Luke Harper jumping from WWE to becoming All Elite, but could he join New Japan Pro Wrestling instead?
Just before 2019 closed out, WWE released a bevy of (now former) Superstars. Among them being Luke Harper, who caught the attention of AEW executive vice president, Cody Rhodes, who publicly hinted at wanting to sign and mold the former SmackDown Tag Team Champion into an All Elite athlete.
Cody speaking on the big man was enough to get All Elite Wrestling’s fan base hyped about the former Wyatt Family muscle marching his way down to their headquarters for a spot on their roster. This speculation suddenly seemed to grow closer to reality when AEW’s Sammy Guevara posted a pic on Instagram of him and Luke Harper together, seemingly teasing a future to come.
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That future may not be coming as close to fruition as some of us would have hoped. According to new reports from Dave Meltzer of the Wresling Observer Newsletter (per Sportskeeda), Luke Harper may skip Cody’s offer altogether in favor of going for a run in New Japan Pro Wrestling, something that Harper himself is keen on pursuing.
NJPW, of course, is just coming off of the heels of their biggest show of the year, Wrestle Kingdom, which for the first time ever was spouted as a two night spectacle. Looking at their roster and their typical style of wrestling (the most well known being “strong style”), it is not hard to imagine Harper fitting right in with other hard hitting talents like Tomohiro Ishii and Togi Makabe.
AEW reportedly ‘in talks’ with NJPW star Lance Archer. dark. Next
As of now, as far as we know at least, AEW have not yet approached Harper about or offered to sign him to a deal with them. If they want him as badly as Cody suggested, they may want to get a jump on that before NJPW do just that.