EVIL leaving New Japan Pro Wrestling
EVIL is leaving New Japan Pro Wrestling.
The company announced on their website Sunday that the former IWGP World Champion would be leaving the promotion at the end of January.
“After careful consideration and discussions with NJPW management, EVIL, who has been a long standing member of the NJPW roster will leave New Japan Pro-Wrestling at the expiry of his contract at the end of January 2026. We apologise to fans for the sudden nature of this announcement. New Japan Pro-Wrestling wishes EVIL the very best in his future activities,” they wrote.
Last week, Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Live noted that there had been strong rumors that EVIL was heading to WWE. Super J-Cast reported on the same day that EVIL had given notice to the company. He last wrestled on January 20, with House of Torture losing to Aaron Wolf, Master Wato, Toru Yano, and YOH in a multi-man match.
Dave Meltzer on social media also noted that EVIL was heading to WWE:
Takaaki Watanabe started as a young lion back in 2011 and following his excursion returned in 2015 using the EVIL moniker, first aligning himself with Tetsuya Naito and Los Ingobernables de Japon. In 2020, he turned against Naito and joined Bullet Club, later forming the subgroup House of Torture. At that year’s Dominion event, he defeated Naito to win his one and only IWGP Heavyweight title thanks to interference from Dick Togo. His last high-profile match was losing the NEVER title to Olympian Aaron Wolf at Wrestle Kingdom 20 on January 4.
In addition to the Heavyweight title, EVIL has also held the IWGP Tag Team, IWGP Intercontinental, NEVER, and NEVER Six-Man Tag Team titles.
Bryan Rose is an editor from California that has been covering professional wrestling for well over a decade. He officially joined F4WOnline as an editor in 2017.