|
People seem pretty convinced that Kevin Steen is going to AEW, but I think the darkhorse to leave might actually be Shinsuke Nakamura. Not because I think he feels unhappy, or disrespected in his current role. But I can see Tony Khan opening up the wallet to him, since he’s probably a mark for his New Japan work. And having him does allow TK to lease him out to New Japan of America and whatever.
The WWE will obviously make a large offer to keep him, because he is a value add, but they’ll also have a cap on that and an expectation on dates/touring. I can see TK paying out the ass to have the guy show up much more rarely to try and present him as a special attraction of sorts. So even if the style is more physically taxing, it’s also possible that he’ll be doing a much smaller amount of work a year for more money.
He probably feels a bit of loyalty to Vince, who I do think is a fan, but the difference between $950k and $1.2 million and how each promotion is going to feature him could be what potentially seals it.
|