As the largest wrestling promotion in Japan, it’s easy to compare New Japan Pro-Wrestling to its American equivalent, World Wrestling Entertainment. The two promotions had a working relationship in the 1970s and 1980s, and in recent years WWE has signed numerous NJPW stars including Shinsuke Nakamura, Karl Anderson, KUSHIDA, and even Jushin Thunder Liger for a one-off match.
Conversely, there’s a number of ex-WWE stars who made their way to NJPW, including Juice Robinson, Yoshi Tatsu, and even Brock Lesnar, among many others. But there are also lots of NJPW stars who never wrestled for WWE, so let’s take a look at some of New Japan’s best talent to never set foot in a WWE ring.
10 Hiroshi Tanahashi
Hiroshi Tanahashi is the Ace of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, the biggest star in the company who was responsible for the promotion’s financial success following a slump in the early 2000s. While he’s never wrestled for WWE, Tanahashi was reportedly slated for a stint in WWE as part of a broadcasting deal in the mid-2000s, but for some reason, that opportunity fell through.
Given that NJPW's Kenzo Suzuki signed to WWE at around that time, one can assume a Tanahashi WWE run would have looked something like that.
9 Yuji Nagata
Fans of American televised wrestling in the 1990s may remember Yuji Nagata for his various appearances for WWE’s competition, World Championship Wrestling. WCW had a working relationship with NJPW at the time, so Yuji Nagata made frequent appearances on Monday Nitro as well as WCW shows, occasionally challenging for various undercard titles.
He did not follow the rest of the WCW roster after WWE bought the company, instead returning to Japan and eventually becoming a two-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion.
8 Toru Yano
If there’s one wrestler who’s perfectly suited for a WWE run, it’s Toru Yano, a nearly 20-year veteran who prefers to mercilessly cheat in comedy matches over anything resembling competitive grappling. In other words, he’d be the perfect foil to terrorize R-Truth.
Yano has never wrestled for WWE, however. In fact, save for a Wrestle Kingdom V match against Rob Van Dam, he never even showed up during TNA’s disastrous working relationship with NJPW. Yano did, however, do some Ring of Honor shows in the 2010s.
7 Katsuyori Shibata
Debuting in 1999, Katsuyori Shibata wrestled for NJPW until about 2006, when he left the company to pursue an MMA career, only to return in 2012. Shibata won over fans as a tremendously stiff striker who sacrificed his body for the sake of pro wrestling so hard that he was forced to retire in 2017, taking a position as head coach of NJPW’s Los Angeles Dojo.
He could have just as easily been a candidate for a WWE excursion like Tanahashi was, but the closest he had to an excursion was some matches in Mexico’s CMLL in 2002.
6 Minoru Suzuki
Initially trained as a pro wrestler, Minoru Suzuki ended up becoming a pioneer of MMA in the 1990s when he co-founded the promotion Pancrase, where he took on many of the pillars of MMA of the era, including future WWE star Ken Shamrock.
Given that Shamrock showed up in WWE in 1997, there was certainly a vague possibility of Suzuki entering the Brawl for All, but thankfully that didn’t happen. In the decades since, Suzuki returned to wrestling and gained tremendous popularity with Western fans who love his vicious heel antics.
5 Shinya Hashimoto
When it comes to New Japan in the 1990s, the three biggest stars of the company -- Masahiro Chono, Keiji Mutoh (a.k.a. Great Muta), and Shinya Hashimoto -- were dubbed “The Three Musketeers.” Western wrestling fans are likely to know Chono and Mutoh thanks to appearances in WCW, but Shinya Hashimoto is less well known despite being the top draw of the company during the 1990s.
The closest he ever got to wrestling for WWE was taking part in a co-promoted show with All-Japan Pro Wrestling and NJPW, and even then he took on other NJPW wrestlers in his match.
4 Kazuchika Okada
Kazuchika Okada is one of the biggest current stars of New Japan, a wrestler popular with both Japanese fans as well as Western fans. Even Triple H has publicly stated his desire to sign the five-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, but it’s tough to imagine a star like Okada signing with WWE.
Okada is no stranger to American promotions, however. He had an infamous excursion to the US where he wrestled for TNA and was given a racist gimmick as Samoa Joe’s Kato-esque chauffeur.
3 Masahiro Chono
One of the big stars of late 1990s NJPW, Masahiro Chono is best known to Western fans for his appearances in WCW, where he was a member of the New World Order, representing NJPW’s own variation on the stable.
While he’s old enough to have potentially made appearances for WWE, he wrestled for regional US promotions during his Young Lion days. In fact, the closest he ever got was wrestling Shinya Hashimoto on the aforementioned WWE/AJPW/NJPW co-promoted show.
2 Tetsuya Naito
One of NJPW’s top current stars, Tetsuya Naito, like the previously mentioned Toru Yano, has wrestled former WWE stars, most famously taking on a drunk Jeff Hardy at Wrestle Kingdom V for the TNA World Championship. He even did an excursion alongside his NO LIMIT tag team partner Yujiro Takahashi to TNA.
While Naito might seem like a good fit for WWE, in NJPW he’s the leader of Los Ingobernables De Japon, the most popular stable in the company, so it’s difficult to imagine Naito giving that up.
1 The Great Muta
Keiji Mutoh, otherwise known as The Great Muta, is a legend of Japanese wrestling whose name is well-known to American fans thanks to appearances on WCW shows over the years. While Muta has wrestled in Western promotions since 1986, he’s actually never wrestled for WWE.
He seemed to just barely miss the tail end of WWE and NJPW’s working relationship and spent his early career wrestling for NWA affiliated promotions like Championship Wrestling from Florida instead.
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