KUSHIDA Reveals He Almost Retired Before Signing With NXT

This week on NXT, Kyle O’Reilly and KUSHIDA faced off in the main event. It was the 6th singles match they have had dating back to 2015. O’Reilly holds a 4-2 lead in the head-to-head series.

Kushida recently took to Twitter to note that 4 years ago he was considering retirement. He was dealing with severe abdominal pain at the time.

“In 2017, around this time, I was considering retirement after every match. I was concerned about my mental and physical health after every match,” his statement reads. “I wrestled back and forth between Japan and the United States twice a month.”

Kushida was in NJPW at the time. He’d win the Best of the Super Juniors tournament for a second time that year.

“During that time, I sometimes suffered from severe abdominal pain after matches. I crouched on the floor with a cold sweat and had no choice but to wait for the pain to pass. I had to insert a gastro camera down my throat at the hospital to examine my stomach. But the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong. The doctor’s diagnosis was that my autonomic nerves must have been disturbed. My level of this abdominal pain wasn’t normal. And, if it continued, I couldn’t wrestle anymore. I knew it wasn’t an exaggeration. And I knew that my wrestling career could be over at any time.”

O’Reilly and Kushida have met twice in singles competition for NJPW, twice for RevPro, and once each for ROH and NXT. Their last match before yesterday’s show was in the 1st round of the RevPro British J-Cup tournament. Kushida came out the victor that night.

“I had a mach with Kyle O’Reilly at that time. It was four years ago in London. At that point, it was rumoured that Kyle O’Reilly would soon sign a contract with WWE. After our match, I talked to him directly. He told me his honest intentions. At that time, I thought it would be great to have a match against him in the WWE some day. I knew my professional wrestling life wouldn’t last forever.”

Kushida’s signing with WWE was announced in April of 2019.

“So Yesterday was special. WWE/NXT universe! Thank you for watching.”

“Our fight will go on forever.”

Our fight will go on forever.

— KUSHIDA (@KUSHIDA_0904) June 23, 2021