KUSHIDA's time with WWE has come to an end, and the former NXT Cruiserweight Champion has split from the company and is now a free agent in the wrestling world. While his storied history in New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) would indicate a return to his native land in the Far East and his old 'stomping grounds,' that same history may have him look elsewhere to ply his craft.
KUSHIDA (Yujiro Kushida) has seen his contract with WWE recently expire, and the 38-year-old competitor chose not to renew it, making a rather quiet, subdued exit from the company after a three-year stint on the WWE NXT brand, which included a Cruiserweight Championship win in 2020 and a short tag team run with fellow countryman Ikemen Jiro as the oddly-named "Jacket Time." Where KUSHIDA decides to go following his WWE exit, however, remains to be seen, but history would seem to favor NJPW.
As a supremely-talented junior heavyweight in the vaunted strong-style promotion, KUSHIDA has accomplished just about everything you could expect from a man of his caliber. In his nine-year run with NJPW, KUSHIDA has become a six-time IWGP (International Wrestling Grand Prix) Junior Heavyweight Champion, the 2015 and 2017 "Best of the Super Juniors" winner, the 2016 Super J-Cup winner, and a two-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion with his "Time Splitters" partner and fellow wrestling veteran Alex Shelley. A laundry list of championships and accomplishments such as his would make one think that KUSHIDA is a cinch to return to NJPW and continue to build on his legacy where he left off.
However, a closer look at that aforementioned legacy shows that KUSHIDA hit the proverbial ceiling that many cruiserweights/junior heavyweights do while wanting to make the transition over to the heavyweight division. He originally came to WWE's NXT brand to achieve those greater heights and break on through, only to hit a similar frustrating ceiling in being relegated to the Cruiserweight division and finding himself saddled in a directionless tag team with Jiro, his prospects with WWE ultimately faring little better than his time in NJPW.
Nothing has been set in stone concerning the next step in KUSHIDA's storied career. A return to NJPW and its Junior Heavyweight division would seem the most likely, but merely the fact that the division still exists, unlike the now-defunct WWE Cruiserweight Championship, shouldn't be the sole reason for KUSHIDA to return to his roots.
If anything, coming back to his homeland with a renewed sense of self could see KUSHIDA take his career in a new direction, perhaps dropping his longstanding Back to the Future-inspired gimmick and introducing a grittier, more physical aspect of his character to wrestling audiences. To leave one's past as a "time-traveler" behind for a better future is an irony you could only ever find in movies or professional wrestling.