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More on Hikuleo-WWE

Added 2024-06-10 18:04:45 +0000 UTC

In perhaps one of the least surprising pieces of wrestling news of the year, WWE has interest in Hikuleo.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp spoke with sources connected to New Japan Pro Wrestling and WWE who said that Hikuleo has interest from WWE, and they expect him to join the company when available. Hikuleo’s brothers Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa both joined WWE and the Bloodline in recent months after runs in NJPW. Bodyslam.net reported that Hikuleo has finished up with NJPW, we haven't confirmed that independently, but all on-screen signs certainly point to him finishing up.

Tonga and partner El Phantasmo dropped their tag team titles at this past weekend’s NJPW show. Fightful Select had reported in the past that Hikuleo’s NJPW deal was up in June 2024. We can’t confirm if that’s the case, but we did reach out to him upon Tama Tonga’s WWE debut to ask about it.

Hikuleo confirmed Fightful Select’s report that both he and Tama Tonga had talks with WWE in January of 2023. However, an informal hiring freeze was in place that prevented them and many others from being signed by WWE. By the time it was over, Hikuleo had agreed to a deal that kept him in NJPW until the summer of 2024.