Professional wrestling was poised to have one of its biggest contract years in history with the number of big name free agents that could potentially become available, and no where was this felt harder than New Japan Pro-Wrestling. The reality set in following the promotion's most recent show as it bid farewell to one of its biggest stars, Kazuchika Okada, in an emotional match that served as the perfect punctuation to his time in New Japan.

Kazuchika Okada faced off with his longtime rival Hiroshi Tanahashi for his final match as part of the promotion during the New Beginning in Osaka show. The true emotions followed the match, though, as Okada began to break down in the ring as he bid the crowd farewell at the very show the Rainmaker made his presence known 12-years earlier.

The tears did not stop after getting backstage, either, as Tanahashi shared words of encouragement to a still-emotional Okada, telling his longtime rival to “show the world what we've done here.”

Alongside Okada's departure, New Japan also bid farewell to Will Ospreay in the show's main event as Ospreay and the United Empire lost to Bullet Club War Dogs in a bloody main event. Ospreay has already signed with AEW and is expected to start on the promotion's weekly TV soon, along with his first pay-per-view match at AEW Revolution as part of the roster.

Okada's future, however, is not quite as certain.

The general consensus in the wrestling industry is he will either sign with AEW or WWE in the immediate future, though there has been little news directly indicating which is more likely. AEW was reportedly confident they could land him due to the number of relationships he already has in the company along with the freedom to still live in Japan.

That said, WWE has not been written off due to the sheer amount of money that they can offer the multi-time world champion.