Kota Ibushi, the famous Japanese pro wrestler, was officially signed with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) on November 15, 2023. He has been making an impact on the promotion since his signing and has fought in four matches in AEW till now.
Since he is becoming more popular, fans have been speculating about his personal life. There has been a recent rumor of him dating Lizzo, an American rapper, that surfaced on the internet. Lizzo is a pop star and a popular rapper in the United States. She has won ‘Record of the Year’ for her song ‘About Damn Time’ at the 2023 Grammy Awards, and her current net worth is $40 million.
え?ダメですか?
本当失礼かもしれませんがこの方は誰ですか?レスラー?
— 飯伏 幸太 (@ibushi_kota) December 14, 2023
The rumor about Kota Ibushi and Lizzo having an affair started when X account ‘SuperKickShow’ shared the news of the romantic relationship, reported by ‘Tokyo Sports’ and ‘TMZ’. Kota Ibushi took on his X profile and replied to this and said, “I may be rude, but who is this person? Wrestler?” Ibushi dismissed the rumor and couldn’t even recognize the rapper. He asked if the person in the post was a wrestler and implied that all the rumors were fake.
Kota Ibushi career in AEW
Kota Ibushi was recently signed to AEW Dynamite. After he was seen fighting in a tag team match along with Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho, and Paul Wight against the team of Powerhouse Hobbs, Kyle Fletcher, Brian Cage, and Konosuke Takeshita.
Kota Ibushi has worked with New Japan Pro Wrestling since 2009 and got signed with the Japanese promotion in 2013. He has numerous IWGP titles under his name including the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
The Golden Star won the @SEGA LIKE A DRAGON GAIDEN STREET FIGHT tonight on #AEWDynamite on TBS, and now it’s official: @ibushi_kota is ALL ELITE! pic.twitter.com/6oxQNaYEDV
— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) November 16, 2023
His contract with NJPW expired on January 31, 2023, ending his long tenure with the promotion and since then he has been working as a freelance wrestler. Ibushi made his AEW debut on July 19, 2023, at the Blood and Guts match on AEW Dynamite as a free agent.
In his debut match at AEW, he teamed up with Kenny Omega and Hangman Page to face Jay White, Juice Robinson, and Konosuke Takeshita. Ibushi was a part of the inaugural All In event which was held in 2018 that led to the formation of AEW.
In October 2023, Kota Ibushi talked about his contract with AEW on his YouTube channel interview. “We had a verbal agreement. It has to be this way for me. I’m based in Japan, and I will travel for the matches. Basically, I’m in Japan, I work in Japan. I will be active. I’ll be free to do that do”.
He further added, “There are other things that make the contract even more flexible. Like if I could appear for another promotion. That kind of thing is normal, like can I compete in another match? We talked about all those kinds of details. I still got the OK”. This led to confusion among the fans about whether Ibushi was a part-time wrestler for AEW or something else.
I would like to make a slight correction. My current contract is with AEW. I think AEW is the best in the world. That’s why I want to seize the opportunity in America or AEW and make it an even greater organization.
— 飯伏 幸太 (@ibushi_kota) October 13, 2023
Later, Kota Ibushi took on his X Profile to clear all the doubts about it and confirmed his contract with AEW. He said that according to him the Jacksonville-based promotion is the best pro wrestling promotion in the world and he would like to make it even better. It will be interesting to see if Ibushi delivers what he has promised and puts his efforts into making AEW a better promotion.