Kota Ibushi made his AEW debut on July 19 on an episode of AEW Dynamite. He joined forces with Kenny Omega and The Elite (Omega, Hangman Page, and The Young Bucks) to beat Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta), Konosuke Takeshita, and PAC in a Blood & Guts Match.
Ibushi also worked matches at the AEW All In and AEW All Out pay-per-view events.
While speaking in a new video for his YouTube channel, Kota revealed that he signed his AEW deal on the same day as the Blood & Guts match. He said,
“I signed the contract. In a manner of speaking, yes. But during the discussion, they asked me how we could come to a deal. I said unless it has this and this and this, unless it has these conditions, I don’t want to sign a contract. I said if we’re just going to sign a contract, let’s do it today. That was the hardcore match, double ring, cage [Blood & Guts], on that day. That’s the day we signed the contract. 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. 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. Tell us anything you want. We’ll listen to whatever you say. Reduce the number of matches a little bit more. Because if I go too many times, my activities in Japan will be limited, so reduce the number of matches a little bit more. When I said that, that is OK too. It’s the best deal.”
