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Impact Wrestling announced tonight at the end of No Surrender PPV during a post-credit "stinger" that New Japan stars Juice Robinson and David Finlay aka FinJuice are heading to Impact:
The door has been kicked open. #NoSurrender @THEdavidfinlay @njpw1972 @njpwglobal pic.twitter.com/igo7q9CAJV
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) February 14, 2021
The surprise announcement is not a by-product of the recent AEW-New Japan collaboration that saw KENTA debut for AEW Dynamite earlier this month. Impact actually already had a deal with NJPW agreed upon before the AEW agreement came to exist. Discussions between New Japan and Impact date back to the summer of 2020, right around the time The Good Brothers signed with Impact.
There were initially plans for Finlay and Robinson to debut at the last set of Impact TV tapings in Nashville but a scheduling issue led to the debut being pushed back until tonight's unveiling.
PWInsider.com is told that tonight's announcement was the result of a lot of work (described by one source as being "many, many, MANY months") to repair the frayed relationship between the companies. We are also told that The Good Brothers being signed to Impact and NJPW having great interest in using them was a huge factor in helping to mend the bridge between the companies.
As you may remembe, there had been an attempt by Scott D'Amore and Don Callis to repair the relationships between Impact and New Japan dating back to even before last year. Once Anthem took over ownership of Impact, executives made a visit to Japan where D'Amore formally apologized to the NJPW locker room and company officials for previous issues between the two stemming from previous Impact Wrestling management regimes.
Chris Bey appearing in the NJPW Super J-Cup last year was the first sign of relations between the company beginnng to thaw out. Now, the hope within Impact is that FinJuice will be the next step in what is hoped to be a much larger relationship.
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