Earlier this week, WWE NXT star Charlie Dempsey, the son of William Regal, traveled to Japan to take on AJPW Triple Crown Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima. Dempsey, a member of the newly debuted No Quarter Catch Crew, came up short and was unable to bring gold back to WWE, but the buzz around the match was a win for both promotions. Since taking over the creative process, Paul “Triple H” Levesque has reportedly pushed to rebuild the bridge between WWE and Japanese talents and promotions. Notably, Shinsuke Nakamura has gotten a significantly stronger push under Levesque’s leadership than Vince McMahon’s, hopefully sending a signal to NJPW talent like Kazuchika Okada that they can also find success in WWE.
The most recent edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that Levesque and WWE President Nick Khan are actively looking for allies in the Japanese market. Partnering with AJPW this week was referred to as “step one,” and they are also apparently interested in working with a female promotion as well. Beyond those steps, the talk internally is that they would like to make another go of working with New Japan Pro-Wrestling now that Tanahashi is President.
Standing in the way of WWE and Levesque would be AEW’s relationship with NJPW. AEW has found success with their annual “Forbidden Door” PPV co-promoted with NJPW, and the two companies regularly send talent back and forth. The relationship has also allowed Tony Khan to sign top talents like Will Ospreay to AEW contracts before their NJPW formally expires.
AEW star Kota Ibushi suffered a scare this week while competing for NOAH in Japan. During his match, he injured both his ankles and proceeded to work through the pain for the next half hour. After the contest, he collapsed and called for an ambulance. Earlier today, he revealed he was scammed by the clinic he was sent to and hoped that NOAH would release his medical evaluation to the public shortly.