At the end of tonight’s No Surrender streaming special, this spot played on Impact Plus:
The door has been kicked open. #NoSurrender @THEdavidfinlay @njpw1972 @njpwglobal pic.twitter.com/igo7q9CAJV
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) February 14, 2021
The New Japan logo is more prominent there than the wrestlers, but a follow-up tweet made it clear it’s former IWGP Tag champs Dave Finlay & Juice Robinson.
BREAKING: @njpwglobal's Juice Robinson and @THEdavidfinlay will be in the IMPACT Zone TUESDAY at 8/7c on @AXSTV! #IMPACTonAXSTV @njpw1972 pic.twitter.com/3opJZJQQrR
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) February 14, 2021
New Japan had a partnership with Impact back when it was TNA, but that fell apart over a number of issues, notably TNA’s usage of Kazuchika Okada while he was on excursion to the United States. There was talk in recent years of Don Callis trying to mend the bridge between the two companies to no avail. Now it appears that with AEW in the mix, NJPW will give the Anthem-owned version of Impact another shot.
FinJuice are far from New Japan’s biggest names, but they’re perfect for this first step since they have a championship pedigree (Robinson has also been IWGP U.S. champ, the belt Jon Moxley and KENTA are feuding over) and will be familiar to some American fans from Juice’s NXT run as C.J. Parker and Finlay’s dad Fit.
Are they coming for Good Brothers’ Impact Tag titles? Will they end up in the mix on Dynamite?
We’ll let you know starting Tuesday night.