Impact continues to carve out its niche as one of the more interesting promotions to watch, with a willingness to work with other companies, and give older or overlooked talent a chance to get involved with meaningful stories.
New Japan seems to be realizing that in the current marketplace, they won’t be able to keep interest up in the U.S. without collaborating with American companies. We’re seeing more and more NJPW talent showing up others’ English language shows as a result.
The Impact Tag titles are already held by NJPW’s FinJuice. Next week another talented, midcard-level guy will step through the Forbidden Door:
Member of the Bullet Club, two-time Super J-Cup winner - @njpwglobal's @elpwrestling is coming to IMPACT NEXT WEEK! #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/TKsOIiOzJc
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) April 30, 2021
El Phantasmo, or ELP, is a Canadian wrestler who came to New Japan via their UK partner RevPro. He’s a British-style cruiserweight who mixes some technical wrestling in with his aerial moves. A babyface in England, he’s adapted well to playing the kind of d***head you need to be in Bullet Club.
Depending on how long he’s sticking around, there’s great matches to be had with guys in Impact. The X-Division scene obviously springs to mind, but New Japan could use this opportunity to let ELP get some reps in working with bigger talent, too.
His Bullet Club ties could also lead to some intriguing segments with Biz Cliz ex’s like Kenny Omega and the Good Brothers. Who knows if those will ever lead anywhere, but KENTA’s interactions with Omega on Dynamite were fun, and this Forbidden Door stuff is still largely about giving fans something to fantasy book at this point.
We’ll see what happens next Thursday (May 6). Excited to see ELP fly onto Impact?