By Brian Argabright
It’s a wrestling fan’s dream come true.
Wednesday night, AEW closed its show with a wild free-for-all that brought in several of the company’s big names, but it was the last man to hit the ring that brought out the big gasps.
Former NXT standout, and current New Japan wrestler, KENTA arrived and hit former AEW champion, and current New Japan US Heavyweight Champion, Jon Moxley with the GTS to put an exclamation point on a wild night.
While the move may not seem like much on the surface, it confirmed the suspicions of many fans and pro wrestling writers as of an official working relationship between AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling. The fact that much of the AEW roster, including current champion Kenny Omega, tag team champions the Young Bucks, former TNT Television Champion Cody, former tag team champion Hangman Page, Lance Archer and others have competed for New Japan makes it an easy sell for fans and executives for both companies.
It also opens up a lot of dreams matches for fans though many of those matches have been seen before in years past in New Japan.
That wasn’t the only news New Japan made in the past week. The company also announced that beginning Feb. 11, matches and highlights from New Japan would be featured on the Roku Channel. Airtime is scheduled to be 5 p.m., and should serve as an introduction to US fans that have never seen the likes of Okada, Tanahasi, Takahasi and Ibushi.
Tag Team Champ dies
In sadder news, former NWA World Tag Team Champion “Hacksaw” Butch Reed passed away over the weekend at the age of 66 due to heart issues.
Reed, who was also known as “The Natural” for a period of time, was a part of the first Survivor Series and cut his teeth in the Mid-South promotion, engaging in a long feud with the Junkyard Dog.
He found success back in the NWA when he teamed with future world champion Ron Simmons to form the masked tag team Doom. Doom would win the WCW World Tag Team titles and engaged in ring wars with the likes of the Steiner Brothers and Road Warriors. They eventually lost their masks, but continued wrestling as Doom until the duo broke up.
