This coming Sunday, IMPACT Wrestling is presenting their Rebellion pay-per-view and on that show, New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s David Finlay and Juice Robinson are defending the IMPACT Tag Team Titles against The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows).
Robinson and Finlay won the titles from The Good Brothers in March at the ‘Sacrifice’ event. IMPACT Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore appeared on the Wrestling Perspective Podcast and dove into the repairing of IMPACT and NJPW’s relationship that was hindered under the TNA regime. D’Amore says things are consistently improving between the two sides and there are multiple talks about more talent exchanges with IMPACT and NJPW.
Look, that New Japan relationship, I mean it’s no secret [it] was so badly destroyed in the TNA years and we’ve spent years, literally since Anthem Sports took over, trying to rebuild that relationship and it’s been a long, hard battle. Obviously The Good Brothers coming in helped melt the coldness and the ice on that relationship and I think so far it’s been a good relationship. You’ve seen TJP and Chris Bey appear so far only on their L.A. shows because of the travel restrictions going to Japan. You know The Good Brothers are gonna be working for both companies and there’s multiple talks about talents continuing to come this way from Japan and talent from here going over to Japan. So, look, I think it’s going to be one of those things that’s much like — I look at the New Japan relationship much [like] the way we looked at all the relationships when we took over IMPACT was people have been mistreated, respectfully in their opinion from previous regimes in IMPACT, been given promises that weren’t delivered. So part of what we have to do with New Japan and everybody else is what we try to do with everybody we’ve dealt with in the last few years which is tell you what we’re gonna do and follow through and do it and that’s what we’ve been doing with New Japan, that’s what we’ve been doing with AEW and I’d certainly be remiss if I didn’t say our great partners at AAA in Mexico who have been unbelievably supportive and collaborative with us over the last few years so I think we really have a great group coming together of like-minded people in the industry running major companies that are all willing to sit there and look at ways to collaborate and I think that’s one of the coolest parts of 2021.
As of this writing, there are eight matches scheduled for Rebellion with the headlining bout being IMPACT Unified World Champion Rich Swann versus AEW World Champion Kenny Omega in a double title match.
- AEW World & IMPACT Unified World Championships: Kenny Omega (w/ Don Callis) (c) vs. Rich Swann (c)
- IMPACT Tag Team Championships: FinJuice (David Finlay & Juice Robinson) (c) vs. The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson)
- Matt Cardona vs. Brian Myers
- X Division Championship — Three Way Match: Ace Austin (c) (w/ Madman Fulton) vs. Josh Alexander vs. TJP
- IMPACT Knockouts Championship: Deonna Purrazzo (c) vs. Tenille Dashwood (w/ Kaleb)
- Last Man Standing Match: Trey Miguel vs. Sami Callihan
- Violent By Design (Eric Young, Rhino, Cody Deaner & Joe Doering) vs. Eddie Edwards, Willie Mack, James Storm & Chris Sabin
- Knockouts Tag Team Championships: Fire ‘N Flava (Kiera Hogan & Tasha Steelz) (c) vs. Jordynne Grace & TBA
If the quote in this article is used, please credit the Wrestling Perspective Podcast with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.