Whelp…

44 comments

1. I’m gutted.

2. Aussie…Aussie………Aussie… no no no.

   Man, I hope they can still show up at NJPW, or, I hope they still want to.

3. On one hand, I am genuinely happy for them because I know they’ve been working non-stop without a contract for a long time.

   On the other, it means less of them in NJPW and that’s a bummer for me.

4. Put a spoiler tag on it because you can figure out that Fletcher didn’t beat Cassidy from the wording, didn’t realize it until I’d posted or else I would’ve specified it was just Dynamite spoilers in the title.

5. Well, this just ruined my day. RIP to the tag division once again.

6. This is on NJPW for not locking them down with a big contract. Dumb move especially with Fletcher being so young and so high potential

7. I’m so annoyed with new japan. Happy for Aussie Open but this just means that New Japan once again loses a talented team that felt like a big part of the company.

8. Apparently from other pages Tony Khan paid for Davis surgery, probably had a factor in it, I guess.

9. this blows

10. At the end of the day, you chase the money; Aussie Open have been one for he most consistently great tag teams in the world for some time and if AEW offered them more money/better contract, well wishes to Kyle and Mark.

11. Ospreay is so gone.

12. I had a feeling that’s why they dropped the titles.

    I can’t imagine NJPW is too pleased about this. And no, TK “sharing talent” isn’t an excuse. It hardly happens anyways.

13. I don’t really see this as a lost, as much as Aussie Open appears on AEW, it makes sense. Hopefully NJPW focuses on the other members Of UA as a tag team. You can still bring in Aussie Open just don’t put the belts on them.

14. New Japan is gonna have to learn that you can’t have people wrestle without contracts and expect them to stay. I’m sure they knew this was coming because AEW probably told them but damn how many more times is this going to happen I feel they just aren’t that invested into gaijin wrestlers anymore. Ospreay is probably next and that one is gonna hurt what would you even do with united empire at that point?

15. NJPW gets cucked again and it sucks but I don’t blame them for that. People seem to forget NJPW is not backed by a billionaire, they don’t have AEW/WWE money. So they can’t compete. Who’s the last guy they signed ? I honestly don’t remember. And as great as Aussie Open are, I don’t think it’s worth it to try to even come close to the offer they got from Tony Khan. It’s not like they were big draws. NJPW is still recovering from the pandemic. They should focus on their homegrown talents right now.

16. Way too fumble the bag new japan..

    Possible generational tag team and maybe the next main gaijin.

    They really need to put contracts on people this is ridiculous lmao.

    Good for aussie open getting that bag tho, and aew getting a hell of a tag team.

    This and sanada being champ doesn’t make me confident that ospreay resigns

17. Damn, Aussie Open, G.O.D, Dangerous Tekkers. It feels like all the pillars that held the tag-team division are leaving one by one. The only pillar left holding it together is Bishamon, and maybe TMDK, and O-khan and Jeff Cobb.

18. they’ll be on rampage a month after debuting

19. They are/were doing great in Japan, but this is an instance of NJPW snoozing, and losing; would’ve been cool if NJ had locked them down ages ago to avoid stuff like this. to quote someone on twitter: AEWSSIE AEWSSIE AEWSSIE!! congrats on them securing a contract.

20. Once again, NJPW’s tag division takes a step back.

21. NJPW need to be locking up their English speaking talent. The bidding wars for great talent in America isnt going to slow down with another show for AEW and WWE now having even more money.

    The Tag Division finally had a spark of life and now we are back to Bishimon and Friends.

    United Empire is basically screaming out to be an AEW faction at some point but I hope I’m wrong.

22. At this rate the rumor about despy not being signed wouldn’t suprise me lmao

23. This is disappointing considering the hard work they put in with getting over with the Japanese fans, but looks like they’ll represent the UE in AEW, and I suspect they still show up in NJPW on occasion.

24. Originally I had Top Flight taking the belts of FTR eventually but with Dante out and this news it’s gotta be Aussie Open.

25. Why is NJPW ok with them losing Their talent to their “partner “ ?

26. Please keep Ospreay and ZSJ at all costs

27. On the one hand this might be mean they wrestle weekly and that’d be cool, on the other hand this might mean they get lost in the shuffle and we only see them wrestle when they do Japanese tours like Archer.

28. As an AEW mark, I’m really disappointed in this. NJPW needs them to build their tag division. I’m big fans of Aussie Open, but having them in United Empire and New Japan helped build them. I’m worried they will get lost in the shuffle of AEW and not allowed to shine like they should.

29. I think there’s this false assumption that NJPW doesn’t try to sign guys. But the fact is, unless you want to live in Japan for the long-haul, it’ll never be worth it. If AO were NJPW-exclusive, they would have had to sit out this entire BOSJ month like the rest of the heavyweights. The foreigners who are currently NJPW-committed (Zack, Henare) live in Japan, learn the language, make the most of the time out of the ring. Before the pandemic fucked things up, Juice and Ospreay were settling down in Japan, too. But if you’re a guy like Jay, who can make more money and gain more fame while traveling less and being more comfortable, what kind of NJPW contract could beat whatever Tony throws at you?

    You can’t blame guys for not choosing NJPW and you can’t blame NJPW for not being able to get exclusives. It’ll always be the less convenient place to work.

    Also, wasn’t one of the big early mantras of AEW freedom for wrestlers to work everywhere? Why does everyone have to get ‘locked down’? Isn’t that what everyone hated WWE for doing a few years back?

30. I just fell to my knees in a Walmart.

31. I know they will be used. But I’m not confident to the level they can be allowed fo perform, with FTR, The YB, Gunns, Acclaimed and know them, AEW has the most stacked Tag league but theyeved already had top 4 and it felt poorly booked

32. It was only a few hours ago I saw a report WWE and AEW were both interested in them. TK works fast.

33. Good for them. Bad for us. But good for them.

34. Makes sense. Mark Davis pretty much alluded to this when before the New Japan Cup he revealed NJPW hadn’t booked them for months and that they were getting frustrated with not having consistent money coming in. Blame whoever you wanna blame, this falls on Bushiroad.

35. I’ll never fault a wrestler for wanting to make more money. But I am disappointed simply because I don’t think they’ll be used as well in AEW. I mean Jay White already feels like just another guy

36. Oh no… anyway

37. Don’t worry I’m SURE TK will let them work njpw as much as they wany. On a related note who else is ready for that Bryan Danielson G1 run! Any day now /s

38. It sucks cause they should be like 3 years into their NJPW run but the pandemic fucked that. So I don’t blame them for going where they prob would be going at this point in a normal timeline.

39. As much as I enjoy the non Japanese talent, I am tired of them getting pushed to the moon just for them to leave after I as a fan have become invested in them. Good for them as people making money, but their art will suffer being on an inferior product and that in itself is disappointing.

40. Oof. That stings a bit, though it’s not a total shock considering their contract status.

    Even if you take money out of it, if they want to focus on tag team over singles wrestling you can’t argue that AEW has a better foundation for that. Though at this point NJPW’s tag division is a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario.

    After this year’s New Japan Cup, it is a bummer that we won’t be seeing singles runs from them in the G1, at least for the foreseeable future. That tournament made me a huge fan of Davis in particular.

    Adding AO to Jay and Juice, that’s four of Ospreay’s close friends gone to AEW now. Can’t really blame him if that sways his decision once his contract is up.

41. Will AO still be part of United Empire?

42. UPDATE: The Japanese AEW account has [posted a message](https://twitter.com/aew_jp/status/1661607078467862528) from Kyle to Aussie Open’s Japanese fans (which has been RTed by the NJPWWorld and Japanese NJPW accounts) where he says Aussie Open want to continue wrestling in NJPW and that they will be back in Japan soon.

43. Welp, [not even a week] (https://reddit.com/comments/13k0g6k/comment/jkkw2wc) since I was lamenting that Aussie Open might be gone from NJPW soon or later.

    Turns out it was much sooner than I thought it would be.

    I might get a lot of hate for saying this now, but Osprey will be gone soon too. Osprey vs Omega is basically an AEW storyline at this point. Feels like there is no point to be invested in Osprey’s story arc now if you are a NJPW fan.

44. You’d think Ohbari, Gedo, Kidani, and the rest of management would take a look at what’s happened with Baretta, Jay, Takeshita, and now Aussie Open and go, “you know, maybe this Tony Khan guy can’t be trusted if he’s going to keep poaching talent from his ‘partner’ promotions.” It’s only a matter of time before he takes Vikingo away from AAA too. Harold Meij made mistakes as president, but one thing he was absolutely right about was not trusting that snake.

    Almost all foreign talent will leave for American promotions at some point, even guys who’ve been there for a while (Devitt, Bernard, Omega, Jay, Juice etc.). I think New Japan knows that and will always plan long term accordingly. But I have a very hard time believing they would spend the past eight months or so pushing Aussie Open so much if they thought they’d up and leave right in the middle of the push. So at what point does Ohbari wake the fuck up and realize that Tony Kahn just completely derailed all the hard work New Japan did to push Aussie Open as the next big NJPW tag team?