Backstage News On Unrest In NJPW

In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, it was reported that there is a lot of unrest behind the scenes in New Japan Pro Wrestling. The unrest mainly comes from the foreign talent as Japan continues their state of emergency.

The main source of the issues is foreign talent having to go through two-week quarantine. Earlier this month, NJPW announced that seven wrestlers tested positive for COVID-19.

Former WWE producer Fit Finlay revealed recently that his son David Finlay had been quarantining with Jay White. He also said that David had been considering his future, and in the Observer, it was reported that there were some wrestlers who have talked about not returning to New Japan until quarantine is lifted as well as looking at other options.

The current vaccination rate in Japan is 4.1%, much slower than other Group of Seven (G7) nations. Japan has approved other vaccines as it hopes to vaccinate its population in time for the Summer Tokyo Olympics.

NJPW talent like Rocky Romero and Ren Narita of the LA Dojo will be working the next AEW Dark: Elevation. Yuji Nagata recently competed on AEW Dynamite and has made an appearance in the U.S. based NJPW STRONG. Jeff Cobb has also been announced for U.S. indie dates as well.

It has been revealed on the latest episode of IMPACT that Satoshi Kojima will be making an appearance on the show joining ELP, David Finlay and Juice Robinson as other NJPW talents that have appeared on IMPACT.