In recent years, WWE has shown a willingness to acknowledge and even work with other promotions, with Rey Mysterio, AJ Styles, and Shinsuke Nakamura all sending videos to their former employers to acknowledge significant moments. In fact, WWE would even allow Nakamura to compete in the Great Muta’s retirement match for NOAH.
However, it now appears that NOAH isn’t the only Japanese wrestling promotion they have formed a working relationship with because it has now been announced that NXT’s Charlie Dempsey is heading to All Japan to challenge for the legendary Triple Crown Championship on January 3. This was revealed by Willian Regal on All Japan’s X account, with the Englishman publicly acknowledging that Dempsey is his son for the first time.
All Japan was formed in 1972 by Giant Baba after he broke away from the Japanese Wrestling Association. Subsequently, the promotion would become one of the most influential in the world, with a who’s who of Japanese wrestling working for the promotion, such as Jumbo Tsuruta, Genichiro Tenryu, Riki Choshu, Mitsuharu Misawa, and Toshiaki Kawada, plus foreign stars like Stan Hansen and Vader. However, following Baba’s death in 1999, Misawa took most of the Japanese roster with him to start NOAH. This would result in All Japan falling down the standings, and shockingly, at one time, it wasn’t uncommon for the promotion to have an attendance in the low hundreds.
