10 Completely RANDOM Cameos In AEW
4. David Finlay
The maiden AEWxNJPW Forbidden Door pay-per-view was an electric demonstration of the two promotions' working relationship - and the build was largely as hot as the event itself.
Will Ospreay leading a United Empire battering of Orange Cassidy and Best Friends? Up.
Jon Moxley and Kyle O'Reilly valiantly fighting toward the interim AEW World Championship? Up.
Kazuchika Okada's enigmatic arrival on the go-home Dynamite? Golden Up.
It was so, so good - mostly.
David Finlay's solitary AEW appearance is what renders the 'mostly' suffix. David, the offspring of the notoriously bullish Dave 'Fit' Finlay, was a skilled worker whose runs in NJPW and TNA were carrying on the family name with great decorum. He stands, in 2024, as a legitimately solid act in New Japan's mid-card, his position at the helm of Bullet Club War Dogs seeing him carry the rebellious faction's skill and swagger as his predecessors had done so.
But here, on Dynamite's 8 June, 2022 episode, he rocked up with zero fanfare in a moment more obliviously get-all-the-NJPW-wrestlers-we-can than it was necessary.
He wrestled 'Hangman' Adam Page on that night. The match's lack of quality wasn't an indictment on either man's in-ring skill level, either; simply put, there were other, more desirable wrestlers AEW's fanbase wished to see.