Everything You Need To Know About The IMPACT Wrestling Slammiversary Teases
3. Kazuchika Okada
The tease: some old promotional footage of Kazuchika Okada, back when he was known simply as Okada, was shown at the beginning of the original teaser trailer.
The likelihood of it happening: 20%
This is a massive push, but hear it out.
New Japan Pro Wrestling terminated their working relationship with IMPACT Wrestling partly because of how terribly they used Kazuchika Okada before he became the multi-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion legend that he now is. Scott D'Amore apologised for this personally, despite him not even being responsible for the act, and has now arranged a new agreement with the company.
That says enough. New Japan clearly see D'Amore - and, until recently, Don Callis - is trying to do something of note with the former TNA, or else they wouldn't have agreed to this new deal. They've sent FinJuice, El Phantasmo, and Satoshi Kojima to IMPACT, with them receiving Josh Alexander and the Good Brothers - once one of their most popular acts - in exchange.
It's a superlative deal. The icing on the cake, however, would be for New Japan to trust IMPACT with 'The Rainmaker' once more. They can't possibly f*ck him up now.
Interestingly, Okada isn't currently scheduled for New Japan's 17 July show. He's free until 19 July. It's plausible, but most likely via vignette.