Why David Finlay Chose Joining AEW Over WWE (AEW News)

After plenty of speculation over his future after departing NJPW last month, David Finlay has now signed with AEW, arriving on last night's Dynamite to join Clark Connors and Gabe Kidd in a post-match beatdown of Darby Allin and Orange Cassidy, after Connors and Kidd had lost to Darby and Freshly Squeezed.

Per Fightful Select, the former Bullet Club leader has signed a multi-year deal with Tony Khan's promotion, and it's likewise been confirmed that Clark Connors and Gabe Kidd are also under AEW contract. Finlay, Connors, and Kidd were previously part of the Bullet Club War Dogs, and this Fightful report adds that the group will collectively be known as THE DOGS from here on out.

For Finlay, he had been looking to move on from NJPW and make the jump to a US promotion, and Cory Hays of BodySlam.com noted that the fourth-generation star turned down an offer from WWE. That offer would have seen the two-time IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship start in NXT on a "lower level contract" rather than a "main roster contract". And so, Finlay turned down that deal and agreed to sign with AEW within the past week.

Fightful adds that David Finlay is now "effectively done" with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, which is where he's called his regular home dating all the way back to 2015, going from Young Lion, to FinJuice, to Bullet Club, and to more recently, briefly Unbound Co. During that time, the 32-year-old won the NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Titles (with Satoshi Kojima and Ricochet), the IWGP Tag Team Titles (with Juice Robinson), the NEVER Openweight Title, and had those two runs with the IWGP Global Heavyweight Title

While the working relationship between AEW and NJPW means that it can't be totally ruled out that David Finlay will perform in a New Japan ring at some point in the future, it very much sounds like the hugely talented Finlay has put the King of Sports in his rearview mirror for now.