During Saturday night’s NJPW Battle in the Valley PPV, which took place at the San Jose Civic, a vignette aired with former WWE Superstar Mustafa saying that he is bringing his campaign to New Japan Pro Wrestling.
In the vignette, Ali challenged Hiromu Takahashi. Ali said that Takahashi is mentally unstable because he would fight with a stuffed animal on his arm. Ali then said that Takahashi is unfit to be a leader. Ali told Takahashi that he will replace him at the NJPW Windy City Riot 2 that takes place at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, IL on Friday, April 12.
Back on September 21, 2023, just 9 days before he was scheduled to challenge Dominik Mysterio for the North American Title at NXT No Mercy, Ali announced he was no longer under contract with WWE, as he was one of several talent that WWE has released on that day.
Hiromu Takahashi took to social media shortly after Ali’s challenge and accepted it.
Also at the show, Jack Perry, who was sporting a beard, made a surprise appearance at and attacked Shota Umino. He then held up an armband which read “scapegoat.”
This was Perry’s first television appearance since the AEW All pay-per-view Buy In show back on August 27, 2023. At the PPV, Hook regained the FTW Title.
After the match, Perry got into a backstage altercation with CM Punk, which caused him to get suspended. AEW CEO and GM Tony Khan terminated Punk for his part in the backstage fight. The altercation came after Perry’s comments during his match with Hook. Before he took a spot on a limousine windshield, Perry looked at the camera and said “real glass, cry me a river”, which was in reference to a previous backstage incident with Punk not wanting himself and Perry to use real glass in a segment, deeming that it was unsafe.