Cody Rhodes Got Heat From New Japan Pro Wrestling For Booking Certain Wrestlers At ALL IN

Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks made ALL IN happen and even if they didn’t bring in a boatload of pay-per-view buys, it was still a historic event. One of the coolest parts about ALL IN was the fact that they were able to provide matches that fans couldn’t see anywhere else which included bringing in guys who aren’t together very often.
Dave Meltzer discussed the feeling that New Japan Pro Wrestling had with ALL IN during Wrestling Observer Radio. Apparently, NJPW wasn’t thrilled about their IWGP World Heavyweight Champion wrestling Pentagon JR, but it turns out that there were a couple other wrestlers they didn’t want mixing it up with guys under NJPW contracts either.

“Cody got heat for booking Bandito in that six-man tag at ALL IN. They got heat for wrestling against Bandito because Bandito is a AAA guy and all that. I don’t think [New Japan] was thrilled with Kenny [Omega] working with Pentagon. I know they weren’t thrilled with Kenny working with Fenix but he did so you know that becomes one of those things.”

Whether NJPW was unhappy because they knew what Pentagon Jr could do in the ring and the violence he is capable of is another story. But odds are, they just didn’t want to have their guys mixing it up with people under contracts from rival promotions.
In another interesting note, the fact that NJPW wasn’t thrilled about Omega vs Penta might be why The Cleaner didn’t have his IWGP World Heavyweight Championship with him as he made his way to the ring on September 1st.
Either wall, they didn’t stop ALL IN and that mixture of different styles and pro wrestling artforms was one of the most special parts of the event. Only time will tell if ALL IN 2 will happen, or if they will double-down by opening their own pro wrestling company in 2019. But either way, it’s interesting that NJPW didn’t want their guys working with some of the best wrestlers on the planet just because of what company they were signed with.
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