As reported by PWMania.com, David Finlay made his debut with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) on Wednesday night’s episode of Dynamite. He joined forces with his New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) stablemates Gabe Kidd and Clark Connors to assault Darby Allin and Orange Cassidy.
The attack occurred after Allin and Cassidy secured a tag team victory over Kidd and Connors.
Following the match and the post-match segment, AEW President and CEO Tony Khan announced that the trio is officially “All Elite.” Fightful Select confirmed that all three wrestlers have signed with the company, with Finlay’s contract reportedly being a multi-year deal.
Although Finlay had discussions with WWE after his NJPW contract expired, he ultimately chose to join AEW.
According to BodySlam+, sources within WWE indicated that Finlay was offered a deal that would have started him off in NXT. However, WWE reportedly refused to negotiate further on this offer, leading Finlay to decide on AEW.
The group will be known as “The Dogs,” a reference to the Bullet Club War Dogs faction, of which Finlay was the leader. This faction also included Kidd, Connors, Drilla Moloney, Gedo, Oskar, Robbie X, Taiji Ishimori, and Yuto-Ice.
The War Dogs disbanded during NJPW New Year Dash and subsequently merged with the Unaffiliated to form a new group called Unbound Co.
