After spending the majority of his adult life in New Japan Pro Wrestling, David Finlay decided to take his talents west and signed with AEW in March 2026. The move came after weeks of speculation that he would be heading to WWE, particularly "WWE NXT. However, he would choose to reunite with his old Bullet Club War Dogs, Gabe Kidd and Clark Connors, in All Elite Wrestling.Finlay was a recent guest on Chris Jericho's "Talk is Jericho" podcast, where he revealed that when it came to deciding between WWE and AEW, Finlay had connections on both sides as his former Bullet Club War Dogs Stable where in AEW, while his brother and dad, Uriah Connors and Fit Finlay, where in WWE. This meant that he would have felt comfortable with either option, but wasn't until his representation presented him with the overall packages that Finlay knew he'd have more freedom in AEW."Just the overall package of like, obviously pay and schedule, but just like alright, all my friends are in AEW. Then like my brother and dad are in NXT, cool. But yeah, it didn't have any bearing on it, like it would have been cool, but it's like no, I want to go keep doing what I'm doing, have the freedom to do what I want to do and if I can be with my friends, that's a great bonus."There was one other reason he chose AEW over WWE, that being that as a former two-time IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion and someone who has wrestled at the Tokyo Dome eight times, he didn't exactly want to go ack to square one. "I think I would have struggled re-humbling myself to the level that they would have wanted me to humble myself to. It's like I've already been here and I've already proven myself."
There was a point in time where David Finlay looked to be the next top foreign heel in NJPW, but after 11 years working his way through New Japan's system, he decided to move back to the United States permanently. The main reason for this was simple, his own family who he feels like is owed some quality time with him after all the years he's been in Japan."I had a kid," Finlay said. "It sucked, like my wife has been in the picture the entire time I've been in Japan so like we're used to that, no problem. But when like I leave for a G1, come back, and my kid's got 20 new tricks, I'm like 'I've missed so much,' which comes with wrestling...I grew up with my dad being on the road five days a week. I don't feel like I missed out, cool, it would have been great to have him home more, but I don't feel like I missed out. But also if there's an opportunity to be home more, I feel like I owe that to my family."As for as when he knew he wanted to leave NJPW, that revelation came to him almost a year before he actually left. With that said, he also felt like he owed it to his mentor Gedo to give everything he could in his last year with the company. "I knew a year before I left that it was going to be my last year," Finlay said. "I felt like I hadn't squeezed all the juice out of what I could do in Japan yet. So I was like 'I'm going to give it one more year and then whatever I've accomplished is what I've accomplished and that's it.' I didn't really knew what I was going to do, to where I was going to go until the week of deciding."Please credit "Talk is Jericho"when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
