After being with the company since 2011 (minus a 2-year excursion to NOAH), Davey Boy Smith Jr. is gone from New Japan Pro-Wrestling. His departure was reported last week but new details regarding what happened between the 33-year-old and the promotion have recently come to light.
According to a report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, several issues led Smith to decide it was time to leave.
“(Smith) wanted to go to the WWE Hall of Fame because they were inducting Jim Neidhart, who is part of his family, as well as Bret Hart a second time. New Japan was running MSG and he kept asking whether he’s booked on the show so he could make plans either to do the Hall of Fame or not,” wrote Dave Meltzer.
The report would continue to say that Smith was not given an answer as late as 2 weeks before the show. Smith did end up attending the Hall of Fame ceremony.
Davey Boy Smith Quits New Japan Pro Wrestling
There was another issue where Smith wanted to pay tribute to the Dynamite Kid during a match and the New Japan office turned him down.
“Smith had pitched an idea of he and Lance Archer doing a tribute to Dynamite on a New Japan show where he’d score a pin after a Dynamite Kid style diving head-butt. Gedo turned him down and told him he was too big to do that move and instead wanted to do the angle where Chuckie T would go nuts and get DQ’d for a chair shot.”
As previously reported, the issue of Smith wanting to go to Impact Wrestling also played a role. This appeared to be a miscommunication, however, as Smith was under the impression he was not allowed to work for Impact and NJPW was under the impression that Smith would be working dates for them in the future.
There have been no recent talks between Smith and Impact Wrestling at this point, however. Smith is under a 2-year deal with MLW and they would have to sign off on him working TV for another promotion.
