Heading into Wrestle Kingdom 18, Will Ospreay and Jon Moxley made a pact: David Finlay can't become the new IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion.

The new leader of the OG iteration of Bullet Club, who now goes by the Bullet Club War Dogs, Finlay is not a particularly popular performer in America, Japan, or otherwise, and having him become the first-ever Global Heavyweight Champion, especially after destroying the United States/United Kingdom Championship that came before it simply felt like a thumb in the eye of professional wrestling, and NJPW's governing body, the IWGP, as a whole.

Unfortunately, when you wrestle Finlay, you don't just wrestle Finlay, and even if the match began as a two-on-one, it rapidly evolved into 3-on-1-on-1 when two members of the War Dogs, Alex Coughlin and Gabe Kidd, joined in on the fun and decided to beat up on Moxley and Ospreay as the match rapidly evolved into a free-for-all. Despite everyone's best efforts, Finlay found some help from his friends and the Finlay family weapon, the shillalah, and with a perfectly placed Oblivion, he became the first-ever Global Heavyweight Champion.

If that was that, then that would have been that, but after the match, Finlay, ever one for generating controversy, decided to pick a fight with Nic Nemeth, FKA Dolph Ziggler, who showed up for the winner-take-all tag team match alongside his brother Ryan Nemeth and apparently stuck around for the third-to-last match. Though the cameras didn't catch it, this fight between Nemeth and Finlay continued long after the latter went back to the locker room, with the former charging his foe for an extended brawl.

Was this all just to generate hype on social media? Maybe yes, maybe no, but with Battle in the Valley rapidly approaching, don't be too surprised if Ziggler decides he wants to capture some gold for the first time since 2022, only now, it'll be for NJPW instead of NXT.