3. Jeff Hardy
Jeff Hardy remains one of the most popular stars in WWE. Back in 2011, he was far from the top of his game. In his lone appearance for New Japan Pro Wrestling, Hardy defended his TNA World Heavyweight Championship against rising star Tetsuya Naito at Wrestle Kingdom V.
This was right before New Japan ended their relationship with TNA. There has been speculation that this match had something to do with it. Considering Hardy is very talented and Naito was already having some great matches at the time, it is a shame this match was as messy as it was. There have been reports that Hardy was inebriated during this performance, leading to the end of the working relationship between the promotions.
2. Christian
Closer to the early days of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s relationship with TNA, Christian made his lone appearance for New Japan at Wrestle Kingdom II in 2008. In this six-man tag team match, Christian teamed with AJ Styles and Petey Williams to defeat the team of Milano Collection A.T., Minoru Tanaka, and Prince Devitt.
To date, this is the only time Christian and Devitt (AKA Finn Balor) have wrestled each other. Christian’s time in TNA was brief in the grand scheme of things, resulting in only one appearance for New Japan.
1. The Undertaker
How many of you knew about this one? Because I sure didn’t. In March of 1990, eight months before his WWE debut, a young man billed as Punisher Dice Morgan stepped into a New Japan ring. This man would go on to be one of the biggest WWE stars in history as The Undertaker.
The match in question saw him team with another future WWE star, Scott Hall. Together they challenged Masa Saito and Shinya Hashimoto for the IWGP Tag Team Championships. They were unsuccessful but they managed to create one hell of a trivia question for those looking for the only time The Undertaker wrestled in New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Did any of these WWE stars surprise you? Let us know on Twitter!
4 years ago by Tempest
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