The Nova Fireball, Francesco Akira was making a name for himself on the European independent stage as well as All Japan Pro-Wrestling, when he caught the eye of Will Ospreay. Ospreay would take Akira under his wing, and adopted him as his protege, hand picking him as United Empire’s latest junior heavyweight representative heading into Best of the Super Jr. 

His debut series saw him bring explosive high speed offense, and despite a losing record, ended his campaign with a countout win over Ace Austin, promising to continue to burn his way through the junior heavyweight ranks. That was something he and TJP achieved on June 20, capturing the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships from Ryusuke Taguchi and Master Wato. The two retained their titles for close to a year, but after losing them and then winning them back against Kevin Knight and KUSHIDA, they were surprised by a sudden betrayal at the hands of Drilla Moloney, who teamed with Clark Connors to relieve Catch 2/2 of the gold.

Catch 2/2 and War Dogs’ feud over the junior tag gold would continue with the teams trading the titles into the spring of 2024.