Austin Aries, who is the current IMPACT Wrestling World Heavyweight Champion, made a surprise appearance at last night’s Ring of Honor 16th Anniversary pay-per-view, which instantly sparked speculation that both sides were working together.

For those wondering, Aries is not signed to a contract with IMPACT Wrestling and they could not have prevented him from appearing, as he is not signed to anything that would prevent him from appearing elsewhere, meaning that he was booked like any other independent talent, however Aries did make IMPACT Wrestling aware of his appearance in advance.

IMPACT Wrestling, under their current regime, are very much of the opinion of wanting an open door policy to work with other promotions, despite the previous regime burning bridges between themselves and Ring of Honor in the past, most notably recently when IMPACT sent cease and desist letters to a number of pay-per-view characters carrying the ROH pay-per-view that featured The Hardy Boyz facing off against The Young Bucks, feeling that Ring of Honor would feature The Hardy Boyz under their “Broken” personas at the time.