of Talent Relations for AEW. At AEW's inaugural pay-per-view event Double or Nothing on May 25, SoCal Uncensored defeated Strong Hearts (Cima, T-Hawk, and El Lindaman). The following month at Fyter Fest, Daniels faced Cima in a losing effort. SoCal Uncensored then went onto defeat the Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus and Marko Stunt) at All Out on August 31. In October, Daniels suffered a pinched nerve, injuring him for a short time. He returned at the Full Gear pay-per-view on November 9, assisting Kazarian and Sky from an attack by the Lucha Brothers (Pentagón Jr. and Rey Fénix). In January 2020, SCU began a rivalry with The Dark Order (Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, Alex Reynolds and John Silver) when the latter group tried to recruit Daniels. SCU and Colt Cabana defeated The Dark Order on the March 4 episode of Dynamite. On May 14, 2021, Daniels and his long time partner Frankie Kazarian were forced to split up from SCU following their defeat to The Young Bucks on episode 84 of AEW Dynamite. Daniels was briefly suspended by AEW in September 2022 after he was involved in a fight between CM Punk and Ace Steel on one side and Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks on the other. The fight was reportedly triggered by disparaging remarks Punk made during the media scrum that followed All Out. The suspension was lifted when an independent investigation commissioned by AEW concluded that Daniels was trying to break up the fight. Second return to Impact Wrestling (2021) On the September 23, 2021 episode of Impact, Daniels made his return to TNA, now known as Impact Wrestling, saving Christian Cage and Josh Alexander from an attack by Ace Austin and Madman Fulton. The following week on Impact!, Daniels defeated Fulton in his return match. Return to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2021–2022) In December 2021, Daniels made his return to New Japan Pro-Wrestling, for the first time in 5 years, on the NJPW Strong special episode Nemesis, unsuccessfully challenging Jay White's "U-S-of-Jay" open challenge. In February 2022, Rivals, Daniels defeated Karl Fredericks. In June, Daniels was set to team with Fredericks in the Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship tournament, but Fredericks was replaced by Yuya Uemura. In the tournament, the team defeated Aaron Solo and Nick Comoroto in the first round and TMDK in the semi-finals. In the finals, Daniels and Uemura were defeated by Aussie