I get the impression Sasha/Mercedes has some dirt that allowed her to get out of her WWE deal with no strings attached, since even Brock had to sue to get out of his back in the day.
She wasn't there because she got injured in the NJPW Strong women's title match. WIllow shoot-won the title since it wasn't the plan for her to be the first champ. Sasha would have made an AEW apparence by now most likely if not for that.
I recall Regal tweeting a picture of a flyer from one of his first ever shows and a young Keiichi Yamada was on the card as well, so they've been friends pretty much since both started in the biz.
Probably wasn't as hard as you'd think, working for WWE was a bucket list thing for Liger and he has 'do whatever you want because you're a legend" status in New Japan.
The Jeff Hardy thing was more about him not being able to go to Canada where they were doing a run of shows than any of the usual reasons.
I think you're right, I think it was half him assessing the damage and probably half getting the word to Okada.
Also it might have been a legit "I just broke my fucking arm" convulsion as well.
The segment on Rampage where Harley Cameron accused Anthony Bowens of being into here, only for Bowens to respond with "maybe you haven't noticed, I'M GAY" going viral (in a good way) was heartwarming to see in the current political climate.