Tony Khan New York Post interview; talks Forbidden Door 2, original Forbidden Door build plans, more

[Chris]

Source: f4wonline.com

Despite Rocky Romero's recent statements that NJPW is interested in Forbidden Door events taking place in Japan, AEW head Tony Khan said those events will remain in North America.

Speaking to the New York Post about a variety of subjects, Khan said, "The idea of doing an event over there with AEW stars and New Japan stars is very potentially interesting, but if it happens it won’t be Forbidden Door. Forbidden Door is gonna stay in North America. It wouldn’t make sense with the time zones, the revenue."

Romero told our Denise Salcedo that NJPW was interested in hosting such shows in Japan:

"I know that that is something that New Japan is very interested in doing and it doesn’t necessarily have to be Forbidden Door 2. It can be Forbidden Door 3. It can definitely be in Japan. Forbidden Door was successful internationally, so I feel that can be left open. There are definitely tons of places you can go internationally with a card like Forbidden Door. I think Forbidden Door would be successful internationally. It just depends on the timing if we decide to do it in June of next year or if it needs to be accompanied by part of January 4th and 5th or something. I think there are a lot of options."

In the interview, Khan also revealed the plan for what would have been an interesting trios match either at Forbidden Door or in the lead-up:

"It would have been totally different stuff because (Hiroshi) Tanahashi wouldn’t have been in the Blood and Guts Moxley/ (Chris) Jericho stuff because Tanahashi would have been wrestling (CM) Punk. There would have been a completely different set of stories going into the pay-per-view. When Will Ospreay invades, Punk would have been with FTR so they would have taken Punk and FTR down. So that trios match would have been Punk and FTR versus Ospreay and the United Empire.

While not explicitly said, it's assumed that match would have happened prior to the PPV with the Punk-Tanahashi title match happening at Forbidden Door.

Khan was also asked about the following:

• Kenny Omega: Khan said he was optimistic about the former AEW World Champion's return, but that he didn't want to put a timetable on it. Even with Omega's recent aired frustrations about rehab, Khan said he was going to talk more to Omega but he remains optimistic.
• Adam Cole: Khan said Cole had no contact between Double or Nothing and Forbidden Door and that he was cleared to compete. Cole had been taking time off and Khan said, "I’ll take some more time make sure he’s right and wouldn’t want him to wrestle until he’s feeling 100 percent. He was feeling 100 percent going into Forbidden Door. That’s how unpredictable these are." He didn't clarify what "these" meant.
• Their next TV rights deal: "Whenever our next media right deal, the next one does kick in, it will be historic. It will be recorded in history because everything in wrestling is recorded in history into posterity. It will make history however it goes. Right now, everyone would expect very, very well. We expect it’s going to go very well for us based on how strong we’ve been performing."

 

[Swerve]

Interesting.