Eric Young says the collaboration between AEW and IMPACT Wrestling wasn’t as beneficial as the people involved were hoping it would be.
For a few months in 2021, the two promotions worked together as AEW Champion Kenny Omega crossed over to IMPACT and later won the promotion’s world title by defeating Rich Swann at the Rebellion pay-per-view. He went on to drop the title to Christian Cage, who held the title until Josh Alexander dethroned him at Bound For Glory in October.
During an appearance on The Angle Podcast, Young was asked about Forbidden Door-style dream matches, and he discussed the way wrestling companies freely work together now. He brought up the partnership between AEW and IMPACT and noted that there were plenty of missed opportunities with it.
“I think there’s opportunities in all the companies,” said Young. “It’s a really wild time to be a wrestling fan. This is something that, it could happen. Rich Swann, as our world champion, wrestled Kenny Omega as their world champion, and that’s never really happened before, two televised wrestling companies working kind of together. I don’t think it worked out as good as anyone kind of hoped it would have. I feel like there was a lot of missed opportunities that could have gone back and forth both ways.
“But I mean the reality is, as far as a wrestler and definitely as a wrestling fan, there’s not as many rules as there used to be, which is super cool. You could think, ‘Oh man, what a dream match. This guy versus this guy or this group versus this group.’ And ten years ago, that ain’t happening. The companies don’t work together. I mean legally they’re not allowed to do those things, and now it’s happening, and it’s happening in real-time, and I’m getting to see it and experience it. So I don’t know if I could name a single name or a single group, but I would be open to it because like I said, I’m experiential and I want to experience it all, good, bad, or indifferent.”
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