Pump the brakes on the rumor that Tony Khan is buying NJPW. However, the AEW CEO continues to tease that something big is in store for AEW WrestleDream.
During the AEW WrestleDream media call, Fightful‘s Sean Ross Sapp asked Khan about the speculation that he is buying NJPW. The rumor heated up after Khan teased that a chapter in wrestling history will close, and a new era will begin, at AEW WrestleDream.
“I’m a little surprised as to how that speculation picked up, specifically the transactional nature of it,” Tony Khan said. “Because we have such a great partnership right now, and we’re doing such great things with New Japan Pro-Wrestling. So I was a little surprised to see that. Overall, I’ve really enjoyed working with Nee Japan Pro-Wrestling. It’s been nearly two years we’ve been partners now. We’ve had two great Forbidden Door events, and we’ve sent a number of the top AEW stars over to Japan to wrestle at the Tokyo Dome on Wrestle Kingdom and other big events like Dominion and some of their top shows.
“We’ve worked together here in the US. There are people from AEW that have held belts in New Japan, and there’s people from New Japan that have held belts here in AEW or in Ring of Honor. I think I want to continue that partnership for a very, very long time, and right now, we have something very good going. So I’m a little surprised by all that speculation. I don’t know where it came from. But it’s probably good timing to have a lot of speculation on the eve of WrestleDream, and I’m glad that we got a lot of people talking, certainly that one video with all the great clips of Mr. Inoki and some of the top stars of today. I thought that got people talking, so that was a very positive thing.”
Tony Khan: AEW WrestleDream Will Be The Start Of A New Era
Bill Pritchard of WrestleZone then asked whether Khan would clarify his comments about an “end of an era”, in relation to the NJPW rumor. Khan made it clear that he wanted to keep the speculation going, but he debunked the rumor that he meant he was buying NJPW.
“I definitely have no intentions of clarifying that I meant by those comments,” Tony Khan said. “I want people to order the pay-per-view. But I think the Internet kind of ran away with the speculation based off, I don’t know what, honestly.
“I’d love for somebody to go back and look who the person to say that was, and we can track back where the speculation came from. Because certainly I don’t know if that particular aspect of it is very credible. There’s dots you can connect in wrestling, and there’s things in very excited about that we’ve been doing.”
Tony Khan continued by noting that he has made bold proclamations before, and he feels like he has been proven right. He teased that he wants to keep doing adventurous things with AEW as the company continues to build its reputation.
“I think I’ve made bold proclamations before, and I felt that I’ve been proven right by them. I think we’ve come a really long way,” Tony Khan said. “We’ve taken big swings at doing new things this years. In particular, I think 2023 has been our most adventurous year, and I want to keep doing adventurous things and make fans talk about AEW, hopefully making new fans of AEW. I think we’ve debunked some speculation. I’d be happy to debunk speculation that that’s what I was implying because I don’t know where that particular rumor started. But I think this year we’ve also really built our reputation in a really strong way.
“We’ve gotten to the point where if somebody’s gonna you AEW doesn’t do good shows, you might as well put on a tinfoil hat because that’s got about as much credibility as somebody as somebody saying that AEW is not doing the best shows right now. If you’re not watching, that’s fine. But you can say you’re not watching them. To question the credibility…BS, because we’re doing the best shows. I think from Forbidden Door to All In to All Out, I think Grand Slam was a great event, and Collision this week was probably the best episode of Collision we’ve ever done in the first 15 episodes of the show so far. So we’re doing great things.”
Tony Khan Teases AEW’s New Era
After Tony Khan noted that he thinks AEW has never been more organized, he stated that the quality of the shows has never been stronger. He also stated that WrestleDream will mark the start of a new era.
“I’m very happy with what we’re doing right now,” Tony Khan said. “So without completely spilling the beans on everything I’m working on, it is really going to be the start of a new era of what we’re doing with AEW, and I’m very excited about that.”
WrestleZone will have full coverage of AEW WrestleDream as it airs on October 1.
