Despite heavy speculation, Tony Khan won’t be purchasing New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Ahead of the upcoming WrestleDream PPV in Seattle, Washington, on October 1st, AEW President Tony Khan took to Twitter to claim that a “new era” would begin at the show. With the show set to feature involvement from New Japan Pro Wrestling talent due to the event being in tribute to their legendary founder Antonio Inoki, speculation began to build that Khan would be announcing that he’d purchased NJPW in a similar vein to his acquisition of Ring of Honor.
Speaking during the WrestleDream Media Call, Khan responded to the speculation and denied that this is the case, with the two company’s continuing to build upon their partnership.
““I’m a little surprised at how that speculation picked up and the, specifically, the transactional nature of it. We have such a great partnership right now and we’re doing such great things with New Japan Pro Wrestling. I was a little surprised to see that. Overall, I’ve really enjoyed working with New Japan since nearly two years. We’ve had two great Forbidden Door events and we’ve sent a number of top AEW stars to Japan to wrestle on WrestleKingdom and top shows. We’ve worked together in the US. There are people in AEW who have helped develop New Japan and people from New Japan who have helped develop AEW or Ring of Honor. I want to continue that partnership for a very long and right now we have something very good going. I’m a little surprised by the speculation, I don’t know where it came from. It’s probably a good time to have a lot of speculation on the eve of WrestleDream, and I’m glad we got a lot of people talking, certainly that one video, with all the great clips of Mr. Inoki and top stars of today, I thought it got people talking and it was a positive thing,”
-Tony Khan
Khan would then be asked to elaborate on his “end of an era” comments, to which he refused to delve into any specifics as he wants people to buy the pay-per-view and experience exactly what he means.
At the show itself, Bryan Danielson will take on NJPW World Television Champion Zack Sabre Jr. in a technical dream match, whilst Christian Cage will put his newly won TNT Championship on the line against Darby Allin in a 2/3 falls match.
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on the “new era” of AEW as soon as we hear more.
H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
