SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
On today’s WrestleDream medic call, Tony Khan addressed rumors that he has purchased New Japan Pro Wrestling by avoiding answering the question directly, citing that he wanted people to tune in on Sunday to WrestleDream. Part of the speculation was due to a comment about Sunday’s WrestleDream being the end of an era and the beginning of another era.
“I think it’s really good that we created a lot of speculation around WrestleDream, but I’m a little surprised as to how that speculation picked up, specifically the transactional nature of it because we have such a great partnership right now and are doing such great things with New Japan Pro Wrestling, so I was a little surprised to see that.”
He talked about being partners with them for two years including talent sharing and the Forbidden Door.
In a follow-up question, he added that he has no intention of clarifying his comments because he wants people to tune in on Sunday. He said he’d like someone to track where the initial speculation came from “because certainly I don’t know if that particular aspect is very credible.” He said there are dots you can connect in pro wrestling and things he’s very excited that they’re doing.
He said 2023 has been an adventurous year and he’d like to keep doing more adventurous things. He again, though, said he’d like to debunk the speculation, but he never quite fully denied purchasing New Japan. “Without spilling the beans on everything we’re working on, I think it’ll be the start of a new era for what we’re doing with AEW and I’m very excited about that,” he concluded.
RECOMMENDED NEXT: AEW COLLISION HITS & MISSES (9/23): Luchasaurus vs. Christian Cage vs. Darby, The Righteous vignette, Miro and C.J. interact, Starks vs. Danielson, more
OR CHECK THIS OUT AT PROWRESTLING.NET: AEW media call report: Live notes on Tony Khan’s pro wrestling media session ahead of Sunday’s AEW WrestleDream pay-per-view
Tony Khan buying NJPW would be terrible for the wrestling industry, it’s already bad enough his dad owns AEW and Tony owns ROH
IMO WWE has felt stale since shortly after the acquisition of WCW( not saying attitude era had any great wrestling ), like they ran back to their 80’s pg audience minus the jobbers. Milking parents instead of targeting a higher age demographic. With that said, I’d love to see Khan snatch up NJPW(love the idea of wrestlers bouncing around other federations). Vince did a wonderful job making it look like he was the only one worth it but Khan has open the door wide for me, I follow as much as I can get(like the NJPW G1 Climax..DAMN, pretty much 3hrs of wrestling a day for a month straight..awesomesauce), even squeezing in time for IMPACT, which maybe one day also gets picked up.