In this WrestleTalk News, is there some real heat between AEW and New Japan?
Did AEW plan for Kenny Omega’s return at Forbidden Door?
Could we get more AEW PPVs a year and more.
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We’re now one week removed from AEW and New Japan’s first joint venture, Forbidden
Door.
It was a show that was hugely praised by wrestling fans - with excellent graps up and down the
card - and was seen ‘better than it had any right to be’ because… well…
all the injuries.
Like…
all the injuries.
There’s actually too many injuries to list.
The show was also a success financially, with Tony Khan revealing that Forbidden Door made
over $1 million in ticket sales, and over $5 million in PPV buys.
The show is estimated to have sold around 125-127,000 buys - most of which were in the
United States - which is only slightly down from the 173,000 that Double or Nothing did
just one month earlier.
This is the first time that AEW have run a PPV the month after the previous one, and
it didn’t seem to put many fans off.
We’ll have more on that in a bit.
However there were also some nagging thoughts surrounding Forbidden Door, one of which being:
“eh, it’s not quite the card of dream matches I was hoping for.”
Not to say it was a bad card, but fans had lofty expectations for this show - particularly
because AEW and New Japan told fans that it will be the top stars of AEW vs. the top stars
of New Japan.
While it did feature that in Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi and Okada, Jay White, Adam
Cole and Hangman Page in a four-way - not to mention Will Ospreay vs. Orange Cassidy
- there were some big names missing.
Of course, most of these were down to the injuries that I mentioned earlier.
But others like Andrade, Rey Fenix and Pentagon Jr were kept off the show due to New Japan’s
relationship with CMLL and their long-standing rivalry between AAA who have a working relationship
with AEW.
Wrestling politics are sometimes very silly.
But there was also the name Tetsuya Naito.
There was only one representative of Naito’s LIJ faction on Forbidden Door in the form
of Shingo Takagi - because Hiromu Takahashi was also removed from the show because he
got a fever - but there was never any mention of Naito being on the card or involved in
any feuds; despite being one of the biggest names in New Japan.
A former 3 x IWGP Heavyweight Champion, a 6x Intercontinental Champion, a 2 x winner
of the G1 Climax.
Naito is one of the guys of New Japan.
So why wasn’t he on Forbidden Door?
Well, you might expect there to be some hidden injury story that no one knows about, or some
sort of difficulties with travel because of a pandemic, but according to Naito himself
- he wasn’t invited.
On his NJPW Diary, Naito wrote: “Unfortunately I was not invited to the “AEW x NJPW”
show that is being talked about all over the place.
Not invited = not needed.
Right?
Because of that frustration, I haven’t watched any footage of this show.
I’m genuinely upset about it.”
This is the first time we’ve seen a New Japan talent speak out against Forbidden Door
or the relationship between AEW, and is the first sign that all might not be coming up
Millhouse between them after all.
However, there might be more to this story than meets the eye.
Which we’ll get to after I hot tag to Oli Davis.
Before we get on with the rest of the episode, I’d just like to say a huge thank you to
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Testsuya Naito may have written in his diary that he was genuinely upset about not being
on Forbidden Door and that his frustrations mean that he wasn’t watched anything from
the card, but according to Backup Hangman on Twitter - who is an excellent follow you
should all do that now - this is nothing more than a big worky work.
Guys, I’ve had my fill of worked shoots in 2022.
I can’t stands no more.
Worked Shoots in 2022 is like tying an onion to your belt, it really is the style at the
time.
Backup Hangman notes that anyone reacting to this story has no sources - which is true,
I don’t - but interestingly adds that the original plan for Forbidden Door was for Naito
to face off against Kenny Omega, but Omega “wasn’t healthy in time”.
This is interesting for a variety of reasons, number one being the work work work work part,
but the other being AEW had planned - or at least hoped - that Kenny Omega would be back
in the ring for Forbidden Door.
Omega hasn’t been in an AEW ring - or any ring for that matter - since he lost the AEW
World Championship to Hangman Page at Full Gear last November.
It was revealed after the show that Omega was dealing with a list of injuries that he
needed to sort out, as well as extreme vertigo - which I still cannot wrap my head around.
He’s one of the best wrestlers on the planet had he did it with vertigo.
There has never been an official timetable on Omega’s return to the ring, but if Tony
Khan had at least scheduled him for a match in June means that he thought he might be
ready by then.
It also adds some more intrigue to Omega’s comments that he made at CEO recently.
He said there, “If I get another major setback, that's it.
That's it, I'm done, I can't do this ever again.”
One has to wonder if the setback he’s talking about, is that he couldn’t be part of Forbidden
Door to work against Naito.
Or, maybe that is also a work shoot work onion on your belt, it is the style of the time.
And if Kenny does come back, there’s every chance he’ll be coming back to an AEW with
more shows than ever before.
AEW’s current model is 4 PPVs a year - Revolution in February, Double or Nothing in May/June,
All Out in September, and Full Gear in October.
In between those shows, they do big themed episodes of Dynamite that feel like mini-PPVs
like Grand Slam, St. Patrick’s Day Slam, and recently Blood & Guts.
Forbidden Door was the first time AEW had run an actual PPV - one that fans had to put
money down to buy - one month after the last show that fans paid for.
As we discussed earlier, it didn’t seem to affect the show in any great capacity.
And according to Andew Zarian on Wrestling Observer Live, Warner Media are quite keen
for All Elite Wrestling to run more PPVs a year - perhaps bumping them up to 6 rather
than 4.
He said on the show, “Warner Media want more PPVs from AEW”, adding that Warner
Media want more than 4 PPVs a year, but they’re not “forcing them to”, they would just
“love for them to do more”.
Zarian also notes that the ROH Death Before Dishonor PPV announcement came days after
he was told that Warner Media wanted more shows from All Elite Wrestling, and speculates
that Death Before Dishonor could be a test between AEW and B/R Live to see if there is
enough demand from the audience to have more shows.
There’s also the speculation that ROH’s Death Before Dishonor airing on B/R Live means
that there could be a TV deal in place between Tony Khan and Warner Media to host new Ring
of Honor content.
Zarian adds, “I don’t know this, but I wouldn’t be shocked if there was a [TV deal]
announcement at the PPV” And speaking of PPVs, WWE had one just the
other day.
And there was a big meeting before hand.
It was reported ahead of Money in the Bank this
past Saturday that “interim CEO of WWE” bunny ears Stephanie McMahon had a meeting
with talent to discuss a multitude of topics with sources telling WrestleVotes that meeting
was well received.
Sean Ross Sapp over at Fightful Select also added that he’d heard there was a positive
vibe coming from the meeting, and has now revealed more details about it.
SRS reports that the meeting was held by Stephanie, Triple H and Nick KHAAAAAN [side screen],
and was described as “simply a staff meeting”.
So, nothing to get too excited about, folks, this is just Murray holding a band meeting.
According to Fightful Select, it was “reiterated that Triple H is back working full time with
the company”, and that Stephanie’s door was “always open”.
Stephanie McMahon to Forbidden Door confirmed.
SRS adds that much of what was said was already known by talent, but the feeling coming out
was so positive because, “Stephanie McMahon seems to be outright adored based on those
we've heard from.”
Fightful add that they don’t know if Vince McMahon was part of the meeting - we know
he was at the UFC show that took place after Money in the Bank - but SRS notes that Vince
was at the PPV and “still operating as usual.”
Because Steph is the “interim CEO of WWE” bunny ears.
WWE even noted in their own press release about Vince McMahon stepping down as CEO of
company while under investigation by his own board, that he would remain in charge of creative.
So perhaps he’s one of the people that is pushing for the break-up of the Street Profits.
Despite being on the same page on every episode of TV - and indeed at Money in the Bank - it
was said on SmackDown that Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins are not on the same page, hinting
towards a break-up of the team.
The other sure fire sign that WWE may be looking to break the team up is that commentary spent
80% of their match against The Usos at Money in the Bank talking about how much muscle
mass Montez Ford has put on recently - which really sounds like Vince speak for: make this
guy a singles star right now.
Think of the pose down segments we can do.
And according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, there are those in WWE management,
“who are very high on [Ford] right now, especially with his new physique”.
Meltzer adds that there are those pushing to break the team up and push Ford as a singles
star.
While one would presume that we’re getting a rematch between Street Profits and The Usos
- as Ford’s shoulder was up on the pinfall in their match at Money in the Bank - it will
come as no surprise that Meltzer is also reporting another plan for Summerslam currently is for
Liv Morgan to defend her newly won SmackDown Women’s Championship against the former
champ Ronda Rousey.