Tony Khan has another major announcement lined up for this week’s AEW Dynamite. Last time around, he broke the news that he had purchased Ring of Honor as a promotion. This time, the big rumor is that AEW will be partnering up with New Japan Pro-Wrestling for a supershow in Chicago this coming June. Other theories include launching a potential streaming deal with HBO Max, something regarding the future of Ring of Honor (their broadcast deal with Sinclair ended this week) or the video game (which is reportedly still coming out in September despite no title, recent trailer or confirmed publisher).ย
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“I think this surprise is different than anything we’ve promoted before. We’ve had a lot of great surprise moments in AEW. A lot of special nights on Dynamite. Without giving too much away, I think this is a unique announcement. I’m excited about this as anything we’ve worked on,” Khan said in an interview with TV Insider this week.
Khan talked about AEW’s growing relationship with New Japan during a media conference call last November. The amount of crossover between the two company’s has grown exponentially over the past year, involving stars like Jon Moxley, Eddie Kingston, KENTA, Minoru Suzuki, Tomohiro Ishii, Rocky Romero, Yuji Nagata and Satoshi Kojima.ย
“It’s a great relationship, I really enjoy working with New Japan. It’s changed a lot, because when AEW first started off I think they were pretty pissed off with me. As wrestling went on I think they saw that I really wasn’t trying to stop them from doing anything and I actually made a lot of friendly gestures along the way,” Khan said.
“I think they saw this as a good relationship and I have a good reputation for being an honest person,” he continued. “So even though I kind of came out of left field and was a new player in the game, I think I raised their antennas early and made them pretty nervous. And then (as) I built up more of a reputation in this sport I think they wanted to work with me. And so now I talk to them on a regular basis and put matches together.”
