AEW: Tony Khan's Next Major Announcement Potentially Revealed

By Connor Casey

AEW president Tony Khan has another big announcement lined up for this week's AEW Dynamite, but it seems like people have figured it out this time around. It's not the announcement of a new signing, a streaming deal, an update on Ring of Honor's future or the purchase of another promotion, but instead, it's reportedly going to be the introduction of a major crossover event between AEW and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. The Super J-Cast speculated this week that the long-awaited event is scheduled for mid-June in Chicago. 

Fans have been wanting to see more interactions between New Japan and AEW for years. Initially, the integration was only one-way with Chris Jericho and Jon Moxley working for both companies in 2019. But over the years the relationship has strengthened to where stars like KENTA, Minoru Suzuki, Yuji Nagata, Rocky Romero and Satoshi Kojima have wrestled on AEW programming. One of New Japan's titles, the IWGP United States Championship, even changed hands on a Dynamite last year when Lance Archer beat Moxley in a Texas Death Match. 

The crossover between the two shows was on full display on Saturday night at New Japan's Windy City Riot in Chicago. Moxley, after beating Will Ospreay, called out Hiroshi Tanahashi to a match at NJPW's Capitol Collision on May 15. Eddie Kingston, who made a surprise appearance during the show, will also compete at that event against Tomohiro Ishii. 

"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 during a media conference call back in November. 

"I think they saw this as a good relationship and I have a good reputation for being an honest person," Khan 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."

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