Tony Khan narrated the commercial for this weekend’s WrestleDream pay-per-view and proclaimed AEW would be closing a chapter and entering a new era. While some took this as possibly AEW announcing a new deal with Warner Bros. Discovery that could bring its pay-per-views and tape library to Max, another rumor emerged on social media that he might be looking to buy New Japan Pro-Wrestling to add to AEW and Ring of Honor. Khan was asked about that in a media conference call on Tuesday, and while he refused to outright reject that rumor he wasn’t sure where it came from.
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“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 we’re doing such great things with New Japan Pro-Wrestling. So I was a little, I was a little surprised to see that,” Khan said.
He was later asked to clarify his “new era” comments — “I definitely have no intention of clarifying what I meant by those comments, I want people to order the pay-per-view (laughs). I think, I think the internet kind of ran away with the speculation based on, I don’t know what honestly, I’d love for somebody to go back and look who the first person to say that and we can track back where the speculation came from. Because certainly, I don’t know if that, that particular aspect of it is very credible.”
WrestleDream will serve as a tribute show to NJPW’s founder Antonio Inoki, who passed away on Oct. 1, 2022. New Japan. Do you think Khan will attempt to buy the Japan-based promotion? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!
AEW WrestleDream 2023 Card
- Bryan Danielson vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
- AEW World Tag Team Championships: FTR vs. Aussie Open
- AEW TNT Championship: Christian Cage vs. Darby Allin (Two Out of Three Falls Match)
- ROH World Championship & NJPW Strong Openweight Championship: Eddie Kingston vs. Katsuyori Shibata
- AEW TBS Championship: Kris Statlander vs. Julia Hart
- ROH World Tag Team Championships: MJF & Adam Cole vs. The Righteous
- “Hangman” Adam Page vs. Swerve Strickland
- Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega & Kotia Ibushi vs. Will Ospreay, Konosuke Takeshita & Sammy Guevara
- The Young Bucks vs. The Gunns vs. The Lucha Brothers vs. Orange Cassidy & Hook (AEW World Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender Match)
