AEW’s next pay-per-view, WrestleDream, is set to take place this Sunday at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington. The show will serve as a tribute to New Japan Pro-Wrestling founder Antonio Inoki on the one-year anniversary of his death. Tony Khan is also promising it will kick off a “new era” for the promotion, though it’s unclear if that means AEW is about to announce a new TV deal, a deal with Max to finally bring live pay-per-view and its tape library to its streaming service or, according to rumors, he’s intending to purchase New Japan. NJPW’s Will Ospreay and Zack Sabre Jr. will both be competing at the show, though neither are defending their respective championships.ย
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And for the first time in company history, AEW will have back-to-back pay-per-views that don’t feature an AEW World Championship match. MJF will be active on the show, but only in an ROH World Tag Team Championship match with Adam Cole against The Righteous. Check out the early betting lines for the show below!
AEW WrestleDream 2023 Betting Odds
- Bryan Danielson (-500) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (+300)
- AEW World Tag Team Championships:ย FTR (-1000) vs. Aussie Open (+500)
- AEW TNT Championship:ย Christian Cage (+120) vs. Darby Allin (-160) (Two Out of Three Falls Match)
- ROH World Championship & NJPW Strong Openweight Championship:ย Eddie Kingston (-1000) vs. Katsuyori Shibata (+500)
- AEW TBS Championship:ย Kris Statlander (-1000) vs. Julia Hart (+500)
- ROH World Tag Team Championships:ย MJF & Adam Cole (-1250) vs. The Righteous (+550)
- “Hangman” Adam Page (+220) vs. Swerve Strickland (-280)
- Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega & Kotia Ibushi (+200) vs. Will Ospreay, Konosuke Takeshita & Sammy Guevara (-300)
- The Young Bucks (-140) vs. The Gunns (+250) vs. The Lucha Brothers (+250) vs. Orange Cassidy & Hook (+900) (AEW World Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender Match)
Tony Khan Addresses the “Buying New Japan” Rumors
Khan was asked about the rumors of buying New Japan during a media conference call on Tuesday. He admitted he was confused by where that rumor started but stopped short of outright denying it. He also declined to clarify what he meant by bringing AEW into a “new 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 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.
