Update On NOAH’s Relationship With AEW After Booking WWE’s Shinsuke Nakamura

If the forbidden doors between AEW and WWE remain locked, Pro Wrestling NOAH has emerged as the hallway that lies between them. This past September at AEW Rampage: Grand Slam, wrestling legend The Great Muta made a shock appearance, coming to the aid of Sting and Darby Allin. This laid the groundwork for Sting to be Muta’s tag partner in what will be his final match at The Great Muta Final Bye-Bye event on January 22nd, 2023. Three weeks before that bout goes down, Muta goes one-on-one with WWE superstar Shinsuke Nakamura at NOAH’s The New Year 2023.

While Nakamura’s NOAH appearance is likely to be a one-off, questions arose about what this meant for the relationship between the long-time Japanese promotion and AEW. This was not just a talking point but rather a concern, as it turns out NOAH was keen on maintaining friendly ties with Tony Khan’s promotion. As learned by Dominic DeAngelo of Wrestling Inc, veteran wrestling manager Sonny Oono revealed that he specifically “made sure” everything was good between all parties.

“NOAH wanted to protect the newly developing relationship with AEW,” Oono said. “I made sure they were no objections from various promotions.”

AEW has somewhat of a tense relationship with WWE. Khan has never been shy about throwing verbal barbs at his biggest competitor, while WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque has reduced AEW to being a “p–s ant company” and has downplayed its victory over NXT in the short-lived “Wednesday Night Wars.”

Despite the jousts, AEW and WWE have worked together amicably before. Earlier this year, Khan allowed AEW stars like Bryan Danielson, Chris Jericho, and Paul Wight to send in video messages for a Monday Night Raw celebration of John Cena’s wrestling anniversary. The two almost collaborated again last month, as WWE wanted AEW’s Billy Gunn to appear on Raw for the D-Generation X reunion, but were unable to strike a deal due to reportedly being unwilling to reference Gunn’s AEW status on television.

Regardless of the middle man nature of this match, Nakamura himself is just happy that it could all come together.

“There were people in WWE who pushed me forward. It’s nothing short of a miracle,” Nakamura said. “Of course, I wanted to do it. It was an area that no one had ever stepped into, or rather, I opened a door that no one had been able to pry open (laughs). It’s a real ‘Forbidden Door.’”

The Great Muta vs. Shinsuke Nakamura goes down on January 1st, 2023.