Tony Khan Confirms Imminent Return Of AEW Crossover PPV
As with anything in the entertainment industry, when you do something that's well-received and financially a success, a sequel is inevitable. So get ready for Forbidden Door 2.
In an appearance on the "In The Kliq" podcast, AEW owner Tony Khan confirmed as much. "We always build up this big event, AEW and NJPW coming together for Forbidden Door," he stated. "I think Forbidden Door 1 was such a big success, we're looking forward to doing it together again. They send a lot of their top stars to AEW and to ROH and I love working with them. It's been a great relationship and there's a lot of trust between the parties."
With hardcore wrestling fans pining for a massive cross-promotional event over the years, Khan gave everyone what they wanted last year. Building upon the partnership both promotions have continued to foster — with each exchanging talent with one another in recent months, as evidenced by Kenny Omega competing at Wrestle Kingdom and Will Ospreay showing up a few times on AEW television — Forbidden Door provided a platform for international dream matches to take place to everyone's benefit. But in terms of making money for both AEW and NJPW, the show drew a gate of over $1 million and registered over $5 million from pay-per-view buys. So doing another one is something everyone is interested in for that reason alone.
Even with NJPW losing a couple of big free agents recently in Kota Ibushi and Jay White, there are still a lot of untapped match-ups for this year's event. Last year, both Bryan Danielson and Kenny Omega were unable to take part due to injuries, so they would potentially be involved this time around. Plus, if AEW can settle things with CM Punk, who was also on the shelf when Forbidden Door took place, that's another big addition to the mix.