AEW's Tony Khan Shares Forbidden Door Matches To Which He's Most Looking Forward
With talent from AEW, NJPW, CMLL, and STARDOM, this year's Forbidden Door pay-per-view looks to be the most diverse iteration yet. As such, AEW President Tony Khan admittedly had some difficulty in identifying the match he's most looking forward to on the event card. Nevertheless, Khan highlighted four specific matches, all of which are being contested for championships, on the Forbidden Door media call.
"I think you can't pick against the Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay [match] for the AEW World Championship," Khan said. "To see the International Champion Will Ospreay, who competed on this event the past two years as a part of the New Japan Pro Wrestling roster and moved full time to AEW this year and has become the International Champion and has taken America by storm, to have the International Champion Will Ospreay coming in challenging for the AEW World Title, it's unprecedented. And it happened out of a great Casino Gauntlet match."
In addition to the Strickland-Ospreay action, Khan noted that he is also keen on seeing the "fascinating" rivalry between Toni Storm and Mina Shirakawa culminate in a Forbidden Door bout for the AEW Women's Championship. Mariah May will also be present for this title match, of course, as she boasts ties to both the champion, Storm, and the challenger, Shirakawa.
Elsewhere, Khan is also thrilled to witness the official rematch between NJPW's Tetsuya Naito and AEW's Jon Moxley, who recently unseated Naito to become the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. "Jon Moxley, head-to-head, is the greatest wrestler ever in AEW. I think it's going to be so incredible, and the environment is going to be electric at UBS [Arena] for Mox versus Naito," Khan said.
Finally, Khan revealed the title-for-title match involving NJPW STRONG Women's Champion Stephanie Vaquer and TBS Champion Mercedes Mone as another personal point of excitement.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit AEW with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.