Tony Khan Admits Political Tensions Working With Other Companies

Forbidden Door is on the horizon and ahead of the supershow held by New Japan Pro Wrestling and AEW, Tony Khan has admitted that politics can play its part in working with other promotions.

AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling’s relationship got off to a rocky start with a plethora of NJPW affiliated talent joining Tony Khan’s upstart promotion in 2019 – not least among them former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega.

Since then, however, the two companies have formed a successful partnership that sees them on the verge of the second Forbidden Door show taking place as the best of both companies go up against each other, but that is not without its challenges.

Speaking on Pacific Rim, Tony Khan discussed working with other companies and admits political tensions can sometimes rise to the surface:

“Yes, it definitely is. It is absolutely a political challenge, especially with different international promotions, I don’t think that’s any secret. For me, I have a lot of great wrestlers from Japan, I also have a lot of great luchadors and I also like lucha libre. Those things often go together very well but there are political lines there and I am often in the middle of them.”

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New Japan Pro Wrestling and Mexican promotion CMLL have had a long-standing partnership and CMLL’s rivalry with AAA has caused situations in the past where AAA-affiliated stars could not be part of the last Forbidden Door show.

Later in the interview, Tony Khan discussed where he thinks AEW’s relationship with NJPW goes from here, and according to Khan, it’s only going to get stronger:

“I think it’s off to an amazing start this past couple of years working together and the relationship is only gonna get stronger and better. I really enjoy working with Gedo and directly all the time with Rocky Romero here in America – he’s a great intermediary between us and we all have a lot of trust that we’ve accumulated and built a great, professional working relationship.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Tony Khan admitted to feeling some amount of worry about sending AEW stars over to Japan to take part in the grueling G1 Climax tournament.

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