Tony Khan Was Interested In Using Stardom Talent For Forbidden Door, Says There Was No Availability

AEW and NJPW teamed up for Forbidden Door, bringing two of the top companies in wrestling together for a major event. 

Though NJPW does not feature women’s wrestling, Bushiroad, the parent company for NJPW, also owns Stardom, leading many fans to wonder if Stardom talent would appear on the show. In the end, no Stardom talent were featured, but Thunder Rosa did defend the AEW Women’s Championship against Toni Storm on the show. 

Speaking during the AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door post-show scrum, Tony Khan commented on wanting to work with Stardom. 

“I was interested in using Stadom, obviously they have a close relationship with New Japan, and all the wrestlers from Stadom were pretty much booked and they didn’t have visas. It was a big obstacle. There is definitely potential there. Certainly, Toni is one of the hottest and rising stars in AEW since she arrived in AEW. I thought it made great sense because she’s been a champion in Japan, has great experience at Stardom, and someone who has been on our TV. It was a great match we could build to. t was not a blood rivalry. I was forged in mutual respect and fought it with honor. It was a great wrestling match and it was cool. I thought Toni was the perfect choice given who was on our TV, who was pushed, and knowing that, while it would have been another challenge, in addition to many other challenges, to take people from Stardom and get them over on our TV, it would have been possible to do it, absolutely, but availability is the greatest ability of all in this business and most businesses. In this case, there was no availability. Toni, for many reasons, was a great choice and they had a great match,” said Khan. 

Stardom held its Fight In The Top ~Nagoya Summit Battle~ on June 26. 

Storm is a former World Of Stardom Champion. 

Meanwhile, Rosa will be headed to Tokyo Josh Pro Wrestling  on July 9 at their Summer Sun Princess ’22 event.

Fans can check out Fightful’s full report on AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door by clicking here. 

If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.