During a recent interview with Sporting News, AEW President Tony Khan commented on bringing in NJPW star Jay White to AEW, the possibility of other New Japan talents coming in, and more. You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On Jay White appearing in AEW: “Jay White came through the Forbidden Door via our great relationship with New Japan Pro Wrestling. You’re clearly a big wrestling fan, Karisa, so you know that New Japan and AEW have put on some great matches together with great wrestlers from AEW going there. Jon Moxley, of course, was the IWGP US Champion and actually, he lost the title to Lance Archer in a Texas Death Match.
“We’ve seen great wrestlers from New Japan come into AEW. Minoru Suzuki, of course, Tomohiro Ishii, Jay White, KENTA. We’ve had lots of great wrestlers from New Japan and I think we can look forward to more, both ways, through the Forbidden Door.”
On AEW’s mix of veterans and younger talent: “I think it’s one of the great things about AEW, and it’s done of the great things about Wednesday Night Dynamite and Friday Night Rampage. You get to see the top veterans and you get to see the young stars. Jungle Boy is a great example. He’s one half of the World Tag Team Champions and he’s wrestled a lot of the top veteran teams and a lot of the top stars today. He’s mentored by Christian Cage, who’s a great wrestler. He really spans multiple generations, he’s mentored Jungle Boy and he’s been great.
“But with AEW you get to see the top young stars wrestling the top veterans and you never know what’s going to happen. CM Punk came into AEW, wrestled Darby Allin right off the bat, and then wrestled a lot of the young stars like Daniel Garcia, but also a lot of the great veterans like Eddie Kingston and Matt Sydal, and Bobby Fish. And he was undefeated until he matched up against MJF, who again, is one of those top young wrestlers and a great young wrestler. So it’s really exciting having the best matches and the best wrestlers of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”
