Last week, AEW Dynamite set up Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. AEW World Champion CM Punk at the AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door PPV event. The match was nixed due to Punk’s foot injury, which will keep him out of action for a while as he recovers from surgery.
Punk will not vacate the championship; instead, an AEW Interim World Championship Eliminator Series will crown an Interim World Champion at the PPV event.
The opening match of AEW Dynamite on Wednesday will be a Battle Royal, with the winner facing Moxley later in the main event. The winner of Moxley vs. the Battle Royal winner will meet the winner of Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Hirooki Goto at NJPW Dominion on June 12 at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door on June 26. At Forbidden Door, the victor of Moxley vs. Wednesday’s Battle Royal will face Tanahashi or Goto to crown an Interim AEW World Champion.
Dave Meltzer discussed why Tanahashi vs. Goto was booked on today’s Wrestling Observer Radio.
“I’ve been asked over and over again about what’s the deal with Tanahashi and Goto. I don’t have a great answer for ya. This was New Japan’s call. It wasn’t AEW’s call. They both called…it was a combination, obviously, both had to agree to it. New Japan wanted this match. I think we all know Tanahashi is winning and I think there was just the mentality of…”
Bryan Alvarez intervened and claimed that he does not believe Tanashi would win the match. Meltzer went on to say that he doesn’t believe Tony Khan wants Goto to reach the tournament finals and that he would be shocked if he did.
