During a media call to promote the 2023 AEW WrestleDream PPV event, AEW President Tony Khan addressed rumors that he is going to buy New Japan Pro Wrestling:
“I’m a little surprised at how that speculation picked up and the, specifically, the transactional nature of it. We have such a great partnership right now and we’re doing such great things with New Japan Pro Wrestling. I was a little surprised to see that.
Overall, I’ve really enjoyed working with New Japan since nearly two years. We’ve had two great Forbidden Door events and we’ve sent a number of top AEW stars to Japan to wrestle on WrestleKingdom and top shows. We’ve worked together in the US. There are people in AEW who have helped develop New Japan and people from New Japan who have helped develop AEW or Ring of Honor. I want to continue that partnership for a very long and right now we have something very good going. I’m a little surprised by the speculation, I don’t know where it came from. It’s probably a good time to have a lot of speculation on the eve of WrestleDream, and I’m glad we got a lot of people talking, certainly that one video, with all the great clips of Mr. Inoki and top stars of today, I thought it got people talking and it was a positive thing.”
(h/t to Jeremy Lambert for the transcription)
