AEW President Tony Khan spoke with the pro-wrestling media scrum in the post-Forbidden Door scrum, where Khan answered a number of questions regarding the show, including how he originally wanted the joshi-promotion STARDOM to be involved, but they weren’t available. Highlights from the interview are below.
Says he wanted Stardom to be involved in Forbidden Door but they were unavailable:
“I was interested in using Stardom, obviously they have a close relationship with New Japan, and all the wrestlers from Stardom were pretty much booked and they didn’t have visas. It was a big obstacle. There is definitely potential there.”
Why he chose Toni Storm to compete against Thunder Rosa at the event:
“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. It was forged in mutual respect and fought 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.”
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)