Tony Khan Addresses Speculation He Is Buying NJPW

Tony Khan provided a teaser for WrestleDream on the September 23 edition, stating that one chapter in pro wrestling history would end at the October 1 pay-per-view before another era of All Elite Wrestling begins.

The comments somehow fuelled speculation that Tony Khan is set to buy New Japan Pro-Wrestling, something Khan admitted he was surprised by during the pre-WrestleDream media call.

"I'm a little surprised at how that speculation picked up and, 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 Wrestle Kingdom 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," Khan said.

Khan was later pressed about the "end of an era comments" but he refused to clarify, stating people will need to order WrestleDream to find out.

"I definitely have no intention of clarifying those comments. I want people to order the pay-per-view. I think the internet kind of ran away with the speculation based on, I don't know what. I’d love for somebody to go back and look for the first person to say that was and track back where the speculation came from. Certainly, I don't know if that particular aspect of it is very credible. There are dots you can connect in wrestling and there are things I'm very excited about that we've been doing, and I've made bold proclamations before and I felt I've been proven right by them. We've come a really long way, we've taken big swings at doing new things this year, in particular, 2023 has been our most adventurous year and I want to keep doing adventurous things and make fans talk about AEW and hopefully making new fans of AEW. I think we've debunked some speculation and I'd be happy to debunk the speculation that is what I was implying because I don't know where that particular rumour got started. I think this year, we've also built our reputation in a really strong way. Without completely spilling the beans of everything we're working on, I really do think it is going to be the start of a new era of what we're doing in AEW and I'm very excited about that," Khan added.

WrestleDream will emanate from Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington on October 1. The show will air on the one-year anniversary of Antonio Inoki's passing.

H/T to Fightful