AEW CEO Tony Khan held a post-show media scrum following Sunday’s AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024 event at the UBS Arena in Long Island, New York.
Some of the notable highlights included:
- During her portion of the media call, Mercedes Mone claimed that Georgie Clooney sent her a huge bottle of tequila to celebrate her NJPW Strong Women’s title victory and gave her thoughts about Stephanie Vaquer being the greatest luchador she has ever been in the ring with but she still won.
- On the topic of Britt Baker’s surprise return to AEW, Mone stated that a “bitch came out to ruin her party but she will party all night long.” Mone also asked who Baker thought she was since she was the first woman to sign with AEW but Mone is the biggest free agent to sign here.
- During his portion of the media scrum, Zack Sabre Jr. gave his thoughts about his victory over Orange Cassidy at the event and his respect for Cassidy. Sabre Jr. stated “I think anyone that knows like my personality or my taste in music and film probably thinks I’m like a pretentious wanker. But I actually knew that Orange Cassidy was cool way before all of you. Ten years ago, roughly, we were in the northeast Indies, and if I was on before Orange Cassidy, I’d be at the merch stand watching the match losing my mind, and the rest of the crowd was like, “What is this maniac doing?”… I think if there’s anyone disregarding how talented Orange Cassidy is at pro wrestling, they’re a f**king idiot.“
- On the topic of his current goal for his NJPW career, Sabre Jr. stated “We have the G1 climax in three weeks’ time, which is, no offense, it’s the most important tournament in all of pro wrestling. It has the biggest history and the continuity of quality…My motivation and all of my responsibility is to carry New Japan into the future.“
- On the topic of a potential future match with Bryan Danielson to break their deadlock at one win each, Sabre Jr. stated “Our first match was in England. We had a rematch in Germany that’s somewhat forgotten. And then we had the match at Wrestle Dream…We have to, we at least have to have one more match in England [Stares at Tony Khan]. I’ve said this countless times, but I wrestled Bryan for the first time in England in a pub in front of 50 people when he had no idea who I was. And he gave me so much that it kick-started my entire career. And I can never repay the debt to him, outside of trying to break all of his limbs.”
- During her portion of the media scrum, “Timeless” Toni Storm gave her thoughts about her victory over Mina Shirakawa to retain her AEW Women’s World Championship and Mariah May’s tournament match victory over Saraya in the Women’s Owen Hart Foundation Cup. Storm stated “First, I would like to congratulate Miss Mariah May on advancing in the Owen Hart Tournament this evening. I’m very proud of you and I. Love you so much. Secondly, I would like to congratulate myself on yet again successfully defending my AEW Women’s World Championship. Thirdly, I would like to congratulate our President Tony Khan on his 47th cup of coffee for the day. Reflecting on today, I mean, I don’t know how else to put it. I don’t know how to express it, other than, ‘Oh, beautiful.’“
- Following Storm reading a poem that was heavily copied from the “America the Beautiful” song, Storm invited Shirakawa to the stage and gave her a Statue of Liberty headband and asked her to lead her and May in a Club Venus dance for everyone in attendance and watching.
- During his portion of the media scrum, Swerve Strickland gave his thoughts about his match against Will Ospreay and how tonight was humbling for him but was also about proving everyone wrong yet again about him. Strickland stated that his entire career has been people had expectations of him and he had to keep breaking through the ceiling. Strickland stated that he and Ospreay had chips on their shoulders to prove AEW was special and they are competitive. Strickland also stated that he wants to get into his opponent’s heads and that is what got him the win tonight. Strickland also stated that there will be more questions coming tomorrow, on Dynamite, and at All In.
- On the topic of what he said to Ospreay following their match, Strickland stated that he told Ospreay that he loves him and he was something special.
- On the topic of another potential match against Bryan Danielson in the future, Strickland stated “He’s at the position to gun for me now, especially after tonight. I still want that win back so bad. That’s something that still irks me to this day, that loss to Bryan. He’s someone I idolize and look up to, especially coming from the Pacific Northwest. His career, the last 10-15 years, I’ve been watching and studying that man and getting in the ring with him, feeling how special he is, that’s a win I need to mark off my list. I don’t have a long list. It’s very small. Definitely Bryan Danielson is at the top of it.“
- During his portion of the media scrum, Tony Khan stated that Sunday’s Forbidden Door 2024 event had over 11,000 paid fans and drew a live gate of over $1 million.
- On the topic of Brody King suffering a potential injury following Tomohiro Ishii’s rough brainbuster spot to him during Four-way Tag Team match on the Zero Hour Pre-show, Khan stated that King was feeling okay after the match.
- On the topic of AEW potentially running an event in Puerto Rico in the future, Khan stated that it would be great to hold a show in Puerto Rico and would be a new milestone for the promotion.
- On the topic of potentially forming a new super heavyweight division dubbed the “Meat Division” in AEW in the future, Khan stated “I think we can chant ‘Meat’ anytime. We’ve seen lots of meat moments. We’ve had some real monsters and monstrosities and ‘meat’ chants and opportunities for that. We’ve got some great heavyweights. When Jeff Cobb and Samoa Joe have hooked up, that’s been exciting. We’ve got great big men and big stars. It’s something to keep an eye on. There are a lot of championships in wrestling, but certainly any time we can get the big men fighting, I love it. Even if we’re not ready for a championship, those matches are exciting and we’ve seen people get engaged when those big guys start fighting and they love chanting ‘meat.“
- On the topic of AEW’s current working relationship with Warner Bros Discovery and talks for a new media rights deal, Khan stated “I’m really excited about our partnership here at Warner Bros. Discovery. It’s been amazing. We’re coming up on the five-year anniversary of AEW Dynamite this year and we’re approaching, just in a few weeks, the 250th episode of Wednesday Night Dynamite and so many great things happening in the company.“
- On the topic of the early pay-per-view buys numbers for Forbidden Door 2024, Khan stated “I won’t know the cable and satellite numbers for a while. I’m only projecting off digital buys but we did fantastic tonight. Forbidden Door was our biggest debut of any of the pay-per-view events and then it was up last year and I expect another great result based on the digital buys, which were excellent.“
Full AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024 post-show media scrum video:
Source: PWInsider.com, PostWrestling.com 1 & 2, Fightful.com 1, 2, & 3
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