One AEW x NJPW match that Adam Cole is eyeing is a bout with Okada.
It is official that the United Center in Chicago, Illinois will play host to All Elite Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s ‘Forbidden Door’ joint-event.
Last week, Minoru Suzuki and Tomohiro Ishii were spotlighted on AEW programming. Ishii fell in defeat to Adam Cole in a Owen Hart Foundation Tournament qualifier. Cole spoke to Stephanie Chase about the forthcoming joint-show and said his colleagues in AEW are excited about it.
Everyone, as far as in the locker room, everyone is so stoked for this [Forbidden Door show]. Again, New Japan Pro-Wrestling has some of the best pro wrestlers on the planet. I know a lot of people who do watch AEW also watch New Japan Pro-Wrestling and there’s a lot of people who watch one or the other. There’s some people that have never watched AEW that just support New Japan and there’s some people that just watch AEW and have never seen New Japan before so it’s like this really exciting combination of a bunch of people who know and are like, ‘Guys, trust us. This show is gonna be awesome’ and then there’s a bunch of people who are very excited to see some of these guys or some matches that they’ve never seen before so, yeah, I’m thrilled with the idea. I think the world of New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Some of my fondest moments years ago were over in New Japan so yeah, I’m very, very excited for this event. I think it’s gonna be awesome.
AEW President Tony Khan welcomed NJPW President Takami Ohbari to Dynamite so they could make the announcement together. The feed cut to Adam Cole who broke the news and he then proceeded to introduce Jay White. Cole says he felt the pressure of having to deliver that information live.
It was a lot of pressure [making the AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door announcement]. It was a lot of pressure which by the way too, not that this matters but the announcement that I had made backstage, that was very live. That was not a taped thing. That was happening in the moment and again, I know that a lot of people are very excited about this show, very excited about the announcement so while still being Adam Cole but being able to deliver this really, really cool news was like — aside from it being a lot of pressure, it was so cool. The fact that I got to be the one to talk about it was awesome so…
One matchup that Cole is eyeing from the New Japan side is a singles match with IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada. Cole expressed that he would like to have that match, seeing as how he and Okada have not crossed paths outside of an exchange in a six-man tag.
So I’ve never had a singles match with [Kazuchika] Okada. I’ve wrestled Okada before in like a six-man tag team match in Ring of Honor but we barely had any interaction together. I’ve wrestled [Hiroshi] Tanahashi, just wrestled [Tomohiro] Ishii which was really cool. Wrestled Jushin Liger, YOSHI-HASHI, so many different guys but I would love a classic one-on-one singles match with Okada at some point. I think that’d be really cool.
Elsewhere during the conversation, Cole’s history with Pat McAfee was brought up. They had a program in NXT that resulted in Cole defeating McAfee at NXT TakeOver: XXX.
While speaking about McAfee’s performance at WrestleMania 38, Cole said it was a highlight of that weekend. He thinks Pat did an amazing job and can go as far as he wants to in pro wrestling.
As a person, he’s [Pat McAfee] a dirt bag. Can’t stand him. But, if I will look objectively and talk about how much potential he has like you said, Pat McAfee blows my mind. He is so athletically gifted. As far as the wrestling part, he’s done great. Everyone knows he can talk for hours and he’s super compelling and interesting. Pat knocked it out of the park [at WrestleMania 38]. He did an amazing, amazing job. So yeah, as far as potential of where he could go and what he could do in the pro wrestling industry, I think he could go as far as he wants to. Seriously, to me, it was one of the highlights of the entire weekend was Pat’s match so, he’s a terrible person but a lot of potential. Lot of potential.
Along with Adam Cole, Samoa Joe and Kyle O’Reilly have qualified for the Owen Hart Foundation tournament. On the 4/27 Dynamite, ROH and AAA World Tag Team Champions Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler will clash to gain entry into the tourney.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Stephanie Chase with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
