Jericho also expressed that he is interested in wrestling Minoru Suzuki in Japan.
Following a six-person tag match on the 6/1 AEW Dynamite involving AEW World Champion CM Punk and FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler), Punk called out to the backstage area to find out who he would be facing at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door. Answering the call was Hiroshi Tanahashi.
As a result of CM Punk’s injury, Tanahashi is now taking on Jon Moxley for the Interim AEW World Title at Forbidden Door.
Prior to the 6/15 Dynamite, Chris Jericho did an interview with TSN and stated that when Punk got injured, he thought he would be getting the call to work with Hiroshi Tanahashi.
To be honest with you, when Punk got hurt, I thought maybe I would get the call to work with Tanahashi. Obviously, Mox is a great choice as well, but that to me is the status of what I should be doing in a New Japan situation. Don’t forget, we’ve got Blood and Guts three days later, so if I do something at Forbidden Door, it has to be something that leads to Blood and Guts. It has to be the next step in the story, so where does that fit in? Well, we have to use our heads and figure something out to make it fit in somewhere. And you can’t really have a pay-per-view without Chris Jericho on the show or Eddie Kingston on the show or Bryan Danielson on the show at this point in time, especially with Punk and other guys out. I’m sure I’ll be involved in some capacity, but it’s going to have to be more of something that fits together with what’s going on at Blood and Guts, which probably means not so much a singles match and more of a faction-based match with the Jericho Appreciation Society at the crux of it versus the B.C.C. or whatever New Japan guys we decide could fit in there.
Jericho went one-on-one with Tanahashi in the semi-main event of Wrestle Kingdom 14 night two. Jericho shared that he is also interested in wrestling Minoru Suzuki, but thinks the match is worth more happening in Japan than in the U.S. because Suzuki has “worked a lot in the States and worked a lot of lower-level guys.”
I would have loved to have worked with [Minoru] Suzuki, I would have loved to have worked with [Will] Ospreay. There are still some guys I want to work with, but I’d also like to do those in Tokyo. I think Jericho versus Suzuki has a way different feel to it in Tokyo than Jericho versus Suzuki does in the States because Suzuki has worked a lot in the States and worked a lot of lower-level guys. In Japan, that’s not the case.
Jericho interrupted the segment between Jon Moxley and Hiroshi Tanahashi on 6/15. After a brawl ensued, Jericho revealed that at Forbidden Door, he’ll be teaming with Minoru Suzuki and Sammy Guevara to take on Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta and Shota Umino.
