The Forbidden Door is Open AEW and NJPW

Since the inception of AEW at a press conference in Jacksonville, Florida on 8 January 2019 fans have been wondering and clamouring could there be a cross promotion between the newly formed AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling.

With the majority of the AEW Roster being announced at the conference in Jan 2019 and being revealed as a number of Ex New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) Alumni (Cody, The Young Bucks, Chris Jericho, Adam Page etc) and then following this in Feb 2019 Kenny Omega was announced as AEW signee, fans grew hopefully that a collaboration might happen.

However sadly during the first year of the company this was not to be. AEW during that year had Jon Moxley, Best Friends, Lance Archer and other NJPW Alumni join their roster and  despite AEW and AEW Owner Tony Khan allowing his AEW contracted wrestlers to wrestle for NJPW (Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley) New Japan was still unwilling to allow their wrestlers to appear on AEW.

Then thing started to change and the change happened in my opinion when New Japan Pro Wrestling decided to dispense with the services of Harold Meji who was President and CEO of NJPW.

Harold Meji was in charge of NJPW when Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks and Cody gave their notice to NJPW that they were leaving and going to start with AEW in America. Kenny Omega released a video called Kenny Quest before his last ever appearance for NJPW in this video you can see and feel the frustration towards the political situation at the time and at Harold Meji in particular.

Harold Meji was reportedly less than happy with all of them leaving, and as stated by The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, Meji stopped them from making a farewell appearance at NJPW New Years Dash 2019 and their chance to say goodbye to Japan and all the fans of NJPW. I tweeted The Young Bucks about this a few years ago and they said they had made their peace with it, but sad they didn't get to say goodbye.

 I think this move didn't sit well with alot of people in NJPW and came across as very petty and that's not the way NJPW has done business or does business, even when AJ Styles, Gallows and Anderson were leaving for WWE they were allowed to say goodbye and given proper respect by the company, alot believe Harold Meji Actions to Omega and The Young Bucks, caused alot of ill feeling towards Meji in the months that followed. This along with his actions and decision making  I believe led to his own downfall. Meji didn't understand what The Elite meant to Japan, what they meant to Japanese wrestling fans and what they mean to NJPW.  The Elite helped NJPW expand into the west and helped them make lot of money they deserved more respect for what they had done to help NJPW and in my opinion Harold Meji was too arrogant to see it. 

In November 2020 with Harold Meji gone there was renewed hope that maybe both companies could work together, but a hard thing to do with a global pandemic and travel bans in various countries however none of this was going to stop the forbidden door getting smashed open. 

Which Brings us to NJPW Wrestlekingdom 15 in Jan 2020, Kenta defended his NJPW US Championship briefcase against Kojima following this Kenta said he is coming for Jon Moxley. Most fans assumed that this would happen once Moxley would be able to go to Japan to defend his title, however things were about to change.

On Jan 30 2021 episode of NJPW Strong Jon Moxley appeared after the main event Lio, TJP & Fred Rosser vs.El Phantasmo, Hikuleo & KENTA. Moxley attacked Kenta and said "“I’ll see you in Tokyo one of these days, however we gotta get it done, we’ll get it done!”

We all assumed that  now the match was on for a future NJPW show but then KENTA decided he was going to kick the forbidden door open and change pro wrestling forever, on 3 Feb 2021 episode of AEW following Jon Moxley match, someone jumps the guard rail and they take off their Mask and hoodie and its KENTA! 

For the very first time a NJPW contracted wrestler is on an AEW show, it was a massive moment, KENTA hit Moxley with his finishing move the GTS and walked out and left the wrestling world shocked and wondering what on earth could be next!

Added to this in thee very same show Gallows and Anderson appeared and they work for Impact Wrestling so for the first tine ever on an AEW show there were AEW, Impact and NJPW contracted wrestlers.

Now the door has been kicked open everything is possible there has been insults being traded on Social Media with The Bullet Club Japan, and previous Bullet Club members Omega, Gallows and Anderson which could lead to something exciting in the future and also there are so many dream matches that fans are now thinking about involving wrestlers from the companies and what could be possible.

Tony Khan did a promo on the forbidden door recently check it out here 

I love it, I love it when wrestling is like this its unpredictable and I like to be surprised by wrestling and not knowing what will happen next, I hope to see things I never thought would happen and more people walking through the now open door.

Thanks for Reading 

@jon422002

Jonathan Orchard