AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2025 Media Scrum: WWE Counter-Programming AEW PPV Events, Bozilla, Forbidden Door’s Live Gate, Tony Khan Wanted to Book Yota Tsuji for Forbidden Door, Alex Windsor’s Star Rise, Future of AEW Video Games on Consoles

AEW CEO Tony Khan held a media scrum on Thursday to promote this Sunday’s AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2025 event at The O2 in London, England.

Some of the notable highlights included:

• On the topic of WWE counter-programming AEW pay-per-view events in 2025, Khan focused more on AEW’s growth and success and their new media rights deal with Warner Bros Discovery. Khan stated “We’ve had a great 2025 in AEW and I believe that, in large part, that’s because everyone in AEW is really focused on making AEW a tremendous promotion and continuing this excellent year we’re having. All these things have come together to build a lot of excitement inside AEW and outside AEW, and all around the company. I want to be able to continue that, and the most important thing for us is to talk about AEW and work really hard on AEW every week. It means not necessarily focusing on what every wrestling promotion is doing, but I do like watching wrestling and keeping up with what other wrestling promotions are doing. We’ve been in business since 2019 and in every one of those years, there have been other wrestling promotions at times doing very cool things. At the very best of AEW, we’ve been super focused on what we’re doing. Not being the only wrestling company in the world, but trying our best to be the best. I know we have the best wrestlers, and this year I think we’re doing the best TV shows and pay-per-views. I know we have the best fans.“
• On the topic of the traditional PPV industry being “dead” for wrestling PPV events, Khan also decided to focus more on AEW’s current partnership with WBD for HBO Max. Khan stated stated “I also look forward to HBO Max joining the pay-per-view provider party and… I can’t wait for them to join when it’s ready to go.“
• On the topic of Stardom’s Bozilla being announced for the TBS Championship Four-way match at Forbidden Door 2025, Khan stated “I really like Bozilla. President (Taro) Okada and I had talked and he is doing a great job. He has Grand Prix, and the scheduling of Forbidden Door, we wanted STARDOM participation and Bozilla was my very first choice for somebody that I wanted in AEW, and she wasn’t available until this week and just become available in recent days and announced her participation and I’m very excited about it. I also think for a European pay-per-view, having a European star like Bozilla, who’s a second-generation star, and has a great wrestling mind in addition to these great physical abilities and really growing into becoming an excellent wrestler. I really think Bozilla is a great talent and somebody that I wanted to have on the Forbidden Door show… I’m excited to meet with Bozilla, have her working with AEW but also representing a great promotion in STARDOM that we love working with and we appreciate STARDOM sending one of their very best stars in Bozilla to participate in this huge TBS Championship four-way match along with CMLL’s Persephone, the UK’s great rising star Alex Windsor and of course, the TBS Champion Mercedes Moné.“
• On the topic of the gate for Forbidden Door 2025, Khan stated that it will be one of their top five gates in AEW history. Khan also stated that he finds it noteworthy that three of their top four will be events held in London.
• On the topic of him wanting to book NJPW talent Yota Tsuji for a match against Swerve Strickland at Forbidden Door and the plans going into a different direction instead, Khan stated “Last summer, I was looking at using someone who is not available at all this year, who I would have loved to use on the card, but he’s not available to come at all. It’s not like he wasn’t available for the TV, he wasn’t available to come at all. That’s Yota Tsuji. I think he’s an excellent pro wrestler. He participated in the event in the past, but I would have liked to have use him more. Last year, I had maybe envisioned a bigger role for him. I had considered him possibly as a title challenger for Swerve Strickland. A few people said to me, ‘He’s a great wrestler, but no matter how much we do on TV for a champion like Swerve, we think a more established wrestler, even if it’s not a New Japan wrestler, might be the best thing for Forbidden Door.’ I think they were right. Will Ospreay himself said, ‘I think I’d be a great challenger for Swerve and maybe it would help the event more if you’re interested in that even if it’s outside the traditional way we’ve done Forbidden Door.’ I thought about it and I thought it was right and I made the choice to do it. I think it was the right thing to do.“
• On the topic of the construction of this year’s Forbidden Door event featuring more AEW vs. AEW matchups, Khan brought up the issue of how many NJPW and Stardom talents were not available for the television build until the week of the show. Khan stated “I think it was the right thing to do looking back, even if it was an AEW versus AEW match. It was the best thing for the championship and the champion, Swerve, and the fans.“
• On the topic of Alex Windsor’s rise as a star in AEW, Khan stated “I think Alex Windsor could be a top star in AEW in the future and to go on further, I think Alex Windsor is a top star in AEW right now.“
• On the topic of the future of AEW video games on consoles, Khan stated “So, I love pro wrestling and I’ll be the first to say that I’m not the biggest expert in the world on video gaming and I like to play games, but I’m not the expert, and there are great, great experts in the world about it and I tried to take insight and advice from people in AEW and people around the developers, and absolutely, we learned a lot in the making of the game and could take that in the future. I really believe to make the next game much, much better and learn from the experiences of doing that. But I also think that we’re having a great year with our wrestling and our TV, our pay-per-views and doing all kinds of great things that are core competencies, and it’s a great thought… I’m not sure what the future would hold. I do think eventually there will be further AEW forays into gaming, different kinds of games, mobile games, different concepts, different platforms. I can’t say for sure what they’ll all be, because again, like I said, I’ll never claim to be the world’s biggest expert on video gaming but, I like it and I know it’s a huge part of a lot of our fans’ lives. It’s really important to a lot of our fans and I’m trying to learn from that feedback.“

AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2025 media scrum full audio: F4WOnline.com

Source: F4WOnline.com, PostWrestling.com, Fightful.com 1, 2, 3, & 4