Khan hopes to tap into Canadian wrestling tradition with Forbidden Door, Canadian tour

From visits from the likes of Ed “Strangler” Lewis, Frank Gotch and George Hackenschmidt  to “Whipper” Billy Watson, Lou Thesz and Harley Race winning the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship at Maple Leaf Gardens to Hulk Hogan and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson facing off in front of nearly 70,000 people at SkyDome, Toronto’s pro wrestling history is a rich one.

It was this tradition that All Elite Wrestling president and booker Tony Khan hoped to tap into in bringing the 2023 Forbidden Door pay-per-view event to the city’s Scotiabank Arena on Sunday night. The card will see the stars of AEW face off against the best that New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) has to offer, headlined by a highly-anticipated rematch between IWGP United States Champion Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay and a dream encounter between two men widely considered as the best wrestlers of their generation in “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson and “Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada.

“Toronto is one of the greatest cities in the world for pro wrestling,” Khan told TSN.ca. “The fans here in Ontario are so passionate about wrestling and AEW has a great base of support here around Toronto and I wanted to bring one of the biggest events in wrestling here to Toronto. We’ve been expanding our television presence recently and this is such an exciting time for AEW, so not only did I want to bring Forbidden Door to Toronto, but I wanted to bring all of our TV shows to the area.”

Saturday night kicks off an AEW residency in southern Ontario with a live broadcast of the promotion’s new Collision TV show, followed by the PPV on Sunday and then a pair of events in Hamilton, Dynamite and Rampage on Wednesday and Collision on Thursday.

You can catch AEW Collision LIVE from Toronto's Scotiabank Arena at 8pm et/5pm pt on TSN5, streaming on the TSN App and on TSN.ca.

“I believe we’re gonna a have a great audience for those shows and I think the fans in Toronto are so loud and passionate about wrestling, but they also turn out in great numbers, so it’s the best of both worlds where you have packed arenas full of great fans who are passionate about the product and are loud and supportive of the shows,” Khan said.

The build towards Forbidden Door in Toronto has gone much more smoothly, Khan admits, for him and his NJPW booker counterpart Gedo this year than it did for last June’s inaugural edition.  While last year’s show was very well received, the company experienced an unprecedented run of major injuries to top stars heading into it with the likes of Omega, Danielson and CM Punk all sidelined and unable to appear.

“We’ve had a better time of it,” Khan said of putting together Sunday’s show with Gedo. “It’s not our first time working directly together on Forbidden Door, so we had built experience and a strong rapport and trust. I think this year has been better. Last year, the show was widely considered to be the best wrestling event of 2022. It won numerous awards and it was voted by fans and multiple publications as the best wrestling event of the year. That was incredible given all the challenges that we faced approaching the show. So many major stars were out. I couldn’t believe it was happening as it was happening. So many big stars were injured last year in different ways, all around the same time last June.”

Khan says Sunday’s PPV is set to be the third-highest grossing show in the history of Toronto wrestling behind only WrestleMania VI in 1990 and WrestleMania X8 in 2002, both held at SkyDome. The 11-match card features five different title matches, including Maxwell Jacob Friedman putting the AEW World Championship on the line against NJPW icon Hiroshi Tanahashi and SANADA defending the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry. But it’s a non-title match that has created the most buzz amongst fans with seven-time world champion Okada facing six-time world champion Danielson in what many believed would be a match that would never take place with both men never having worked in the same company at the same time.

“I’m so excited for it,” Khan said. “It’s unfathomable to me that this is happening. I’m so pleased that Bryan Danielson versus Kazuchika Okada is a reality this weekend. It’s a dream match for so many wrestling fans all over the world. People all over the planet are anticipating this weekend’s event knowing that Okada versus Danielson is happening at Forbidden Door.”

Before Forbidden Door comes Saturday night’s second edition of Collision, which debuted last week. It marks the promotion’s third weekly show on Turner networks with Dynamite on Wednesdays on TBS and Friday night’s Rampage and Collision both airing on TNT. Khan notes that while the addition of a third show changes the structure of the company’s deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, it does not alter its duration.

“We have this amazing roster and we felt like it was the time to expand our television presence,” Khan said. “Warner Bros. Discovery offered us a slot on Saturday nights and I wanted to develop that slot into the best possible home for AEW that we could build…I think we’ve established a real fan base now that supports AEW and follows our shows and we believe this can translate to launching a franchise on Saturday night and I think that’s going to be very successful for us.”

The debut of Collision from Chicago last week also marked the return of Punk to the promotion. The last time Punk was seen in AEW was at a now-infamous press conference following last September’s All Out pay-per-view. After he defeated Jon Moxley on the show to become AEW World Champion for a second time, a fiery Punk aired a series of grievances, some professional and some personal, against fellow wrestlers at the press gathering. But Punk never had the opportunity to defend his newly regained title because he incurred a torn left triceps during the match with Moxley and spent almost nine months recuperating.

Khan says Punk’s return is a boost for the promotion.

“It’s been great to have CM Punk back in AEW,” Khan said. “The fans are very excited. It’s been very positive. Collision was a great show and everybody was very excited about the launch of this new AEW franchise. At [this past Wednesday’s] AEW Dynamite, we had another great show. I think so far it’s been a big success having CM Punk back in AEW and I’m glad he’s back.”

Punk will compete at Forbidden Door, but not against the opponent many were expecting for him. Punk will be taking on Japanese legend Satoshi Kojima on Sunday’s card in the first match of the 2023 edition of the Owen Hart Foundation Cup, a now annual tournament in honour of the late Calgary-born superstar. The match most thought would be lined up for Punk was one against NJPW star Kenta “KENTA” Kobayashi. Punk adopted KENTA’s “Go 2 Sleep” finisher – where an opponent is dropped face first from a fireman’s carry position into a knee strike – as his own several years ago, something that has rankled KENTA over the years. Despite KENTA teasing a match on social media, Khan says one wasn’t close.

“I never had a serious talk with KENTA about it,” Khan said. “I was very excited when I did talk to New Japan about the possibility of Kojima, who I brought up as who I thought to be a dream opponent for CM Punk. It’s somebody who’s one of the most decorated champions ever in Japan taking on somebody who’s one of the most decorated champions ever in the United States.”

Khan says the idea of Punk taking on Kojima was an intriguing for him.

“Satoshi Kojima was the first person ever to hold [All Japan Pro Wrestling’s] Triple Crown Championship and the IWGP Championship at the same time,” Khan said. “He’s also held the GHC title, being the champion of [Pro Wrestling] NOAH, holding another globally honoured crown. I think they’re arguably the two most decorated wrestlers in the sport, so I definitely wanted to see Punk versus Kojima. When I learned it was a possibility and that Kojima could be available for this, I was very excited for this personally because it’s a match I’ve always wanted to see.”

When AEW finishes its run in Ontario next week, it won’t be done with Canada. The promotion continues on with four more stops in Saskatchewan and Alberta over the next two weeks, culminating with the conclusion of the Owen Hart tournament during the Calgary Stampede.

“It’s great for AEW to be here because we have so many awesome fans in Canada and I think it’s really cool that we’re able to do the shows here in a country where there’s such an amazing history of pro wrestling,” Khan said. “We have such a great fan base and a lot of great Canadian wrestlers, several of whom are going to be competing at the Forbidden Door pay-per-view event with big names like Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega involved in the show. I believe going forward this tour is going to be great outreach for AEW to make even more fans in Canada and continue to build our base here. We’ve also had some great TV ratings in Canada and we can continue to build our presence on TSN.”

The tour will take AEW to Edmonton on July 5, Saskatoon on July 8, Regina on July 12 and finishing in Calgary on July 15.