Tony Khan has opened up about changing plans for AEW Forbidden Door, with visa issues being one of the main factors.
Forbidden Door sees the stars of AEW, NJPW, CMLL and STARDOM face off in matches as part of the crossover event. However, with so many international talents being required for the show, their participation is dependent on visas being granted. Unfortunately, some stars have been unable to make it onto the show because of this.
Speaking on the Forbidden Door media call ahead of the event on June 28, Khan listed a number of CMLL stars who were affected by the ongoing issue:
“There are a number of wrestlers that were factored in, coming from countries all over the world, that I’m looking forward to their return, that are not here and available right now. It speaks to the great depth of the AEW roster that we’ve been putting on tremendous TV every Wednesday and Saturday doing four hours of what I believe is very strong television and that we have such an exciting pay-per-view card without a lot of the great stars available.
There are a number of stars in Mexico right now, some great wrestlers that I would love to have here, not have their visa in recent weeks. That would include Beast Mortos, Komander, Hechicero and going through visa renewal with a number of the wrestlers down there as well, that I have not mentioned yet, and we also have had challenges with a number of other international wrestlers.”
Continuing, Khan also spoke about Nottingham-based wrestler Gabe Kidd, who has been out with an injury. Khan stated that he hoped to have Kidd on the show, but he was going through the renewal process:
“I was hoping to have Gabe Kidd here and Gabe Kidd also was another wrestler going through the renewal process. One that I expect that very soon… On the Global Wars show tonight, representing AEW, and defending the title all over the world is the National Champion Mark Davis and Mark Davis will be back very soon but he’s been away… I would expect Mark back possibly sooner than some of the other people I named. But hopefully, all those people will get everything worked out soon. In the case of Beast Mortos, it’s been innovative.”
Tony Khan Praises STARDOM For Sorting Visa Issues
STARDOM wrestler Starlight Kid will be in action at Forbidden Door as she will face Thekla with the AEW Women’s Championship on the line. Khan noted that while the Japanese promotion has not been able to guarantee every wrestler could make it, he did praise the company for getting the visas organised:
“I realized that if Beast Mortos could not come here, a great thing would be for Sammy Guevara to go to CMLL and defend the Tag Team Championship with The Beast Mortos… There’s also been wrestlers from STARDOM that have not been able to come in at some of the scheduled dates I would have preferred but honestly, STARDOM has been the best partner in terms of having the visas organized and getting people in or set to have Starlight Kid this weekend and seems like they have not run into a lot of issues there, and then also, a number of injuries…
Also a number of injuries across a number of women and men that I would have liked to participate in the event have changed a lot of things so between the aforementioned visa issues and injuries, it’s been changes but, thankfully, it’s a really strong card and I feel really good about it.”
Also on the media call, Tony Khan was asked about potentially buying TNA for $40 million.
H/t to Fightful for the use of transcription.
Featured image: AEW
