AEW WrestleDream is unlikely to be stacked with talent from New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Speaking at the post-All In media scrum Tony Khan confirmed the launch of WrestleDream on October 1st in Seattle. The event will serve as a tribute to Antonio Inoki who founded New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Naturally, this led fans to believe that the card would feature a number of NJPW’s biggest stars alongside their AEW counterparts in a similar vein to AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door.
However, it seems that this won’t be the case. Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer highlighted that NJPW has a show booked at Korakuen Hall on the same day, and Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito, and Hiroshi Tanahashi are all advertised, although Will Ospreay is not currently scheduled to be there.
“Yeah. It’s a tribute to Antonio Inoki…..You’re going to think there’s going to be a bunch of New Japan guys, but New Japan has a show at Korakuen Hall that same day. Tanahashi, Okada, and Naito are all in the show, so none of them can be on this show. The only people who are not, you know, as far as the big names who I guess would be a possibility would be Hiroki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi, who, you know, they’re good, and actually they’re a really good tag team, but they don’t they wouldn’t mean anything. And then Will Ospreay is not on that show. Jeff Cobb is on the show.
They could bring in Will Ospreay. It’s interesting that they did a pay-per-view. You know, two things are interesting. They’re doing a pay-per-view honoring the founder of New Japan Pro Wrestling, and none of the top New Japan guys are going to be able to be on the show. And far more important, this pay-per-view is on a Sunday.
We were wondering, and I still don’t know what they’re doing on that November 18th deal [Full Gear]. What do they do about that? November 18th is a Saturday, I believe. And you know, they have Collision. So I don’t know how they’re going to handle it. This one, they’re going to do a Collision in Seattle on Saturday, and then the pay-per-view is on a Sunday.”
Multiple Big AEW Events On The Horizon
During the press conference, Tony Khan also confirmed that AEW Full Gear will be held on November 18th, live from the Kia Forum in Los Angeles. The company has used the venue previously, but never on pay-per-view.
The announcement of WrestleDream ensures the final quarter of 2023 will be a busy one for AEW, with All Out taking place on September 3rd, and Grand Slam on September 20th.
H/t to WrestlingNews.Co