With AEW and NJPW now working together and the "forbidden door" now being open, everyone wants to know when Kenny Omega will come face-to-face with Kota Ibushi.
Omega and Ibushi, formerly the Golden Lovers, are atop of their respective companies with Omega holding the AEW World Title and Ibushi holding the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Titles.
Speaking to Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT, Omega commented on the difficulties of fully opening the "forbidden door."
"So you talk about the ‘forbidden door’ and people talk about it being open. It’s been ‘kicked open!’ or ‘blown open!’ Do I look at it as this gigantic door in the distance… I feel like it’s opened a crack and there’s this heavenly light shining through. A couple things slip through the cracks, you know what I mean? You might get a guy here or there sneaking in from one side to another, but it’s not going to be a full talent exchange where it’s a free-for-all going both ways. Not because the talent doesn’t want to do it. Everybody wants to do it! It’s almost like between three major companies, how do you even have a show that could encompass all of that talent and make all those dream matches become a reality. Back when there was All Together, it was New Japan, NOAH and All Japan and they did like a five hour supershow. Even Tokyo Domes and WrestleManias in the past have been seven hours, even nine hours – just not realistic!” stated Omega.
On the subject of a potential match against Ibushi, Omega noted that travel would make things tough as talent going back to Japan has to quarantine for two weeks, which would effectively remove them from any upcoming events.
“I don’t want to say that these things are not going to happen or will happen. But, I will say one of the major obstacles and hurdles is that all companies involved have travel schedules and the major, major hurdle on the one side, if things were to happen over in Japan, is the mandatory two-week quarantine where you can’t do anything. When an athlete comes here, we’re a little bit more lenient in America as you’ve probably seen on the news feed [laughs]. But when they go back to their home country, there is still that mandatory quarantine, there’s no way around it. That just becomes a nuisance and a hassle for someone who has a touring schedule like New Japan. And places like IMPACT who when they film their TV, they must be there for their TV because they’re knocking out three-to-six weeks per taping. For us, We're kind of contractually bound to making sure we have a weekly television show that goes live on TNT. So it’s more the travelling restrictions and the things that make travelling between countries difficult is actually what is hurting us. But, in the same way, it helped this whole thing become a possibility because now we’ve been able to take a step back and take a look at the world we’ve realised there’s something a lot bigger than company pride or competing with everyone else around you trying to make yourself the number one brand," said Omega.
He continued by saying, "It’s about the fans first and foremost and making people happy. It’s about making pro wrestling exciting again and making more of a positive atmosphere. We’re lucky we can actually be one of the few live sport-like events that might have a yearly schedule and for us now to be able to team up and put our heads together and make things exciting for fans. For people that don’t know each others products – maybe you’re exclusive to one brand or a product – just to introduce another high level athlete you’ve never seen before, it’s exciting, it’s fun! So I’m super happy that people were able to see Kenta, the Good Brothers, Don Callis, to see it week-by-week, it’s going to be a very exciting time in professional wrestling. We sort of made lemonade out of lemons because of the COVID-era. Now that we’ve all sort of huddled together and realised that maybe this is the best for our fans because a lot of fanbases do watch everything. It’s now what caused us to come together is now what’s stopping us from taking it another step forward and that’s just a shame."
Thus far, KENTA and FinJuice (David Finlay & Juice Robinson) have joined AEW and IMPACT Wrestling from NJPW while Jon Moxley has appeared on NJPW Strong and is set to defend the IWGP United States Championship against KENTA at NJPW The New Beginning USA this Friday, February 26.
While Tama Tonga and Omega may night see eye-to-eye on Bullet Club business, Tonga did make similar comments when it comes to the "forbidden door." You can find his full comments by clicking here.
