Kazuchika Okada was unable to reclaim the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door and says the track is currently closed.
Kazuchika Okada received a huge reaction from AEW fans during forbidden doorBut it looks like Rainmaker won’t be returning to North American promotion anytime soon. Adam Cole, executioner Adam Page, and Jay White wrestled in a fatal quad for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, but could not regain the title he lost in Dominion. Switchblade won the match, and his future with AEW is up in the air as well.
Several NJPW stars received a lackluster response from the AEW crowd upon their debut. Will Osprey, for example, received quite a bit of a backlash when he first appeared while building towards him Forbidden door. The crowds started responding after seeing him wrestle, but the name recognition was lacking. The same couldn’t be said for Okada, who got thunderous applause when he appeared dynamite last week. It’s no surprise that Chicago made a big fuss for Okada as well forbidden doorwhich proves that it may be a bigger attraction in the United States than initially thought.
After watching Okada on an AEW episode twice in one week, fans of the promotion were probably hoping to see him again at an All Elite game sooner rather than later. Tweet from him Tweet embed The account seems to indicate that he won’t be appearing in AEW anytime soon but leaves room for potential re-appearances in the future. Okada wrote “Thank you Chicago. Thank you AEW. The door is closed. But I will open the door again. see you next time. “
Tony Khan said Okada wasn’t made available by NJPW until last week, so it’s not too surprising that The Rainmaker will be spending nearly all of his time in New Japan for the foreseeable future. He is one of the union’s most bankable stars, and the company has struggled under the weight of virus-related issues for the past two years. Crowds are slowly returning to live events, but Japan, on a social level, has responded to the epidemic differently than it has in North America. This is the background where Okada made his AEW debut for one of the best pops in the company’s history.
It is encouraging to hear that he intends to reopen the file forbidden door Sometime in the future, though. Tony Khan has expressed his desire to hold the event again next year, and has even discussed the possibility of it becoming a two-night event. This year’s card wasn’t very long, but another match or two would have pushed the show into the four-hour zone. Currently AEW And NJPW know what kind of response Okada can receive in North America, though, and the two companies have to show him on All Elite TV from time to time when it makes sense.
source: Tweet embed
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