It appears that STARDOM talent will not be used at AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door 2 from the Scotiabank Arena on June 25th.
While there had been speculation that this could happen due to talks between STARDOM and AEW, it was reported over the weekend that it does not appear likely. On June 25th, STARDOM will host its own pay-per-view event, STARDOM SUNSHINE 2023.
Kazuchika Okada vs. Bryan Danielson and Kenny Omega defending the IWGP US Heavyweight Championship against Will Ospreay has been confirmed for Forbidden Door.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer stated that STARDOM talent will most likely not be used on the Forbidden Door card, though a deal could be reached at the last minute.
“OK, so when we talked about the thing on Saturday night show about the STARDOM situation, we brought up that nobody has visas now. We later found out and STARDOM did not even know this, but Canada has a law that entertainers do not need working Visas if they come in to do tours. You know, this was actually done for concert promoters and concert performers because it had been so hard to get these working Visas and it was screwing everything up and WWE fit into this. So pro wrestlers fit into this category. So like the Mexican wrestlers that need to get working Visas to legally work in the United States, they can go to Canada anytime they want. Japanese wrestlers, it’s the same thing you can know if you need a visa to legally work in the United States. You do not need one to work in Canada. So it’s not…so the fact that there are no STARDOM women, with the possible exception of Kairi, I don’t know her status and she probably wouldn’t either because you don’t need one in WWE you wouldn’t have needed one, you wouldn’t have needed one. So basically most likely no star in women and certainly none other than Kairi have visas for Canada, but they don’t need them so. As of Sunday, nobody from STARDOM had been talked to by AEW and I don’t know that there’s anything there and every wrestler in the STARDOM roster with the exception of Fukin Death every single one of them is booked on a pay-per-view the same day. So you know, I don’t want to say it’s impossible that we’re not getting it or anything like that but it’s very unlikely there will be any STARDOM talent at Forbidden Door, you know. I mean they could put a deal together at the last minute. You would think that we’re only, what are we now, about two weeks or just under two weeks away? You would think that the whole card should be done in Tony’s [Khan] head and on paper and everything like that already. So you know that pretty much tells you.”
Meltzer then stated that while several top NJPW stars will not be appearing on Dynamite this week, Sanada’s IWGP Heavyweight Title defense at Forbidden Door could be announced.
“I expect there are some new, you know, there are some new Japan wrestlers like KENTA, who are in the country who could be on the show Wednesday. But almost all the big guns, Tanahashi, Okada, Sanada, you know Tetsuya Naito, all those guys, are all working in Japan this week, so none of those guys would be available to work to show up as a surprise on dynamite.
There is a hint. I know that, you know, I was just watching the All Together Again show and the announcers basically made a comment about Sanada and Wednesday’s Dynamite show. So he may have a taped interview and the Sanada match on the Forbidden Door show. Sounds like it’s going to be revealed on Wednesday night. I don’t know, I mean, that’s basically the hints that were given on the New Japan broadcast on Friday.”
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
