AEW President Tony Khan spoke with PWInsider ahead of tonight’s AEW Dynamite. The show will feature the much-hyped debut of a mystery talent who is set to walk through the forbidden door and sign with the company.
There has been a lot of speculation on who that could be with a variety of names being thrown around. The likes of Keith Lee, Jeff Hardy, and Killer Kross have all been mentioned. Tony Khan spoke about this surprise against the likes of CM Punk. He also hopes people will have their expectations met.
“It’s really exciting that we’re in this position right now,” he admitted. “I think it’s a little bit of apples and oranges because CM Punk as the first dance is a very specific example where we made it very clear it was going to be him. And I wouldn’t have brought out anybody else. There are other huge stars in wrestling that would’ve been great debuts on any other night. But that was not the night for those people. That’s a little bit different.
“Here, I don’t think I’ve exactly been so specific about who’s coming, but I said it’s going to be a major signing for us and I think it’s going to be a very exciting night. Like I said, I have opened the forbidden door and I don’t want to say exactly what’s going to happen or when it’s going to happen, but it’s going to be an eventful night. And I hope that people get their expectations met. Frankly, I’ve seen a lot of other speculations and there are a lot of great names out there.
“And anything we do on this particular Wednesday night Dynamite, it doesn’t limit us in the future from finding some of these other people. There’s a lot of exciting names and opening the forbidden door there will allow to these big names. So there are a lot of possibilities and I don’t want to get too specific on the speculation. But there’s going to be somebody who’s going to sign with AEW going forward and be a part of the company. And as I also said, I would open the forbidden door. Without getting too specific to what that means is, it’s definitely opened up some speculation.
“But I think in a good way and I would be nervous or I wouldn’t be feeling good right now if I didn’t believe that we have the people in hand and they’re going to be in Atlantic City. But we do have those people. So it’s going to be a really fun night for the fans, I think, and also be some great wrestling on the card and a lot to look forward to. There’s been some stuff, like I said, that’s been announced. But there’s also going to be some other really exciting things on the show that have not been announced yet, more than one exciting thing on the show that have not been announced. So I’m really looking forward to this.”
Tony Khan has only confirmed that one wrestler will be debuting tonight, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be more. He teased that there is other fun stuff taking place along the way, but he wasn’t specific about when.
“I don’t want to get too specific to say exactly what’s going to happen,” he admitted. “But it’s going to be a great night for the fans and I promise there’s definitely one surprise. And I think there’ll be some other really fun stuff along the way too.”
