As announced on social media, New Japan will run two qualifying matches for the All Atlantic tournament as part of their New Japan Road tour, with both matches taking place at the tour’s June 20 stop in Korakuen Hall.
The qualifying matches will see Tomoaki Honma take on New Japan Strong regular Clark Connors and Suzuki-gun’s Yoshinobu Kanemaru battle Tomohiro Ishii.
The winners of Connors/Honma and Ishii/Kanemaru will face each other on June 21 in Korakuen Hall. The winner will then move on to AEWxNJPW Forbidden Door to take on Pac, Ethan Page/Miro, and Malakai Black/Penta Oscuro to become the first-ever AEW All Atlantic Champion.
Of the four men in the tournament, only Connors and Ishii have made appearances in AEW to date. Ishii appeared on the November 11, 2021, episode of “Dynamite”, teaming with Orange Cassidy to defeat The Butcher and the Blade; he reappeared on the April 22 episode of “Rampage” losing to Adam Cole in an Owen Hart Cup Qualifier.
Meanwhile, Connors has made one appearance on the May 17 episode of “AEW Dark.” He teamed with fellow New Japan Strong talents Alex Coughlin, Karl Fredericks, Kevin Knight, and Yuya Uemera to defeat QT Marshall, Nick Comoroto, Aaron Solow, Brick Aldridge, and Blake Li of The Factory. Connors was more recently seen in the NJPW Best of the Super Juniors tournament.
AEWxNJPW: Forbidden Door will take place on Sunday, June 26, from the United Center in Chicago, Illinois. Aside from the All Atlantic Championship match, the only other announced contest for the show, as of this writing, is Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, with the winner challenging for the AEW Interim World Championship.
