Tony Khan took part in the Death Before Dishonor Media Scrum to answer a wide variety of questions. When asked about the decision not to book Kota Ibushi on Death Before Dishonor or AEW Collision while he’s in the States, Khan gave his reasoning why he didn’t put him in the main event against Claudio Castagnoli.
“I thought it was such a perfect thing for Claudio versus PAC. They know each other very well. And two of the greatest wrestlers in the world,” Tony Khan said. “I think for Kota Ibushi, he just made his debut and AEW, and it’d be very quick to do that. And I think it was such a perfect match. And I think it made so much sense, given what happened in Blood & Guts, Claudio versus PAC.
“It was very symmetrical that PAC was the one who walked out on Mox’s team this week after Mox walked out on him in one of the first Dynamites and even against Hangman and Kenny, who were back together in this match.
“So a lot of things tied together in this great Blood & Guts. I thought it would be perfect given the tenor of the situation and maybe a miscommunication that Claudio and PAC left it where I really wanted to see that is a one-on-one world championship match on Death Before Dishonor.”
When it was clarified that they just meant any match for Kota Ibushi on the show and not just for the world title match, Khan said he saw a lot of people talking about the world title match. While that made sense, he thought the match between PAC and Castagnoli was the natural match coming out of Blood & Guts.
“Well, I think like I saw a lot of people saying that would make a lot of sense,” Tony Khan said. “I think that would be a great match, certainly with Claudio, and they were matched up in the Blood & Guts match. I think that’d be a great match at some point.
“But for tonight, coming out of the Blood & Guts match, I felt like the natural match was Claudio versus PAC. Given the way things left and Claudio being the champion and certainly he and PAC were very upset with each other at the end. But any show we can have Ibushi on, I’m very excited about.”
