Only a few more days remain until New Japan Pro Wrestling President Hiroshi Tanahashi wrestles the final match of his career against AEW star and long-time rival Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 20, and everyone is in a nostalgic mood regarding "The Ace." This includes AEW owner Tony Khan, who stopped by "Q101" this past week and was asked about Tanahashi's last match and working with the New Japan legend, both as a talent and as an executive. Khan was, unsurprisingly, very positive about Tanahashi.
"I really like Hiroshi Tanahashi as my counterpart," Khan said. "As the President of New Japan Pro Wrestling, we have an excellent relationship. But also, he's wrestled here for me before. And I had a great relationship, as a wrestler and a producer, with him as well."
Khan revealed his appreciation for Tanahashi motivated him to create a special AEW send-off for him at Forbidden Door this year, where Tanahashi teamed with Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, Will Ospreay, and Darby Allin to defeat Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Gabe Kidd, and the Young Bucks in a Lights Out Cage Match. Featuring plenty of figures from Tanahashi's past, including his Forbidden Door 2022 opponent Moxley, Khan felt it added to what was already a strong retirement tour for "The Ace."
"To see all these great stars together in the Lights Out Cage Match made me very happy, but also I'm very happy that Tanahashi's having this amazing run towards his retirement," Khan said. "He's achieved so much in his career. Who's to say where we'd all be without him right now. And I think it's awesome that New Japan Pro Wrestling's having this great business lift, and doing very well, and they're going to sell so many tickets for Hiroshi Tanahashi's retirement match. And I'm very happy that AEW's able to be involved in any way in this show."
Though Tanahashi's final match wound up involving AEW through Okada, it briefly looked like the match would feature Tanahashi going up against another old rival, WWE star Shinsuke Nakamura. In particular, a late November report suggested that Nakamura may have even been Tanahashi's preferred opponent, only for Tanahashi and New Japan to balk at the match over Nakamura's inability to secure a release from WWE, and the political ramifications of a WWE star working with New Japan, which sources believed would've upset AEW and New Japan's other promotional partner, CMLL.
As a result, Khan was asked point black if there was any truth to the idea that he would've been upset over Tanahashi preferring to wrestle Nakamura over Okada. An amused Khan stated he had been in contact with Tanahashi "extensively" over his retirement, and denied he would've been angry over a potential Nakamura-Tanahashi match.
"That is actually something I read about, and I was surprised to read that," Khan said. "I'm not sure where that all came from. I don't really understand some of that story, and it was a very detailed story with a lot of, if I may...it seemed like they thought they could read minds when they wrote that story, because it was like, not only did they say 'Well this happened and this happened,' but they're like 'And he felt this way about it, and he felt this way, and he was thinking...' And it's like well, are you telepathic? A lot of that never happened, and a lot of it was like 'How would you know what that guy was thinking, or that guy?' I thought that was an interesting, interesting story, I'll put it that way."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Q101" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription
