Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland ended up having a classic match at AEW x NJPW Fordidden Door, but that could have ended up going a different direction.
In July, Fightful reported that Ospreay approached AEW officials with the idea of putting Swerve Strickland over to eliminate discussion of Swerve being a “placeholder” for him until AEW All In. This wasn’t customary of the typical NJPW vs. AEW matchup style, but another was considered.
Fightful Select has learned from New Japan Pro Wrestling sources that Yota Tsuji was considered for Swerve’s opponent and AEW World Title match before the Ospreay match was settled on. We’re not sure if that ever made it to Tsuji himself, but he ended up working on the Zero Hour of Forbidden Door.
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