Jon Moxley has said that he's been chasing Hiroshi Tanahashi for three years, ever since he left WWE and showed up in NJPW.
At AEW x Forbidden Door, Moxley and Tanahashi will finally square off for the Interim AEW World Title. The bout has been talked about for years as Moxley worked different tours in Japan and held the IWGP United States Title, but it never came to fruition.
There's a good reason for it never happening in New Japan.
"That's a match that has been talked about in New Japan for a long time, well over a year. There's some backstory as to why it never happened. I would never allow it to happen," Tony Khan said with a laugh during an appearance on Busted Open Radio. "I'll make an old WWF reference, Armageddon, Vince (McMahon) came out with the truck to stop the six-way cage match [Hell in a Cell], that's like me with this match. They tried to do it so many times, Moxley vs. Tanahashi, and I've always been there to stop it from happening because it's such a huge match and we had to be involved if it was going to happen. Lo and behold, at a time when everything changed, CM Punk won the world title, he gets injured, we have to set up a huge match to crown an Interim World Champion. Going back to the relationship between AEW and New Japan, it's been building towards this and it's fate. Moxley vs. Tanahashi was a match that was supposed to happen many times and it never happened. Now, it's the right time and right place. It could have happened a lot of times and heaven knows I stepped in and tried to stop it and now it's finally happening at the perfect time for AEW and New Japan and all the fans."
Khan mentioned that it nearly happened a year ago, around the time Lance Archer faced Moxley in a Texas Deathmatch.
The bout came together after AEW created an Interim AEW World Title due to an injury suffered by CM Punk. Moxley defeated Kyle O'Reilly to qualify for the bout while Tanahashi, who was originally scheduled to face Punk at Forbidden Door, defeated Hirooki Goto.
Moxley and Tanahashi will have a face-to-face on Wednesday's AEW Dynamite. Fans can check out the current lineup for the show by clicking here.
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