To Malakai Black, AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door says a lot about the landscape of the wrestling world.
AEW and NJPW have increasingly worked together throughout the past year, and on June 26, they will come together for the joint pay-per-view. In recent weeks, several NJPW stars have appeared on AEW programming as part of the build to the show.
In an interview with Vince Morales of the Milwaukee Record, Black previewed the special event and noted that it’s “very telling” to see the way AEW is acknowledging NJPW and collaborating with them in a meaningful way.
“It feels great,” said Black. “I think it’s very telling of the landscape that we’re in and if I were to be so lucky to partake in the finals of that tournament, then I think it’s not just telling for the world of wrestling, but telling for myself and the House Of Black as well. Whether or not I will compete there, it’s like I said, it’s very telling for what the state of wrestling is right now with a mainstream company like AEW acknowledging something in regards to New Japan.”
Black was a member of the WWE roster for several years, and while there had reportedly been talks between the two companies to work together in some capacity, they fizzled out. Now that he’s in AEW, Black is seeing its partnership with NJPW evolve, and he stated that he thinks it’s “great.” He noted that WWE has collaborated with NJPW before, but the current cooperation that has led to Forbidden Door is particularly impactful, given the power of social media. Black went on to describe how this era of wrestling allows fans to see new things and broaden their horizons.
“It’s not like the WWE has ever been ignorant of what New Japan is or what New Japan meant,” said Black. “It’s just over the course of the last 15 to 20 years, nothing has really been done with it. I think NXT made some strides with mentioning certain things or acknowledging certain things, but with AEW, they basically said for the first time in a very long time, for an American company to say “let’s do this together, let’s present both platforms on the American market.” Which I think is great.
“And, of course, in the past it happened with the WWE or WWF at the time, very long ago, but this—this is in a new age, the age of social media, so the eyes on this are exponential and the growth that it shows for wrestling is tremendous. I think it’s a very smart move and a very fun move because that’s the thing, right? It’s all about showing fans new things and exciting things and different things because we can and that’s the beauty of the age we live in. Everything is so open and everything is so accessible that things like this, it gets me excited and I can tell on certain platforms that fans are excited for it because it’s been a very big topic for a lot of people.”
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