AEW Champ Swerve Strickland On Who He'd Like To Face At Forbidden Door 3

AEW and NJPW will host their annual Forbidden Door pay-per-view in New York's EBS Arena on June 30, with stars from both promotions facing each other. While no matches have been set in stone yet, AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland hopes to face Shingo Takagi at the event.

"I've been a Shingo fan for like 15 years," the AEW star told Social Suplex Podcast Network. "I met him many times, been on shows with him. Never worked him. Matter of fact, this Forbidden Door will be the first time I'm on the main show, so that's why I'm saying, if I can be a tool or a conduit for somebody to take a story and ride off of that and become something from that, I hope that helps."

Strickland said he hopes to use this year's Forbidden Door to help others or inspire them. He said that he spent several months losing matches before he was eventually bestowed with the AEW World Championship, and he hopes his story resonates with people. He then returned to discussing Takagi, stating that he's admired the NJPW for a while.

"For Forbidden Door, I think Shingo would be one of my favorite people that I've watched for years. That would be someone I would like to tie it up with."

Takagi is the current IWGP NEVER Openweight Champion after defeating Evil at Sakura Genesis earlier this month. This marks the NJPW star's fourth reign with the title. He is also a former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, so a match against Strickland at Forbidden Door 2024 could be main event-worthy.