Tony Khan Announces NJPW Star Will Compete On AEW Programming Through Summer 2024

By Sam Palmer
AEW CEO Tony Khan AEW

While Forbidden Door season might be over as AEW looks ahead to All In London on August 25, AEW President Tony Khan has revealed that an NJPW star will be sticking around North America over the next few months. Following the July 10 "AEW Dynamite," Khan announced on X that Tomohiro Ishii will be staying in AEW for the next few months, writing "It's so great having @njpwglobal all-time legend Tomohiro Ishii here in AEW on Wednesday Night #AEWDynamite TONIGHT! We love having Ishii here + now he's going to stay here in @AEW with us for the rest of summer 2024! AEW is on fire right now! Thank you all + God bless you all!"

Ishii was in action on the Zero Hour portion of the recent Forbidden Door pay-per-view, as well as the most recent episode of "Dynamite," losing the Global Glory Four Way match that also included Claudio Castagnoli, Kyle Fletcher, and PAC, the latter of whom picked up the victory, earning himself a shot at the International Championship in the process.

The reason why Ishii is staying in AEW for the time being is due to the Stone Pitbull not participating in the annual NJPW G1 Climax tournament, which kicks off on July 20. Ishii has participated in every G1 tournament since 2013, but due to his age, NJPW thought it would be best that Ishii sit out this year's competition to avoid sustaining unnecessary punishment, given that the tournament is going back to the format of each wrestler having to wrestle nine singles matches in a short space of time. NJPW also took this approach with company President Hiroshi Tanahashi, who will be absent from the tournament for the first time since 2001.

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