Bryan Danielson Teases Potential AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door Opponents
Bryan Danielson vs. Zack Sabre Jr., CM Punk vs. Kazuchika Okada, The Bullet Club vs. The Elite. What do all three of those matches have in common? They're all potential dream matches in the eyes of fans waiting to see what'll be announced for this year's AEW x NJPW "Forbidden Door" pay-per-view on June 26.
With both companies having yet to announce a single match for the show, the build for the show will seemingly begin to start this week on AEW "Dynamite", live in Los Angeles. One of the names many have been clamoring to see in NJPW for years has been Bryan Danielson, and the AEW star provided a few names of talent he'd like to face at the event.
"I would love to wrestle Okada, but in the back of my mind, I'm thinking about Zack Sabre Jr. and wrestling him to see who is the best technical wrestler in the world," Danielson said, while being interviewed by Sports Illustrated's Justin Barrasso. We have two very different styles of technical wrestling. We wrestled in 2008, and he was just a kid, but I was super impressed with him then. He's grown into this amazing wrestler, and I don't ever recall seeing anyone wrestle with his technique."
"There are a ton of guys I'd like to wrestle. You mentioned Okada and that's a match I really want. I want [Tomohiro] Ishii. [Hiroshi] Tanahashi and I wrestled in 2004, but we are totally different people now than we were then. That would be a lot of fun. Shingo and I wrestled in 2010, that would also be a lot of fun. I was hoping to get a match against Kenta in WWE, but it just never happened, and I would love to wrestle him. I'd also love to wrestle [Katsuyori] Shibata. I'm open to whoever Tony [Khan] and New Japan want me to go up against."
With CM Punk being crowned the new AEW World Champion at this weekend's "Double or Nothing" event, it seems the main event for the show will likely feature "The Best in the World." As far as who he'll be facing, Punk added a few names to the list during the post-show media scrums, calling out Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Will Ospreay as potential opponents in his hometown of Chicago.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Sports Illustrated with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.