Kazuchika Okada Issues Interesting Statement About The Forbidden Door

By Ross W Berman IV

After coming up short in a 4-way match for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship on Sunday, Okada took to Twitter the following day to thank AEW, as well as the fans in Chicago. "The door is closed," Okada said as he heads back to Japan to compete in this year's G1 Climax tournament, "but I'll open the door again."

"See you next time," Okada finished, adding to the speculation of a possible sequel to Forbidden Door, possibly next year.

Tony Khan has been outspoken in his fondness for Gedo, Rocky Romero, and all of the other NJPW officials that made Sunday's big cross-promotional event happen, and has said numerous times that he hopes for a follow-up. NJPW is about to head into a busy summer with the largest G1 Climax in some time, so it would make sense that they have other priorities than the "forbidden door," though it should be noted Lance Archer will be traveling through said door to the tournament.

With a litany of injuries in not only AEW but also NJPW shaking up the card until the moment the show went live from Chicago's United Center, it would not be out of the realm of possibility for both promotions to be interested in a "do-over" to see what can be accomplished with healthy rosters on both sides.

AEW World Champion CM Punk's injury threw a wrench into the main event of the show, originally set to face Hiroshi Tanahashi for the AEW Title. Punk's surgery led to Jon Moxley stepping in, as well as the creation of an Interim AEW Championship. Moxley's Blackpool Combat Club comrade Bryan Danielson was supposed to wrestle Zack Sabre Jr., but a concussion led to Danielson being replaced by the debuting Claudio Castagnoli. NJPW's Juice Robinson and Tomohiro Ishii are both out with injuries, with Ishii originally scheduled to take part in the inaugural AEW All-Atlantic Championship 4-way match.

Okada including AEW in the thank you message, as well as the "see you next time" closer certainly suggests that there will be a follow-up event, hopefully with both locker rooms closer to 100 percent.

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