Tanahashi Teases Pursuit of AEW Title

New Japan Pro Wrestling Superstar Hiroshi Tanahashi in a recent interview with Tokyo Sports hinted at pursuing the AEW World Championship belt.

Tanahashi will take on current AEW World Champion Chris Jericho in a non-title match at Wrestle Kingdom 14 in January. The match promotion is billing their battle as a legend against legend with Jericho aiming to end Tanahashi’s career.

Though NJPW and AEW have yet to acknowledge each other in their on-air product, Tanahashi teased using Wrestle Kingdom 14 as a potential launching point for him to pursue Jericho’s AEW World Championship. In his interview, Tanahashi referred to heading to AEW as going through the “Forbidden Door” and a victory over Jericho would allow him to take that path.

Jericho has yet to respond to Tanahashi’s comments. In particular, Jericho took some sharp criticism from Tanahashi over his laziness with his NJPW character work. Tanahashi, famous as the “ace” in NJPW, called out Jericho for using his “Painmaker” moniker instead of an “Ace versus Joker” theme for their match.