Tony Khan On Mercedes Mone’s Status For Forbidden Door, Orange Cassidy/Katsuyori Shibata

During Thursday’s media call promoting AEW Double Or Nothing 2023, AEW President Tony Khan revealed whether Mercedes Mone was planned for AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door II before her injury.

Mone suffered an injury at NJPW Resurgence this past weekend as a result of which Willow Nightingale was crowned the inaugural NJPW STRONG Women’s Champion.

Khan said, “Going forward, it does make things interesting because nobody really knows, besides Mercedes and myself what was going to happen there and what the future would hold for her. Whether that was competing exclusively for New Japan or potentially also whether she would be at Forbidden Door. Frankly, now, even going forward, I don’t think anybody but her knows when she’ll be ready to come back to the ring.”

“I have so much respect for Mercedes and I think she’s been a great champion all over the world, including New Japan. She would have been a great first-ever STRONG Women’s Champion, but I think we have a great champion in Willow and we’ll look to utilize Willow in AEW and possibly ROH, and take advantage of that new beautiful belt she’s holding.”

During a recent appearance on the “Conversations With the Classic” podcast, Orange Cassidy discussed his reputation among fans, while reflecting on his match against Katsuyori Shibata last November on AEW Rampage.

Cassidy said, “There are a lot of people that don’t care for me, that don’t care about what I’m doing. They don’t like what I’m doing, they don’t appreciate it. They think I’m insulting professional wrestling or whatever you want to call it. Then there is a living legend and a phenomenal professional wrestling in Shibata. He said he wanted, on his return, because he actually almost died doing what he does in the ring, and when he came back and was able to wrestle, he mentioned two people. One of them was Bryan Danielson, and the other one was me.”

“I don’t think people understand that, but I never thought that a person of that stature would even consider me for something like that, and it was truly an honor. I barely beat him. I mean, I was terrified because he is Shibata. But because of that, Shibata and I actually played roulette last night, so we’re friends.”

Cassidy will defend the AEW International Championship in a Blackjack Battle Royale at Double Or Nothing 2023.

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