Tony Khan Responds To Criticism Of Hiroshi Tanahashi’s AEW Performances

AEW President Tony Khan further spoke about getting the song, The Final Countdown, for Bryan Danielson at Forbidden Door and more while on Busted Open Radio today. Here are the highlights.

On getting the song: “Well we were negotiating for years (to get Europe’s ‘The Final Countdown’), trying to get the deal done and this is the best rate I ever got recently and it was something I felt would add to the presentation of Forbidden Door and Bryan-Okada is one of those special matches and anything I could do to add to the presentation and make the night more special, I really wanted to do so, that’s what led to The Final Countdown at Forbidden Door this past weekend as part of the great event.”

On the online criticisms of Hiroshi Tanahashi’s performances in AEW over the weekend:  “I think what you (show host) just said makes a lot of sense. It’s a vocal minority on social media. I think the vast majority of fans who follow the sport closely know that (Hiroshi) Tanahashi’s a legend, that it’s amazing that he’s fighting through these injuries and doing the best he can and yeah, he’s got bad knees and every once in a while, he might have a slip as he tries high-flying moves but in the end, he had an amazing fight on Collision, he had a great match, Tanahashi versus Swerve (Strickland) and he had a great match with MJF at the pay-per-view and not everything Tanahashi does is the same as it was 10 years ago or 15 years ago. But, Tanahashi is one of the great legends of the sport and certainly over the years, he’s accomplished so much and I know that, really, for us in AEW, we have so much respect for him and I think what you said makes a lot of sense but, you can’t let the opinion of a couple people get in the way of a great career of somebody like Tanahashi.”

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