AEW star's initial reaction to Tony Khan's booking idea for Forbidden Door disclosed

Tony Khan at an AEW event in 2022 (credit: Jay Lee Photography)
Tony Khan at an AEW event in 2022 (credit: Jay Lee Photography)

Junior Heavyweight legend Rocky Romero peeled back the curtain on the recent AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door pay-per-view, saying it was Tony Khan who came up with the idea of putting Orange Cassidy against Will Ospreay.

Ospreay successfully defended his IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship against Freshly Squeezed at the event, marking his first successful defense since winning the title at NJPW Dominion on June 12, 2022.

The bout was originally slated to be Will Ospreay vs. Andrade El Idolo. However, when that couldn't take place, Cassidy was chosen as his replacement, which went down a treat on the night as it was considered one of the best matches on the show.

Despite all this, in an interview with Denise Salcedo, Romero revealed Cassidy was a bit apprehensive going into the match and thought he wasn't the right fit. However, Tony Khan thought otherwise:

"The funny thing is, even going into it, Orange Cassidy was like, ‘I am not sure.’ He was a little tentative like, ‘Maybe that’s not a great match for me.’ I was like, ‘Dude, this is gonna be awesome.’ We actually talked about it after, he was like, ‘Dude, that was one of my favorite matches of all-time, that I’ve ever done.’ He was like, ‘I can’t believe I was tentative.’ I was like, ‘If you’re not tentative and you care about what you do, then you really don’t care. So you gotta feel that way as a performer.’" (H/T: POST Wrestling)

Cassidy bounced back from his loss on the pay-per-view with a win over Ethan Page on the Blood and Guts episode of Dynamite. Ospreay will look to carry his wave of momentum into the upcoming G1 Climax.


Tony Khan recently secured a new entrance theme for Orange Cassidy

Several AEW stars have been able to bag themselves popular licensed songs as their entrance themes, with the likes of Jon Moxley having Wild Thing by X, Hook having The Chairman's Intent by Action Bronson, and Tarzan Boy by Baltimora being Jungle Boy's theme since late 2020.

Orange Cassidy also had a famous song as his entrance: Where Is My Mind? by the Pixies. That was until this past week on AEW Dynamite.

Tony Khan finally secured the rights to the song Jane by Jefferson Starship, which Cassidy used as his theme before his recent match with Ethan Page. Cassidy used the song during his time on the independent circuit. Khan tried to get it the first time but settled for the Pixies.

Could this new song bring some luck to Freshly Squeezed? Stay tuned to AEW TV to find out!

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Edited by Abhinav Singh