Tony Khan Explains Adam Cole’s Absence From Forbidden Door, Why CM Punk Didn’t Do Media Scrum

During a post-show media scrum for AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, AEW CEO Tony Khan explained the absence of Adam Cole and cancellation of his match with Tom Lawlor. As previously noted, Cole was forced out of the event due to illness. Khan also spoke about why CM Punk didn’t do the media scrum, which would have been his first since All Out last year. Here are highlights:

On Adam Cole missing the event: “I’m sorry that they weren’t able to have the match. It’s just terrible. Adam Cole came sick today and we had to send him home. We didn’t want to get everybody else sick. Especially post-lockdown, I think the measures are very careful. He’s a very tough guy, and he would to love to fight, but he came in with a fever. He’s got what I think is a flu. I think he’s going to be okay, I hope he’s going to be okay. In this case, you’ve just got to be safe. He should be okay, I hope. Look forward to Adam Cole and MJF, and a number of other great pairings that we’ll put together competing in the tag team tournament when he’s better. But he wasn’t cleared for tonight. So when Tom Lawlor is available and not doing New Japan, I still think it’d be a great match. I wanted to give Tom Lawlor a match still on the show, so I did give Tom Lawlor a spot. He went out and took out his anger on Serpentico. I know he enjoyed getting out to wrestle for the fans, but he did want to go out there and have a good match with Adam Cole. So I’ll keep that in mind, I like Tom a lot. He’s both a great commentator and a great wrestler and a great personality. Cole, he means a lot to the company so it would have been great to have him participating tonight. I was really proud that we were able to have the other nine matches really deliver to where I felt like the PPV delivered one of our best shows ever. It would have been great to have that tenth match.”

On CM Punk missing the media scrum: “The match was early in the card, and to be honest I think we did use a lot of people that won their matches. He’s great in these and he’s been doing a lot of media. He would’ve been great in this. I would be happy to do a press conference with him. He’s been doing a lot of great media this week to build up the shows. So no, I thought he had a great match tonight, and it’s been a really big couple of weeks having him back. It’s been a very positive influence for the company. I thought he had a great match with Kojima. As a wrestling fan, it’s something I really wanted to see. And I was really glad he was willing to go out and have a great match in the Owen Hart tournament with Kojima after he had the big match last night. It’s the first time he’s gone out and wrestled two back-to-back nights in matches in a long time. I really felt like he delivered in a big way, so yeah, he would have been great. I think he’s been doing a lot of media, and I’m sure we’ll get him out doing more media this week to promote the shows. I’d be very happy to have that. He’s a big part of what’s happening in AEW right now.”

On Punk saying he’s ‘a Collision guy’ during his Dynamite appearance: “It made so much sense with the show being in Chicago for CM Punk to make an appearance on ‘Dynamite.’ He’s been featured on ‘Collision,’ and I think we have stars that have been featured regularly on the shows, but you never know who’s going to show up on different shows. The spontaneity of it was very cool. Obviously, the show did very well. The rating was up significantly this week. It did really well, and I thought having that early in the show was something to show people this is going to be an exciting night. There was a lot of cool stuff on the show. And as we approached Forbidden Door, of course, CM Punk has been big on ‘Collision,’ but I also wanted to bring him back to ‘Dynamite’ in front of the Chicago crowd and show the fans that, first of all, like I’ve said, there’s no hard roster split, so that’s why he came and he made the reference, which was great and it was a cool moment, I thought. Got people talking, and you never know where you’re gonna see him. So like you said, he’s been featured on Collision, is he supposed to be here? Who knows? It was a great segment and Collision did a great number leading into that and then Dynamite did a great number for that. We don’t know all the numbers for Collision last night yet but hopefully that did really well. And it was great to have CM Punk back tonight. I thought it was very cool and obviously being in Chicago, it made a ton of sense.”

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit AEW with an h/t to 411mania.