10 Wrestling Worst Nightmares Right Now

9. The New AEW/NJPW Relationship Collapses

Dean Ambrose
AEW/NJPW

"The Forbidden Door" has at long last opened. Please, please don't let it get slammed shut like a Sky Sports transfer window.

KENTA appearing on AEW Dynamite (and subsequently working on the following week's show) was confirmation that All Elite Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling have at long last struck up some sort of arrangement that could allow the sort of inter-promotional action that hasn't really existed since The Elite left the indies in 2019.

But wrestling has a disparate history with communal company co-existence. The original National Wrestling Alliance made committee decisions for the good of its territories, but internal fragmenting in the 1980s and Vince McMahon's steamrolling through the North American landscape did away with much of the loose good will.

Typically, bookers want the best for their talents first and foremost. It's ironic that it's WWE bringing Peacock into wrestling headlines of late, because there'll likely be an awful lot of that going on should tempers fray between the various wrestlers and bosses it takes to make a co-promotion work.

When it does though, it's wrestling utopia - and the world's never needed that more.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett