5 Things That Could Be Tony Khan’s HUGE Announcement On AEW Dynamite

Along similar lines, Khan narrowed down the options on Twitter. He has expressly said that the debuting wrestler is a free agent, ruling out NJPW’s Jay White and Will Ospreay, who currently do much of their work in in the west - meaning, they're more likely at present than Kazuchika Okada or Hiroshi Tanahashi. Ospreay and White are free to work elsewhere, to a point, but are bound to New Japan deals.

Khan’s over-delivery philosophy however might just mean that one of these men appears after the free agent signing.

There’s an issue to consider that some don’t when conjuring certain dream match graphics, like Will Ospreay Vs. Hangman Page or Jay White Vs. Adam Cole: the top NJPW stars can’t really lose for political reasons, and, conversely, there’s little sense in booking them to win, given that they can’t be booked frequently. Booking Will Ospreay is a neat shortcut to critical acclaim and some buzz, but it’s a narrative dead end. The New Japan Dads can lose. The likes of Yuji Nagata and Satoshi Kojima are respected enough to draw interest and put over Jon Moxley with it actually meaning something; indeed, that is their function in 2022. They lend their legends to weave more fabric into the grand narrative tapestry. Ospreay is different; he’s a Tokyo Dome headliner that New Japan will rely on in the years to come.

There’s a booking workaround, not that it’s particularly inspiring or significant. Tomohiro Ishii tagged with Orange Cassidy last year to defeat a good, rank-and-file tag team in the Butcher and the Blade, but it was a one-off dose of unashamed fan service.

Ultimately, it didn’t mean much, but it meant something: a match like that fuels hope that you might just see something as cool when time allows in the future.

Will Ospreay and HOOK Vs. Dante Martin and Matt Sydal?

Even if you think Ospreay is a mince-thick wrong ‘un, that’s hard to turn down.