Tony Khan Doubles Down on

Last week during AEW Rampage, Tony Khan revealed that “a top wrestler will walk through the Forbidden Door this Wednesday and debut in AEW,” later elaborating that “The big announcement for Wednesday’s Dynamite that we referenced on #AEWRampage (a free agent debut) and the person walking through the Forbidden Door are one and the same. They’re walking in the door, signing a contract, and then slamming the door shut Wednesday on #AEWDynamite!”

The notion that the star would be a “free agent” implies they are not under contract to another wrestling company, though the Forbidden Door metaphor has until this point referred to wrestlers from other companies showing up in AEW. Additionally, Khan’s commented that the wrestler would “slam the door in the face of their prior company.” Khan’s hyperbole has left AEW fans mostly excited, but some worry that the hype could be too much to live up to, especially if the surprise is someone most people were already expecting to show up in AEW as soon as their WWE non-compete clauses ended, as opposed to the controversial signing Khan’s tweets seem to hint at.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Khan doubled down on the hype, telling the magazine, “It’s a huge signing for us. I have created some debate about what it means to open the ‘Forbidden Door,’ and that’s what we are going to do on this show. The fans are going to get a great night of wrestling, and I hope everyone is surprised—and comes back for the matches this sets up.”

Khan went on to tout the quality of wrestlers on the AEW roster, indicating that the surprise will be a wrestler beloved by AEW fans for their workrate, and therefore probably not, for example, Shane McMahon or Nia Jax. Khan added, “It’s going to be a big reveal on Dynamite. It sets up this week’s Rampage and puts a lot of irons in our fire. We have created an environment in AEW where people routinely expect great wrestling matches, and we have the wrestlers to live up to those high expectations.”

Most of the time, AEW does live up to those expectations. But sometimes, attempts go over like sparklers at an exploding barbed wire deathmatch.

We’ll find out on Wednesday what kind of surprise this is. We’ll be rooting for them though.