Report: Swerve Strickland Almost Had A Different Opponent At AEW X NJPW Forbidden Door '24

Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay had a heavily-lauded match earlier this year at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, but the then-AEW World Champion had a different challenger in line before Ospreay was selected.

According to Fightful Select, former NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Champion Yota Tsuji was supposed to challenge the AEW World Champion at the cross-promotional PPV. Tsuji had been coming off a big spring, where he won the New Japan Cup and then challenged IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA, albeit unsuccessfully. Ospreay was eventually selected as a way to undercut criticism that Strickland was merely a "placeholder," as Ospreay was a leading pick to win the world title at All In following his highly-touted signing by AEW. Strickland defeated Ospreay and went on to lose the title to Bryan Danielson at the Wembley Stadium event. Tsuji ended up wrestling alongside Titán and Hiromu Takahashi in a losing effort against The Lucha Brothers and Mistico on the "Zero Hour" preshow instead.

Ospreay went on to wrestle AEW International Champion MJF at All In, dethroning MJF in a highly-praised contest. e lost the title in October to Konosuke Takeshita and is now embroiled in a bitterly personal feud with Kyle Fletcher amidst the ongoing Continental Classic tournament. Ospreay is currently one of the leaders of the Gold League, while Fletcher is in the lead in the Blue League, meaning both men could end up facing off in the finals at Worlds End. 

Tsuji is set to challenge IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion David Finlay on January 4 at Wrestle Kingdom 19 in the Tokyo Dome.