Though Tanahashi’s final match wound up involving AEW through Okada, it briefly looked like the match would feature Tanahashi going up against another old rival, WWE star Shinsuke Nakamura. In particular, a late November report suggested that Nakamura may have even been Tanahashi’s preferred opponent, only for Tanahashi and New Japan to balk at the match over Nakamura’s inability to secure a release from WWE, and the political ramifications of a WWE star working with New Japan, which sources believed would’ve upset AEW and New Japan’s other promotional partner, CMLL.

As a result, Khan was asked point black if there was any truth to the idea that he would’ve been upset over Tanahashi preferring to wrestle Nakamura over Okada. An amused Khan stated he had been in contact with Tanahashi “extensively” over his retirement, and denied he would’ve been angry over a potential Nakamura-Tanahashi match.

“That is actually something I read about, and I was surprised to read that,” Khan said. “I’m not sure where that all came from. I don’t really understand some of that story, and it was a very detailed story with a lot of, if I may…it seemed like they thought they could read minds when they wrote that story, because it was like, not only did they say ‘Well this happened and this happened,’ but they’re like ‘And he felt this way about it, and he felt this way, and he was thinking…’ And it’s like well, are you telepathic? A lot of that never happened, and a lot of it was like ‘How would you know what that guy was thinking, or that guy?’ I thought that was an interesting, interesting story, I’ll put it that way.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Q101” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription