AEW star and current IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita is a mainstay on AEW programming, and has been widely regarded by fans as one of the best pure athletes in the world since signing a full-time deal with All Elite Wrestling in late 2022. “The Alpha” immediately caught the attention of fans around the world through his matches with the likes of Hangman Page, Jon Moxley, and Claudio Castagnoli during his first few months on television, but his actual debut came in Daily’s Place in 2021. During a recent appearance on “Busted Open Radio,” AEW President Tony Khan opened up about Takeshita’s debut for the company, and revealed the man who recommended “The Alpha” to him.”
“With Takeshita, it was Kenny Omega who first came to me and said ‘I really believe in Takeshita and if you give him an opportunity here, I think you’re really going to like him,’ and boy was Kenny right. Kenny is a wrestling genius himself, and I was just talking to Kenny about this the other night because Kenny and I flew home together after WrestleDream back to Florida, and we were talking on the flight back and I am very grateful to Kenny because when he brought that kid here, he was on to something.”
Khan even went as far as to compare Takeshita to WWE Hall of Famer Barry Windham as he saw a big, tall kid who could glide effortlessly through the ring, while also being extremely crisp with everything that he did. Now that he has been in AEW for a number of years and surrounded himself with the right people, Khan believes that Takeshita has had such good mentorship that he can reach even greater heights than the ones he has already reached.
Please credit “Busted Open Radio” when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.