When you think of a cross-promotional Pay-Per-View where the top wrestlers in AEW take on the best of the best NJPW has to offer, who is the one tag-team that comes to mind that has to be on the card.
Drum roll……. The Young Bucks FTR.
Wait, what? FTR? I mean yeah, they are by their own admission the Top Guys, but outside of the occasional match against someone like Shinsuke Nakamura in WWE, they aren't really a team who are associated with wrestling in Japan, or with the country's top wrestling promotion, NJPW.
Well, guess what? Gedo, the head booker of NJPW who made an in-ring appearance at Forbidden Door as Jay White's bucket hat-wearing buddy felt the same way, as, according to Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer, his original idea was to have the Young Bucks wrestle against an NJPW team – no word on who – in a winner-takes-all tag team battle for both the AEW Tag Team Championship and the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Instead, the Bucks signed off on making the match involving the IWGP Tag Team titles into a three-way bout, with FTR putting up their ROH belts to make things interesting, as the results created an unprecedented result for the team formerly known as The Revival.
Gedo’s original idea was for the Young Bucks to win the IWGP tag titles at Forbidden Door & make it AEW vs. IWGP tag titles
It was changed & the Young Bucks were on board with that change with the idea that it’s a cool story for FTR to have the IWGP, ROH & AAA tag titles.
– WON pic.twitter.com/ubs6iuL5Zs
— WrestlePurists (@WrestlePurists) July 1, 2022
AEW has a golden opportunity to put their belts on the line at Forbidden Door II.
When the Young Bucks were booked to take on the Jurassic Express for the AEW Tag Team Championship in a three-way ladder match that also featured the Hardy Brothers, the United Empire duo of Jeff Cobb and Great-O-Khan were three days into their second title reign as the IWGP tag team champions. While a match between the international duo would have been a ton of fun to watch, and Cobb and Khan have incredibly contrasting styles to that of the Bucks, a match between the two teams would have had about as much history as the match featuring FTR, as Nick and Matt Jackson had never wrestled either performer in an NJPW ring.
Sidebar: The Bucks actually have wrestled Cobb twice during their respective careers but it was all the way back in 2016 and 2018, when he was tagging with Matt Riddle as The Chosen Bros in PWG.
Now granted, with a tiny bit of notice, Gedo could have secured a bout that better fit with the Bucks' history in the promotion. Both Chaos and Ingobernables de Japon were under-represented on the Pay-Per-View, and even Bishamon, the duo the Bucks took on in their post-Forbidden Door match on Rampage, could have proven an intriguing contest on the show, as they were just the IWGP Tag Team Champions from January through April of 2022 and held the titles for 95 days. Though neither Hirooki Goto nor YOSHI-HASHI is what you would call a household name in America, the duo are both proven professionals who can wrestle the roof off of a building, as their bouts against many of the top performers in NJPW clearly showcases.
What a win for the #AEW World Tag Team Champions the @youngbucks! #AEWRampage is on @tntdrama! pic.twitter.com/sOpB9SLdcq
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) July 2, 2022
Heck, had Shingo Takagi's teammate Hiromu Takahashi remained healthy, the prospects of doing a Bucks vs. Chaos bout, whether representing Bullet Club, The Elite, or both, would have probably drawn ravier reviews than inserting Sting and Darby Allin into the equation on the NJPW side of the card, as neither have particularly deep ties with Los Ingobernables de Japon.
Speaking of Los Ingobernables de Japon, why were both Sanada and Tetsuya Naito absent from the show? Was it because La Faccion Ingobernable, AEW's branch of the overarching Los Ingobernables stable had just debuted on Rampage two days earlier and the faction's two members, Rush and Andrade El Idolo were barred from the show by CMLL. If there is another edition of Forbidden Door, which there very much should be, here's hoping the things get patched up, as seeing the faction's members – especially Dragon Lee – would make for a very interesting outcome indeed.
Would it have been nice to see another AEW belt put on the line at Forbidden Door? You bet; neither the AEW Tag Team Championship or the TNT Championship – or the TBS Championship – were wrestled for on the show and putting both of those belts on the line would have created big money angles depending on who was holding either strap. Fortunately, Forbidden Door II is likely headed for a Pay-Per-View provider near you in the not-too-distant future, so fortunately there should be plenty of opportunities for Gedo and Tony Khan to book some incredible cross-promotional bout in the not-too-distant future.
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