When news broke that Tomohiro Ishii was unable to go at AEW/NJPW's Forbidden Door, it left many a fan of both promotions with a major case of the bummers.

Though he may not be a household name to fans outside of Japan – though he did win the Ring of Honor Television Championship back in 2016, and wrestled for AEW television twice, first with Orange Cassidy on Dynamite and again in a Rampage bout versus Adam Cole in the Owen Hart Cup – Ishii has built up a reputation for being one of the hardest-hitting strong style performers in the wrestling world today and would have been an incredibly interesting addition to the All-Atlantic Championship match against another super-sized striker in Miro, a do-it-all performer in Malikai Black, and PAC, who remains one of the promotion's premier high-flyers.

If you fall into that camp, it's understandable; Ishii is a premier performer with a 9.49 raking on Cagematch and a history of putting on incredible performances for 20 years now but hey, even if he can't go, the All-Atlantic Championship match should still be one of the top bouts of the card at AEW's Forbidden Door. Why? Because his replacement, Clark Connors, is one of the shining stars of NJPW's LA Dojo and, after taking Ishii to the wire in the All-Atlantic Championship qualifying round, he should be able to deliver the goods against some of the best international talents AEW has to offer.

Clark Connors should surprise fans of AEW with his in-ring work.

Clark Connors has been wrestling professionally for five years. Initially trained by the likes of Buddy Wayne and Lance Storm before taking his talents to the NJPW LA Dojo to learn under Katsuyori Shibata. After making his debut with the promotion in 2018, in a dark match versus fellow performer Alex Coughlin, Connors was tested early on in a match versus Jushin Thunder Liger at NJPW Lion's Break Project 1 in 2018.

In the years proceeding, Connors has become one of the most prolific wrestlers on the American side of the NJPW roster, wrestling in 126 matches for the promotion, including co-promotional matches with Ring of Honor, a successful run in the 2020 Lion's Break Crown tournament, and a chance to prove his stuff in the 2022 Best of the Super Juniors tournament, where he won four of his nine matches and became a fast favorite with the Japanese audience. Outside of the promotion, Connors has wrestled Christopher Daniels for the DEFY World Title at DEFY 50, against Royce Isaacs at Josh Barnett's Bloodsport 7, and even a five-on-five bout with his fellow LA Dojomates Alex Coughlin, Karl Fredericks, Kevin Knight, and Yuya Uemura in a win over QT Marshall's The Factory on AEW Dark.

Throw that all together and what do you have? A performer coming off of his best professional match – versus Tomohiro Ishii in the AEW qualifying round – heading into arguably the biggest match of his professional career.

If Clark Connors can show up and show out in arguably his most important match as a pro at Forbidden Door, the world of independent wrestling could be his oyster. Matches at smaller promotions like Warrior, GCW, and Defy could become far more frequent/prolific and the potential to rise up the card on his way to becoming the first true breakout star of the NJPW LA Dojo. You know what they say, it's not about how you got into the match but how you perform between the bells.