Matty Breisch Articles - Page 167

When John Cena debuted in WWE 20 years ago, AEW wasn’t a thing. Many of the promotion’s biggest stars, and some of their commentators too, were employed by companies like TNA, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and yes, WWE, where they built up legacies worthy of a place in wrestling history. So, when a promotion like […]

With WWE‘s Money in the Bank less than a week away, RAW put on a Qualifying Battle Royal to secure one of the two final spots in the forthcoming Pay-Per-View’s namesake match. The rules were simple; 20 WWE superstars comprised of both RAW and SmackDown performers entered the ring at the start of the three-hour […]

Adam Cole wasn’t 100 percent healthy heading into AEW x NJPW’s Forbidden Door. He reportedly suffered a labrum injury which kept him out of much of the lead-up to Forbidden Door and in the Co-Main Event of the biggest co-promotional effort of the year, the native son of Lancaster, Pennsylvania suffered what looked like a […]

Forbidden Door is officially over. AEW and NJPW officially pulled it off and while the event didn’t go on without a hitch, as both Dax Harwood and Adam Cole suffered injuries during their matches, it’s hard to call the show anything but a resounding success both in the ring and on the financial ledger. Jon […]

Wrestling, regardless of whether it’s done in an AEW, WWE, or any other ring, is built on feuds. AEW x NJPW’s Forbidden Door was chocked full of intriguing in-ring battles between performers who have been passing like ships in the night for years – Jon Moxley and Hiroshi Tanahashi – white-hot, livewire rivalries between an […]

In the afterglow of AEW x NJPW’s Forbidden Door, Tony Khan had a lot to say. He talked about FTR’s new music, how Claudio Castagnoli ended up in the promotion, and notably chose not to talk about MJF, but sandwiched inside his post-PPV media scrum was a nugget of information that will make fans of […]

FTR is riding pretty high right about now following their big win at AEW x NJPW’s Forbidden Door. Despite a scare early on in the three-way championship match alongside Roppongi Vice, and the United Empire duo of Jeff Cobb and Great-O-Khan, where Dax Harwood had to be taken backstage to tape up his shoulder, the […]

Jon Moxley entered AEW x NJPW’s Forbidden Door with a lot to prove but also nothing to prove at the very same time. If he won the main event of Forbidden Door and became the Interim AEW World Championship then great; that would make him the first-ever two-time champion in the promotion’s history and he’d […]

Did the ending of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match at AEW x NJPW’s Forbidden Door look a little weird to you? Did, after an extended build-up and a growing crescendo towards what should have been an ending worthy of firecrackers, Jay White’s decision to slither back into the ring, take out Kazuchika Okada with […]

AEW x NJPW‘s Forbidden Door didn’t have one main event, but two. Though many a fan of AEW wanted nothing more than to see who would leave the United Center with the Interim AEW World Championship Belt and eventually earn a match with a returning CM Punk, the four-way bout for the IWGP World Heavyweight […]

In the end, if Bryan Danielson’s replacement versus Zack Sabre Jr. was anyone other than the man formerly known as Cesaro, fans of AEW, NJPW, and wrestling as a whole – though maybe not Max Dupri – would have been massively disappointed. Why? Well, for one thing, Cesaro, who has reverted to his indie/real name […]

Goodness, if you had Orange Cassidy versus Will Ospreay on your match of the year prediction bingo card then you, my friend, are in luck, as the duo came out to the ring in their usual styles, began the match with their hands in their respective pockets, and turned in one of the best matches […]

As you may or may not know, New Japan Wrestling doesn’t have a women’s division. While they do work closely with Stardom and have had women’s championship matches on shows they have promoted before, their co-promotion with AEW presented fans in Japan with a rare opportunity to see Thunder Rosa go against one of her […]

The Young Bucks haven’t been associated with the Bullet Club since January of 2019, when they officially left New Japan to join the company they helped to start alongside Kenny Omega, Tony Khan, and… some other guy: AEW. And yet, you can take the Bucks out of the Club, but you can’t take the Bullet […]

PAC has been a member of AEW since the beginning, debuting at All Out 2019 well before the promotion had a weekly television show or employed wrestlers like CM Punk, Miro, or FTR. Though he’s wrestled in a few big matches, recorded signature moments, and even had a few title shots, he’s never held a […]

When AEW’s Dax Harwood came up gingerly from a move early on in FTR’s three-way match with Roppongi Vice and NJPW’s United Empire tag team of Jeff Cobb and Great-O-Khan, it looked like the end of what could have been a guaranteed 5-star match. Harwood rolled under the ropes with Cash Wheeler following close behind […]

On paper, an AEW pairing of Chris Jericho and Minoru Suzuki doesn’t make much sense. They’re like making a bathing suit out of silk or dipping apple slices into fish sauce – two good things are good on their own but seemingly incompatible together. But in the ring, melded together into a make-shift trios tag […]

It’s here, it’s finally here: AEW x NJPW’s Forbidden Door has officially arrived. Soon, fans will trickle into the United Center, the lights will dim then rise, and nine matches – plus four more on the pre-show – will take place with hundreds of thousands of fans watching in utter disbelief that Tony Khan was […]

Fans have been wanting to see Johnny Gargano in an AEW ring since he initially became a free agent back in December of 2021 and time and time again, they have been let down. Mystery arrival at a Pay-Per-View?  Hasn’t been Gargano. Suprise arrival at a home state show in Ohio? Hasn’t happened either. Heck, […]

AEW x NJPW’s Forbidden Door is a card for the ages. With nine matches on the books and 28 wrestlers – and counting – set to compete for seven different championship belts, fans will find themselves entertained for hours once the show officially goes underway at 8 pm EST. But hey, just because the Pay-Per-View […]

While the phrase “Forbidden Door” was initially just a fun little phrase coined by NJPW Star Hiroshi Tanahashi, it has since become a title for multiple people in the industry, including Tony Khan himself, the symbol of cross-promotional matches and angles, and an incoming collaborative pay-per-view between New Japan and AEW. Oh, and if recent […]

Blake Christian has wrestled in AEW on two occasions, both of which occurred at Dark tapings in Orlando, Florida. Though he has secured a win in the promotion, besting Rohit Raju in a match televised via Youtube on March 3rd of 2022, Christian, who was known as Trey Baxter during his limited run in NXT, […]

When FTR opted to leave WWE to pursue wrestling opportunities outside of the promotion, it was never supposed to be AEW or bust. Sure, most everyone expected to see the team formerly known as The Revival make their way to Tony Khan’s promotion, as he’s the biggest paying game in town outside of The Fed, […]

AEW has a lot of things going for it as a promotion: A deep roster – despite numerous injuries currently plaguing them – generally good to great to incredible in-ring work, and of course, a solid music department. While yes, Chris Jericho’s “Judas” will always get entire arenas singing the verse and chorus, and Tony […]

There was a time when Johnny Gargano looked like one of the hottest free agents on the market following a successful end to his time in WWE. On paper, he had everything going for him; pre-existing feuds with opponents across multiple promotions, an exciting in-ring style that works equally well as both a heel and […]

When news broke that Vince McMahon was going to step down as the CEO and Chairman of the Board of WWE following accusations of paying out hush money to a former employee whom he was in a consensual relationship with, it left many a fan curious about what would come next for their favorite wrestling […]

While her husband, Bryan Danielson, was presumably hot at work preparing his mystery replacement for a bout against Zack Sabre Jr. at AEW’s Forbidden Door, Brie Bella and her WWE legend sister Nikki were hanging out at a signing event with Alabama/Oklahoma-turned-Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. United for the common cause of having to sign […]

Unfortunately, the hits keep on coming for Forbidden Door, as, just 24 hours before the big event, AEW has announced that two more performers, Hiromu Takahashi and Hikuleo had been removed from the card. Now granted, the duo are unavailable for very different reasons; Takahashi reportedly has a fever and was unable to travel from […]

WWE‘s Mustafa Ali knows a thing about being underrated. After a fairly successful initial run with the promotion and its various brands that saw the “Prince” secure big wins over the likes of Tony Neese, Drew Gulak, The Miz, and Darby Allen via EVOLVE 116, Ali found himself the leader of Retribution and eventually off […]

Well, AEW and NJPW’s Forbidden Door is almost upon us, and although the match card has been fully revealed – probably – there’s at least one surprise that will be closely guarded until the entrance music hits in a packed United Center Arena in Chicago: Who is Bryan Danielson’s replacement for the match against Zack […]

AEW Dynamite is a very good show. Sure, it has its detractors, some more vocal than others, but the promotion’s flagship program consistently racks in a ton of viewers each week and often ranks near the top of the 18-49 key demo. The show has a little bit of everything; high flying matches, hard-hitting bouts, […]

As if Forbidden Door‘s card wasn’t already loaded enough, AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling have added two more bouts to the big-time card on this week’s edition of Rampage, with the pre-show now featuring three matches and 16 total wrestlers for good measure. That’s right, joining the already intriguing eight-man tag match featuring Max […]

Unlike Mercedes Martinez, who has been consistently defending the Ring of Honor Women’s Championship on AEW Dark and Dark Elevation for months now, Jonathan Gresham, the Tony Khan-owned promotion’s main champion has been notably absent since March, when he wrestled on AEW’s Battle of the Belts II two weeks after unifying the belts at Supercard […]

As you may or may not know, Andrade El Idolo and Rush – plus the Lucha Brothers – are not allowed to wrestle at AEW’s Forbidden Door due to the relationship between CMLL and New Japan Pro Wrestling. That’s the bad news, especially since Andrade already disclosed what could have been a very interesting angle […]

Anytime Sheamus and Drew McIntyre get in a WWE ring together, it’s going to be a good time… well, at last for the fans in attendance, the duo clearly don’t like each other and they clearly don’t mind showing it. Though they have wrestled well over 100 times if you count house shows, anytime the […]

While Becky Lynch has yet to earn a spot in Money in the Bank and may ultimately sit out the event entirely following her loss to Asuka on RAW, the qualifying matches are ticking along, and slowly but surely the spots on the show are getting snatched up by the best WWE superstars male and […]

Gunther and Ricochet are like WWE‘s answer to oil and vinegar; they don’t mix but goodness, when they are together they can certainly elevate an evening. That’s right, after snatching away the Intercontinental Title away from Ricochet in a very good SmackDown television match, Gunther and his accomplice, Ludwig, once again marched down to the […]

The Viking Raiders have been missing from RAW since March of 2022, when the duo lost a handicap match to Omos in less than a minute live from the PPG Paints Arena in beautiful Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While they have wrestled over a dozen house shows since, including two bouts for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, […]

Sami Zayn is a lot of things to the world of wrestling. He’s a current WWE superstar, a good friend of former Ring of Honor star El Generico, and decidedly not a friend of Johnny Knoxville, whom he wrestled – if you want to call it that – to a loss at WrestleMania 38 earlier […]