Forbidden Door Articles - Page 2

When Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay took the ring for the second time in this current series at Forbidden Door II, fans knew they were in for one heck of a match, and needless to say, the former NJPW Champions did not disappoint them at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Wrestling in the third-to-last match […]

After becoming the first-ever performer in AEW history to hold the Women’s World Championship on two separate occasions, Toni Storm faced her toughest challenge yet at Forbidden Door, when she was tasked with wrestling another champion, Willow Nightingale, the NJPW Strong Women’s Champion, to be exact, in the sixth match on an absolutely loaded card. […]

When Eddie Kingston agreed to team with The Elite and Tomohiro Ishii against the Blackpool Combat Club – Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, Konosuke Takeshita, and Shota “Shooter” Umino – at Forbidden Door, it was always going to be a mixed bag of emotions for the “Mad King,” but in practice, that assessment might […]

When “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry accepted Sanada’s open challenge for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at Forbidden Door, it turned a lot of heads, including that of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s current top dog, who felt the AEW mainstay wasn’t quite up for the prestige that his title holds. Ultimately, Sanada’s assertion was the correct […]

After over 250 days with the AEW International Championship, Orange Cassidy entered through the Forbidden Door at Forbidden Door with his greatest challenge yet, a Fatal Fourway to decide the fate of his strap against the Ring of Honor Pure Champion Katsuyori Shibata, the New Japan Pro Wrestling Television Champion Zack Sabre Jr., and Daniel […]

In Chicago, CM Punk is the ultimate babyface, but how would the fine folks in Toronto treat the troubled ex-AEW Champion in his first-ever appearance at Forbidden Door? Well, as it turns out, Punk got the Bret Hart treatment, just the Bret Hart treatment from anywhere but Canada, aka a 60-40 split of boos and […]

Though MJF‘s Forbidden Door didn’t go exactly as he planned, as Adam Cole was forced to drop off of the card with an illness that left the “Salt of the Earth’s” hand-picked challenger, “Filthy” Tom Lawler without an opponent on either the main card or on Zero Hour – he reportedly wrestled Serpentico before the […]

After a year of anticipation – literally – Forbidden Door II is officially here, AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling fans. Soon fans will find out which belts will change hands, which matches will earn a five, or even greater star rating, and which matches could set up even bigger opportunities down the line, when […]

When AEW announced Forbidden Door – the show, not the concept – in 2022, it marked a truly revolutionary concept in the world of  American televised professional wrestling. Suddenly two of the titans of professional wrestling were coming together for a greatest hits show a la the cards Ring of Honor used to run before […]

Though the 2023 calendar year is only half over, it’s hard to find many matches that rise to the level of the bout between Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay back at Wrestle Kingdom 17 in January. A certified classic that earned Dave Meltzer’s highest rating of the year at 6.25, the bout was long, dramatic, […]

In a few short hours, fans will get their first glimpse of AEW Collision and what two more hours of live television a week looks like in the mind of Tony Khan. Billed as an offering on-par with Dynamite, with a roster of key players that may or may not feature a “brand split,” Collision […]

As AEW rapidly throws together a card for Forbidden Door 2, which is somehow less than two weeks away, fans of professional wrestling from all over the world – literally – are excited to see who top stars like MJF, Sanada, and Zack Sabre Jr. will throw down with at the cross-promotional event with New […]

While Forbidden Door II is still three months away, with another AEW Pay-Per-View, Double or Nothing, scheduled before the cross-promotional, Toronto-based event, fans and wrestling media alike have been racking their brains, attempting to fantasy book the best possible match for Mercedes Moné, the former WWE Four Horsewomen who now calls New Japan Pro Wrestling […]

On Wednesday, March 15th, 2023, Tony Khan announced a summer AEW Canadian Tour, which will feature six stops and include the second-ever running of Forbidden Door, aka Forbidden Door II, the New Japan Pro Wrestling co-promoted event that pits some of the best wrestlers the world has to offer against each other with more than […]

As AEW prepares to run its first-ever show in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Tony Khan and company have decided to keep their love of the northern-most country in North America going by announcing a new six-show summer tour that will include the second-ever running of Forbidden Door – aka Forbidden Door II – which will come […]

Though AEW hasn’t officially announced the date of Forbidden Door II – according to Spectrum, it’s June 24, 2023 – it looks like one of the top talents in New Japan Pro Wrestling already has a challenger for her IWGP Women’s World Championship, as none other than Britt Baker is very, very interested in sharing […]

“Switchblade” Jay White is one of the pillars of New Japan Pro Wrestling. He’s a five-time world champion with the promotion, with his most recent title reign, with the IWGP World Championship, coming to an end at Wrestle Kingdom 17, the leader of Bullet Club, and the self-proclaimed “Catalyst of Professional Wrestling” for having his […]

Boom, Adam Cole is back in AEW after eight months away, but, to paraphrase his own words, it was really more of a good news, bad news sort of situation. On one hand, the former leader of The Undisputed Era was back on a televised wrestling show, which is a pretty incredible thing considering he’s […]

As AEW inches closer and closer to Full Gear, current World Champion Jon Moxley sat down with The Enquirer in his hometown of Cincinnati about non-alcoholic beer, his wife, and most importantly, sobriety and how it has helped him both inside and outside of the ring. “Over a year ago, I was afraid of dying […]

The Great Muta’s farewell tour just added one heck of a new stop as, according to the official Twitter account of Pro Wrestling Noah, none other than Shinsuke Nakamura of WWE will be returning to Japan to face off against the mist-spitting legend, who declared his intentions in a firey promo. “Is this a dream […]

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega really don’t like each other. Though the duo have seldom crossed paths over the past three years, as Omega has been stateside in AEW while Ospreay has thrived in New Japan Pro Wrestling as one of the promotion’s top gaijin stars, […]

It’s hard to look at Forbidden Door, the AEW x NJPW Pay-Per-View as anything other than a resounding success for all parties involved. AEW did another massive gate in Chicago, a city so good to the Khan company that some have even linked a potential Jaguars move from Jacksonville to the soon-to-be-vacant Soldier Field, NJPW […]

As AEW fans the world over already know, Orange Cassidy can go. Though he may present himself as aloof, with a style that is equal parts suave as it is maddening for older fans who like their wrestlers to look and act a certain way, OC has crafted a unique spot in the professional wrestling […]

In case you haven’t heard, Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay are in the middle of an all-out social media war that supersedes their respective roles in AEW and NJPW. The duo have knocked each other’s in-ring abilities, critiqued the way they handle things backstage, and a host of other issues that you can read about […]

In case you haven’t heard, Fightful Select is reporting that Kenny Omega’s return to AEW is in the not-too-distant future, with Tony Khan and company already readying their roster for the “Best Bout Machine’s” eventual return. All things considered, this is very good news indeed. Though Omega’s absence has been for the right reasons both […]

No wrestler in AEW history has ever kicked out of the One-Winged Angel; the finisher is considered one of the most protected finishing moves in all of wrestling and has become so ubiquitous that even casual fans know the name of the Kenny Omega move, a name he stole from Final Fantasy 7 villain Sephiroth. […]

After a few months away from a wrestling ring, some wondered what would come next for Claudio “don’t-call-him-Cesaro” Castagnoli following his decision not to re-sign with WWE. Would he go to AEW, what about NJPW? Goodness, could it have all been a charade, with the Swiss Superman returning to SmackDown as a Maximum Male Model? […]

When Orange Cassidy made his way down to the ring at Forbidden Door, his presentation was… weirdly typical. That’s right, despite taking part in an upper mid-card bout versus one of the best wrestlers in the world, on one of the biggest shows on the AEW and NJPW calendar no less, OC walked down to […]

When it comes to AEW, one of the more confusing creative decisions in recent memory was the introduction of the All-Atlantic Championship. The inaugural champion, who eventually turned out to be PAC, was to be decided in a tournament featuring wrestlers that were not located anywhere near the Atlantic Ocean, the concept of the belt […]

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 […]

AEW put a ton of work into the buildup to Forbidden Door, their co-promotional Pay-Per-View with NJPW. They produced digital hype packages, committed serious television time to contextualizing every angle, and even compiled it all on YouTube, where fans could catch up on anything they missed, or simply watch it again to familiarize themselves with […]

After almost a week of anticipation, The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer finally released his ratings for AEW x NJPW’s Forbidden Door, and needless to say, they were relatively predictable in the best possible way. Sure, some fans wibble with a rating one way or another, but for the most part, the information matched the eye […]

In the almost week since Jon Moxley triumphantly held the Interim World Championship above his head before being viciously attacked by Chris Jericho, a lot has been said about AEW x NJPW’s Forbidden Door. Some have called it the Pay-Per-View of the year, Tony Khan called it the second-most profitable event in AEW history, and […]

Danhausen is a rascal. Though he’s clearly coded as a babyface both via his presentation, the tunnel he comes out of, and the reactions of his adoring fanbase, Danhausen has consistently found ways to get into other people’s business during his time in AEW, whether that’s interjecting into the Beach Break match between Adam Cole […]

Many a wrestler in both AEW and NJPW has taken credit for being the Forbidden Door. While Hiroshi Tanahashi came up with the phrase, Jon Moxley has called himself the Forbidden Door, as has Tony Khan in his weirdly charming Impact Wrestling commercials, and Jay White, ever one for modesty, took credit for pretty much […]

While Forbidden Door is officially finished, the afterglow of the AEW x NJPW co-promotional Pay-Per-View is very much still alive and well for the fans who either watched along from home or were lucky enough to make it out to the United Center in Chicago. The card had long-term storytelling, newfound rivalries, and made more […]

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 […]