One week closer to AEW’s Forbidden Door pay-per-view, featuring wrestlers from AEW, New Japan Pro Wrestling, STARDOM, and CMLL. Lots of action being touted for tonight heading towards the PPV, more feuds build and a big push towards the Briscoe/MJF feud with a huge 12-man tag team match tonight.
The show kicks off with MJF and the Don Callis Family backstage, where Don announced who MJFwill have on his team tonight: TNT Champion Jake Doyle, Kyle Fletcher, Kazuchka Okada, and Tren… Andrade? Trent strutted towards the camera only to be caught off guard when Don called for Andrade, who is irate and refuses to participate.
Trent Baretta seems to be a bit unhappy with his position in the DCF lately.
Kenny Omega defeated Tony Nese
This was short and to the point. TMDK make their way to the ring in an effort to intimidate Kenny. The Young Bucks and Jack Perry arrive to even the score.
Brodido defeated The Death Riders (Mox and Garcia)
Solid match. Taking four men who can be very diverse in the ring. Mox and Brody are mostly brawlers, Bandido and Garcia tangle with grappling and suplexes. This became a wild tag match where the action turned dramatically serious with some comedy spots thrown in, such as Bandido suplexing Marina Shafir. Bandido and Brody surged on an offensive, with Bandido hitting a deadlift 21-plex while Brody dove from the ring onto Mox on the floor. Bandido pins Garcia for the shocking win.
Very cool finish. Very cool to see Brody and Bandido back together as a team, and defeating Mox and Garcia no less? Later on, Bandido challenges Mox for the Continental Championship at Forbidden Door.
Bandido gets very excited during his promos. However, it doesn’t seem as though there will be a title change. It seems the Death Riders are like Batman, they are whatever they need to be at the moment. This match was booked as heels, later in the show, babyfaces.
Anyone else noticing Forbidden Door is mostly AEW vs. AEW matches?
Backstage: Tommaso Ciampa trash talks on Chris Jericho.
Backstage: Protokada beat up Tomohiro Ishii. Looks like the Conglomeration will need a replacement.
Backstage: The Dogs are about to head to the ring for their promo segment, except Cope and Cage blindside them and take the segment for themselves.
Cope and Cage briefly talk about history and how they thought they were top tier until they encountered the likes of The New Age Outlaws, the APA, and others. This didn’t exactly get pops from the live crowd. The point is, they learned from those who were there long before them. So they plan on bringing their old-grumpy butts to Forbidden Door when they face the Dogs.
Promo for Starlight Kid who will face Thekla for the AEW Women’ s World Championship. Thekla has a menacing response. Again, with an AEW title on the line, it seems the outcome of this will be predictable. However, I anticipate this will be an excellent match.
Mercedes Mone defeated Hazuki to advance to the finals of the Owen Hart Memorial
Starting off a bit disjointed, but this cleared up very quickly as the action intensified between the two championship contending women. While Mone dominated early on, Hazuki managed to gain the advantage, sending the CEO to take multiple breathers to re-evaluate strategy. Later on came a while exchange of reversals and pinning combinations where it truly felt believable for Hazuki to win. However, one counter too many proved to be her downfall as Mone hit a backstabber, rolling into the Statement Maker for the submission.
Promo for Maya World airs, followed by Athena.
Wonder if AEW would have considered a tournament final involving women from Stardom or CMLL?
Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay have a promo-fest in the ring
One of the best promo segments between them. At first it seemed a typical face vs. heel segment, but at some point those lines felt very blurred as they discussed their mutual history and hate for the Death Riders and their successes together in the past two years. However, it eventually escalated into each one promising to go as far as to permanently eliminate the other in their individual pursuits of the AEW Men’s World Championship.
The Main Event 12-Man Tag
MJF, Andrade, Kevin Knight, Kyle Fletcher, Okada, and Jake Doyle defeated Mark Briscoe, Darby Allin, Konosuke Takeshita, Roderick Strong, and Orange Cassidy
A wild main event. Everyone got their shots in as these big main event tag matches can do. The highlights involve them keeping the rage between Darby and Knight boiling. Any time the two had a moment, they would tear into each other like rabid wolverines. However, this came to a crashing halt when Doyle threw Darby like a javelin into the ringpost. Fletcher and Knight had some beef, MJF and Andrade couldn’t stay on the same page. Regardless, MJF kept his eyes forward, managing to get lucky with surviving a Jay Driller piledriver, and then forcing Roderick Strong to tap out to the Salt of the Earth armbar.
This is a great angle for a stable. Lots of top tier wrestlers, many of whom are so competitive they would turn on each in an instant. Yet, Don Callis remains unfazed and unconcerned as he continues to grow his stable of unstable egos. While wrestlers like Brian Cage, Lance Archer, Mark Davis, and Jake Doyle are content, Kevin Knight, Kyle Fletcher, Andrade, and perhaps Trent might dispute the claims of no tension in the ranks.
Forbidden Door has potential to be a good PPV. Will it match up to early events in the year which have blown fans away? Too early to tell. However, some of these feuds coming to a head may not see their final resolution until All In.
