#work with Black athletes. AEW has gotten better about this but man. :| there are still some questionable decisions being made

[hostilecityshowdown]

interesting that "trench" deleted his twitter full of neo nazi followers, wiped his instagram, and removed all references to bring a "proud trench wolf" from what little social media presence i can find. this is after his original twitter was seemingly deleted and remade a few months before his debute. i don't know how legitimate this reporting about him being "out on injury" [before wrestling at all or really... doing anything requiring much physicality?] is, but if there are some company conduct/social issues at play i would Not. be surprised

[danwhobrowses]

AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2022 - Initial Thoughts

Back in the Meij era of New Japan, during the beginning of AEW, it was said it'd never happen: and nobody believed that for a second.

3 years later here we are, validated by that skepticism. AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling's first (and hopefully one of many) supercard hit the airwaves last night/early morning because UK times, and after some radio silence I have finally gotten around to watching it and giving you some of my quickfire thoughts on the show.

Spoilers for the event of course

Before I start anything I will address that people saying this card was 'cursed' because so many injuries are happening around it are being silly. Yes, the injury list AEW has is large, but we know nothing about all the return dates, and honestly only 4 wrestlers on that injured list were needed to be replaced on the Forbidden Door card; Punk, Ishii, Hiromu and Danielson. The show isn't cursed it's just that injuries had poor timing.

Buy-In

A big plus for AEW going back to multiple matches because DoN disappointed me with having the one buy-in match. Granted we could've slotted another women's match but given NJPW's track record we're lucky we got even one.

Love that we also have a Japanese ring announcer...who's having his own mini feud with Justin Roberts XD

Interested that they started with the Factory, but I guess Yoshi and Goto are a crowd pleaser, Goto's music is a grandiose banger too

We can complain a lot about how irrelevant the Factory are, but you cannot deny that QT gets the crowd reaction needed

Surprise match of Comoroto vs Archer, it was a lot more even then it seemed on paper, wonder if that means something for Comoroto

Chicago time is whiskey time

Lee got the pop, and the fist bump

Yeah could I inject about 10 20 more of Swerve vs Despy please and thank you?

I loved that tag match ngl that was main card caliber, had technique and story (I only bet against Swerve and Keith getting undone because Despy looks to be eyeing up the Pure title)

And Ricky 'Thank you for getting the reference' Starks and Hobbs did show up in Forbidden Door at least

I love the Acclaimed & the Ass Boys, they're my idiots, the pop was nice to hear too, the rap was good too

Oh Danhausen XD With the Ass boys song

Man Knight's got leaps

4v2 and my idiots still win, that surprised me. Thought the Dojo boys would pull an upset, but this one still has story

Main Card

Clever to get the JAS shenanigans out of the way, while also pulling on the popularity of Judas, Kingston and Suzuki

KAZE NI NARE

Kingston with that world champion level pop, ON SIGHT

Say what you will about Jericho but he bumped for Yuta so much that the crowd went rabid

I loved this match, though I think you could've added Takeshita and Taichi (or DOUKI for the BOSJ connection) to make it better, maybe seeing Tay get friendly fire dead again because that's always a pop and she sells great. Of course Jericho won because of the lopsided veteran level and Blood & Guts setup but I ain't mad

Kinda wish RPGV came out with Statlander and Chuck, or at least any Chaos guys, or Sue!

Jeffery Corn is still one hell of an athlete, no offense to him and Great-O-Chad but tbf I would've had Aussie Open in this match instead

Man Dax got injured early, that sucked

But he came back! Are we worked or shot?

FTR: 7 OF THE BEST. Great match, Dax really making a point of being Wrestler of the Year

Juice, phrasing...

Ah, they aren't New Japan tables though

Connors was of course a downgrade from Ishii but damn did that scrappy lad get over

Great finish as well, beaming for PAC finally getting some gold. Black will need gold soon though

It kinda saddens me that former world champ Shingo is KOPW champion. Also no special gear from the Dudes with Attitude, I was hoping Darby would do the NJPW Lion half-face

STING DIVING FROM THE ENTRANCE TUNNEL!

This is Ye Olde Young Bucks here XD

Ah ELP, WCPW/Defiant boys represent! But the nipple cripple? Really?

Sting did forget his spot there but it's fine, it's all good fun, he is in his 60s after all. The match ended soon after anyway and it was a nice fan pleaser

JAS you don't attack Shooter! How darest!

Lord does Rosa serve with the gear

The match was shorter than expected but it was still a good match

A lot do criticize Rosa's reign but between this and Deeb I'm hoping a corner's been turned. We also have to be grateful that Tony got this match on the card, it may not have happened had both not had Stardom ties

Bringing JR for flippydoos? Strange choice

No new music or gear for OC, too lazy for either

This is Anime in wrestling form

Again, love him or hate him, Billy Bird Bridges is a heck of a wrestler, wish he still had Elevated as his theme though

That was a 2.999 as I ever saw one

LAWD that final third was incredible, I was expecting a great match but, LAWD

SHIBATA!? I was expecting Chuck for the save but SHIBATA!?

CLAUDIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Even made a nod to the cameraman theory

Dude one-armed ZSJ from the outside, up the steps and threw him into the ring

I was 90% sure it'd be Claudio, because he's a perfect fit (it was not missed that my post with him and Regal started making waves too) for BCC and he can still fill in the 'beef with Kingston' part of Blood & Guts. But it did beget a question of the outcome, which is why I considered the Time Limit Draw

The story of Claudio having the strike power but ZSJ having the grappling was well told, it may've gone on a little too long in the middle portion - though to be honest I do have a limit with submission style wrestlers - but it was a good finish, welcome Claudio!

I got to the 4 Way and realised that it was just this and Mox/Tana left, this show has flown by

Still would've preferred the old IWGP World Title belt, also for Red Shoes to be reffing, Bryce and Aubrey are great but Red Shoes is like NJPW royalty of reffing

I did not expect Cole to be the one to make the first betrayal shot but it definitely makes sense, I expected Hangman to go for Okada though

Man, Okada's just so fucking Crisp. These are 4 of the best wrestlers in the world right now, and none of them 'look a particular way'

The match ended abruptly though, it was good, but it could've been more, didn't even get a Rainmaker. Seems like an audible was called with Cole getting injured, he walked on his own

To the dude who had the 'Pay MJF' sign, that's not the problem man, AEW have said multiple times that they're willing to pay him what he wanted

Should've expected the blood with a match like this, though I did wonder if Blood & Guts would've led to hesitation

Did...Did Tana just do the Kamigoye??

It was another good match, but it also felt cut short a little bit, I wonder if there was a timing problem

I don't think the big brawl was necessary to end things, especially since that shaved minutes off the match, but it is a matter of AEW having Blood & Guts 3 days later.

Conclusion

Overall, I freaking loved this PPV. Granted, there was some low spots with the abrupt endings of the World title matches (women's included) and a brawl ending, plus the looming presence of Blood & Guts and the unfortunate injury bug, but that low is still on the good bar. When your worst match is still good, you know you've done great.

Now that we've proven that Forbidden Door is a success, we should start planning next year to invest more into it. I'm talking all the stops; I want 2 days so we can give talent more time, I want more matches that use the talent pool, I want to see TJPW and Stardom involved so we can get more women's matches, and I want it to have its own specific slot that's not between another PPV and special episode.

If I were to pick my favourite match, it probably has to be Ospreay vs OC, just inching ahead of the All-Atlantic 4-Way because of that final third. But when it comes to whether I was entertained, surprised and invested throughout, the answer is Yes, Yes and God Yes.

Match Results and Predictions

Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) def The Factory (QT Marshall & Aaron Solo) [Pinfall by Goto on Solo via Reverse DDT/Spinebuster combo] Lance Archer def Nick Comoroto [Pinfall via Blackout] Swerve in their Glory def Suzuki-Gun (Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado) [Pinfall by Lee on Kanemaru via Jackhammer] Max Caster & Gunn Club [Billy, Austin & Colten] w/ Anthony Bowens def NJPW LA Dojo [The DKC, Kevin Knight, Alex Coughlin & Yuya Uemura] (Pinfall by Caster on DKC via Mic Drop) Minoru Suzuki and Le Sex Gods (Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara w/ Tay Conti) def. Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta & Shota Umino [Pinfall by Jericho on Umino via Judas Effect] FTR (c) def United Empire (Jeff Cobb and Great-O-Khan) (c) & Roppongi Vice (Trent? and Rocky Romero) [Pinfall on Romero by Dax via Big Rig] - NEW IWGP TAG CHAMPIONS!! PAC def Clark Connors, Malakai Black and Miro [Submission on Connors via Brutalizer] - INAUGURAL AEW ALL-ATLANTIC CHAMPION!! Dudes with Attitude (Sting, Darby Allin and Shingo Takagi) def Bullet Club (The Young Bucks & El Phantasmo w/Hikuleo) [Pinfall by Takagi on ELP via Last of the Dragon] Thunder Rosa (c) def Toni Storm [Pinfall via Final Reckoning] Will Ospreay (c) w/Aussie Open def Orange Cassidy [Pinfall via Hidden Blade] Claudio Castagnoli def Zack Sabre Jr. [Pinfall via Ricola Bomb] Jay White (c) w/ Gedo def Kazuchika Okada, 'Hangman' Adam Page & Adam Cole [Pinfall on Cole] Jon Moxley def Hiroshi Tanahashi [Pinfall via Death Rider] - NEW INTERIM AEW WORLD CHAMPION!!