AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door Review - June 30, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Zero Hour: Kyle Fletcher def. Serpentico

Of all the pre-show matches, this one made the most sense to go on first considering there was barely anyone in the building at this point. For those that missed it, Fletcher lost the ROH World Television Championship to Atlantis Jr. at a CMLL event on Friday night, which is why he didn't have the belt with him here. This was a simple squash for Fletcher, but I don't know why it needed to exist.

Zero Hour: The Kings of the Black Throne def. Private Party, Tomohiro Ishii & Kyle O'Reilly, and NJPW Strong Openweight Champion Gabe Kidd & Roderick Strong in a Four-Way Tag Team Match

This was added to the pre-show just a few days ago. It was a blatant attempt to get as many people on the card as possible and that's fine, but it would've been nice if there were stakes of some sort. Not even a future opportunity at the AEW World Tag Team Championship? House of Black have largely been spinning their wheels since the program with Adam Copeland ended, so I'm glad they went over here.

Zero Hour: Tam Nakano and Willow Nightingale def. Momo Watanabe and Kris Statlander

Honestly speaking, I have zero familiarity with Nakano and Watanabe, but they had solid showings and this was obviously another opportunity for Stardom to have more of a presence on the pay-per-view. It was a well-worked match. It didn't really matter who won, but Nightingale's team winning all but guarantees that Statlander is advancing in the women's Owen Hart Cup when she and Nightingale go one-on-one.

Zero Hour: Mariah May def. Saraya in a Women's Owen Hart Cup Quarterfinal Match

A lot of people were up in arms about Saraya beating May a few weeks ago. I didn't mind because I assumed it was leading to something, and sure enough, that's exactly what happened. May avenged the loss here and advanced in the tournament as she should have. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary about their outing, but the effort was there. Plus, Toni Storm and Mina Shirakawa got to further their feud one last time before they faced off later on in the night.

Zero Hour: The Lucha Brothers and Mistico def. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Titan, Yotu Tsuji and Hiromu Takahahsi)

Penta El Zero Miedo, Rey Fenix and Mistico made for a terrific team. I don't know if they teamed up in another promotion before, but they had wonderful chemistry here and had a quality contest with the New Japan Pro-Wrestling crew. It was all action and they never seemed to slow down. If Mistico stuck around in AEW, I'd love to see him and the Lucha Bros challenge for the Unified World Trios Championship.

MJF def. Hechicero

This was a wise choice to open the event with MJF being the hometown hero. This wasn't a marquee match whatsoever, but it was decent and the crowd was into MJF. Now that we've seen it play out, I can now definitively say I'm baffled AEW didn't have a bigger bout in mind for MJF in his hometown. If this event didn't emanate from Long Island, I'm confident MJF wouldn't have been on the card at all.

The Elite (AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada and AEW World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks) def. Hiroshi Tanahashi and The Acclaimed

Getting Okada and Tanahashi back in the ring together (this time in AEW) was cool, and I'm not someone who follows NJPW's storylines consistently. Tanahashi's knees are clearly shot, but he held his own in there and it was an enjoyable match. I figured The Acclaimed and Tanahashi would win before The Acclaimed challenge the Bucks for the AEW World Tag Team Championship soon, but apparently not. However, it was Tanahashi who was pinned, so they don't lose much steam from this.

Bryan Danielson def. Shingo Takagi in a Men's Owen Hart Cup Quarterfinal Match

As noted, I don't watch much NJPW, but Takagi is awesome and I love that we got to see him up against Danielson before Danielson wraps up his run as a full-timer. Unsurprisingly, they had a hell of a hard-hitting match. Danielson advancing was never in doubt, but Takagi looked very credible in defeat. Now we have Danielson vs. Pac to look forward to in the next round on Wednesday's Dynamite.

AEW Women's World Champion "Timeless" Toni Storm def. Artist of Stardom Champion Mina Shirakawa

Say what you will about AEW's lack of storytelling, but they've done a stellar job telling this story with Storm, Shirakawa and May in the last three months. The only thing missing from this match was May being the special guest referee. I was shocked there were no shenanigans where May had to choose between the two, but that's because they all ended up being friends, anyway. That said, the turn is most certainly coming sooner rather than later. They took the straightforward approach and I have no complaints. This was top-notch stuff.

Zack Sabre Jr. def. Orange Cassidy

The clash of styles actually made this match more interesting to me. We've seen Cassidy go in there and hang with some of the best in the world, so I was hardly shocked that he put in another excellent performance here. They had a good match and made the most of the time they had. Cassidy has multiple enemies and Sabre Jr. has a whole faction, so I appreciated none of them got involved.

Hook, Samoa Joe and Katsuyori Shibata def. FTW Champion Chris Jericho, Big Bill and NJPW World Television Champion Chris Jericho

Much like most of Jericho's pay-per-view matches in the past six months, this could have easily happened on any average edition of Dynamite. There wasn't anything technically wrong with it, but it was the third six-man tag team match of the night and the weakest of the bunch. Joe and Cobb going at it was fun, though, and Hook pinning Jericho was the correct outcome. Please let that mean their rivalry is over and they aren't going to have a rematch for the FTW Championship.

Jack Perry def. ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe, Konosuke Takeshita, El Phantasmo, Dante Martin and Lio Rush in a Ladder Match to Win the Vacant AEW TNT Championship

This was a total spot-fest and I mean that in the best way possible. The Ladder match is my favorite wrestling stipulation, but we've seen so many of them in recent years that most of them blend together for me at this point. That said, this had enough crazy spots to make it a spectacle. Perry winning the title was extremely predictable yet logical with everyone in The Elite now having gold.

AEW TBS Champion Mercedes Mone def. Stephanie Vaquer in a Winner Takes All Match to Win the NJPW Strong Women's Championship

I believe the only other match I've seen Vaquer have was her AEW in-ring debut on Saturday's Collision, but I knew she and Mone would work really together and they didn't disappoint. This was a great match. The crowd rejecting Mone was interesting. Sure, she's from Boston, but it could it also be that she's much more natural as a heel? Here's hoping she'll be a heel for her feud with Britt Baker, who returned following a nine-month absence.​

Tetsuya Naito def. Jon Moxley to Win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship

It was smart to showcase the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship right before the main event. This is as much of a NJPW event as it is an AEW event, so you want to make the title feel important. Unfortunately, this fell flat. I don't know how it compared to their last encounter because I didn't see that one, but the crowd was quiet for this and only came alive for the finish. It wasn't bad necessarily, but it was underwhelming. Now let's get Moxley back to doing something of note on AEW TV.

AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland def. AEW International Champion Will Ospreay (AEW International Championship Wasn't Defended)

What an outstanding main event. I had high hopes coming into it and they somehow exceeded them. Strickland was my pick to win, but some of those suspenseful nearfalls down the stretch had me thinking otherwise. Their chemistry was off the charts, and despite the show featuring 15 matches over almost six hours, the crowd didn't sound the least bit exhausted. I could've done without the involvement of Don Callis toward the end, but I understand that existed to get us closer to Ospreay splitting from The Don Callis Family (which should've happened a while ago). This was a Match of the Year candidate and the statement victory Strickland needed as AEW World Champion.

Overall Show

In the grand scheme of things, Forbidden Door usually isn't a super significant show, but the three title changes (two of which were from NJPW) were notable and the pacing was better than it's been for other AEW events. I personally prefer the "less is more" approach, but you can't say they didn't load this card with some strong wrestling to give people their money's worth. The fantastic main event was worth the price of the pay-per-view alone. Absolutely seek it out in case you skipped Forbidden Door because the interpromotional stuff isn't for you.

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