Well after Dominion today we know the top two matches for the second Forbidden Door PPV
IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship: Kenny Omega (c) vs Will Ospreay
Kazuchika Okada vs Bryan Danielson
After that you can book whatever and still have card of the year.
At least we got something better then bryan vs zsj
Danielson vs ZSJ would be fantastic. But I am also glad to see Danielson vs Okada
For anyone watching ROH it's probably going to be ZSJ vs Samoa Joe at Forbidden Door
I see that the G1 people were announced and no Danielson. I think it will be hard for Kahn to ever let Danielson off of AEW television that long to do the tournament. Sucks because I want to see him do the G1. I would subscribe back to the streaming long enough to watch that if he was ever in it.
Okada v. Danielson will be a good match no doubt about it.
Yes it will. I need to scrap up the money for Forbidden Door if nothing else for that match.
I can't justify the amount of money they charge for ppvs for even a stacked card.
It is hard to and I have yet to actually buy one. I will probably do this one if I can.
vpn with an aew plus sub through fite gets me live access to dynamite and rampage every week, with full commentary through picture in picture ad breaks, and $20 pricing on ppv's for $7 a month. they also have every single episode of dynamite and rampage archived and available to replay. got the ppv bundle they had prior to double or nothing, so i got DON, forbidden door 2, all out and full gear for $70 total.
best way to watch the programming.
Nice
I'm thinking I'll go to a movie theater for it
I thought about that for past ppvs but by the time I do gas to theater and all that I am pretty much spending what I would spend to sit and watch it at home.
I don't know if it's for this show or somewhere else but Despy challenged Mox to a rematch of their Death Match from last year.
They haven't shown a wrestling ppv at the theater in my city since closed circuit tv in the 80's for WrestleMania 5 lol.
I assume in bigger cities this is more common.
AEW does do it in select theaters. I don't think they have done it for all for all of them. Yeah probably more likely to find it in a bigger city. I think when they do it there is like one that carries it right outside of the city here in St. Louis. We have a few big theaters in the county right outside of the city.
I am seeing it listed on AMC and Fandago but no theaters come up so not sure where they are doing it.
Near me there is a Dave and Busters and a movie theater in the same parking lot that both show AEW ppvs
Match graphics
Fake newsOriginally Posted by Defrost
This is for the July NJPW Strong Korakuen Hall shows
An update on that the match is Despy and Jun Kasai vs Mox and Homicide.
They've added MJF vs Tanahashi and SANADA vs Jungle Boy. ZSJ vs Orange Cassidy, Willow vs Storm, and Daniel Garcia vs Katsuyori Shibata look likely too.
Sanada v. Jungle Boy...I thought I was reading a joke meme on Twitter when I saw that. There will be at least one match to completely not give a fuck about. They must really hate the IWGP championship. Last year was a terrible match too.
I like the idea of a match between those two but for the IWGP championship not as much. I am a fan of both of them. It won't be a bad match but I can't see people being excited about it.
I am mixed on MJF and Tanahashi.
ZSJ vs Orange I am down for since Danielson is facing Okada.
Garcia vs Shibata will be good as well.
Willow vs Storm. Meh nothing against either one of them but meh
I know there are some fans out there who will try to tell me "there's no real stories going into this show" and I'm totally fine with that. Match quality, I just don't think Jungle Boy is very good. Sanada is very good, and the match won't be Alicia Fox v. Melina terrible or anything. It's just a match up I'm personally not interested in.
Yeah I am fine with the lack of stories as well. I like the match up. I just struggle seeing Jungle Boy challenging for the IWGP championship even though he just challenged for the AEW championship.
I'm still struggling to accept Sanada as IWGP champion. If I'm being transparent I really haven't been down with any IWGP champs since Naito. Ibushi's reign was a blip on the radar. I like Sanada, I've liked him since he was in TNA doing his thing. So this just something that I feel like they could've had a better option than Jungle Boy. I'm not sold on the kid being a top guy and how do you go from challenging for the World title to some weird tag-team with Hook and now you're back to challenging another World champion.
To me it's like if this was NJPW v. WWE, and Sanada was challenged by Tyler Bate. Not saying Jungle Boy and Bate are the same in any way other than my reaction would be the same. Why this guy? did they not have anyone else? This is probably a way to keep elevating JB despite the weird pairing with Hook.
One of the dumbest bookings I've ever seen. It's going to be the catalyst to a Jungle Boy heel turn. He keeps losing title matches and he said he's gunna win a title this year dammit. He doesn't even care what title, as long as it's a title.
Cool story bro. Tony you suck. New Japan sucks for agreeing to this crap.
SANADA should be wrestling Jericho, Jay White, or Ricky Starks.
Jay White lost two different loser leaves NJPW matches and this is technically a NJPW show. Besides if he were to work this show the obvious match is against David Finlay
Ricky Starks cannot afford a loss right now.
Jericho would not agree to put over SANADA.
There are a lot of guys without spots right now that are very interesting. Since Mox's feud in NJPW right now is against Despy I can see a six man with Strong Style against BCC. You add that to the three matches teased Wednesday that gets you to 8 matches. Counting the preshow last year there were 13 matches.
Sanada/JB is fucking weird but the match will probably be pretty decent.
It was gonna be hard to top the rest of the card and you’ve got to have Sanada in there somewhere.
Swerve could have been a cool one. Pac could of been cool too now that I put a bit more though into it lol
For all the hand wringing last year, I was super guilty of this so I am not throwing anyone under the bus here, the build to Forbidden Door had way more NJPW guys showing up in AEW than this year. No one cares this year because the top two matches look cooler though.
yeah, a card like this is all about dream matches and they really didn't deliver any of the ones people really clamor for last year. here, danielson/okada is EXACTLY the match everyone dreams about when they think of an aew/njpw interpromotional show. it's really all they need.
So updated card with a minor Rampage spoiler
Bryan Danielson vs Kazuchika Okada
IWGP US Title Kenny Omega vs Will Ospreay
AEW World Title MJF vs Hiroshi Tanahashi
IWGP World Heavyweight Title SANADA vs Jack Perry
AEW Women's Title Toni Storm vs Willow Nightingale
Owen Hart Tournament CM Punk vs Satoshi Kojima
AEW International Title Orange Cassidy vs Katsuyori Shibata vs Zack Sabre Jr vs Daniel Garcia
Jon Moxley/Claudio Castagnoli/Wheeler Yuta/Shota Umino/Konosuke Takeshita vs Young Bucks/Hangman Page/Eddie Kingston/Tomohiro Ishii
Adam Cole vs Filthy Tom Lawlor
Sting/Darby Allin/X vs Chris Jericho/Minoru Suzuki/Sammy Guevara
Owen Hart Tournament Athena vs Billie Starkz
CM Punk v. Kojima would've been a dream match of mine 15 years ago no doubt about it. Even today I'm digging it just wish we could've seen them throw down in their prime. Love Kojima very exciting to see him on the card.
Anyone else find it kind of lazy that the AEW Women's Title match isn't really a Forbidden Door thing? There isn't any non ROH/AEW women in New Japan?
The only woman that is under New Japan contract is Mercedes Mone aka Sasha Banks. She was supposed to wrestle Saraya on this show but she's hurt.
New Japan's sister promotion Stardom has a PPV the same day in Japan so all their top wrestlers are booked, and Rossy Ogawa who runs Stardom has shown little to no interest in working with AEW.
Yeah what Defrost said. We would have gotten Mercedes on the show but she is hurt. At least Willow is the NPJW Strong women's champ to kind of make it work with the whole Forbidden door thing. Its a stretch but its there
Ok that makes sense for some reason I thought they had a roster going. I knew they had the relationship with Stardom but yeah I just thought they were doing their own thing as well.
Yep that was my bad I thought NJPW had a women's roster of their own developing. It's kind of cool that it's champ v. champ obviously but then it's like....Willow v. Toni? Didn't have the same vibe as the rest of the card where it really felt like AEW v. NJPW. But under these limited circumstances it is what it is.
Yeah they made the Women's championship but it is basically with Stardom and I guess gets defended here and there or will be defended here and there on NJPW shows.
I was surprised when they created the NJPW Strong women's title because like again they don't have women competing much beyond Mercedes on shows over here.
So yeah we get a champ vs champ situation which is cool but yeah the one champ happens to be AEW/ROH at the same time. So it is what it is like you said.
Countdown show. I thought it was pretty good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgJq1-MTelE
Cole’s been pulled from the show. Illness of some description.
i had zero desire to see him vs lawlor and there's already a shit ton of matches, so no big loss.
Never even heard of the Lawlor guy so tbh no big loss to me either.
Apart from Okada, Suzuki from a casual fan’s perspective..AEW do a bit of a supbar job building up these guys for the casuals unless they’re in the know. Kinda wish they’d build a little of these guys up on TV to see what they’re all about instead of just assuming fans will know. Vignettes can go a long way if they weren’t so stuck on their niche audience.
I did fall in love with Takeshita though and fucking love he’s getting more spotlight.
As much as we don’t care about the Cole news…might’ve slightly skewed with the storyline plans for MJF if they had him get involved though.
i marked out so freaking hard for that entrance
so that seizure spot fucking killed that match nicely.
Yeah what an awful idea
Welp that was the greatest show of all time
It was okay.
paul turner not doing anything about don coming back out during will/kenny did not digest well for me, especially when he's getting MORE INVOLVED than he had before he was ejected. i think kevin kelly or excalibur said that if don really cared he might be thinking of throwing in the towel for will, and that would have been way better. don comes down with a towel as if he's contemplating saving will from further punishment, does the same kinda spot trying to shield him from the v trigger, and they use all that to slip will the screwdriver. would make more sense for the ref to be a bit more lenient with allowing don back around ringside in that context.
i did fucking love don telling will to use the kamigoye on kenny, though, so that has to stay.
The problem is AEW isn't for the casual. A casual that watches AEW knows about 100x more than a casual who watches WWE. They're not trying to bring you and your family to Forbidden Door this is for the super fans of pro wrestling.
When Defrost says this was the greatest show of all time...that's the type of weird you're dealing with when it comes to this fanbase lol. AEW literally expects you to do the work yourself. Don't know Satoshi Kojima? You have a smartphone look it up. Tony Khan and the majority of the AEW roster/fans do assume everyone who watches AEW knows every little detail about every fucking asshole who wrestles there. Even if it's some jobber on Dark getting squashed oh he had a multi layered in depth storyline you just had to go find it.
It's kind of like going to school not everything is taught in class sometimes you have to visit the library for more info. Which is why watching AEW can be a chore the older you get holy fuck.
Forbidden Door is not a show designed for casual fans. It is a show meant for insane people like me. Which is kinda funny since outside of Wembley the two Forbidden Door shows have done their best business.
Also with a day of hindsight this was not the best show ever
Still a really good show all around. I agree about the Bryan and Don spots though. Both moments that took me out of otherwise great matches. I was also happy to see Ishii get the pinfall.
Wrestling outside of WWE is almost purely "get lost in what you're watching" type tv for me. Nobody is as storyline driven so it's easy to not really care about Jungle Boy v. Sanada and just watch "the match". Downside is sometimes a shitty match from a technical standpoint can be saved by the story and if your story is you like to play Fortnite with Tony Khan so you're gifted certain spots---then it's hard to care about anything beyond the match.
Caught most of it save Bryan/Okada where I fell asleep and will watch tonight.
Heel Jungle Boy should be interesting. Hope they give him a new theme now.
As others have said Omega/Ospreay was fantastic save the confusing Don stuff at the end.
Agree on Ospreay/Kenny. Awesome overall.
Felt MJF and Tanahashi was a bit shit.
Enjoyed the 10 man and the 4 way for the International title. Was a bit dead by the time of the main event, but popped for The Final Countdown. And yes, the convulsing was not nice.
Overall, solid 8/10 show. Didn't see the pre-show.
How do people find Kevin Kelly on coms, generally? I was pleased to hear the commentary was different for Collision with him and Nigel and think they'll be decent though. Did make me laugh during that 10 man tag though. Crowd is pumped, Moxley and Eddie have just started their chop fest and Kelly pipes up with "I hope Taz is ok".
I like Kevin Kelly on commentary Which is a sentence I didn't think I'd be saying in 2023.
I like Kevin too.
Also winced a bit at Sammy coming down on the back of Sting's head/neck, from the top rope. That looked iffy and dangerous. Sting doesn't need to be doing that.
That was a horrible spot for them to be in, following the Kenny/Ospreay match.
Chris Jericho. Can't put my finger on it, but can't take him seriously in 2023. Can put up with him in multi-man matches, but don't want to see him in singles or even straight tags anymore. Kinda irrational.
For north of 7 figures and no real drawing power Sting better be taking that bump lol.
I really enjoy Kevin Kelly and I liked him back in the day too when he was in the WWF. He really shined in ROH. What they should do is just have him pull double duty, get rid of Excalibur on Dynamite. Excalibur and Taz need to be the ones doing Rampage. Just one hour a week or maybe the youtube shows.
Was more of a botch than a bump, from Sammy. Wouldn't be putting myself in that position if I were Sting.
I'm convinced he's using all this money to upgrade to full blown Cyborg Sting. It's the natural evolution after he trained with Robocop. Ever since then he's been adding one piece at a time. It explains why he can take a triple powerbomb through a table off a ladder and no sell it lol.
Agree on Kelly. I think he fits in well with the product.I like Kevin too.
That was a horrible spot for them to be in, following the Kenny/Ospreay match.
It's a crappy spot for that match but it's a necessary beast. You ease the crowd after a hot match and you figure you can trim time off that and it's not a pain to do so with that match, rather than going back-to-back on big matches and suddenly have to trim from a match you really don't want to cut short.
Absolutely. 100% the match I'd have had there.
On a rewatch Danielson does the seizure spot right after he realizes his arm was hurt. I wonder if that was improvised to buy time.
If that's the case, it makes sense. Still, I wish they had done that spot without the seizures. It was right on that line of "this is a bit cheesy for this match," and "Holy fuck, Bryan, don't scare me like that!"
yeah i noticed that after going back and watching the spot after hearing bryan at the scrum. definitely think it was likely improvised to buy time and get doc sampson in to relay some info. still fucked the match, though. makes okada look like a fucking psychopath.
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