AEW Forbidden Door 2024 Discussion

[LaGoosh]

He's under contract to AEW for sure. I don't see them letting him go. 

Him pissing off to do the G1 then coming back and saying "On my time away I realised I don't need Don Callis" seems like an easy, logical babyface turn.

[Chris B]

I think Takeshita has potential as a main event heel. I just want him to get away from Don Callis. Because it diminishes him - I don't want Don Callis to be the brains behind Takeshita. I want Takeshita to be the brains behind Takeshita. I want him to be solo and dangerous. As a dominant heel, he could be amazing.

[Duke]

15 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

This angle shows how goddamn far Swerve jumped. Incredible. 

 

AS much as anything, I'm impressed by that Osprey jump to make sure it lands. I don't know if that's more impressive that Swerve hitting the stomp on the Oscutter, but it's still incredible

[DavidB6937]

Got respect for the guy for this. He's definitely come to AEW with the right attitude all over.

 

 

[mrtrickio]

10 hours ago, Duke said:

AS much as anything, I'm impressed by that Osprey jump to make sure it lands. I don't know if that's more impressive that Swerve hitting the stomp on the Oscutter, but it's still incredible

I don't recall who said it but it was sold by the commentary team that Ospreay jumped to try and escape the stomp. Clever call. Such a freaking awesome match.

[JLM]

AEW Forbidden Door 2024

ZERO HOUR:

Damn Kyle Fletcher lost the ROH TV Title in CMLL. Poor Lee Johnson put himself through hell trying to get that thing. Skipped his match with Serpentico, obviously. I know it was just a squash but the idea of adding anything else to this night of pro wrestling was so absurd I audibly scoffed when Serpentico came out to start the pre-show. What the fuck Tony Khan. 

Kyle O'Reilly/Tomohiro Ishii vs Malakai Black/Brody King vs Roddy Strong/Gabe Kidd vs Private Party

Ishii was fun in this one but it was pretty much a Rampage main event type match. Unfortunately the most memorable bit was Brody King taking a horrible looking head first bump when Ishii hit him with a not-quite-brainbuster-not-quite-impaler botched move. You could see Marc Quen checking on him after it. I saw in the post-show scrum thing it was confirmed he's alright but bloody hell it looked rough. 

Willow Nightingale/Tam Nakano vs Kris Statlander/Momo Watanabe

It's a shame this one was so early in the pre-show with only half a crowd. Two of Stardom's finest and it was laid out really well to tease Willow and Statlander interacting for most of it. Stat ducking WIllow, only making herself legal against Willow if she had a clear upper hand, getting cheap shots in every so often. Tam Nakano being so tiny made her a great underdog when Statlander had the offense against her too. She also hit a beautiful array of bridging suplexes, including some very impressive ones on Statlander given the size difference. Even with a depleted crowd there were good reactions for all of Willow and Stat's interactions. This feud should produce some belters between them going forward. I liked that they took each other out and weren't involved in the finish too; good use of the Forbidden Door format to progress an ongoing AEW story and protect both of their wrestlers. 

Mariah May vs Saraya

Saraya's double act with Cameron and lots of smoke and mirrors have done a good job of masking her limitations for the past few months. Mariah is decent in-ring but not good enough to carry a limited opponent like Saraya. With these things in mind, I don't know why they tried to have a straight up match for the first half of this. It was rough. The crowd was pro-Mariah but there wasn't much for them to cheer. Picked up and had good heat from the moment of Harley's first interference until the end. Toni coming out with her rollers still in to support Mariah was great, as was her reaction to Mariah's win. Oh, and the fancy looking pinning combination Mariah used to win it looked great, don't think I've seen her do that before. 

Mistico/Penta/Fenix vs Hiromu Takahashi/Yota Tsuji/Titan

Mistico's combined Mistico/Penta/Fenix entrance mask was awesome. Very cool that they were able to work around all the politics to put this together. As the commentators said, this is about as Forbidden Door as it gets. I know Penta and Fenix have had to pinky promise they won't work for AAA this year, but the previous edict from CMLL is that no other Mexican wrestlers could be featured if CMLL guys were on the show. Glad that's changed, though I do wonder if Hechicero being on the PPV itself had anything to do with this being put on the pre-show.

High speed spotfest as you'd expect and easily the best thing on the pre-show. Mistico/Penta/Fenix hit everything flawlessly and it definitely felt like the dream team as advertised, they were spectacular together. Hiromu and Titan were also great in this one. I like what I've seen of Titan so far, definitely one of the more impressive CMLL guys from the AEW/CMLL exchange. Yota Tsuji and Penta's encounter early on was fun, but after that Tsuji was a bit out of place in this match and would have made sense to just have another flippy dude in there instead. Not the best showcase for him. Other than that though this was great stuff. 

Hechicero vs MJF

Great reaction for Max. This was more of a short TV-style exhibition match than a PPV one. It was very hastily thrown together and more an excuse to get MJF on the card for a quick win. He definitely treated it as such, so this didn't ever get out of first gear. With a stacked card and no build I can see why they didn't go all out for this one, but still disappointed as Hechicero is brilliant and I would have liked to see more from him. 

Acclaimed and Daddy Ace vs The Elite

Okada tagging out to deny the people an exchange with Tanahashi was so beautifully timed. Max actually made a bit of an effort with his rap! Guess it takes a PPV to motivate him these days. I imagine this upset some of the sickos but I thought this was good fun. Okada and The Bucks with first rate shithousery for the duration, typically great babyface fire from Bowens, and teasing and eventually delivering a little throwback to Okada and Tanahashi's rivalry. Tanahashi with his current physical limitations can't do much more than this, so for me it felt like a nice bit of nostalgia to throw in there. The pop for the near fall Tanahashi got reversing The Rainmaker was massive despite the match largely being low stakes and not too serious. 

Shingo Takagi vs Bryan Danielson

The Owen tournament meant the outcome of this one was never in doubt unfortunately, so I don't think it was ever going to steal the show with that in mind. It was still really bloody good though. Danielson's technique vs Shingo's explosive power, and few have ever been as good as Danielson fighting from underneath with an injury. These two at their very best with a less obvious outcome could put on a match of the year contender, but for its place on the card it was excellent. 

Toni Storm vs Mina Shirakawa

What an entrance from Toni. Superb. Great heat at the start of this thanks to the thoroughly entertaining build. Mina is great and these two had excellent chemistry. Started off comedic but turned into an action packed back and forth match. Only criticism I have is that they didn't play up the love triangle drama and give Mariah any difficult decisions to make. She looked conflicted for the whole thing, but the match wasn't particularly controversial and she didn't have much involvement. I did like this having a happy ending though to be honest. They've basically all been babyfaces throughout this feud, and the Mariah/Toni conflict will come when Mariah wins the Owen tournament. Sad to see this part of the story end as it's been a blast to follow on the weekly TV, but this match was a lot of fun. 

Zack Sabre Jr vs Orange Cassidy

This was my most anticipated match on the card and it did not disappoint. What an absolute belter. OC with a chip on his shoulder is just a joy to watch. Flexing his technical skills to try and prove himself against the arrogant grappling wizard, getting increasingly wound up by ZSJ's stuff and getting more and more desperate as the match went on. The bit where Zack slapped him and OC went batshit trying to grind his knee into dust for a bit was amazing. He is still very much a babyface going through a bad time, but I am loving this character development for him. Zack Sabre Jr. is of course a joy to watch as well. As I've said before, the most perfect opponent for this part of the OC story. He's bigger, more technically sound and cocky as shit to go with it.  Some of the reversal and counter sequences towards the end of this were dazzling, and that hold at the end which seemed to somehow keep getting worse for OC by the second was magnificent. The result made perfect sense as well I thought. OC is deep in the Midpoint of his story right now. I just hope they have something amazing planned for part 3. 

Jericho/Bill/Jeff Cobb vs Hook/Joe/Shibata

"Please retire" is not heel heat Chris and you know it. This was a TV match and probs a bit too long as well. I liked the babyface team showing some signs of double and triple team chemistry, just need to get that name sorted. A pleasing amount of Jeff Cobb in this one to help wash the taste of Jericho away. Taz's delight at Hook winning with the Judas effect was fun. Every other person in this match could be doing something better than this though, and it's always hard to get past that when Jericho is on my screen these days. Please tell me Hook finishing Jericho with his own move means they're done now. Get the lads in the trios title hunt ASAP. 

TNT Ladder match

Sheer unadulterated madness, naturally. Echo all the sentiments about Takeshita of course. I appreciated Excalibur acknowledging the roars of approval when it looked like he was going to win it. Everyone who's ever seen Takeshita knows he is a mega star in waiting AEW has never fully utilised. It's been like this every step of the way. During the excursion "surely they've got to sign this guy". He got signed "OK now they can get behind him for real". He joined the Callis family and turned heel "OK now he has a mouthpiece and a clearer direction, now they'll get behind him for real". It has never fully materialised. It's mad that he's beaten Kenny Omega twice and they mention it all the time but he's never been elevated to the main event. He's a guy who will reliably have a blinding match when you need him to and that has been his curse. Had that blinder against Darby in January, then he loses to Swerve and loses to Ospreay in his next big singles matches. Again, both belters, but he seems to always be stuck in that role of the best enhancement talent in the whole wide world. 

Anyway, yeah, ladder match was nuts. Takeshita's Blue Thunder bomb was amazing, Dante Martin had fun moments, Lio Rush has been a delight in all of his recent AEW appearances and I hope Mark Briscoe is OK, the nutter. The Elite continuing to round up titles makes sense, so the Perry win was expected. 

Mercedes Mone vs Stephanie Vaqeur

Crowd burn, lack of build and lack of star power/name value for Vaqeur hit hard at the start of this one. Very very quiet crowd for the first half. I felt bad for Vaqeur in particular because I was thoroughly impressed with her performance. Everything she did looked great and she was able to compensate for a fairly sloppy and shaky performance from Mone. The crowd fully turned on Mone due to the Boston Celtics guy in the crowd, but even before that earlier in the match there was a light "Stephanie" chant purely because she had impressed the audience. Mone seemed quite annoyed by the whole thing. They've got to turn her heel, seriously. She is not a likeable babyface at all, regardless of whatever sporting rivalries turned the crowd on this occasion. But yeah, I liked what I saw from Vaqeur here. 

Huge reaction for Britt Baker. I was starting to wonder if she was ever coming back. Genuinely beginning to believe she was going to see out the contract as it had been so long. Very cool return, though a singles match between her and Mone could be reeeeeallly rough. 

Moxley vs Naito

This was a shame as their match in April where Mox took the belt off Naito was a good'un. A lot of people at the time though said it was the right time to take the belt off Naito as he is looking increasingly knackered after injuries and surgeries. Shows the state of New Japan's main event scene that they're putting it straight back on him. This was just a mediocre match and one of Naito's more laboured performances. 

Ospreay vs Swerve

Had a lump in my throat for the Hayabusa tribute entrance. I remember Ospreay did that a couple of years ago too, then auctioned off the gear and sent the proceeds to Hayabusa's family. Hard to know what to say about this. One massive positive is that for this enormous crowd, the hottest and biggest feeling match by FAR on the Forbidden Door PPV was two AEW contracted guys fighting for the AEW World Title. Swerve looked like a mega star for his entrance and it felt like two mega stars going at it as a world title main event should. 

The match itself was unbridled insanity. I have complained in the past about near fall fatigue and too many false finishes, but the last one where Ospreay kicked out but was then dead on his feet and simply needed to be put out of his misery was the most wonderful piece of melodrama. It was fantastic and the circumstances warranted it. The chemistry these two have is unreal, just breathtaking from start to finish, cannot fathom how they pull off some of these spots in a one take setting. Ospreay is obviously world renowned for this stuff, but Swerve showed some athleticism and co-ordination here that went beyond what you usually see from him too. I think most of us had concluded this was a Swerve win ahead of time, but this still massively elevated both guys and they managed to progress the Ospreay/Callis family story and provide some extra talking points coming out of the match without ruining it or cheapening the result. 

Tonnes of sympathy for Ospreay and Swerve looked both cool as fuck *and* got to be classy on the way out as well. Just a huge win for everyone involved. 

The fact that the crowd was red hot for the FIFTEENTH(!!!) match of the night is a testament to what a spectacular affair this was.

 

Soo overall, FAR FAR TOO LONG. Like even by AEW PPV standards this was an insane amount of shit to put on one night of wrestling. Saw someone post that after the success of the All In and All Out PPV brands, Tony is going to add another one called “All Fucking Day”. Accurate. 
 

Utterly ridiculous honestly, and some of the matches later on the main card suffered massively for it. There were a bunch of matches on the card that were not PPV worthy but still got on the card, and that was to the detriment of the stuff that *was* worthy. 

That said, the main event was out of this world, ZSJ vs Orange Cassidy was excellent, Danielson/Shingo and Shirakawa/Storm were both very good. The Forbidden Door premise now that NJPW have been looted and are also generally very cold has obviously lost much of its appeal. There was an absolutely outstanding 6-8 match PPV card in here somewhere,  nothing was terrible, but a lot of the passable/good stuff suffered due to sheer volume and fatigue and could have been done on Collision or Dynamite instead. It's a s good thing  that the main event was unkillable because bloody hell it was in a tough spot after that marathon. 

 

Edited July 3 by JLM

[Duke]

6 hours ago, JLM said:

This was my most anticipated match on the card and it did not disappoint. What an absolute belter. OC with a chip on his shoulder is just a joy to watch. Flexing his technical skills to try and prove himself against the arrogant grappling wizard, getting increasingly wound up by ZSJ's stuff and getting more and more desperate as the match went on. The bit where Zack slapped him and OC went batshit trying to grind his knee into dust for a bit was amazing. He is still very much a babyface going through a bad time, but I am loving this character development for him. Zack Sabre Jr. is of course a joy to watch as well. As I've said before, the most perfect opponent for this part of the OC story. He's bigger, more technically sound and cocky as shit to go with it.  Some of the reversal and counter sequences towards the end of this were dazzling, and that hold at the end which seemed to somehow keep getting worse for OC by the second was magnificent. The result made perfect sense as well I thought. OC is deep in the Midpoint of his story right now. I just hope they have something amazing planned for part 3. 

I actually think, more than bangers, this is the thing AEW does best. I assume that the wrestlers have more say on the development of their stories, as there just seems to be more investment in the characters developing generally. We've seen with with Swerve, with Hanger, we're getting it with Osprey, OC and others, development that doesn't just immediately reset to the status quo or flanderise. Makes it so much easier to invest in them.

[HarmonicGenerator]

Main things I’ll remember about this show are the great main event, and that brutal submission ZSJ used to finish OC. Nobody’s getting out of that hold without giving up.

I guess we’re getting Storm vs Mariah and Baker vs Mercedes for the two women’s titles at Wembley? Unless Jamie Hayter appears as a wildcard in the Owen, which would also be okay.

Super happy we will have Danielson vs PAC happen, but I couldn’t get into the Shingo match. I really struggle with the Danielson matches where he tries to make you think he’s properly injured. I know it’s just good selling but a lot of the time, he does get properly injured as well, and the back of my mind knows that. Nigel’s not wrong on Brittle Bryan and it’d be great if Bryan himself didn’t feel the need to play on that concern.

On The Acclaimed - was it The Devil angle that took them off the tracks? They’ve been ice cold pretty much since they got involved in that mess which, now I think about it, did nothing good for anyone. The Kingdom are as tedious as they ever were, Roddy’s no better off, Wardlow’s done for (again), Adam Cole’s still injured, and MJF had to explicitly write the angle off the second he came back. What a waste of time that whole thing was.

[LaGoosh]

2 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

On The Acclaimed - was it The Devil angle that took them off the tracks? They’ve been ice cold pretty much since they got involved in that mess

They were pretty cold before that too. I don't think there's any reason other than their gimmick had a shelf life. They ha d a good heel run, a great babyface run but it naturally ran out of steam as it was always going to do and now they are just doing the same thing over and over that everyone has already seen. They are now at the point you don't want to be with a gimmick where it's actively hurting others. The New Elite angle was going great but it lost a huge amount of steam once The Acclaimed got involved.

They need to split them up or bin them as soon as possible.

Edited July 3 by LaGoosh

[Duke]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

They were pretty cold before that too. I don't think there's any reason other than their gimmick had a shelf life. They ha d a good heel run, a great babyface run but it naturally ran out of steam as it was always going to do and now they are just doing the same thing over and over that everyone has already seen. They are now at the point you don't want to be with a gimmick where it's actively hurting others. The New Elite angle was going great but it lost a huge amount of steam once The Acclaimed got involved.

They need to split them up or bin them as soon as possible.

I think the Acclaimed would be fine with a heel turn, a manager, shaved heads and MMA shorts, but they MUST get rid of Billy Gunn. They, I think, are a counter to what I just said about character development, they've been fully flanderised in the past 6-9 months, and they need to be shaken up a little bit.

[JLM]

Bowens is a very likeable babyface and I wouldn’t want to turn him heel. Caster turning heel on Bowens is how I’d want to end the act, but then I wouldn’t be particularly interested in a singles feud between them at this point. 

Caster turns on Bowens, Bowens pals up with fellow underrated underdog Willie Mack. Bowens and Mack go for the tag team gold against all the odds. I would root for that team, what a sympathetic pair they would be.
 

Caster sits in the rafters shouting edgy raps during their matches until his eventual release. “Bowens you’re such a silly billy, you’re so gay your partner is literally called Willy”. Stuff like that. Then he teams with Enzo Amore on the indies. 

[Supremo]

“Too much of a good thing,” is the best way to describe this show. Distilled billionaire excess. I reckon every meal Tony Khan has, he always goes to an All You Can Eat Buffet and doesn’t finish until he vomits.

[Merzbow]

Surprised the lack of talk about how bad Naito vs Moxley was, it just never got going and felt laboured throughout. Two guys that just didn't click or seem to be able to communicate.

[TildeGuy~!]

11 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

Surprised the lack of talk about how bad Naito vs Moxley was, it just never got going and felt laboured throughout. Two guys that just didn't click or seem to be able to communicate.

Naito’s been shocking for at least a year now, always looks knackered after 5 minutes.

[Merzbow]

Yeah he's looked past it, but I'm still not surprised they gave him the title because lolNJPW when it comes to the main belt.

I loved Will's homage to Hayabusa, not the first time he's done it but it looked great with that video. He's one of the very few that emulate him and his moves well, just like H they look like they hurt, heavyweight Will is a revelation.