Forbidden Door 2025

[Hannibal Scorch]

3 hours ago, Tim Healys Chutney Spoon said:

One thing that annoyed me too was that we couldn't see who the trio was that took Hurt Syndicate out so had to go online to find out. When we did all those around me were like 'why?' Seems very much par for course looking back.

 

Could you not see the two massive screens? That’s how we could see the reveal.

I thought it was better than All In 23, not as good as 24. Flew by. Thought the 4 way was excellent, enjoyed the main. Didn’t think Toni/Athena was that good. I’ll have to watch it back. But overall I was happy I went and had another great time.

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

We were watching the ring at the time lol 

[LaGoosh]

Ropey show, that. The undercard stuff was fine but all the big matches were pretty bad. The crowd were fucking dire all night.

3 way tags very rarely work and they definitely don't work when you completely fuck up the ending. A potential MJF/Ricochet vs Hurt Syndicate feud does interest me but if they are already refusing storylines and jobs then just bin them off.

Athena was given a high profile All In victory, a top programme with the Champion and a big spot on this show and she's failed to leave any impression whatsoever. A shame after hearing so much about her ROH run that she's turned out to be such a dud so far. 

Hangman/MJF was an overbooked mess with a million different things going on and none of them good. They need to move Hangman on very quickly. And MJF needs to do something, anything, new because his act is beyond stale.

I think everyone in that main event was wrestling in different matches. Mox, Allin and Claudio were in a gritty, violent blood feud. The Bucks and Omega were doing comedy. Ospreay was doing high spots. Ibushi didn't even turn up. Tanahashi was trying not to crumble into dust. Gabe Kidd was being shite then nearly died. A complete mess.

Wardlow. In 2025. Really?! Why even bother?

And the crowd were the worst type of English wrestling fans. No effort to emotionally engage with what they were seeing. Terrible chanting and singing. Too keen to pat themselves on the back and laugh at their own jokes.

I'm glad I didn't attend this.

[FLips]

1 minute ago, LaGoosh said:

And the crowd were the worst type of English wrestling fans. No effort to emotionally engage with what they were seeing. Terrible chanting and singing. Too keen to pat themselves on the back and laugh at their own jokes.

I made this point with one of the last international crowds I think WWE had. Yeah they're loud but it's because they're doing shit chants and singing, not because what's happening in the ring has caught their attention. You'll do a cutaway to the crowd and half of them are taking a video of them singing Edge's theme or recording a highspot rather than actually watching the match.

Loud doesn't automatically mean good.

[BigJag]

I watched it live with my cousin. Who doesn't really follow AEW. He was very confused by all the different belts. Which had the effect of lowering his interest. I don't follow AEW closely enough to understand why everyone has a title. It made the show a bit difficult to engage with.

Bozilla definitely looked impressive and I thought her gimmicked mask was very cool.

AEW spend a tonne of money on their presentation and then ruin it with amateurish execution. The O2 looked splendid as did the entrance way. Then Tony Schiavone announces the attendance whilst aimlessly wandering around the ring. Big mistake.

We missed zero hour. Is it worth checking out?

The cage used in the main event was quite unique. Is that something they had built in the UK? Bringing it in from the US would be astronomically expensive. The main event itself was a mess with the ending being the worst part. Our feed cutout whilst the medical team were fitting Osprey with a neck collar. The lady ref was not happy that the ring was unstable. 

[2Xtreme_lives]

25 minutes ago, BigJag said:

I watched it live with my cousin. Who doesn't really follow AEW. He was very confused by all the different belts. Which had the effect of lowering his interest. I don't follow AEW closely enough to understand why everyone has a title. It made the show a bit difficult to engage with.

Bozilla definitely looked impressive and I thought her gimmicked mask was very cool.

AEW spend a tonne of money on their presentation and then ruin it with amateurish execution. The O2 looked splendid as did the entrance way. Then Tony Schiavone announces the attendance whilst aimlessly wandering around the ring. Big mistake.

We missed zero hour. Is it worth checking out?

The cage used in the main event was quite unique. Is that something they had built in the UK? Bringing it in from the US would be astronomically expensive. The main event itself was a mess with the ending being the worst part. Our feed cutout whilst the medical team were fitting Osprey with a neck collar. The lady ref was not happy that the ring was unstable. 

I did the VIP Backstage tour and the set manager said that they had to bring everything you see in the venue with them from the States which makes it expensive and why you need to do multiple things on each trip and you equally want to reuse anything you have too so I presume we'll see this cage again at some point

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

 

29 minutes ago, BigJag said:

 

We missed zero hour. Is it worth checking out?

 

The 4v4 womens match was ok and will explain a little why Jamie Hayter appeared later. The Jetspeed/Oku v GOA/Ricochet match was also very impressive, Oku and Bailey in particular stood out for me. 

Edited August 25, 2025 by Tim Healys Chutney Spoon

[BigJag]

AEW made an amazing commitment to presenting the product. I'm sure with a bit of organising they could have sourced most things in the UK.  The Khans do have operations in the UK that should be able to handle those arrangements. The scale of the expenditure for last nights show must have been gigantic.

Edited August 25, 2025 by BigJag

[WyattSheepMask]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

Ropey show, that. The undercard stuff was fine but all the big matches were pretty bad. The crowd were fucking dire all night.

3 way tags very rarely work and they definitely don't work when you completely fuck up the ending. A potential MJF/Ricochet vs Hurt Syndicate feud does interest me but if they are already refusing storylines and jobs then just bin them off.

Athena was given a high profile All In victory, a top programme with the Champion and a big spot on this show and she's failed to leave any impression whatsoever. A shame after hearing so much about her ROH run that she's turned out to be such a dud so far. 

Hangman/MJF was an overbooked mess with a million different things going on and none of them good. They need to move Hangman on very quickly. And MJF needs to do something, anything, new because his act is beyond stale.

I think everyone in that main event was wrestling in different matches. Mox, Allin and Claudio were in a gritty, violent blood feud. The Bucks and Omega were doing comedy. Ospreay was doing high spots. Ibushi didn't even turn up. Tanahashi was trying not to crumble into dust. Gabe Kidd was being shite then nearly died. A complete mess.

Wardlow. In 2025. Really?! Why even bother?

And the crowd were the worst type of English wrestling fans. No effort to emotionally engage with what they were seeing. Terrible chanting and singing. Too keen to pat themselves on the back and laugh at their own jokes.

I'm glad I didn't attend this.

“THIS IS PROGRESS!”

[Statto]

Looking like one for the Consensuses You Don't Agree With thread here, but I had an absolute blast during Hangman vs MJF. If I were to rewatch it with critical eyes I'm sure I'd find stuff I didn't like (Remsburg is indeed generally awful) but honestly, live it was one of my favourite in person experiences of watching wrestling - as for the first time in a very long time I was carried away with genuine emotional investment in the winner.

Hangman's been my guy since the start - obviously we all know he's a wonderful engaging character anyway, but his presentation instantly spoke to me as I've been a country music fan since before Beyonce was making any kind of music. As Waylon said, my heroes have always been cowboys. And here he was in front of my eyes as the defending Champion of the Fucking World against a weasly baddie trying to gyp him out of his title.

So I lived & died the momentum shifts and the near falls. I high-fived the young Italian guy next to me when Hanger kicked out, he threw his arms round my shoulders in celebration when he won. Lovely stuff.

I also really liked how MJF nicked the timekeeper's table to use in the match, and how the same broken table was re-used for a later spot, rather than the usual wrestling thing of just reaching under the ring to find the convenient pile of (sometimes sponsored) weapon tables. They did rather shit on that 15 minutes later though by having a production crew provide a whole load of weapon tables for the next match, but that was unsanctioned I guess...

The rest of the night was... fine. There was some good and some bad, some other people I cared about a bit and some others I really, really didn't (Paragon).

I do think a lot of the other matches were genuinely lacking in heat and that reflected in the crowd, in various ways. The usual comedy troupes were indeed out in force ("Wheeler's got a gun" wasn't funny 2 years ago when it was topical, you shouldn't be so proud of remembering it now) & I don't know who needs to hear this, but... if you're leaving during almost every match to get another 2 pints, maybe you don't actually like wrestling as much as you think you do. Just go down the pub and get wasted there, you'll save a load of money on getting in and mark-ups.

But all told - it was all worth it to see Hanger successfully defend in person.

[Lorne Malvo]

2 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

 

And the crowd were the worst type of English wrestling fans. No effort to emotionally engage with what they were seeing. Terrible chanting and singing. Too keen to pat themselves on the back and laugh at their own jokes.

 

Yeah, this left a sour taste and probably contributed to why I didn't enjoy the show much. 'Christian, I wanna know if you'll be my dad' is a funny line but when you're singing it during near-falls it just shows you're not actually invested in the match at all.

I'm not sure if it was the Forbidden Door/NJPW name putting off more casuals but I noticed my section was made up of much more male/bearded/your generic smark lot than the past few years have been, which probably contributed to the shit atmosphere.

I had the worst type of absolute dickhead know-all wanker directly behind me. More concerned with counting how many times he had seen Michael Oku live than actually engaging with anything going on in the ring. He was trying to start shite chants all night then when one finally caught on, he actually went 'Yes! At last!' Fucking loser.

After hearing him talk absolute nonsense for hours he then got the name of someone's finisher wrong, so I had to turn around and correct him. Needless to say, I had the last laugh.

I will say I thought MJF/Hangman was on its way to becoming a classic until they overbooked the finish, and the cage match was good fun. But a lot of this show just didn't get out of second gear. The crowd being completely dead at points for Cope/Christians reunion and Nigel Vs Zack summed the show up.

[Supremo]

Probably the worst AEW pay per view in recent memory. Decent action, but weird energy all night, with a bad crowd and some worrying booking decisions.

Started off strong. It was great hearing the huge crowd going crazy for Edge and Christian, singing loudly. Cope looked chuffed and I thought we were in for a quality evening. Very disappointing that it slowly became apparent that the majority of the crowd were only there to sing and do shit chants. Whilst it looked amazing, and it’s funny how much the announcement of them being a record breaking crowd for pro-wrestling in that building will likely wind up WWE, I’d take a thousand people in a tiny American ballroom over eighteen thousand in a sold out arena if it means fans are actually engaged beyond trying to be funny and get themselves over.

Wonky psychology in the opener. There’s definitely a charm to Cope and Christian tagging together, and it’s funny that Christian is clinging on to a lot of his heel traits, but adding the whole, “can they go-exist?” thing with Killswitch and Kip Sabian was completely unnecessary. A Luchasaurus babyface turn down the line will be cool, and I’d be bang up for a Lucha Express reunion (with Marko Stunt!), but here it just felt like too much going on, with everyone trying to tell a different story.

Nigel vs. ZSJ was probably the highlight of the show. Perfect combination of a lovely moment for Nigel and some cracking liquid wrestling. Bryan Danielson further cementing himself as the greatest of all time by being so damn charming and insightful at the desk, too. Looking forward to the inevitable day when Tony Khan poaches ZSJ from New Japan. He’ll make a great addition to the roster. We need the Danielson vs. Zack tie-breaker!

Bin the Hurt Syndicate off. The way they had to awkwardly turn this into a Three Way in order to get the belts off them without them doing a job seems to confirm all the recent reports of them being a pain in the arse. As much as I’ve enjoyed some of their AEW work - the match where they beat Private Party is one of my favourite TV matches of the year - I have absolutely no time for this bullshit anymore. After Miro and Malakai Black, you would have hoped Tony altered his contracts to where any ex-WWE guys can immediately be sacked when they start displaying this type behaviour. Page 38. Subsection 7.5. The, “fuck off back to Hunter,” clause. Article, “go feud with The Miz.”

It’s a shame because it is quite clever that they’re paying off Bobby and Shelton bullying Ricochet months ago, but at this point I don’t care. I don’t want to go back to the toxic, horrible atmosphere of 2023. Sack ‘em.

As a Brodido Superfan, I should have been over the moon when my boys won, but between the rubbish booking, blatant politics and then the botched finish, I think everyone got what they deserved.

However, they still need to push this man to the fucking moon. He was already massively underutilised, but right now? When you’re competing with the disgusting MAGA company in 2025? Go all the way with him. In a year’s time, we should look back at this Tag Title win as the start of a meteoric rise. With Ospreay and Swerve likely on the shelf indefinitely, Brodie King and Takeshita need to be the next big projects.

Hangman vs. MJF was an overbooked mess. When they had that incredible match earlier in the year, it was super promising to think they still had more in the tank for rematches. Such a shame this didn’t come anywhere close to reaching that level because MJF is a fucking nightmare whenever he’s given free rein in main event feuds. Most frustrating talent of all time.

Genuinely gutting to think this wasn’t the execution of Max’s contract. Schiavone’s “this isn’t the last we’ll see of MJF in the title picture,” felt like an actual threat. Get this whopper as far away from my cowboy as possible. Dragged him down massively. Ruined what was a spectacular hair day for Hangman.

Still, all the bullshit aside, I thought it was extremely telling that The Champion of the Fucking World winning in the end was still the only real time this crowd seemed switched on and engaged with the product in front of them. It’s because Hangman Adam Page is the absolute best.

Main event had its moments. Some wild bumps and the continued downfall of The Young Bucks is the best thing in wrestling right now. Nick Jackson in particular is threatening Heel of the Year with his brilliant panto reactions to everything always going wrong. Match was mostly a disjointed slog though. Guys just taking turns doing hardcore spots. None of the charm or fun of this year’s Anarchy in the Arena. All whilst Kota Ibushi just exists in front of our eyes. Again, something very 2023 about the whole thing.

However, if nothing else, it was lovely to give Will Ospreay this big farewell. I got a bit emotional seeing him tear up during his entrance. I hope he’s okay and comes back happy and healthy. Man’s been the MVP of this company the last few years. Incredible run of matches. Incredible attitude. Made stars out of everyone he could and was a breath of fresh air in how much he’d put the company over and seemed genuinely thrilled to be there. Lashley and Shelton could learn a thing or two.

Saw this graphic posted on Twitter. Arguably the greatest pay per view run in the history of North American Pro-wrestling!

Overall, not a bad show by any means, and I bet it was a blast to be there in person, but considering the lineup and the run that they’re on, definitely a disappointment and I’m glad I didn’t fork out to attend.

Hopefully they don’t price me out of Dynamite in Manchester. Much closer to home, that’ll be perfect. If everyone attending could be normal and actually engage with the show they’ve paid to see, I’d really appreciate it. Thanks.

Edited August 25, 2025 by Supremo

[abucalves]

Speaking of bad crowds, I had 2 guys next to me, possibly father and son, grown men, making fun of the children in our section, to each other, never out loud. Criticisms included a 6 year old girl holding up a Will Ospreay sign when he wasn't there and a 12/13 year old boy being excited, eating some popcorn, and having London on the back of his shirt, which is how the shirts are made.

Making fun of children at a wrestling show is wild, and I'm just glad that they'd didn't do it too loud so that the kids heard.

Imagine being on your high horse a t a wrestling show of all places

Edited August 25, 2025 by abucalves

[2Xtreme_lives]

2 minutes ago, abucalves said:

Speaking of bad crowds, I had 2 guys next to me, possibly father and son, grown men, making fun of the children in our section, to each other, never out loud. Criticisms included a 6 year old girl holding up a Will Ospreay sign when he wasn't there and a 12/13 year old boy being excited, eating some popcorn, and having London on the back of his shirt, which is how the shirts are made.

Yeah I've really had enough of crap crowds trying to get themselves over with funny shit. It soon grates after 6 hours of random people trying to get chants going. I'm very glad the counting out of time has stopped 

[Chili]

If you're gonna have shows in the UK and Shad and Tony have that much money. I'd pay for an entire audience of plants than those cunts. All In 2023 was about doable. But it really did remind me why I never want to go to a large turnout British wrestling show ever again. I still have night terrors about the 'WWE Superman' from PCW. A beautiful theatre that attracts the fucking worst!