Forbidden Door 2025

[Harvey Dent]

Not that I didn’t expect it,  but I echo the posts regarding irritating muppets just shouting and singing constantly rather than actually watching the matches. Some twat near us just kept yelling WINDSOR every 18 seconds through multiple matches.

The show was way too long. 13 matches with dozens of wrestlers involved. Lots of similar spots in several matches, it’s overkill.

The less said about the ref in the Hangman/MJF match the better. Dreadful.

That aside, I had a really fun time. I’m a NJPW guy so seeing Hiromu and ZSJ in featured singles matches was great. Really enjoyed Okada/Swerve as well. As daft and chaotic as the main event was, it warmed my heart to see Tanahashi, held together by good thoughts, climb up to the top to get the win with a High Fly Flow one last time.

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

Just uploaded a few pics. Rather pleased with the Young Bucks superkick pic of them connecting 

 

Can't seem to work out putting pics in the post so its a Flickr link 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/201008538@N06/with/54743604928

[AshC]

I was there, right up the top. Perfect view. Some thoughts on the train back ..

Too much wrestling. They always put too much wrestling on these things. And I pretty much missed the whole two hour pre-show show, which apparently had two eight-man tags and two six-man tags! Overkill.

Their roster is far, far too big. If they focused on the difference makers they do have, they could be an even bigger deal, I reckon.

Big stretches of this show I didn't especially care for. But I thought the top two matches delivered in *spades*.

I don't watch the TV, generally, so might have a different perception on people, but am surprised at the distaste for MJF. I thought he was exceptional and his big matches seem as intricate and well executed as anyone's, in this day and age. People were losing their minds for that match by the end, it built to a real crescendo and I'm not (whispers it) even particularly into Adam Page, but thought he was pretty note perfect. It was a really good World title match. I thought, anyway.

Cage match was all-action, probably one of the better gimmick matches of the last 25 years, better than any modern 'War Games' rehash. Is this the live event buzz speaking? It was a thriller. Leave the fork stuff, though. They've a handful of top names now who are proper superstars. The battle now, it seems, is keeping them fit and healthy. 

Privilege to see the great Hiroshi Tanahashi on his retirement lap, his knees have obviously seen much better days, but then haven't we all?! An absolute genius of pro wrestling. Like a Luis Figo, if Portugal won about five World Cups. The greatest wrestler of the 21st century, for me. Got the treatment he deserved by getting the finish.

I thought during this show that maybe it just wasn't for me, the current 'product', as they say. But some of the magic in those last two bouts reminds you why you bother.

GO ACE!

[HarmonicGenerator]

4 hours ago, Supremo said:

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.

If Glasgow was anything to go by, hopefully it'll be more normals than dem wans (c Pitcos). The two women next to us were super loud and sweary, but entirely because they were really into everything that was happening - cheering desperately for their favourite babyfaces, and screaming murder against the heels. There was a group doing "Wheeler's got a gun" but it didn't completely catch on, that was as bad as it got (the Hechicero gang were actually kind of endearing, and only did it in his match). Much better than where we were at Wembley last year. I've got my eye on Manchester as a possibility for December so I share your hope.

I also hope everyone who was at the O2 had a great time. Show wasn't all that great watching on TV. Good points and not so good.

E&C reunion didn't come off the way it should have. It was fine, and they can build on it in a 'not firing on all cylinders yet, it's been a long time' way if they need to, but mad that the crowd didn't seem to want to get into it, regardless of match quality. Nice having Killswitch back.

Bozilla is fantastic, they need to sign her up and give her the Cargill treatment. Keep building up Megan Bayne, then feed her to Bozilla. She ist gut. Enjoyed the four way more than Toni vs. Athena. Loved Toni's look, but I'm still not seeing whatever has allegedly been so special about Athena the past couple of years.

Silliness spoiled the tag title and world title matches. Worst-case scenarios, we get no payoff to anything involving the Hurts, and MJF vs Hangman continues.

Swerve/Okada and Takahashi/Fletcher both dependably good. Nigel vs ZSJ was great, I really liked the pre-match vignette with Nigel even if it did make me wish they'd done it as a World Of Sport Rules match. 100% expected a Garcia turn at the end. 100% wanted a Takeshita turn but I think that's coming down the line soon and I'm excited for it.

Main event was fine if an odd clash of tones. If it hadn't been Forbidden Door you've got to assume The Opps were taking Tanahashi, Ibushi and Omega's spots on the face team.

I was one of the people baffled by why the babyfaces didn't just climb the cage at the end. They already proved several times during the match that they could. You had Marina climbing the other side as they stood there. It didn't look like anybody on the heel side was batting them away or stopping them at all. Darby especially, it's the complete antithesis of his character to not climb up something high after being beaten bloody. The only justification was "they're all so tired they can't manage it" but then The Opps rock up, having not been through a lights out match, and also can't? I saw Hobbs try and it was almost like Joe told him to get down. Never mind @Supremo asking for no return to 2023, please let us not return to illogical nonsense Death Riders murder attempts from this time last year. Stupid, stupid ending.

Edited August 25, 2025 by HarmonicGenerator
it's from Andor. Nemik knew the score

[LaGoosh]

One positive from the show - Danielson was excellent on commentary and I pray they put him on full time.

[FLips]

6 hours ago, Tim Healys Chutney Spoon said:

Just uploaded a few pics. Rather pleased with the Young Bucks superkick pic of them connecting 

 

Can't seem to work out putting pics in the post so its a Flickr link 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/201008538@N06/with/54743604928

That superkick photo is great stuff. Are AEW selling NWO shirts though?

[The King Of Swing]

I mostly enjoyed the show but it was definitely on the weaker side compared to other PPV's, this year. 

So that's Swerve and Osprey out then? Not good for AEW, but obviously their health comes first. 

Maybe I'm over thinking things. But I got the impression that Toni Storm, might also be due for some time off. 

I was hoping that we would see a change of direction for Mercedes. But nope, it's still the same old tired act. 

I do find it funny that commentary have stopped bothering to even name the titles she has won. Obviously only the TBS matters. 

Her belt collector run has gone from a pretty cool concept, to complete parody, imo. But it does fit with her character, I guess. 

Too many multi matches on the pre-show. 

Bozilla was impressive. But I always struggle to get into four way matches. 

Ex WWE guys refusing to do the job and turn storylines down in AEW will always be hilarious to me, because you know full well that they will eat any old shit WWE creative throws at them. And smile. 

If Hurt Syndicate are in fact playing up, then get shot of them. End of story. 

Actually missed the finish to the tag title match, because I was busy sorting out my cheeseburger. 

Storm/Athena was a huge letdown. Don't bring Athena back. 

Hangman/MJF was an overbooked mess, at the end. But I still enjoyed it. 

TNT title match was good fun. 

Takeshita getting his own separate entrance. Face turn imminent. 

Main event was disjointed but still fun. Post match angle put some heat back on Mox ready for Darby, so I was fine with it. 

Tanahashi getting the pin was a lovely little moment. 

That's all I can be bothered to remember. 

6.5/10.

[The King Of Swing]

6 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

One positive from the show - Danielson was excellent on commentary and I pray they put him on full time.

Said the exact same thing to my Brother. He's really good. 

[RedTwoster]

6 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

One positive from the show - Danielson was excellent on commentary and I pray they put him on full time.

I was thinking the same thing, although I suspect that he’d be unwilling to do anything at all full-time if a travel schedule is involved, which is fair enough. I’d happily take him as a ‘special events only’ guy, though. 
 

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

50 minutes ago, FLips said:

That superkick photo is great stuff. Are AEW selling NWO shirts though?

Nope. Got that off Temu along with the AEW one. Loads cheaper than usual, lasted very well too as still feels much like new and had them about a year or so. 

[Kamran]

I've not had a chance to watch any of it back yet, however all the nieces and nephews loved it. They all went to the two UK All Ins and said they thought the matches were better on those but they had a better view/more fun here. The tickets were only £54, I thought our view was pretty good:

The crowd around us wasn't too bad, there were a few loud ones but that only seemed to be in a few short bursts.

I agree with most of the criticisms above.

- Initially I thought Killswitch was just being aggressive but then it looked like he turned at one point but then continued the match. At the time I was thinking I would love to know what the commentary team was saying at the time.

Bozilla didn't get much of a reaction coming out but definitely got the crowd on side during the match. 

- I really enjoyed the tag title match, I got no idea what happened at the end though. Literally everyone in our section was like WTF, we thought we might have missed something but looking at the reactions online, it just looks like it was a botch. There was talk recently of MVP having issues with Speedball but MVP/Lashley/Benjamin and Speedball put out a little funny video together basically to rubbish the rumours. I hope all this talk about The Hurts not willing to take the pin are just rumours as if it's true, I agree with everyone else that there's no place for those type of egos in AEW. I get by adding Brodido to the match it just added to that speculation but I wouldn't read too much into that as we all know TK loves to stack the card, he's seen how popular they are so I could easily see him wanting to add them to match purely based on that.

- I was a little disappointed in the Storm/Athena match, I still think both are excellent, I loved Athena's match with Mercedes on Dynamite a while back but it just didn't live up to the hype. I know there was some talk here about how her character doesn't really click (Fallen Goddess, Minions etc) and I agree with all of that. I still think there's room for her in AEW and with some fine tuning I think she could be pretty great.

- Prior to the Okada/Swerve match, they took the ring cover off and I was thinking there was no way they were going to be ready by the time Swerve came out but they had a plastic sheet under the top cover and when they removed that they had another ring cover already there. I know it's totally random but I just never even thought about them having mutiple covers ready to go like that. 

- I agree with the majority when it comes to MJF, I still think there is some value to him sticking around but he really needs to sort his character out. I was hoping he was going to cash in his contract opportunity straight after he lost (with Ricochet and GoA's help) and lose again, just to get rid of the constant reminders we're going to get from it. 

- There was too much going on in the main event for me to really take it all in, I had to look away when I saw Mox with the fork. There was a lady in the row in front of us who just had a total look of disgust when that was happening. We left as soon as the match ended so I didn't seen any of the aftermath (I've still not seen it, just heard about it) but I did really like Osprey's entrance video and I thought it did a good job of highlighting his career and that it could potentially be the last time we see him in his current form. Danielson mentioned last week about how coming back from neck surgery changes you and I thought that video really added to the night and the huge reaction he got.

[FLips]

1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

One positive from the show - Danielson was excellent on commentary and I pray they put him on full time.

Danielson dropping that line about Taylor Swift to an awkward dead silence, followed up by him cracking up at himself might have been one of my favourite moments of the night. 

[Guest]

Boy that tag match was a complete mess, huh? First it was announced, then it was elimination rules, then it wasn't, then the match starts with all of them in the ring as Excalibur explains it's no DQ and there's no need for tags, but then they get into tag positions and Danielson wonders aloud why, if it's no DQ, they don't just get in there and welly each other. Which sometimes they do, but e other times they don't. The Hurts win two 2 on 1 fights (and there may have been a 4on2 in there as well). Then Ricochet and his lads attack, but they're in masks so we don't know it's them, until they take the masks off, begging the question why they bothered masking up in the first place. Was it for the pop? There wasn't one. Then the finish gets messed up and poor Cash has to have a stroke in order to not make the save. Bandido and Brody are a good time though, here's hoping for a proper tag division going forward. Though I feel sorry for Brody, barely on TV for ages because he's teaming with one guy who won't job, and now he's got to deal with these admittedly awesome looking bozos. 

I think all of that made the chicanery in Hangman v MJF worse. As keen as I am on him, drunken pitch invader Mark Briscoe didn't really work, and the referee noticing the foot on the ropes several hours after making the count doesn't really either. Ho hum, at least the right guy won, and he properly smashed MJF with that clipboard.

Agree with all the others that the AEW streak of all-timer shows is definitely over. It had to be at some point. Don't be sad that it's gone, be happy that it happened. 

AEW also has a real problem with babyfaces right now. All of the babyfaces in the main event are hurt, apart from the one who's crap. Swerve's got some time off. Joe only comes out at the full moon. I feel the same way about Adam Cole as most of you, but he was over and he's out too. Thankfully they have a babyface champion so they can feed heels to him, but the other two men's champions are heels, and so are the remaining big stars. They need to elevate some guys, and soon. At least one of them probably needs to be Takeshita, at this point. 

[Chili]

Takeshita is definitely gonna step up as a face. That entrance signposted so much for me. He's absolutely losing to Hangman to build some doubt into him, but he really has to be the one to win the C2, defeat Okada and then off to the races with him... I hope.

[LaGoosh]

Takeshita, Brody King, Mark Briscoe, Powerhouse Hobbs and Bandido are all strong candidates for fresh top babyface pushes.

Darby Allin could easily slot in to a top role if needed.

Orange Cassidy and Eddie Kingston are surely due back from injury soon and can flesh out the upper card.