Forbidden Door 2025

[Statto]

Get your point to a degree, but last year still 12 of 15 matches had some form of interpromotional involvement, even if the bulk of the wrestlers were AEW staples.

This year it's trending towards virtually none, presumably because they've decided to give London a "full" AEW show. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

7 minutes ago, Statto said:

Get your point to a degree, but last year still 12 of 15 matches had some form of interpromotional involvement, even if the bulk of the wrestlers were AEW staples.

This year it's trending towards virtually none, presumably because they've decided to give London a "full" AEW show. 

When it was announced, just knowing it was Forbidden Door and therefore likely to be inconsequential and full of guest appearances led me to decide not to bother. I’d have been more inclined to get a ticket and make travel plans if it had been known from the start it was a “proper” AEW show.

[LaGoosh]

I remember when the first Forbidden Door was announced and everyone was buzzing with dream matches but then it turned out most the top Japan guys were now old as fuck and/or their knees didn't work so the matches weren't really that great. I don't think their is any dream matches people are clamouring for anymore? With the regular back and forth of talent I don't think the concept really makes any sense now.

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

When it was announced, just knowing it was Forbidden Door and therefore likely to be inconsequential and full of guest appearances led me to decide not to bother. I’d have been more inclined to get a ticket and make travel plans if it had been known from the start it was a “proper” AEW show.

This is exactly how I felt - both for the show itself and the tapings in Glasgow. I live in the Scottish Highlands these days meaning it’s difficult for me to change plans to attend either, and I’m pretty gutted! If they’d rebranded it as something else - a new PPV perhaps - I’d have been buzzing and all set to go to at least one of the shows. I do wonder if some contractual agreement with New Japan exists, meaning they have to run the show as a co-promoted event for a certain number of years, though - even if the level of co-promotion has increased significantly.

[The Dart]

The less of a "Forbidden Door" show this is and the more of a "AEW PPV" show it is, the better, as far as I'm concerned.   I want to go to an AEW PPV to see AEW wrestlers, not NJPW wrestlers.

[BomberPat]

My understanding is that NJPW get a fair bit of money out of Forbidden Door, and that's probably more important in terms of maintaining the AEW/NJPW relationship than a few crossover matches, though obviously from an audience perspective it does raise some questions about the point of the branding.

There will be some last minute additions - NJPW have said that Tanahashi's last UK match will be at Forbidden Door, and the TBS Title match will feature wrestlers from Stardom and CMLL, while Tomohiro Ishii is in the UK for RevPro (though I've been told that the general rule for AEW allowing their talent to take outside bookings is they're generally not permitted to work an indie show the same weekend as an AEW PPV, so I doubt Ishii is on the bill for Forbidden Door). 

I suspect Tanahashi's last match will either be a singles with Kyle Fletcher to give him a big win, or it will be a multi-man tag to hide Tana's weaknesses, in which case I can see that being used to get some more NJPW names on the show.

Gabe Kidd almost certainly would have been in a big match, but he's out injured. 

 

It's mostly a timing issue. The G1 is going on at the moment, and only ends a week before Forbidden Door, so anyone booked in that isn't going to be available for AEW appearances - that rules out pretty much everyone you'd expect to show up for Forbidden Door; though you'd think maybe they'd have some Juniors or others not involved in the tournament showing up, but I guess if they're not booked on the PPV, why bother? 

[The King of Old School]

I'll be amazed if Ishii and Suzuki don't show up in some capacity.

[Supremo]

3 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

I remember when the first Forbidden Door was announced and everyone was buzzing with dream matches but then it turned out most the top Japan guys were now old as fuck and/or their knees didn't work so the matches weren't really that great. I don't think their is any dream matches people are clamouring for anymore? 

The planet will never truly heal from Covid until we get it.

Other than that though, I’m happy for Forbidden Door to continue as a mostly regular AEW show, with a handful of special appearances lower down on the card.

I didn’t buy a ticket for the London o2, but as the prices are slowly dropping and the card is taking shape, this is looking pretty  tasty! Considering this essentially their Backlash to All In’s Wrestlemania, it’s really impressive!

Okada vs. Swerve, Darby vs. Moxley, Toni Storm vs. Athena, with a potential MJF vs. Hangman main event? Brodido potentially bringing it home? I might have to grab a ticket after all!

Plus, image. Darby pins Moxley. Death Riders swarm him afterwards. Eddie Kingston’s music hits. I’ll sail out of the o2 on a river of my own spunk.

[DavidB6937]

Damnit, you've got me looking at tickets now. Must resist.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

When they first did a Forbidden Door I assumed each year would be different companies or countries. Like year 1 was Japan, Year 2 would be Mexico, Year 3 UK. That sort of stuff.

 

Not sure if I'm happy or not about being wrong

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

We bought disabled seats in block 403 for £75 plus extortionate fees. Been told we are likely to get backdated money for our sons DLA fairly soon so we MAY go for some aisle seats which we last looked at were around £141. 

[Kamran]

I totally forgot WWE booked their UK tour around the same time AEW is coming over, thankfully it doesn't seem to have impacted AEW. They've sold over 6K tickets for Dynamite/Collision at the Hydro so far and there are only approx. 2000 seats left for Forbidden Door.

How the card is shaping up so far:

• IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. TBD (AEW)
• AEW Unified Championship: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Swerve Strickland
• AEW Women's World Championship: "Timeless" Toni Storm (c) vs. Athena
• AEW TNT Championship: Kyle Fletcher (c) vs. TBA (NJPW)
• AEW TBS Championship: Mercedes Moné (c) vs. Alex Windsor (AEW) vs. TBD (CMLL) vs. TBD (Stardom)
• AEW World Tag Team Championship: The Hurt Syndicate (Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin) (c) vs. Eliminator Tournament winners
• Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. TBA

We could also get Page/MJF and Moxley/Allin, plus Osprey may appear too.

[The King Of Swing]

1 hour ago, Kamran said:

could also get Page/MJF and Moxley/Allin

Could be wrong, but I can see AEW holding at least one of those matches off until All Out. 

[HarmonicGenerator]

2 hours ago, The King Of Swing said:

Could be wrong, but I can see AEW holding at least one of those matches off until All Out. 

On Dynamite this week

Spoiler

Darby bodybagged Yuta and left a note for Moxley that said “Forbidden Door”, which makes it seem they’re going to do the match then.

Unrelated, but on Collision for the TNT match

Spoiler

It felt like Tanahashi was the logical opponent to send over for Fletcher, but that could be the Suzuki spot I guess

 

Edited August 10, 2025 by HarmonicGenerator
David Batty

[BomberPat]

Suzuki isn't really a NJPW guy any more, I think it's been over a year since he wrestled there, so I don't see him being involved