Forbidden Door 2025

[JLM]

Oh my god, I was already gutted about not being able to go and now they’ve added Uemura to the Zero Hour. The G1 champion in my heart. A random eight man tag isn’t going to be s good showcase for him but I’d have loved to be the only man in the O2 belting out his theme song. Also I got to see Bozilla perform live last night. I’d seen clips online but bloody hell she is a sight to behold in person. Massive frame, massive presence and spectacular power offense. I hope when she’s done terrorising Japan that Tony signs her up. 
 

Have a wonderful time tonight you lucky attendees, I am extremely jealous. 

[RedTwoster]

3 hours ago, Statto said:

My one slight disappointment as a live attendee (in terms of people I'm personally keen to see have a meaty match live) is that on a card that's still something of an AEW-NJPW joint, there's no place for the guy who is signed to both companies, Takeshita.

Complete fantasy booking here, but I'd have had Callis & Fletcher continue to call out "the best New Japan has to offer" until this week, when OK then, here's the guy who won the G1.

Free Takeshita from the Callis shackles, get him back on the babyface side and push him to the moon on both sides of the Pacific. His motivation can be Callis giving his team with Fletcher a portmanteau name that only worked if you mangled the pronunciation of his half terribly.

I think they’ll part ways, and I think the motivation will almost certainly be Takeshita winning a title shot, or desiring one at the very least. While I think Takeshita should already be a main event talent, a win over Okada can help achieve that.

And with Strickland and Ospreay potentially taking some time off, there’s a big gap in the upper card waiting to be filled. He’d be a great option for that.

[The King Of Swing]

Bozilla is an odd one.

When she finished up with Marigold, most assumed that she was AEW/WWE bound, but then she quickly showed up in Stardom, which nobody seemed to see coming. 

I hope she has a good run in Stardom. Which feels likely, since they immediately put her in Suzu Suzuki's, Mi Vida Loca faction. 

[Statto]

I just hope Ulf comes out with her. Ideally breathing fire.

(And wearing an EC f'n W t-shirt. He was in ECW, you know.)

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

Great show apart from rhe womens title match which i felt was a bit underwhelming after the build.

 

One thing I'll say is that I've a new found respect for them in the ring. The guys that do it look good on TV but seeing them do it live just makes it that bit more 'wow' for me.

 

Jetspeed I can take or leave on TV usually, but seeing them live they are ruddy impressive, especially Bailey

 

Edited August 24, 2025 by Tim Healys Chutney Spoon

[FLips]

Thought it was one of the weaker PPVs I've seen from them but mostly due to how crap some of the booking was.

Sabre Jr vs McGuinness and Takahashi vs Fletcher were both fantastic, and some other stuff like the two women's matches, the triple threat tag and Okada vs Swerve were decent, but some of the stuff on this card, woof.

The structure of the Edge and Christian match was awful. You essentially had 3 heels and 1 face, and Kip and Killswitch fighting each other. It made very little sense, what a wet fart to reunite E&C for. Didn't work for me at all.

The end to the tag team title match was a mess. Did Bandido fuck it, did the ref? whoever it was killed the moment dead.

The aftermath of the Swerve match was frustrating as Nana took a million years to make the save, and why didn't Hangman or any of the other faces go out for the save? Wardlow hasn't changed a bit in a year, he had his time and that time is over, the company needs to move on from him.

The end of the Hangman vs MJF match turned into the Bryce Remsberg Show for the final 10 minutes. Has their ever been a worse, camera-hungry ref in the history of pro wrestling? I'm not so sure. Match was fine to that last stretch but it ended up making everyone look an idiot. Also this one might just be me missing something, but I thought this match was the contract cash in? So why did they keep talking as though he could cash in still?

The main event was 10 minutes too long. Tanahashi is fucking done, he made Matt Hardy look athletic. Kenny and Ibushi were stuck in first gear most the match. It felt like the match was made because everything was at stake but the actual match felt like nothing was at stake. How can you do a comedy gummy bear spot one minute and wrench an ear off with a fork the next?
I turned it off after the credits rolled so imagine my surprise when I hopped on Reddit and saw a million "why can't the faces climb the cage" comments, and quickly put my telly back on to see all the faces stand and watch Ospreay die. Marina Shafir can climb the cage but nobody else can? Faces too dumb to surround the ring to cut the Death Riders off?

Two great matches but a night of some of the worst booking and worst reffing I've seen in pro wrestling. Two of the title matches ruined by overbooked nonsense and bad reffing and a confused main event with a hokey and unbelievable spot that made all the faces look like lazy idiots.

 

[RedTwoster]

A good show with a handful of unsatisfying finishes. The Hurt Syndicate being taken out of their own tag title match was all sorts of bullshit. I hope they make up for it by putting over Brodido cleanly on Dynamite. If there’s truth about them being unwilling to lose, there’s no value in them whatsoever and I hope they fuck off. The finish was also very, very messy.

The Hangman/MJF match was a bit bullshitty too. The match was good, but I found it more frustrating than enjoyable. Bryce Remsberg will be getting a nomination for worst non-wrestler for me at the end of year awards, he’s fucking awful and has a tendency to ruin matches. It also looked like a lot of people left when that match ended, thinking the show was over, was that the case? I actually forgot about the cage match myself, so I almost switched off. 

My match of the night for me was Zack Sabre Jr vs Nigel McGuinness. It would be great to see Nigel win a title in the future, and I hope he’s well enough to return to the ring more regularly for one final run. He looks better every time he’s in the ring as he shakes off that rust, and there are loads of people I’d like to see him wrestle.

Toni/Athena was disappointing given how good both women’s matches have been as of late. It was the right result, though. The four-way women’s match was fantastic though, and I really hope they sign Brozilla. I’d be amazed if WWE wasn’t also interested in her after that performance. It’s mad that she’s as young as she is, what a talent.

The opening tag was really weird. They should have simply had E&C plough through them, but the whole thing dragged and felt messy. Are we heading towards Jurassic Express vs Sabian and Wayne?! I hope not. 

Okada/Swerve was what it was, and I’m guessing that’s the last we’ll see of Swerve for a wee bit. More hints of tension between Takeshita and the family though, I hope this is what finally pushed him to the top of the card on a permanent basis. I’d prefer to have seen Wardlow with MJF. I assumed we’d get a Pinnacle reunion to take on The Hurt Syndicate, but I guess not. It makes the nature of MJF’s departure from the group even more weird.

I mostly enjoyed the main event but that spot with Darby and the fork was too stomach-churning for me by some way. Thankfully, it wasn’t a gore fest throughout and was more about big spots. Still though, yuck. I really hope the absences of Swerve and Ospreay don’t affect the momentum AEW has built up this year, 

Alongside Brozilla, I’d like to see AEW sign Sabre Jr and Gabe Kidd. I really enjoy both wrestlers, particularly Zack. Both have been really good. I thought Persphone seemed decent too. 

[gmoney]

Did they explain on commentary what was going on with Killswitch beating on Kip Sabian? That was extremely confusing live. 

I'd echo what a couple of others have said, I enjoyed a lot of it, and live the atmosphere was great, but there was some head scratching booking going on. The end of the Page/MJF match was complete dog. They love booking Briscoe to look like a complete prat don't they? 

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

Wasn’t a fan of the ending, felt they could have maybe saved the Ospreay killing for Dynamite and just let him bask in the adulation of the crowd and it made 7 babyfaces look like idiots for not trying to stop 5 heels

[RedTwoster]

10 minutes ago, RIDDUM_N_STYLE said:

Wasn’t a fan of the ending, felt they could have maybe saved the Ospreay killing for Dynamite and just let him bask in the adulation of the crowd and it made 7 babyfaces look like idiots for not trying to stop 5 heels

I didn’t really feel it was needed. They acknowledged that this was essentially farewell for the time being, and finishing with the crowd thanking him would have been nice. They didn’t even need to do an injury angle, we already knew he was hurt.

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

Did enjoy the 'Mmmmmbop' entrance for Matt and Nick! 

[digforvictory]

Tony Khan apparently in the post match press conference said he's enforcing the rule that from now on all casino battle royal cash ins have to give the Champion at least one weeks notice before the title match. So we won't be getting any more MITB style cash ins.

Which is great news as far as I'm concerned.  I'm sick to fucking death of them, let WWE keep that as a gimmick.  

Good show overall, but not top tier. Revolution, Double or Nothing and All In were all much superior off the top of my head. Best thing about the show was how packed and huge the arena looked. It looked so cool to see AEW in front of such a massive arena crowd. 

MJF/Hangman was unbelievably frustrating.  I'm starting to give up when it comes to MJF, he's so talented and so close to being great but there's too often a really shitty aspect to whatever he's doing. It's like he can't help himself.  The match was an overbooked mess, not a patch on their match earlier in the year which unsurprisingly was just a straightforward wrestling match.  Main event was the best match of the night, just a fun crazy brawl. 

Honestly I'd be fine with Hurt Syndicate never being seen again. Poochie them, they died on the way back to their home planet. They're nowhere near good enough or big enough stars to be refusing to put people over. With this and the weird abrupt ending to the MJF story,  Fuck em. 

Dynamite in Manchester in December. Get in!

[Tennessee Moltisanti]

Attended the show, absolutely flew by. Great stuff all round.

Toni Vs Athena being a bit of a dud, the rest of the card was pretty fantastic.

Had no idea how over Brodido were, but holy cow they had that place going. Swerve is another one, just insanely over.

Glad to hear that Tony Khan had scrapped the cash in concept, and that title shots must be announced a week in advance. Hangman standing over MJF after he threw the contract on top of him was a lovely touch.

Cage match was bonkers. Great finish and post match. Double main event at Wembley next year of Ospreay Vs Mox in his return match as well as a title match.

[Lorne Malvo]

I thought it was a pretty poor show in all. A lot of the matches weirdly seemed lacking in heat and there were a ton of miscues/fuck-ups/botches/whatever you wanna call them which just killed the momentum. And the booking and finishes just seemed odd.

I may be being overly harsh because, while I've got lucky at all the other AEW shows I've been to, this time I was surrounded by the biggest group of cunts and mutants imaginable. Including a guy spilling half his pint over me just before the main event (no exaggeration either, I was drenched).

Brilliant.

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

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.

 

Bozilla, Michael Oku and Persephone should be signing AEW contracts right now. Great pair of ladies and Oku looked really at ease in his match. Good to see Hayter appear too, albeit briefly.

 

Good pop for Tony St Clair too. Good old boy of British Wrestling.