AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2023 - June 25th, 2023
Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Forbidden Door 2023 was the second annual co-promoted and co-produced pay-per-view event with the Japan-based promotion New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on June 25th, 2023 and was the first non-WWE pay-per-view event to be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada since World Championship Wrestling held it's Mayhem event there in November of 1999. Forbidden Door was also the first Canadian event co-promoted by New Japan Pro Wrestling to air on traditional PPV outlets. Prior to it's acquisition, AEW's sibling promotion, Ring of Honor Wrestling, co-promoted two Global Wars events with NJPW in 2014 and 2015, both of which were held in Toronto and aired live on internet pay-per-view (iPPV).
In February 2021, All Elite Wrestling began a partnership with the Japanese wrestling promotion, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). After a year of AEW and NJPW wrestlers appearing on each other's shows, the two promotions co-promoted a pay-per-view event titled, Forbidden Door in June 2022. The event took its name from the same term often used by AEW when referring to working with other wrestling promotions.
On the April 26th episode of AEW Dynamite, AEW president Tony Khan announced that tournament matches for the second annual Owen Hart Cup would occur at the pay-per-view. On the June 21st episode, the brackets were revealed, with two matches to be held during the PPV: ROH Women's World Champion Athena facing Billie Starkz in the women's tournament during the PPV pre-show and CM Punk facing Satoshi Kojima in the men's tournament, marking Punk's first appearance on an AEW PPV since ALL OUT 2022, where he main evented before being involved in the legitimate backstage fight that got him suspended from AEW for quite awhile.
At New Japan's Wrestle Kingdom 17 on January 4th, 2023, Kenny Omega defeated Will Ospreay to become the IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion for a second time. In April, NJPW announced a tournament to determine the new number one contender to Omega's championship, featuring Ospreay, Lance Archer, Juice Robinson and Hiroshi Tanahashi. However, on April 16th at NJPW's Capital Collision, Robinson was kayfabe suspended from NJPW after attacking both Fred Rosser and a referee during a match against Rosser, which ended in a no contest. Soon after, it was announced that Rosser would replace Robinson in the tournament. On April 16th at Capital Collision, Archer defeated Rosser. On May 21st at NJPW's Resurgence, Ospreay defeated Tanahashi to set up the tournament final, which took place on June 4th at NJPW's Dominion 6.4 in Osaka-jo Hall, where Ospreay defeated Archer to become the number one contender for the U.S. title. On June 6th, NJPW held a press conference where the match was made official for Forbidden Door.
Also, at Dominion 6.4 in Osaka-jo Hall, Blackpool Combat Club's Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli teamed with Moxley's protoge Shota Umino to face Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship, but failed to win the titles. After the match, Moxley took to the microphone, presenting a video package for Okada. The video featured fellow The video featured fellow BCC member Bryan Danielson, who challenged Okada to a match. Okada responded by claiming that the "forbidden door" would be open, teasing the match taking place at the PPV On June 6, NJPW held a press conference where Okada accepted Danielson's challenge for Forbidden Door, making the match official.
Following NJPW's All Together Again on June 9, it was hinted that IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Sanada would have an announcement on a future episode of Dynamite regarding his plans as NJPW's World Champion for the upcoming Forbidden Door PPV. The rumours were proven true on the June 14 episode of Dynamite, where Sanada appeared via a video message issuing an open challenge for his title at the PPV. Later on the show, the offer was accepted by Jungle Boy, who asked for his tag team partner HOOK to be in his corner for the match. Soon after, the match was made official for Forbidden Door.On the June 23 episode of AEW Rampage, Perry defeated Sanada's Just 5 Guys teammate Douki, using Sanada's finisher to win the match, leading to Sanada confronting Perry in the ring, after the match.
On the June 14 episode of Dynamite, NJPW's Hiroshi Tanahashi challenged AEW World Champion MJF to a title match at Forbidden Door via a video message. The match was made official for the PPV, however, MJF claimed to have no interest in defending the belt against Tanahashi, claiming NJPW to be an inferior company, whilst also hinting no-showing the PPV. Despite this, on the June 21 episode of Dynamite, MJF accepted Tanahashi's challenge after being named a "coward" by Adam Cole.
AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy successfully defended his title at AEW's Double or Nothing, winning the Blackjack Battle Royal. In the post-show press conference, Cassidy was asked who he would like to defend the title against in the future, which he answered by expressing the desire to face NJPW World Television Champion Zack Sabre Jr.. Meanwhile, on the June 2 episode of Rampage, Cassidy's ally, Katsuyori Shibata, successfully defeated Lee Moriarty to retain his ROH Pure Championship, although he was confronted by Daniel Garcia, who sought a future title shot. On the June 14 episode of Dynamite, Sabre Jr. confronted Cassidy backstage, looking to arrange a future match, however, they were interrupted by Garcia, who asked Cassidy about Shibata's whereabouts. Cassidy suggested that he and Shibata would team against Garcia and Sabre Jr. the following week, in a tag team match. Garcia and Sabre Jr, defeated Cassidy and Shibata. After the match, all four men held on to the International Championship and a four-way match for the title was scheduled for Forbidden Door.
Following his loss at Double or Nothing, Sammy Guevara returned to Dynamite on June 14, expressing his desire to "make some changes" to himself in AEW. Guevara was interrupted by Darby Allin, who also had lost at Double or Nothing, who went on to suggest that Guevara should not live in the shadows of the Jericho Appreciation Society (JAS). This led to JAS leader Chris Jericho confronting the duo, berating Allin for his suggestion and questioning Guevara's distancing from the JAS and suggesting that he and Guevara should team to reestablish Guevara in the faction. As Jericho hinted at attacking Allin, Sting entered the ring coming face-to-face with Jericho, who soon fled the ring. The following week, after teaming with Guevara and Minoru Suzuki to defeat Darius Martin, Action Andretti, and AR Fox, Jericho called out Sting and Allin, challenging them to find a partner to face himself, Guevara, and Suzuki at Forbidden Door, which Sting and Allin accepted, with Allin stating they had a partner which they would reveal on that week's episode of AEW Collision. At the show, Sting and Allin's partner was revealed to be Jericho's old rival Tetsuya Naito, who made his AEW debut, and a six-man tag team match was made official for Forbidden Door.
On the June 14 episode of Dynamite, AEW Women's World Champion, Toni Storm successfully defended her title against Skye Blue. After the match, Storm and teammate Ruby Soho attacked Blue, only for her to be saved by NJPW Strong Women's Champion, Willow Nightingale. On the debut episode of Collision, Nightingale and Blue defeated Storm and Soho, in a tag team match. Soon after, it was announced that Storm would defend her AEW Women's World Championship against Nightingale at Forbidden Door.
Cancelled Match:
On the June 21 episode of Dynamite, it was revealed that rivals MJF and Adam Cole would team up in the Blind Eliminator Tournament in order to determine the number one contender for the AEW World Tag Team Championship, much to both men's dismay. Two days later, MJF made his debut on Rampage, interrupting Cole and informing him that he had arranged Cole a match at Forbidden Door against NJPW's Tom Lawlor. This led to Team Filthy's Lawlor and Royce Isaacs making their AEW debut, attacking Cole, as MJF mockingly teased saving his partner Cole from the assault. On the day of the event, however, it was announced that Cole was not medically cleared to compete due to an illness and therefore the Forbidden Door match was cancelled. Lawlor instead competed against Serpentico in a dark match before the pre-show. During the post-event media scrum, Tony Khan said Cole's illness appeared to be the flu.
Results:
| No. | Results: | Stipulations: | Times: | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1D | Tom Lawlor (with Royce Isaacs) defeated Serpentico (with Luther) by pinfall* | Singles match | 4:10 | ||||||
| 2P | Mogul Embassy (Swerve Strickland, Toa Liona, Brian Cage, and Bishop Kaun) (with Prince Nana) defeated Chaos (Rocky Romero, Chuck Taylor, and Trent Beretta) and El Desperado by pinfall | 8-Man Tag Team match | 12:30 | ||||||
| 3P | Athena defeated Billie Starkz by pinfall | Women's Owen Hart Cup Tournament First Round match | 7:50 | ||||||
| 4P | El Phantasmo defeated Stu Grayson by pinfall | Singles match | 7:15 | ||||||
| 5P | Los Ingobernables de Japon (Shingo Takagi, Bushi, and Hiromu Takahashi) defeated United Empire (Jeff Cobb, Kyle Fletcher, and TJP) by pinfall | Trios match | 7:30 | ||||||
| 6 | MJF (c) defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi by pinfall | Singles match for the AEW World Championship | 15:30 | ||||||
| 7 | CM Punk defeated Satoshi Kojima by pinfall | Men's Owen Hart Cup Tournament First Round match | 13:40 | ||||||
| 8 | Orange Cassidy (c) defeated Zack Sabre Jr., Katsuyori Shibata, and Daniel Garcia by pinfall | 4-Way match for the AEW International Championship | 11:15 | ||||||
| 9 | Sanada (c) (with Douki) defeated "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry (with HOOK) by pinfall | Singles match for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship | 10:45 | ||||||
| 10 | The Elite ("Hangman" Adam Page, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson), Eddie Kingston, and Tomohiro Ishii defeated Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, and Claudio Castagnoli), Konosuke Takeshita, and Shota Umino by pinfall | 10-man Tag Team match | 21:25 | ||||||
| 11 | Toni Storm (c) (with Ruby Soho and Saraya) defeated Willow Nightingale by pinfall | Singles match for the AEW Women's World Championship | 10:30 | ||||||
| 12 | Will Ospreay (with Don Callis) defeated Kenny Omega (c) by pinfall | Singles match for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship | 39:45 | ||||||
| 13 | Sting, Darby Allin, and Tetsuya Naito defeated Le Suzuki Gods (Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, and Minoru Suzuki) by pinfall | Trios match | 15:10 | ||||||
| 14 | Bryan Danielson defeated Kazuchika Okada by submission | Singles match | 27:40 | ||||||
| |||||||||
IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship #1 Contender Tournament:
| First Round Collision in Philadelphia (April 16) Resurgence (May 21) | Final Dominion 6.4 in Osaka-jo Hall (June 4) | ||||||
| Lance Archer | Pin | ||||||
| Fred Rosser** | 14:22 | ||||||
| Lance Archer | 8:01 | ||||||
| Will Ospreay | Pin | ||||||
| Will Ospreay | Pin | ||||||
| Hiroshi Tanahashi | 16:44 | ||||||
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