Tetsuya Naito is once again the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion after regaining the title at AEWxNJPW Forbidden Door.
In the show’s co-main event, Naito dethroned Jon Moxley, ending his reign at 79 days. Naito was able to kick out of a Deathrider by Moxley though the AEW star was able to withstand Naito’s Destino. In the end, a second Destino clinched the win, and the title, for Tetsuya Naito.
This win makes Naito a two-time IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. At Wrestle Kingdom 18 in January 2024, Naito won the gold for the first time with a win over Sanada. His 99-day reign would be ended by Moxley at Windy City Riot in April. This win also makes Naito the second-ever two-time IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, alongside Kazuchika Okada.
With Jon Moxley no longer the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, it remains to be seen when we’ll see the title next defended at an AEW event. While the next Forbidden Door is a year away, AEW and New Japan have close ties, meaning we could see the title defended far sooner than that. In the meantime, Moxley will turn his attention to AEW All In 2024, while the next major event for New Japan is the Fantastica Mania: USA show on July 13.
The AEW World Champion defended his title against Will Ospreay in a hard-fought match in the main event of the Forbidden Door 2024 PPV from UBS Arena in New York.
Both the competitors got special entrances for the match. Will Ospreay entered first paying tribute to the legendary Hayabusa with a mask during his entrance.
Strickland then got a special introduction from rapper Jim Jones who came out with the AEW Title and handed it to Swerve when he appeared.
The match was every bit as brutal as expected with both the stars missing no opportunity to take things to the extreme. This included a crossbody Ospreay delivered to Swerve over the top rope very early in the bout, taking the champion outside.
The ending of the bout saw Ospreay accidentally knocking out the referee with a Hidden Blade. Don Callis then appeared at the ringside to hand his client a screwdriver, before being tackled by Prince Nana.
Ospreay thought about using the screwdriver on Nana but then threw it away. The distraction allowed Swerve to recover and he hit Will Ospreay with a House Call.
A new referee showed up to continue the match and Strickland then delivered a second and third house call to finally put Will Ospreay down.
Will Ospreay appears to be moving away from the world title picture for the moment as his next feud has already been teased on AEW Programming.
After an opening segment between Ospreay, MJF and Daniel Garcia on this week’s Dynamite, both MJF and Garcia were shown to be watching tonight’s world title match very closely.
The tease at Forbidden Door only further confirms that AEW is building towards an MJF vs Will Ospreay match for the upcoming All In PPV from London, with Garcia playing a crucial part in this rivalry.
AEW had announced a ladder match at Forbidden Door after Adam Copeland had to relinquish the title due to his foot injury. Apart from Perry, the contestants for the bout included El Phantasmo, Mark Briscoe, Lio Rush, Konosuke Takeshita, and Dante Martin
The grueling match featured many brutal spots as expected. One highlight of the fight was when Takeshita landed a blue thunder bomb on Phantasmo through a pair of tables outside.
The ending of the bout saw Mark Briscoe hitting Takeshita with a chair as he looked to grab the title. Briscoe then sent the Japanese star crashing through a ladder and looked to win the match himself.
The Scapegoat, however, used a second ladder to send Briscoe crashing. He then took out Mark using repeat chair shots. The Elite member finally climbed the ladder and grabbed the TNT title to win the bout
Jack Perry wasn’t the only Elite member in action tonight at The Young Bucks and Kazuchika Okada faced the team of Anthony Bowens, Max Caster, and Hiroshi Tanahashi, collectively known as The Scissor Ace.
The Elite won this bout as well. The Continental Champion picked up the victory for his team after he blasted the NJPW President with a rainmaker for the pin.
AEW has started teasing the return of Hangman Adam Page after The Young Bucks announced that they will be introducing the wild card entry into the ongoing Owen Hart Tournament. Now we will have to see when Page actually makes his return.
Mercedes Mone is still the CEO of the TBS Championship, but she may have to deal with Britt Baker.
Mone retained her TBS Title and became the NJPW Strong Women’s Champion against Stephanie Vaquer. However, it was the challenger who stole the show with her performance. Vaquer was trending worldwide although Mone picked up the W in a hard-fought match and the Long Island crowd was in store for a treat as Britt Baker walked out on the entryway to confront Mone.
— ??Garrett Burroughs?? (@notorious_gmb) July 1, 2024
Baker has been gone from AEW for months and it was greatly unknown regarding her status with the company. AEW President Tony Khan did give an optimistic update this week during the media call, expressing excitement for her forthcoming return.
“It’s going to feel amazing when we’ve got great stars — Britt Baker is a great example — it will be great to have the Doctor back in AEW,” Khan stated. “Certainly, for me, I know that Dr. Britt Baker and fans all over the world will be excited to see her return. I’m glad that she’s going to be cleared to return very soon.”
Britt Baker feuding with Mercedes Mone has been a high-profile beef that AEW fans have been clamouring for and by all indications we’re about to get that. Since making her debut, Mone has primarily feuded with Willow Nightingale who competed earlier on the Forbidden Door card in tag action.
Mone vs. Vaquer wasn’t the only women’s match on the card as Toni Storm took on Mina Shirakawa for the AEW Women’s Championship. Storm retained her title in that one as she and Shirakawa “kissed it out” following the fight.
Toni Storm and Mina Shirakawa went above and beyond showing respect for one another at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, and it all came courtesy of Mariah May.
Toni Storm’s “love triangle” with Mariah May and Shirakawa has arguably been the best told story on AEW television over recent weeks and this contention ended up having a happy ending.
The eccentric Storm took on the wild child Shirakawa one-on-one for the AEW Women’s Championship at the PPV and it was Storm who ultimately retained her title by defeating her challenger. However, the most talked about aspect of this match may be what happened afterwards as Mina offered Toni her hand in respect. May watched on, who remained neutral during the fight and was dressed reminiscint to Miss Elizabeth at WrestleMania V.
My favorite elements of Storytelling in AEW reside within the details.
Mariah May has taken a neutral corner for this match and her attire at ringside is reminiscent of what Miss Elizabeth wore at WrestleMania 5 during the match between Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. #AEWxNJPWpic.twitter.com/UnPB9LnZtb
Storm ended up shaking it, but Mariah wanted more than that between her two friends. Akin to The Best Friends of old, instead of “hugging it out” May, Storm and Shirakawa “kissed it out” as all three smooched one another at once.
This turn of the tables was quite different from all that went down on the pre-show to Forbidden Door. May had her Owen Hart Cup quarterfinals match against Saraya and she nearly lost, but did get a roll-up pin victory against the former Paige. After her win, Storm and Shirakawa both came out to celebrate but May had to split the two up from fighting with one another. Now all is harmonious between the three, but for how long? If May ultimately ends up winning the Owen Hart Cup tournament, she’ll have a ticket to ALL IN in Wembley to face Storm if she’s still the champion by Labor Day weekend.
Kazuchika Okada may have got the biggest pinfall victory to date in his AEW career and it happened to come up against an opponent he is far too familiar with.
‘The Rainmaker’ teamed up with The Young Bucks to face The Acclaimed and Hiroshi Tanahashi at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, pitting two great rivals against one another in trios action. The Young Bucks and Acclaimed have been building toward a feud for weeks now, but the unexpected addition of ‘The Ace’ to the side of Anthony Bowens and Max Caster created an added ripple of interest to the match.
All that culiminated in the final minute of the fight when it came down to Okada and Tanahashi in the ring. The two duked it out before Okada ended up hitting The Rainmaker lariat for the finish and the 1-2-3.
Since joining AEW as a full-time member of the roster, Okada has found himself in the unexpected position as a heel alongside The Young Bucks, all but replacing Kenny Omega in The Elite. Okada’s other big win of note since coming into the AEW fold was against Eddie Kingston, defeating ‘The Mad King’ for his AEW Continental Championship. This win at Forbidden Door, can certainly help position Okada in more of a main event light as ‘The Rainmaker’ has been greatly regulated to a comedic heel role since he’s aligned with Matthew and Nicholas Jackson.
Even though The Elite did get the victory, that doesn’t mean they’re fully free from The Acclaimed as Caster and Bowens beat The Bucks in an eliminator match, meaning they will have a future Tag Team Titles shot against the EVP brothers.
“If the fans are happy, then I’m happy. I think this is the result and a recognition of all that Bryan has accomplished in his career, and all I’ve done in my career. I like that this will be on display worldwide. The whole world will see true ‘Made in Japan’ spirit. It’s a real dream match, a real dream situation for the fans worldwide. This is something that will send shockwaves through the wrestling world.”
It is not currently known if Danielson is planned to go all the way in the tournament, as a rumored match with Nigel McGuinness has apparently been on the cards for some time and it was expected to have taken place at All In last year before Danielson was injured.
Danielson is winding down his in-ring career this year, so the prospect of getting another match between he and his hated ROH rival one more time at the biggest venue possible in London, England could be too good to pass up for Tony Khan and co.
It was not only fight night for MJF at AEW Forbidden Door but it was hockey night too as he tipped the cap to a certain NHL team.
MJF started off AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door in his booked match against Hechicero and “The Wolf” ended up getting the victory against the CMLL star.
Being in Long Island, MJF was in full babyface mode as he was decked out in New York Islanders gear and took a moment to crowd surf with his people, His match was made all the more memorable for him as he and Hechicero kicked off the PPV. MJF ended up securing the victory with a brainbuster.
From a storyline perspective, MJF has been a busy man since making his return at AEW Double Or Nothing. Despite his heelish demeanor, MJF has been a babyface scorned by the enemies of his past, but hasn’t been afraid to speak his mind against anyone and everyone.
Just this past Wednesday on AEW Dynamite, he and Daniel Garcia seemingly furthered a friendship with what seemed to culminate in a match at All In between the two, but Will Ospreay big-timed Max. Ospreay decided to offer Garcia a shot at his AEW International gold next week during Summer Break 3. Not only that, but Will was so confident in the outcome at Forbidden Door that ‘Billy Goat’ offered Daniel a World Title shot too once he defeated Swerve Strickland at Forbidden Door. This seemingly set up tension between MJF and Ospreay, potentially foreshadowing that they may be the two to have a match with one another at Wembley Stadium.
Many fans may feel that Max’s match at Forbidden Door against Hechicero felt underwhelming in the build because it was suddenly thrown together without any story behind it. Hechicero just recently turned heel as he joined up with Brian Cage and The Gates of Agony.
Former WCW President Eric Bischoff took to X/Twitter to mock The Young Bucks following their match at Forbidden Door.
“This 6 man with The Elite looks like something from WCW Saturday night from 1992 zzzzz” the former WWE on-screen General Manager tweeted during the match featuring The Bucks/Kazuchika Okada taking on The Acclaimed and Hiroshi Tanahashi.
Bischoff would then follow that up with another incendiary shot, this one taking a dig at the overall match itself: “Damn that much sucked. There HAS to a motive behind putting on such waste of time.”
Bischoff has not been shy about his dislike of certain AEW tropes and approaches to on-screen presentation over the past few years, especially when it comes to the likes of The Young Bucks and Tony Khan.
When it came to the replies from fans and detractors on the tweets, it was a 50/50 balance between those agreeing with Easy E and those calling him a grifter that didn’t know what he was talking about.
Either way, The Elite continues to be a focal point of All Elite programming and will continue to be as the storyline with Kenny Omega and (possibly) Hangman Adam Page unfolds over the next few months.
Whether Bischoff will enjoy any of the work that the group presents going forward remains to be seen, but going by his recent comments and overall view of the EVPs? It’s probably not going to get any more positive.
Forbidden Door is now underway, and fans in the arena started some (very audible on the PPV feed) dueling CM Punk chants.
The chants started during the Young Bucks and Kazuchika Okada vs Hiroshi Tanahashi and Acclaimed tag team match, with a smatter of ‘CM Punk’ aimed at the Bucks specifically.
The chants would then get more and more audible before you could loudly hear on the PPV feed “F*ck CM Punk,” chants which seemed to stop dead the original chants for the Second City Saint, which were then followed up by “he got fired” from the crowd.
CM Punk chants at ANOTHER AEW PPV
The Bucks would probably have hoped that the Punk chants would’ve stopped by now, with the Brawl Out incident being a fairly distant memory for many.
Fans on X/Twitter reacted to the chants from some of the crowd and the overwhelming sentiment was…why? Why would you pay to go to an AEW PPV at this point in 2024 and still chant for CM Punk?
Punk of course still has a huge fanbase, and the shocking incidents that led to his departure will be discussed for years to come.
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door Matches Tonight
There are a number of massive matches set to take place from the UBS Arena in the Long Island hamlet of Elmont, New York, and they are as follows:
AEW World Heavyweight Title Match: Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Will Ospreay
AEW Women’s World Championship Match: Toni Storm (c) vs. Mina Shirakawa
Winners Takes All Title For Title Match: AEW TBS Champion Mercedes Mone vs. NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer
Ladder Match for the Vacant TNT Championship: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Jack Perry vs. Dante Martin vs. Lio Rush vs. El Phantasmo
IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito
Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament Quarterfinal: Bryan Danielson vs. Shingo Takagi
Trios Match: The Elite (Kazuchika Okada & The Young Bucks) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & The Acclaimed
Trios Match: Samoa Joe, Hook, and Katsuyori Shibata vs. Jeff Cobb, Chris Jericho and Big Bill
Zack Sabre Jr vs. Orange Cassidy
MJF vs. Hechicero
ZERO-HOUR PRE-SHOW
Kris Statlander & Momo Watanabe vs. Willow Nightingale & Tam Nakano
Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament Quarterfinal: Saraya vs. Mariah May
Mistico & The Lucha Bros vs. Yota Tsuji, Titan & Hiromu Takahashi
Fatal 4-WayMatch: House of Black (Malakai Black & Brody King) vs. Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen) vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Gabe Kidd & Roderick Strong
We’ll be covering all of the events from tonight’s PPV event, so make sure that you keep checking back to SEScoops for the latest!
Maxwell Jacob Friedman/MJF picked up a big win at the AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024 event tonight from UBS Arena.
The former AEW Champion managed to take the win over Hechicero in the opening match of the night with his new finisher: a modified Brainbuster.
This seemed to be a place-holder match for Maxwell as we head towards the All In event from Wembley Stadium, where he may well get a higher-tier competitor (at least from an All Elite sense, Hechicero is great).
There are a number of massive matches set to take place from the UBS Arena in the Long Island hamlet of Elmont, New York, and they are as follows:
AEW World Heavyweight Title Match: Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Will Ospreay
AEW Women’s World Championship Match: Toni Storm (c) vs. Mina Shirakawa
Winners Takes All Title For Title Match: AEW TBS Champion Mercedes Mone vs. NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer
Ladder Match for the Vacant TNT Championship: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Jack Perry vs. Dante Martin vs. Lio Rush vs. El Phantasmo
IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito
Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament Quarterfinal: Bryan Danielson vs. Shingo Takagi
Trios Match: The Elite (Kazuchika Okada & The Young Bucks) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & The Acclaimed
Trios Match: Samoa Joe, Hook, and Katsuyori Shibata vs. Jeff Cobb, Chris Jericho and Big Bill
Zack Sabre Jr vs. Orange Cassidy
MJF vs. Hechicero
ZERO-HOUR PRE-SHOW
Kris Statlander & Momo Watanabe vs. Willow Nightingale & Tam Nakano
Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament Quarterfinal: Saraya vs. Mariah May
Mistico & The Lucha Bros vs. Yota Tsuji, Titan & Hiromu Takahashi
Fatal 4-WayMatch: House of Black (Malakai Black & Brody King) vs. Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen) vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Gabe Kidd & Roderick Strong
We’ll be covering all of the events from tonight’s PPV event, so make sure that you keep checking back to SEScoops for the latest!
The women’s bracket of the Owen Hart Cup continued on the Zero Hour of AEW Forbidden Door and it occurred in a big way between Mariah May and Saraya. Despite still being in curlers, AEW Women’s Champion Toni Storm came out in support of Mariah May and it was a slugfest between the two Brits.
The stakes are high for the Owen Hart Cup winners as the champion of each tournament earns the right for a title should at Wembley Stadium for All In in London. With Saraya and May both being from across the pond, this opening round bout had to mean a lot to both competitors.
During the fight, Storm inadvertently nearly cost Mariah May a victory with a ringside distraction as Saraya hit her finisher, but May had the wherewithal to grab hold of the bottom rope to stop the count. The two women battled it out even more and it ended up being a roll-up pin for May to the definitive 1-2-3 against the longtime veteran in Saraya.
With May advancing, that means she’s one step closer to facing her “mentor” Toni at Wembley and post-match Mina Shirakawa came out to celebrate with May as she and Storm showed further tension before their match later in the evening. Mariah May still tried to play peacemaker despite getting blasted with a wine bottle on Wednesday’s Dynamite by Shirakawa. Mina was aiming for Storm, but accidentally nailed May with the bottle, further setting up some animosity between her and the AEW Women’s Champion.
May will face Deonna Purrazzo in the semi-finals round of the women’s bracket after Purrazzo advanced against Hikaru Shida in their quarterfinals match.
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024 is taking place tonight and fans are wondering if some unannounced signings finally could appear on screen.
According to a recent report from Fightful Select, there are a several “unannounced signings” for the company who may or may not be appearing on the Forbidden Door PPV tonight.
“We’re told there are some unannounced signings that have not appeared on AEW or ROH TV yet. There’s no word on if they’ll be popping up tonight” the site reported earlier today as part of their Forbidden Door scoops thread.
What we DO know is that one of the names not appearing will apparently be Kamille, as Fightful noted that “We’re told the ‘unannounced signings’ don’t include Kamille, who has been with the company for months. There have been discussions and materials prepared to bring her in, though we’re not sure to what extent.”
AEW Rumors: Unannounced signings at Forbidden Door
There are a number of massive matches set to take place from the UBS Arena in the Long Island hamlet of Elmont, New York, and they are as follows:
AEW World Heavyweight Title Match: Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Will Ospreay
AEW Women’s World Championship Match: Toni Storm (c) vs. Mina Shirakawa
Winners Takes All Title For Title Match: AEW TBS Champion Mercedes Mone vs. NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer
Ladder Match for the Vacant TNT Championship: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Jack Perry vs. Dante Martin vs. Lio Rush vs. El Phantasmo
IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito
Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament Quarterfinal: Bryan Danielson vs. Shingo Takagi
Trios Match: The Elite (Kazuchika Okada & The Young Bucks) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & The Acclaimed
Trios Match: Samoa Joe, Hook, and Katsuyori Shibata vs. Jeff Cobb, Chris Jericho and Big Bill
Zack Sabre Jr vs. Orange Cassidy
MJF vs. Hechicero
ZERO-HOUR PRE-SHOW
Kris Statlander & Momo Watanabe vs. Willow Nightingale & Tam Nakano
Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament Quarterfinal: Saraya vs. Mariah May
Mistico & The Lucha Bros vs. Yota Tsuji, Titan & Hiromu Takahashi
Fatal 4-WayMatch: House of Black (Malakai Black & Brody King) vs. Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen) vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Gabe Kidd & Roderick Strong
We’ll be covering all of the events from tonight’s PPV event, so make sure that you keep checking back to SEScoops for the latest!
A massive Will Ospreay match is currently not in the backstage plans for All In, according to some latest AEW rumors.
Fightful Select confirmed as part of their AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024 scoops thread that Ospreay vs Ricochet was not currently on the docket for the Wembley Stadium event in August.
“We’re told that AEW has had a general outline of the top matches they want at AEW All In for quite some time. As of early this month, Ricochet/Will Ospreay wasn’t one of them” the site reported.
AEW Rumors: Could Ricochet appear at Forbidden Door?
Whilst a number of fans are hoping that we could see Ricochet appearing tonight on the show to set up a massive rematch with Ospreay, it very likely will not be happening anytime soon.
Fightful also confirmed that “Ricochet and Natalya are still technically under contract to WWE,” so unless they were both let out of their deals early we won’t be seeing them pop up tonight.
Ospreay is set to challenge Swerve Strickland tonight for the AEW Championship, and he is the underdog heading into the bout (at least according to the latest odds). With the “Aerial Assassin” getting a pretty baffling title shot a month or so before Wembley Stadium, there will probably be something huge tonight that costs him the match and sets up the rematch in England.
Morgan throws first pitch at Fenway Park ahead of her upcoming title defense.
WWE superstar Liv Morgan is enjoying the lifestyle of being the WWE Women’s World Champion. She won the title by defeating Becky Lynch due to interference by her current love interest, Dominik Mysterio, at King & Queen Of The Ring on May 25. Since then, Morgan hasn’t seen much competition and defended her championship once. On the July 1 episode of Monday Night Raw, she’ll finally put her gold on the line against Zelina Vega.
The event will occur at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. Morgan initiated the feud by interfering in Mysterio’s tag team match alongside Carlito and JD McDonagh against World Wrestling Entertainment Braun Strowman & LWO (Dragon Lee & Rey Mysterio) on the June 10 episode of Raw. Vega would get into an altercation with the champion, and their issue would continue for the next two weeks. Their match on the upcoming episode will allow them to settle their difference.
While preparing for her title defense, Morgan made a special appearance today at Fenway Park during the Boston Red Sox and San Diego Padres game to throw the first pitch. The champion did a good job throwing without issue, showing off her arm strength compared to other celebrities. MLB captured the moment on X and decided to tag Mysterio to tease him.
WWE Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan threw out the 1st pitch today at Fenway Park!
Morgan also spoke with NESN and was asked by Adam Pellerin about what it means to perform in Boston. She spoke highly of the city and the energy the fans bring to WWE events when the company is in town.
Preview of Liv Morgan vs. Zelina Vega
The champion may need the energy when she faces her challenger on the July 1 episode. Since Morgan has been out of action on TV, she could deal with some issues in her title defense. Vega will seemingly have the speed advantage over her opponent and will be motivated to showcase her skills in a rare title match.
That said, Morgan is seemingly favored to retain her championship and continue to torment her rival, Rhea Ripley. ‘Mami’ is currently out with an injury due to Morgan’s attack on the April 8 episode of Raw. It’s unclear when Ripley will return to action. However, it’s possible WWE may have Morgan remain champion until she can defend it against the Australian superstar.
Regardless, the upcoming episode of Raw should be a fun show, and the crowd in Boston will be in for a treat to witness Morgan’s second title defense.
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024 is set to take place tonight, but what are the rumors heading into the big show?
Always take these rumors with a grain of salt, because although some of these sensationalized headlines can seem more exciting than the usual news cycle, they are just that right now…rumors.
Here are the rumors that are doing the rounds this week ahead of the PPV event and everything you need to know to keep up with the latest updates.
One of the biggest stories right now surrounds former WWE Superstar Dijak, as he appears to be teasing a debut with All Elite tonight.
Dijak took to social media to cut a promo walking out of his house, claiming that it was time for a “Dijak Hijack”
“Today is such a beautiful day, it’s early in the morning right now, why don’t we go for a nice little drive, huh? Maybe a four-and-half hour drive? Maybe that’s exactly what today calls for.”
Long Island fits the bill for a four and a half hour drive for Dijak which is where Forbidden Door takes place, so there’s a very good chance that he appears tonight.
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024 is set to take place tonight on PPV, but what is the card for the massive show?
There are a bunch of title matches confirmed for the show, including the main event that sees Will Ospreay challenging for the AEW Championship against Swerve Strickland for the very first time.
NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer will also be facing TBS Champion Mercedes Mone in a Champion vs Champion match, with Mone looking to take back the title that she was earmarked to win before her injury against Willow Nightingale.
To add even further to the stakes, there will be a ladder match for the vacant TNT Championship with Konosuke Takeshita, Mark Briscoe, Jack Perry, Dante Martin, Lio Rush and El Phantasmo all vying for the belt that Adam Copeland had to vacate due to injury.
There are a number of massive matches set to take place from the UBS Arena in the Long Island hamlet of Elmont, New York, and they are as follows:
AEW World Heavyweight Title Match: Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Will Ospreay
AEW Women’s World Championship Match: Toni Storm (c) vs. Mina Shirakawa
Winners Takes All Title For Title Match: AEW TBS Champion Mercedes Mone vs. NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer
Ladder Match for the Vacant TNT Championship: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Jack Perry vs. Dante Martin vs. Lio Rush vs. El Phantasmo
IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito
Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament Quarterfinal: Bryan Danielson vs. Shingo Takagi
Trios Match: The Elite (Kazuchika Okada & The Young Bucks) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & The Acclaimed
Trios Match: Samoa Joe, Hook, and Katsuyori Shibata vs. Jeff Cobb, Chris Jericho and Big Bill
Zack Sabre Jr vs. Orange Cassidy
MJF vs. Hechicero
ZERO-HOUR PRE-SHOW
Kris Statlander & Momo Watanabe vs. Willow Nightingale & Tam Nakano
Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament Quarterfinal: Saraya vs. Mariah May
Mistico & The Lucha Bros vs. Yota Tsuji, Titan & Hiromu Takahashi
Fatal 4-WayMatch: House of Black (Malakai Black & Brody King) vs. Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen) vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Gabe Kidd & Roderick Strong
We’ll be covering all of the events from tonight’s PPV event, so make sure that you keep checking back to SEScoops for the latest!
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024 is set to take place tonight, but what is the latest in terms of ticket sales?
According to a recent report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the show is doing well in terms of number of seats sold.
As of writing from that report, the show at the UBS Arena on Long Island has around 9,738 tickets out.
During the recent press call for the PPV, Tony Khan made a prediction that the show would get around 10,000 tickets sold, getting setting a live gate of $1 million.
If the show is able to get over that 10,000 tickets sold mark and the $1 million gate, then it will be the third straight Forbidden Door show to do so.
FB 2024 would also be the biggest show of the year if it breaks the $1 million gate, surpassing AEW Revolution which reportedly got around $1,025,000 on the gate.
Forbidden Door Matches taking place tonight
There are a number of massive matches set to take place from the UBS Arena in the Long Island hamlet of Elmont, New York, and they are as follows:
AEW World Heavyweight Title Match: Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Will Ospreay
AEW Women’s World Championship Match: Toni Storm (c) vs. Mina Shirakawa
Winners Takes All Title For Title Match: AEW TBS Champion Mercedes Mone vs. NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer
Ladder Match for the Vacant TNT Championship: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Jack Perry vs. Dante Martin vs. Lio Rush vs. El Phantasmo
IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito
Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament Quarterfinal: Bryan Danielson vs. Shingo Takagi
Trios Match: The Elite (Kazuchika Okada & The Young Bucks) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & The Acclaimed
Trios Match: Samoa Joe, Hook, and Katsuyori Shibata vs. Jeff Cobb, Chris Jericho and Big Bill
Zack Sabre Jr vs. Orange Cassidy
MJF vs. Hechicero
ZERO-HOUR PRE-SHOW
Kris Statlander & Momo Watanabe vs. Willow Nightingale & Tam Nakano
Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament Quarterfinal: Saraya vs. Mariah May
Mistico & The Lucha Bros vs. Yota Tsuji, Titan & Hiromu Takahashi
Fatal 4-WayMatch: House of Black (Malakai Black & Brody King) vs. Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen) vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Gabe Kidd & Roderick Strong
We’ll be covering all of the events from tonight’s PPV event, so make sure that you keep checking back to SEScoops for the latest!
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024 takes place tonight, and the latest odds for the card seem extremely one-sided.
Writing on the Daily Update for F4WOnline.com, Dave Meltzer revealed that some of the key matchups for the show are tilting heavily towards who you would think were getting the W before the first bell even rings.
“Almost all the key matches are very one-sided when it comes to the odds. On the main card, the Jericho match had no odds last we saw as it was a late addition, but MJF, Storm, Mone, Danielson, Naito, Jack Perry, Sabre Jr., and Strickland were all very heavy favorites” Meltzer noted.
“Naito was the smallest at -300. Strickland was -800. Mone was -2000 and Storm was -1500. MJF was -6000. Even Sabre was -400 and that match I could see going either way” he added.
There are a number of massive matches set to take place from the UBS Arena in the Long Island hamlet of Elmont, New York, and they are as follows:
AEW World Heavyweight Title Match: Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Will Ospreay
AEW Women’s World Championship Match: Toni Storm (c) vs. Mina Shirakawa
Winners Takes All Title For Title Match: AEW TBS Champion Mercedes Mone vs. NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer
Ladder Match for the Vacant TNT Championship: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Jack Perry vs. Dante Martin vs. Lio Rush vs. El Phantasmo
IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito
Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament Quarterfinal: Bryan Danielson vs. Shingo Takagi
Trios Match: The Elite (Kazuchika Okada & The Young Bucks) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & The Acclaimed
Trios Match: Samoa Joe, Hook, and Katsuyori Shibata vs. Jeff Cobb, Chris Jericho and Big Bill
Zack Sabre Jr vs. Orange Cassidy
MJF vs. Hechicero
ZERO-HOUR PRE-SHOW
Kris Statlander & Momo Watanabe vs. Willow Nightingale & Tam Nakano
Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament Quarterfinal: Saraya vs. Mariah May
Mistico & The Lucha Bros vs. Yota Tsuji, Titan & Hiromu Takahashi
Fatal 4-WayMatch: House of Black (Malakai Black & Brody King) vs. Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen) vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Gabe Kidd & Roderick Strong
We’ll be covering all of the events from tonight’s PPV event, so make sure that you keep checking back to SEScoops for the latest!
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024 is set to take place tonight, but how can fans watch the event via live stream?
Watching this major PPV event all depends on where you are based in the world, and we’ll be covering everything you need to do to see the stars of All Elite Wrestling take on opponents from CMLL, NJPW and beyond.
Fans watching in the United States have a few different ways that they can watch live tonight.
Forbidden Door can be streamed on both Bleacher Report and TrillerTV (formerly known as FITE TV) for $50 USD.
You can find both of these apps on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, mobile devices, and directly via their respective websites.
How to watch AEW Forbidden Door in the UK
If you’re looking to watch the PPV event live in the United Kingdom, then you will also be able to do so via Triller TV.
AEW Plus subscribers on the Triller TV service can purchase the card for around $19.99, around $30 cheaper than the US stream due to the anti-social timing of the event for European fans.
Who is wrestling at Forbidden Door?
There are a number of massive matches set to take place from the UBS Arena in the Long Island hamlet of Elmont, New York, and they are as follows:
AEW World Heavyweight Title Match: Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Will Ospreay
AEW Women’s World Championship Match: Toni Storm (c) vs. Mina Shirakawa
Winners Takes All Title For Title Match: AEW TBS Champion Mercedes Mone vs. NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer
Ladder Match for the Vacant TNT Championship: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Jack Perry vs. Dante Martin vs. Lio Rush vs. El Phantasmo
IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito
Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament Quarterfinal: Bryan Danielson vs. Shingo Takagi
Trios Match: The Elite (Kazuchika Okada & The Young Bucks) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & The Acclaimed
Trios Match: Samoa Joe, Hook, and Katsuyori Shibata vs. Jeff Cobb, Chris Jericho and Big Bill
Zack Sabre Jr vs. Orange Cassidy
MJF vs. Hechicero
ZERO-HOUR PRE-SHOW
Kris Statlander & Momo Watanabe vs. Willow Nightingale & Tam Nakano
Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament Quarterfinal: Saraya vs. Mariah May
Mistico & The Lucha Bros vs. Yota Tsuji, Titan & Hiromu Takahashi
Fatal 4-WayMatch: House of Black (Malakai Black & Brody King) vs. Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen) vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Gabe Kidd & Roderick Strong
We’ll be covering all of the events from tonight’s PPV event, so make sure that you keep checking back to SEScoops for the latest!
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024 is set to take place tonight, but what is the UK start time of the event?
As is usually the case, fans in the United Kingdom and Europe will be in for an extremely late night, with the live stream starting in the early hours of Monday morning.
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2024 UK Time
The Zero Hour pre-show event will be starting around 90 minutes before the main card at around 11:30 PM BST on Sunday, June 30th 2024.
The main card of Forbidden Door 2024 is set to start at around 1 am BST on Monday, July 1st 2024 in the United Kingdom.
Who is wrestling at Forbidden Door?
There are a number of massive matches set to take place from the UBS Arena in the Long Island hamlet of Elmont, New York, and they are as follows:
AEW World Heavyweight Title Match: Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Will Ospreay
AEW Women’s World Championship Match: Toni Storm (c) vs. Mina Shirakawa
Winners Takes All Title For Title Match: AEW TBS Champion Mercedes Mone vs. NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer
Ladder Match for the Vacant TNT Championship: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Jack Perry vs. Dante Martin vs. Lio Rush vs. El Phantasmo
IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito
Owen Hart Foundation Men’s Tournament Quarterfinal: Bryan Danielson vs. Shingo Takagi
Trios Match: The Elite (Kazuchika Okada & The Young Bucks) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & The Acclaimed
Trios Match: Samoa Joe, Hook, and Katsuyori Shibata vs. Jeff Cobb, Chris Jericho and Big Bill
Zack Sabre Jr vs. Orange Cassidy
MJF vs. Hechicero
ZERO-HOUR PRE-SHOW
Kris Statlander & Momo Watanabe vs. Willow Nightingale & Tam Nakano
Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament Quarterfinal: Saraya vs. Mariah May
Mistico & The Lucha Bros vs. Yota Tsuji, Titan & Hiromu Takahashi
Fatal 4-WayMatch: House of Black (Malakai Black & Brody King) vs. Private Party (Isiah Kassidy & Marq Quen) vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Gabe Kidd & Roderick Strong
We’ll be covering all of the events from tonight’s PPV event, so make sure that you keep checking back to SEScoops for the latest!
All Elite Wrestling & New Japan Pro Wrestling will team up tonight to present Forbidden Door 2024 from the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York.
The show will be the third annual Forbidden Door event and will see more promotions than those listed in the title. In addition to AEW and New Japan, the latter’s sister promotion STARDOM will be involved, as will Mexico’s CMLL.
Match Card
A total of 14 matches have been announced for tonight’s pay-per-view. They are:
PRE-SHOW: Los Ingobernables de Japon (Yota Tsuji, Titan, and Hiromu Takahashi) vs. The Lucha Brothers (Penta El Zero Miedo and Rey Fénix) and Místico (with Alex Abrahantes)
PRE-SHOW: Kris Statlander and Momo Watanabe (with Stokely Hathaway) vs. Willow Nightingale and Tam Nakano
PRE-SHOW: Mariah May (with Toni Storm, Luther and Mina Shirakawa) vs. Saraya (with Harley Cameron) (Women’s Owen Hart Cup Tournament first-round match)
PRE-SHOW: House of Black (Malakai Black and Brody King) vs. Tomohiro Ishii and Kyle O’Reilly vs. Roderick Strong and Gabriel Kidd vs. Private Party (Zay and Quen)
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Mark Briscoe vs. Jack Perry vs. Dante Martin vs. Lio Rush vs. El Phantasmo (Ladder Match for the AEW TNT Championship)
The Learning Tree (Chris Jericho and Big Bill) and Jeff Cobb (with Bryan Keith) vs. Samoa Joe, Hook, and Katsuyori Shibata
“Timeless” Toni Storm (c) (with Luther) vs. Mina Shirakawa (AEW Women’s World Championship, Mariah May at ringside)
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Orange Cassidy
MJF vs. Hechicero
Jon Moxley (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito (IWGP World Heavyweight Championship)
The Elite (Matthew Jackson, Nicholas Jackson, and Kazuchika Okada) vs. Scissor Ace (Anthony Bowens, Max Caster, and Hiroshi Tanahashi) (with “Daddy Ass” Billy Gunn)
Mercedes Moné (AEW) vs. Stephanie Vaquer (NJPW) (Winner Takes All match for the AEW TBS Championship and NJPW Strong Women’s Championship)
Bryan Danielson vs. Shingo Takagi (Men’s Owen Hart Cup Tournament first-round match)
Swerve Strickland (c) (with Prince Nana) vs. Will Ospreay (AEW World Championship)
How to Watch
The Zero Hour pre-show for AEWxNJPW: Forbidden Door 2024 will be streaming live from 6:30 pm Eastern and fans around the globe can catch it for free on AEW’s official YouTube channel and Bleacher Report.
The AEWxNJPW: Forbidden Door 2024 pay-per-view starts at 8 pm ET live from Paradise, Nevada. The event can be purchased and streamed on Bleacher Report and traditional PPV means in the US. For international audiences, the show will be made available through Triller TV.
Tony Khan has a lot of optimism when it comes to AEW’s future, both in television and in ever-changing streaming world.
Speaking to Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez of The Wrestling Observer, the AEW President shared his enthusiasm in the possibility of AEW PPVs finding itself under the umbrella of the new Venu Sports venture. Venu Sports is the forthcoming sports streaming service that will showcase Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery possibily teaming up for a super channel. Khan called it a “really exciting opportunity.”
“I think (Venu Sports) could be something we could be part of and it’s a really interesting conversation. That’s a whole new conversation and that’s a new world.”
Right now, Khan and AEW have found a PPV home on Triller TV with Forbidden Door airing on the service Sunday evening. Triller also is hosting the older PPVs of AEW, something that has been in great demand for fans.
While Tony Khan states he’s excited for the future with AEW and WBD, he reaffirms the relationship he has with WBD CEO David Zaslav. Khan even goes as far as to say Zaslav shows as much support for pro wrestling as Ted Turner once did with WCW.
“I don’t think that Warner Bros has had such a hands-on boss who has overseen a studio like this since Ted Turner was here at TNT and TBS like we have with David (Zaslav). There is a supreme commander at the top of Warner Bros Discovery and he loves AEW and I have a great relationship with him and I think it’s going to go a long way towards really keeping something that is very important to me alive, which is wrestling on TBS, TNT.”
Before the summer, there was an initial report that the first offered deal between WBD and AEW left Khan disappointed, but the aforementioned Observer gave its own report refuting that.
Tony Khan is confident in the television future of AEW, whatever that future may be, and he hopes it continues with Warner Bros. Discovery.
Khan sat down for an interview with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer and went into detail regarding his thoughts on that future. The AEW President said that the company is going to get a great deal and there are still discussion matters still on the table between the two parties. Despite the record-low number AEW accrued two Wednesdays ago on AEW Dynamite, Khan remains confident in the statistics AEW has done over the course of their deal with Turner.
“We need to keep doing what we’re doing because the numbers we have are numbers people in TV would kill to have. And I really need to focus on doing good shows for AEW and not about what the competition is doing, I think in this case our competition going out ahead of us and getting good media rights deals was a positive for us and actually good for us because we have very good historical comps, and these comps are very favorable for us. So that’s one thing I’ve done, a ton of market research and retain top analysts and data scientists and looking at this stuff.”
Thankfully, AEW rebounded with their numbers for the go-home episode of Dynamite ahead of Forbidden Door, getting an audience of 680,000, but it was still Dynamite‘s third-worst numbers so far in 2024.
The key demographic for Dynamite was also boosted up 37.5% from the previous week’s record-low getting a 0.22 P18-49 rating.
The fallout from AEW Forbidden Door will be featured at AEW Beach Break 3, showcasing a match between Will Ospreay and Daniel Garcia. The card will also have Jeff Jarrett competing in the Owen Hart Cup against a Wild Card entrant.
It didn’t take Dijak long at all to show up in a wrestling ring after his WWE exit and he may have bigger plans involving AEW.
The former T-Bar revealed before the weekend that he was not offered a new contract by WWE, sharing out a typed out letter explaining his exit in detail. Donovan Dijak stated that he was told at the “eleventh hour” that WWE would not be re-signing him and that they never even attempted to negotiate a new deal. Dijak stated that two months ago he was apart of one of the greatest matches in NXT history during WrestleMania weekend before being called up to RAW where he was never used.
Dijak didn’t let his exit cook for long as on Saturday, he made a return in his own backyard at Blitzkreig Luau in Conneticut. The “punk rock pro wrestling party” promotion stated that Dijak is a “free man.”
That notion may be all the more concrete as Dijak took to social media to cut a promo walking out of his house, claiming that it was time for a “Dijak Hijack”
“Today is such a beautiful day, it’s early in the morning right now, why don’t we go for a nice little drive, huh? Maybe a four-and-half hour drive? Maybe that’s exactly what today calls for.”
When considering the distance, Long Island fits the bill for a four and a half hour drive for Dijak which is where Forbidden Door takes place. In his letter, Dijak stated that he’d be taking bookings starting June 28 so him appearing at Forbidden Door is plausible to happen.
