Kyle Fletcher wants someone from NJPW at Forbidden Door.
On Saturday, Fletcher successfully retained the TNT Championship in the opening match of Collision, defeating Tomohiro Ishii. After the bout, Fletcher issued an open challenge for anyone from New Japan Pro Wrestling to face him at Forbidden Door for the TNT Championship, telling them to step up.
In a promo that aired immediately after Fletcher’s, Don Callis said he wanted whoever challenges Fletcher to show up on Wednesday in Cincinnati and meet them face-to-face. He promised he would use the lion mark tie he was given by NJPW to choke out whoever would end up challenging Fletcher.
At All In, Fletcher was originally set to face Adam Cole for the TNT Championship. However, the title was held up and instead he competed in a four-way that was won by Dustin Rhodes. The two ended up facing off on the July 31 edition of Collision, which saw Fletcher win the TNT Championship for the first time.
Here is the updated lineup for Dynamite:
AEW Dynamite, Wednesday, August 13 —
Hangman Adam Page and MJF face-to-face
Jon Moxley vs. Kevin Knight
Adam Copeland vs. Stokely Hathaway
Kyle Fletcher to meet Forbidden Door opponent face-to-face
A four-way match will determine Zack Sabre Jr.’s challenger for Forbidden Door.
It was announced on Saturday that next week’s Collision will see Hechicero, Lee Moriarty, Daniel Garcia, and Nigel McGuiness do battle in a match where the winner will face Sabre for the IWGP World title at the joint NJPW/AEW pay-per-view on August 24 in London.
The match will be a clash between four of the top technical wrestlers in the company as they prepare to take on someone who has won the Best Technical Wrestler award in the Wrestling Observer Awards eight times. This will be McGuiness’ first match since Double or Nothing earlier this year when he and Garcia lost to FTR.
Hechicero, meanwhile, continued to build momentum ahead of his ROH World title match against champion Bandido at Death Before Dishonor by defeating AR Fox on Saturday. Lee Moriarty, the current ROH Pure Champion, recently lost to Dustin Rhodes in a match that was for the TNT title.
Here is the updated lineup for next week’s Collision:
AEW Collision (August 16):
Four-way match, winner faces Zack Sabre Jr. at Forbidden Door: Hechicero vs. Lee Moriarty vs. Daniel Garcia vs. Nigel McGuiness
Bryan Danielson is keeping a positive attitude about the injury he suffered at Forbidden Door 2.
Danielson suffered a broken arm that night in his match against Kazuchika Okada. He is expected to be out of action until October and will miss Sunday’s All In show at Wembley Stadium as a result.
Danielson told his wife, Brie Bella, on The Nikki & Brie Show recently that while he wishes he hadn’t broken his arm against Okada, he’s grown an appreciation for the match they had.
“(Okada) did an elbow drop to me off the top rope, and it ended up breaking my arm. Then I wrestled another 10 minutes with the broken arm, which doctors said made it worse,” Danielson said.
“That said, I find a certain joy in doing things that are hard and finishing them, and even though it probably caused me a little bit more damage, I got more value out of it given that that had happened versus had it not happened.”
Danielson also spoke about keeping a gratitude journal and challenging himself to have a positive attitude in uncomfortable situations.
“If I could take it back, I would wish that my arm had never got broken and that I’d be able to wrestle at All In in Wembley,” he continued. “It’s going to be one of the biggest wrestling crowds in history this weekend on Sunday and I don’t get to take part in it because my arm is still healing. But despite that, and I wouldn’t ask for my arm to be broken if I could do it over again, but because it did happen and I couldn’t control it, it almost gave more meaning to how I felt about the match itself.”
“Also, I did a press conference afterward with my broken arm, and we didn’t know how bad it was at the time. But I think there’s – and I do this a lot when fasting, there’s a lot of health benefits to fasting – but when you put yourself in an uncomfortable position where you do something and it’s uncomfortable and you keep doing it, the thing is it’s not like ‘OK, yeah, I did it,’ it’s can I do this – for example while fasting or wrestling with a broken arm or doing a press conference with a broken arm – and keep a good attitude while being in pain, while being starving.”
“If I’m looking back on something versus experiencing something in the moment, I really enjoyed that match with Okada.”
Our own Dave Meltzer rated Danielson vs. Okada at Forbidden Door four and three-quarter stars, the 13th time a Danielson match has received the same rating. Danielson has received a five-star rating from Meltzer on five occasions previously in matches against MJF, Kenny Omega, Hangman Page, and in two Anarchy in the Arena matches.
Tony Khan, Jay White, Jon Moxley, Kazuchika Okada, Claudio Castagnoli, Thunder Rosa, and FTR spoke to the media following AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door.
Below are notes and quotes from the press conference.
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Tony Khan
Khan spoke on the success of Forbidden Door, and said that anything over 100,000 worldwide pay-per-view buys he would consider a success, and that he felt confifdent based on streaming numbers that the show is on track to reach that mark.
As to putting the show together, Khan said he was more proud of Forbidden Door than any show since Double or Nothing 2020 and praised NJPW as partners.
“Other than the early shutdown, lockdown wrestling of 2020, this is probably the biggest creative challenge I’ve ever faced, but I think we’ve come through and did a great show,” he said. “Probably since Double or Nothing 2020, I can’t remember being so proud of something that came together so quickly and changed a lot… So it was pretty special.”
Khan said that he reached out to Claudio on June 2 about the possibility of coming in to work for AEW or debuting in ROH at their next pay-per-view on July 23.
“It was June 2 I called, and there was definitely mutual interest. But I wasn’t sure if he would be coming in here, or [ROH] Death Before Dishonor, July 23,” Khan said.
“I asked him about coming in before I knew for sure that Bryan [Danielson] was out, but I had a pretty good idea [CM] Punk would be out… We already had a lot of injured people, I had no idea we’d have even more on the run up to the show,” said Khan.
Khan said he spoke to Danielson last weekend and Danielson said that he was not feeling 100 percent, and mentioned Castagnoli as a potential replacement. Khan said he then told Danielson that he had Castagnoli under contract, and that Danielson was the first person he had told. Khan said he made the call not to put Danielson on the show last weekend.
Jay White
White answered questions in-character and spoke briefly about his career accolades.
Jon Moxley
Moxley said that he feels absolute joy in wrestling right now.
“That feeling, when you’re doing what you were put on earth to do, like, the absolute pleasure of being dialed in, and the pleasure of wrestling… there’s no drug that can compare to this. What a feeling to just be out there with Tanahashi,” Moxley said.
Kazuchika Okada
Okada appeared and spoke largely through translator Chris Charlton.
Okada said that the crowd in Chicago was great and he hopes that as restrictions on crowds ease in Japan that the same sort of atmosphere will return there.
Okada said that there is no language barrier in pro wrestling, as long as he can say “Make it rain,” that the communication between the wrestlers and the audience is the language of pro wrestling.
Okada said jokingly that other than Tony Khan, that it’s up to the audience to clamor for who they want to see him face in AEW.
Claudio Castagnoli
Castagnoli said that his familiarity with a large portion of the AEW roster and circumstances just made this the right time for his AEW debut.
“Sometimes the stars align for a perfect moment, and that’s what happened tonight. I hope Bryan [Danielson] is alright, I know he’ll be back, but this is just a perfect fit,” he said.
When asked about potential opponents, Castagnoli said that he is excited to face anyone and everyone.
“I’m always looking for new challenges. Here in AEW, I’m like a kid in a candy store,” Claudio said.
“There’s just so many guys that I’ve known for years. Orange Cassidy is one of them. To me, the thing that’s the most important is that the fans are excited. Who’s my dream opponent? I don’t care. Who do you guys want to see me wrestle? And here in AEW, all that stuff can happen.”
Thunder Rosa
Thunder Rosa appeared and did some in-character comments on Jade Cargill. She also spoke about her gear choices, and how she chooses different gear or makeup based on different cosplay elements.
Rosa brought up the importance of having different looks so that a variety of action figures can be made for more income. Khan mentioned that he asked Rosa to wear green for the St. Patrick’s Day Slam episode of Dynamite.
She also spoke about Dustin Rhodes’ influence on her career, that she calls herself his wrestling daughter, and that he has allowed her to use some of his moves.
FTR
Both Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler spoke of their hopes to defend the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team titles in NJPW, that they have had their eyes on that for a while, but now it looks to be a reality with travel restrictions opening up.
Harwood spoke about being grateful for the opportunity to provide for his family in wrestling. He said that every week when he goes to work, he uses that as an example to his daughter of how she can be anything she wants to be.
Wheeler spoke about wanting to have “an FTR run” with the AEW Tag titles, years-long.
They spoke about their music change and how it worked out for them. Harwood said that Khan was a wrestling genius and the music change that Khan suggested worked in improving FTR’s presentation as babyfaces.
Khan said that FTR have become better and more confident wrestlers since CM Punk arrived in AEW.
Harwood and Wheeler spoke about their singles match and said that other than one or two spots, any Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart tribute spots were subconscious and that they were not looking to rip anyone off.
In a four-way match at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, PAC defeated Miro, Malakai Black, and NJPW’s Clark Connors to become the first All-Atlantic Champion, using his Brutalizer submission to tap out Connors and claim victory.
Miro seemed to have had the match won, but Black sprayed him with black mist, forcing him to give up the Game Over submission hold that Miro had applied on PAC. Black then tried a submission hold on Connors, but PAC broke it up with a Black Arrow. PAC then used the Brutalizer for the win.
PAC, Miro, and Black survived the qualifying series that began on the June 8 AEW Dynamite to advance to the finals at Forbidden Door. Tomohiro Ishii won a tournament in Japan to earn the spot as NJPW’s representative in the match, but was scratched in the days leading up to the show with a knee injury. Connors then took Ishii’s place in the match.
The victory is the first title win for PAC in AEW.
Tomohiro Ishii has been pulled from Sunday’s AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door card after suffering a knee injury.
NJPW announced today that Ishii suffered a left knee injury and is not medically cleared to wrestle on the June 26 pay-per-view. Ishii had been scheduled to take part in the AEW All-Atlantic Championship match, also featuring PAC, Miro, and Malakai Black. Ishii will be replaced by Clark Connors in the match.
Ishii had defeated Connors in a tournament final match on Tuesday at the New Japan Road event in Tokyo to determine NJPW’s representative in the All-Atlantic title bout.
When oppurtunity knocks, you answer that door. Wishing Ishii a speedy recovery. See you Sunday, Chicago. LET'S GET WILD!!
Interim AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Jay White (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada vs. Hangman Page vs. Adam Cole
AEW All-Atlantic Championship: Malakai Black vs. PAC vs. Miro vs. Clark Connors
AEW Women’s World Championship: Thunder Rosa (c) vs. Toni Storm
IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships / ROH World Tag Team Championships: United Empire (Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan) (c) vs. FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) (c) vs. Roppongi Vice (Trent Beretta & Rocky Romero)
IWGP US Championship: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Orange Cassidy
Chris Jericho, Minoru Suzuki & Sammy Guevara vs. Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta & Shota Umino
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. TBA
Bullet Club (Young Bucks, El Phantasmo & Hikuleo) vs. Dudes with Attitudes (Sting, Darby Allin, Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi)
Buy-In: Max Caster & Gunn Club (Billy Gunn, Austin Gunn & Colten Gunn) vs. LA Dojo (Yuya Uemura, Alex Coughlin, Kevin Knight & The DKC)
Four new matches for AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door were announced during this week’s AEW Dynamite episode.
In an eight-man tag team match, The Young Bucks will team with NJPW’s Bullet Club duo El Phantasmo and Hikuleo against Dudes with Attitudes — a foursome comprised of Sting, Darby Allin, and Los Ingobernables de Japon’s Shingo Takagi and Hiromu Takahashi.
In a bout set for the Buy-In pre-show, Max Caster, Billy Gunn, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn will take on Alex Coughlin, Yuya Uemura, Kevin Knight, and The DKC from NJPW’s LA Dojo.
As we previously covered, the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship will be on the line in a four-way, with Jay White defending against Kazuchika Okada, Hangman Page, and Adam Cole.
Also announced, Zack Sabre Jr. will face a mystery opponent, announced on Dynamite as the newest member of the Blackpool Combat Club by Bryan Danielson.
Sunday’s lineup:
AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door, Sunday, June 26 —
Interim AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Jay White (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada vs. Hangman Page vs. Adam Cole
AEW All-Atlantic Championship: Malakai Black vs. PAC vs. Miro vs. Tomohiro Ishii
AEW Women’s World Championship: Thunder Rosa (c) vs. Toni Storm
IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships / ROH World Tag Team Championships: United Empire (Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan) (c) vs. FTR (Dax HArwood & Cash Wheeler) (c) vs. Roppongi Vice (Trent Beretta & Rocky Romero)
IWGP US Championship: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Orange Cassidy
Chris Jericho, Minoru Suzuki & Sammy Guevara vs. Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta & Shota Umino
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. TBA
Bullet Club (Young Bucks, El Phantasmo & Hikuleo) vs. Dudes with Attitudes (Sting, Darby Allin, Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi)
Buy-In: Max Caster & Gunn Club (Billy Gunn, Austin Gunn & Colten Gunn) vs. LA Dojo (Yuya Uemura, Alex Coughlin, Kevin Knight & The DKC)
An IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match has been announced for AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door.
In a match set up on this week’s Dynamite, Jay White will defend the IWGP World title in a four-way against Kazuchika Okada, Hangman Page, and Adam Cole.
Following a Hangman vs. Silas Young match with Adam Cole on commentary on Dynamite, Cole cut a promo. White interrupted, and said that he would not be defending the title against Cole or Page on Sunday. White and Cole attacked Page, Cole seemingly considered attacking White, then Okada ran in to make the surprise save for Page, setting up the four-way.
Including a bout announced for the Buy-In pre-show, 10 matches are now set for Forbidden Door. The lineup:
AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door, Sunday, June 26 —
Interim AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Jay White (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada vs. Hangman Page vs. Adam Cole
AEW All-Atlantic Championship: Malakai Black vs. PAC vs. Miro vs. Tomohiro Ishii
AEW Women’s World Championship: Thunder Rosa (c) vs. Toni Storm
IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships / ROH World Tag Team Championships: United Empire (Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan) (c) vs. FTR (Dax HArwood & Cash Wheeler) (c) vs. Roppongi Vice (Trent Beretta & Rocky Romero)
IWGP US Championship: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Orange Cassidy
Chris Jericho, Minoru Suzuki & Sammy Guevara vs. Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta & Shota Umino
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. TBA
Bullet Club (Young Bucks, El Phantasmo & Hikuleo) vs. Dudes with Attitudes (Sting, Darby Allin, Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi)
Buy-In: Max Caster & Gunn Club (Billy Gunn, Austin Gunn & Colten Gunn) vs. LA Dojo (Yuya Uemura, Alex Coughlin, Kevin Knight & The DKC)
Bryan Danielson announced on Dynamite tonight that he was not medically cleared for Forbidden Door this Sunday or Blood and Guts next week.
Danielson opened tonight’s Dynamite by saying he would have liked to take on Zack Sabre Jr. at Forbidden Door, then follow it up by participating in next week’s Blood and Guts match. He said, however, that due to the actions of Chris Jericho and Jake Hager at Double or Nothing, that he was not medically cleared for either event. He said he can’t wait to back come back, and he did have a replacement for Sabre at Forbidden Door. He said that while he wouldn’t tell the audience who it was, he wasn’t going to tell Sabre either.
The segment ended with Sabre coming out, with the two having a staredown.
Danielson has not competed since the Anarchy in the Arena match at Double or Nothing back on May 29. He lost the match for his team after he got into an argument with Eddie Kingston. This allowed Jericho to gain the advantage, applying the walls of Jericho on Bryan as Jake Hager applied a turnbuckle rope across Danielson’s face, causing him to pass out.
AEW’s Andrade El Idolo says he was supposed to face Will Ospreay at Forbidden Door, but the match was changed for political reasons.
Appearing on Hugo Savinovich’s Lucha Libre Online interview show, Andrade said that he was set to fly to Japan to shoot the angle for the match with Ospreay, but that plans changed. Credit to LuchaBlog for the translation:
Andrade says he was supposed to face Will Ospreay on Forbidden Door, was schedule to go to Japan to set it up, and then it was stopped.
The change is a result of the complicated political situation involving NJPW’s alliance with CMLL, as AEW has a working relationship with Mexico’s AAA promotion. Andrade worked one match for AAA in 2021, and one match so far this year, last appearing at Triplemania in Monterrey on April 30.
In the interview with Savinovich, Andrade also expressed frustration with AAA, as he says that they have not booked him as they said they would, leading to a situation where he cannot work for NJPW due to the NJPW-CMLL relationship. Andrade says that he was scheduled for this weekend’s AAA Triplemania show, then that booking was canceled.
Andrade's ultimately upset because he can't work with NJPW because he's working AAA, but AAA is actually not booking him when they said he would so he's just not working
A “winner takes all” ROH World Tag Team Championship and IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match has been added to AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door.
ROH Tag Team Champions FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler), IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions United Empire (Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb), and Roppongi Vice (Trent Beretta & Rocky Romero) will face off in a triple threat match at Forbidden Door with both sets of titles on the line.
Six matches have been announced for the Forbidden Door show. Here is the updated lineup:
AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door, Sunday, June 26 —
Interim AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
AEW Women’s World Championship: Thunder Rosa (c) vs. Toni Storm
IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Orange Cassidy
AEW All-Atlantic Championship: Miro vs. PAC vs. TBD vs. TBD
ROH World Tag Team Championship & IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: FTR vs. Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb vs. Roppongi Vice
Chris Jericho, Minoru Suzuki & Sammy Guevara vs. Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta & Shota Umino
It’s been a busy day of wrestling news, join on-camera personality Denise Salcedo as she breaks down the June 15 edition of AEW Dynamite Road Rager 2022!
Topics include: Chris Jericho vs. Ortiz hair vs. hair match, Will Ospreay vs. Dax Harwood, the return of Orange Cassidy, Moxley confronts Hiroshi Tanahashi, Miro adavances to Forbidden Door, Jay White attacks Hangman Page, Thunder Rosa’s reign as AEW Women’s World Champion, The Young Bucks win gold once again, and lots more!
Three new matches have been announced for AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door.
Will Ospreay defending the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship against Orange Cassidy has been added to Forbidden Door. The match was set up in a post-match angle on this week’s Dynamite where Cassidy confronted Ospreay.
Also announced, Thunder Rosa will defend the AEW Women’s World Championship against Toni Storm in Chicago on June 26. Storm defeated former champ Britt Baker on this week’s Dynamite, and had a staredown with Rosa for the second consecutive week. The match was officially announced later in the show.
Additionally, Chris Jericho, Minoru Suzuki, and Sammy Guevara will face Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta, and Shota Umino in a trios match at Forbidden Door. The bout was announced during a face-to-face confrontation between Forbidden Door opponents Jon Moxley and Hiroshi Tanahashi on Dynamite.
Here is the updated Forbidden Door lineup:
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, Sunday, June 26 —
Interim AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
AEW Women’s World Championship: Thunder Rosa (c) vs. Toni Storm
IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Orange Cassidy
AEW All-Atlantic Championship: PAC vs. Miro vs. TBD vs. TBD
Minoru Suzuki, Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara vs. Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta & Shota Umino
Miro defeated Ethan Page at AEW Dynamite Road Rager to advance to the inaugural All-Atlantic Championship match at Forbidden Door on June 26.
With the victory, Miro becomes the second competitor to qualify for the four-way at Forbidden Door to crown the first All-Atlantic Champion.
PAC defeated Buddy Matthews on last week’s Dynamite to qualify, while a Malakai Black vs. Penta Oscuro match on next week’s episode will determine the third entrant.
The fourth entrant in the Forbidden Door title bout will be decided in Japan on June 20 and June 21. Tomohiro Ishii faces Yoshinobu Kanemaru, and Clark Connors takes on Tomoaki Honma at the June 20 New Japan Road show. The winners of those two matches will face off the next day at New Japan Road, with the winner added to the Forbidden Door bout.
Here is the updated Forbidden Door lineup following Road Rager:
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, Sunday, June 26 —
Interim AEW World Championship: Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
AEW Women’s World Championship: Thunder Rosa (c) vs. Toni Storm
IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Orange Cassidy
AEW All-Atlantic Championship: PAC vs. Miro vs. TBD vs. TBD
Minoru Suzuki, Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara vs. Eddie Kingston, Wheeler Yuta & Shota Umino
Jon Moxley defeated Kyle O’Reilly to advance to the interim AEW World title match at Forbidden Door.
Moxley defeated O’Reilly with the paradigm shift DDT in the main event of tonight’s Dynamite to advance to Forbidden Door on June 26 in Chicago. He will face the winner of a Hirooki Goto/Hiroshi Tanahashi match that will take place at NJPW Dominion on Sunday. The winner of that match will be crowned the interim AEW World Champion.
O’Reilly won a Casino Battle Royal in the opener of Dynamite to advance to tonight’s main event. The final four in the battle royal were O’Reilly, Rey Fenix, Andrade el Idolo, and Wheeler Yuta, with the match eventually boiling down to O’Reilly and Yuta. O’Reilly won after hitting a dragon screw through the ropes.
The AEW World Championship match for Forbidden Door changed when CM Punk became injured last week during Dynamite, requiring surgery. The show on Wednesday originally had Tanahashi coming out to challenge Punk to a match for Forbidden Door.
