Tag: forbidden door 2025

Mercedes Mone gets special entrance for AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door match

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Mercedes Mone capped off a big weekend in London by retaining her TBS Championship at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door.

The title was contested in an international four-way match at the pay-per-view, featuring representatives from AEW (Mone and Alex Windsor), CMLL (Persephone), and Stardom (Bozilla). Mone was able to prevail after pinning Persephone and snatching the victory away from Windsor.

Windsor nearly won the title in her home country. She had a Sharpshooter locked on Persephone when Mone broke up the move with a lungblower. Persephone then lifted up Mone, but the champion reversed into a pin to retain her title.

This was Mone’s third match of the weekend, having already competed twice for Revolution Pro Wrestling. She added a new championship to her growing belt collection on Friday by winning the Discovery Wrestling Scottish Women’s Championship.

Mone is currently in possession of nine title belts, with seven of them being currently active championships. She holds the AEW TBS Championship, CMLL Women’s World Championship, and RevPro Undisputed British Women’s Championship, along with titles for indie promotions in Scotland, Poland, Austria, and Italy.

One of the other belts Mone has is the ceremonial title she received for winning the 2025 Owen Hart Foundation Women’s Tournament. The other is the inactive Queen of Southside belt that was previously unified with RevPro’s Women’s Championship.

At Forbidden Door, Mone had a special British-themed entrance where all of her title belts were on display.

AEW announces new attendance record set by Forbidden Door 2025

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Update —

The official announced attendance for Forbidden Door is 18,992 fans.

**********

During the pre-show for today’s AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door pay-per-view, it was revealed that the show had set a new attendance record for professional wrestling at London’s O2 Arena.

AEW said that more than 18,000 fans are in attendance for Forbidden Door, which surpasses the previous O2 record that had been held by WWE Money in the Bank 2023. However, the WWE show likely drew more in ticket sales given higher prices.

Later in the main PPV show, AEW announced 18,992 as the official attendance.

Tony Khan celebrated the record while appearing on the pre-show alongside Dr. Martha Hart and her son Oje Hart.

“All of you have made history today for the biggest pro wrestling live crowd in the history of The O2,” Khan announced.

The O2 has been around for nearly two decades, having opened in 2007.

Forbidden Door 2025 will be one of the four biggest gates in AEW history, with three of the top four being shows held in London. All In 2023 and 2024 (London’s Wembley Stadium) and All In 2025 (Globe Life Field in Texas) make up the rest of the top four.

All In 2023 holds the overall AEW attendance record with the promotion saying 81,035 tickets were sold (turnstile count of 72,265).

New Forbidden Door AEW World title match stipulations announced

Posted on by Ethan Renner

Three new stipulations are official for Sunday’s AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door AEW World title match.

Champion Hangman Page and challenger MJF agreed to the new stips for the bout during Wednesday’s Dynamite after MJF, Ricochet, and Gates of Agony kidnapped Mark Briscoe and threatened to set him on fire should Page not agree to MJF’s conditions.

As agreed to, the AEW World title can change hands at Forbidden Door via a countout of Page. Also, a disqualification of Page would lead to a title change. Finally, MJF is no longer using his guaranteed title shot won at All In in the Casino Gauntlet match, meaning that MJF still has another title opportunity in his back pocket.

The updated Forbidden Door lineup:

AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, Sunday, August 24 —

  • AEW World Champion Hangman Page defends against MJF
  • AEW Unified Champion Kazuchika Okada defends against Swerve Strickland
  • AEW World Tag Team Champions The Hurt Syndicate (Bobby Lashley & Shelton Benjamin) defend against FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) and Brodido (Brody King & Bandido) in a three-way
  • Adam Copeland & Christian Cage vs. Killswitch & Kip Sabian
  • AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm defends against Athena
  • TBS Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone defends against Alex Windsor, Persephone and Stardom TBD in a four-way
  • IWGP World Champion Zack Sabre Jr. defends against Nigel McGuinness
  • TNT Champion Kyle Fletcher defends against Hiromu Takahashi
  • Lights out steel cage match: Darby Allin, Will Ospreay, Kenny Omega, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi vs. The Death Riders (Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli), Gabe Kidd & The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)

Bryan Danielson to appear on AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door pre-show

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Bryan Danielson is set to play a role at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2025, appearing as part of the pre-show panel.

It was announced today that the Forbidden Door Zero Hour broadcast will be hosted by Renee Paquette, RJ City, Jeff Jarrett & Danielson. The pre-show begins at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday and will stream live on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and other AEW social media platforms.

Forbidden Door is happening just one day shy of the one-year anniversary of Danielson winning the AEW World Championship from Swerve Strickland at All In 2024. Danielson held the title until retiring as a full-time competitor last October, and it’s unclear if he’ll ever compete in the ring again.

Danielson did get involved physically at All In 2025 last month, where he helped fend off interference by the Death Riders as Hangman Page dethroned Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship.

The O2 Arena in London is hosting Forbidden Door on Sunday. The pay-per-view main card will begin at 1 p.m. Eastern.

AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2025 (Sunday, August 24) —

  • AEW World Champion Hangman Page defends against MJF
  • AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm defends against Athena
  • AEW Unified Champion Kazuchika Okada defends against Swerve Strickland
  • TBS Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone defends against Alex Windsor, Persephone, and Stardom wrestler to be announced
  • AEW Tag Team Champions The Hurt Syndicate (Bobby Lashley & Shelton Benjamin) defend against winner of Tag Team title eliminator tournament
  • Adam Copeland & Christian Cage vs. Nick Wayne & Kip Sabian
  • IWGP World Champion Zack Sabre Jr. defends against Nigel McGuinness
  • TNT Champion Kyle Fletcher defends against Hiromu Takahashi
  • Lights Out steel cage match: Darby Allin, Will Ospreay, Kenny Omega, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi vs. The Death Riders (Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli), Gabe Kidd & The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson)

Tony Khan: AEW Forbidden Door build had ‘different cadence’ this year

Posted on by Joseph Currier

With the show moving back a couple of months, the build to AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2025 required a “different cadence” than usual.

Forbidden Door had been held in June every year since the pay-per-view was first introduced in 2022. But the event was moved to August this year with the AEW schedule being shaken up a bit. The band Coldplay had Wembley Stadium booked at the time AEW All In usually happens, so that PPV was moved up to July and was held in Texas. Forbidden Door is now happening at The O2 in London this Sunday on what had traditionally been All In weekend.

The shake-up impacted the build to Forbidden Door, with most of NJPW’s top stars competing in the G1 Climax and unable to appear on AEW television. Despite that, Tony Khan feels the build still worked well, pointing to AEW Dynamite being number one on cable in the 18-49 demo last Wednesday.

“We’re going to have one of the biggest days in the history of the company with Forbidden Door, which is also going to be one of our biggest gates ever. But with the G1 Climax happening this time of year, it’s different cadence than the other Forbidden Doors,” Khan said.

“It’s always something fun working with Gedo. It’s a very different presentation using American television to build pay-per-views. It’s a different rhythm and cadence to what’s typically done in Japan and what New Japan does to present a show.

“And for us, this year, with a little bit less availability of a lot of those stars, we’ve still been able to work in great representation from top stars in New Japan Pro Wrestling, as we’re going to talk about on the card. Big matches involving top stars in New Japan and big stakes in AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling. But also, a lot of their stars tied up in the G1 Climax, which we’re very excited about.”

Khan said he was excited to watch Konosuke Takeshita’s G1 matches. The AEW star was crowned the winner of the tournament last weekend, securing a future IWGP World Heavyweight Championship shot.

Zack Sabre Jr. is the current IWGP World Champion and will be defending the belt against Nigel McGuinness at Forbidden Door. NJPW wrestlers Hiroshi Tanahashi, Gabe Kidd, and Hiromu Takahashi are also set to compete on Sunday.

The Forbidden Door build will wrap up in Glasgow tonight with a Dynamite episode and Collision taping.

Forbidden Door TBS title qualifier added to AEW Dynamite

Posted on by Ethan Renner

A four-way qualifier for a spot in a TBS title match at Forbidden Door has been added to Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite.

Tony Khan announced in a social media post Monday that Mercedes Mone will defend the TBS Championship in a four-way at Forbidden Door on Sunday, August 24. Mone will defend against one representative from AEW, one from Stardom, and one from CMLL.

Details on how the Stardom and CMLL participants will be determined were not announced, but the AEW challenger for Forbidden Door will be decided in a four-way qualifying match on the Wednesday, August 6 Dynamite when Queen Aminata, Skye Blue, Alex Windsor, and Billie Starkz square off.

Mone will make her return to AEW for the first time since All In on Wednesday’s episode as well.

A Tag Team title eliminator semifinal match is also set for the show, plus a Mark Briscoe vs. MJF singles bout.

The updated card for Wednesday:

AEW Dynamite, Wednesday, August 6 —

  • MJF vs. Mark Briscoe
  • Tag Team title eliminator tournament semifinals: The Young Bucks vs. Brodido
  • Mercedes Mone returns
  • Forbidden Door TBS Championship qualifying match: Queen Aminata vs. Skye Blue vs. Alex Windsor vs. Billie Starkz

Shibata wants to challenge for IWGP World title at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Katsuyori Shibata dreams of challenging for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door this summer.

While speaking with Tokyo Sports, Shibata stated his desire to challenge either Hirooki Goto or Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. Goto is the current champion, recently winning the belt from Zack Sabre Jr. at the New Beginning in Osaka. His first title defense will be against Tanahashi at NJPW’s 53rd Anniversary show this Thursday.

Goto and Shibata have been friends since high school, and the two were once IWGP Tag Team Champions together. Shibata told Tokyo Sports that he and Goto have always envisioned themselves facing off for the IWGP World title. Now that Goto is champion, this is the time that dream can become a reality.

“It’s probably only possible at this point in time that Goto has. If there is a possibility, it would be Forbidden Door and if he could hold it to that point, the possibilities would come all at once,” Shibata said. “I don’t want to give up on my dream, because my dream is to make it come true. The rest depends on Goto’s efforts.”

Forbidden Door 2025 is taking place in London on Sunday, August 24. It’s the fourth straight year that AEW and NJPW have collaborated together for the pay-per-view.

A member of the NJPW roster for more than two decades, this is Goto’s first reign as IWGP World Champion. Shibata has never held the title before. His most recent time challenging for IWGP gold was against Kazuchika Okada in 2017, when Shibata suffered a life-threatening subdural hematoma during the match.

Shibata is now signed to AEW and competes in both AEW and ROH. He’s part of a trio called The Opps with Samoa Joe and Hook.

In an interview with NJPW’s website after winning the IWGP title, Goto was asked if he had heard from Shibata.

“Just ‘I’m waiting in America!’ [laughs],” Goto responded. “I got a few messages from other wrestlers, foreign wrestlers over there I wrestled before. I was surprised how happy so many foreign fans were for me.”

Yuji Nagata has also challenged Goto to a future title match if he’s successful in his defense against Tanahashi.