AEW/NJPW/STARDOM/CMLL FORBIDDEN DOOR

Long Island, NY

KYLE FLETCHER vs. SERPENTICO (3:10): At this rate, Forbidden Door might have to end up being 2 nights in the future. This year they decided to also add CMLL and Stardom wrestlers on the show. The pre-show even started a half hour early to contain all 15 matches. The show was good though, with a hot, great main event and a bunch of good to great matches on the show. While the only surprise on the show was Britt Baker's return, it was very entertaining and a fun watch throughout. This first match was a pointless squash, though. Not really sure what the point was here. 1/2*

BRODY KING & MALAKAI BLACK vs. GABE KIDD & RODERICK STRONG vs. KYLE O'REILLY & TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. PRIVATE PARTY (8:39): When Malakai Black got a big singles match at Double or Nothing against Edge in a barbed wire cage, I thought that, hey, maybe they might push the dude as a singles competitor now. Nope! He's on the pre-show in a multi-man match. The match was good, though, with a lot of action. The crowd roared whenever Ishii came into the ring, and they loved when Brody and Ishii went at it. Gabe Kidd was actually in the main event of a NOAH show a few weeks ago, losing to their champ, Kiyomaya. What promotion is Gabe Kidd in? New Japan? He's a big, muscled dude that does all power moves. Fun match. **1/2

TAM NAKANO & WILLOW NIGHTINGALE vs. KRIS STATLANDER & MOMO WATANABE (10:18): I was a little reticent about them turning Statlander heel...but the crowd loved Willow and was really into Willow vs. Statlander so I guess that heel turn was the right move. Other than that, there wasn't much to this. I never watch Stardom, and probably won't now since half their roster quit to go join the new Marigold women's wrestling promotion. So I don't know who these Stardom wrestlers are. They didn't have much time to showcase too much, either. Willow is facing Statlander on Dynamite this week. **

MARIAH MAY vs. SARAYA (8:31): This was a match in the Owen Heart tournament. The obvious guess is that Mariah will win and face Toni Storm at All In. Saraya is pretty much a nobody these days so it wasn't a surprise to see her lose. While I can't say it was a bad decision signing her, since her Outcast bit was fun for awhile and she had her moments, it's still kind of a surprise that she won the title at All In last year and now she's losing on the pre-show. Mariah is a star but this wasn't anything great. *1/2

MISTICO & THE LUCHA BROTHERS vs. HIROMU TAKAHASHI, TITAN & YOTA TSUJI (12:01): This match was awesome, probably the second best match on the show. It was just all action and super fun and all big, dynamic moves. Crazy that there was so much talent on this show they were putting Hiromu and The Lucha Brothers and CMLL's biggest star on the pre-show in a random, multi-man match. ***1/2

MJF vs. HECHICERO (9:51): MJF is from Long Island...so I guess the idea was just to give him an easy opponent and a win and make him look like a superstar. Match was okay but the crowd was on fire cheering for MJF. I still do miss the heel MJF, though. **

KAZUCHIKA OKDA & THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI & THE ACCLAIMED (13:01): Match was entertaining but nothing spectacular. I kind of feel like AEW is wasting Okada and I'm not the only one. They have given him a few singles matches so far (against PAC and against Kingston) but he should be closer to the main event picture, no? Tanahashi can still wrestle but not well so maybe he should retire into the sunset. The Young Bucks looked as awesome as always. **1/2

BRYAN DANIELSON vs. SHINGO TAKAGI (20:19): Good match. It definitely didn't hit that masterpiece level but it came close. The announcers mentioned that Shingo is chasing the AEW title now, much like Moxley chased the IWGP title for years. So does that mean that we'll get a Shingo vs. Ospreay match for the title in a PPV main event in the future? Please God do it. Danielson is old now so he wrestles kind of like Okada does these days. It's a slow build and thus early on there can be dull holds but eventually it leads to suspense and big moves and drama. I thought this might be better but it was still a hell of a match. ***

TONI STORM vs. MINA SHIRAKAWA (11:42): Mina is very energetic. I think that helped get her over in AEW this last month. This was definitely a better match in terms of moves and quality than Toni Storm has been in previously during her black & white gimmick. It was pretty short, though, for a title match. Good, not great. **1/2

ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. ORANGE CASSIDY (16:22): Good match. Zack won when he twisted Orange up like a pretzel to win by submission. While the crowd was hot in spots tonight, they were quiet until anyone in any match did a big move or a dramatic kick out for the most part. As usual, there were a ton of submissions and reversals and Orange definitely kept up with Zack's insane repertoire. ***

HOOK, KATSUYORI SHIBATA & SAMOA JOE vs. BIG BILL & CHRIS JERICHO & JEFF COBB (14:02): The crowd chanted, "Please retire!" when Jericho came out. Jericho took to the mic and said that they really don't want him to retire because he's from Long Island. Apparently he is, as his dad played for the Rangers for awhile. Match was entertaining but nothing special. I really don't know about this Learning Tree gimmick. It's kind of amusing but also really dumb. On Dynamite, Jericho said his partner in this match would be Minoru Suzuki. Then Suzuki did a video package saying he hates The Learning Tree and wants to face Jericho for an FTW title match. Why they did that segment and not have that match on this show is baffling. So when is that match? Who the fuck knows? I'd rather have seen that match, although Cobb looked great in this. **

JACK PERRY vs. DANTE MARTIN vs. EL PHANTASMO vs. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. LIO RUSH vs. MARK BRISCOE "LADDER MATCH" (16:56): This was very entertaining. The big surprise was that after Takeshita gave Phantasmo a Blue Thunderbomb from the apron down onto two tables at ringside that completely shattered into oblivion, Takeshita got in the ring to climb up and grab the TNT title. The crowd went fucking ape shit because they wanted Takeshita to win. That's a shock. First, he's a heel. Second, is he even over that much? They cheered more for Takeshita about to win then when Briscoe was climbing up to win. The crowd loved the spot where Briscoe jumped off a chair in the ring and did a somersault through someone on a table at ringside. Briscoe also jumped off a ladder from the ring onto Jack Perry on a table that didn't break. Perry eventually won the TNT title. Very exciting, fun match. ***1/2

MERCEDES MONET vs. STEPHANIE VAQUER (16:51): Stephanie Vaquer looked great in this match. So much so that about halfway through the crowd started to boo Mercedes. The announcers mentioned that it was because Monet is from Boston. I guess this makes sense, as the crowd also chanted "Celtics suck" and "Red Sox suck" during the match. This was not a great match, though, but definitely the best Mercedes match so far in AEW, thanks to her opponent. Mercedes keeps her TBS title and wins the NJPW women's strong title. After the match, Britt Baker came out and then just left without saying anything. She looked in great shape, so maybe my idea that she's been out because of a pregnancy was wrong. The strange thing is I don't even think they ever even mentioned what her injury was. And also, where's Jayme Hayter? **1/2

TETSUYA NAITO vs. JON MOXLEY (17:04): The crowd wasn't too into this match. It was pretty much a basic, standard, ho-hum Naito match. The shocking thing was that there was no blood on this show. I thought of that and said, well, Moxley will probably be bleeding all over the place. Nope. He did bleed all over the place when he beat Naito in Chicago to win the IWGP title a few month's ago. Naito won the title back here. So was Moxley's reign a success? I'm not sure what the point of giving him the title was, anyway. Did NJPW think they would get all of these new American fans or something? Considering Moxley didn't have any great title defenses, I think his reign was kind of dull. **

SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. WILL OSPREAY (27:06): Everyone kind of figures that Will Ospreay will win the title in the main event of All In. So when they announced this match, it made no sense. Unless...they were going to set up something to do a re-match at All In. Or...Ospreay would just win the title here. Well neither of those two things happened. And Ospreay lost clean in his first AEW loss. Kind of strange, although it was an awesome match and the best match on the show. I thought that maybe they would have The Elite or Don Callis' family turn on Ospreay to cause him to lose to set up a heel Swerve re-match. No. They did have a ref bump and Callis came out and told Ospreay to use a screwdriver. Ospreay contemplated using the screwdriver on Prince Nana for some reason but didn't. And that was the only storyline stuff. The other big thing they did was what the WWE always does at Wrestlemania. They do a zillion kick outs and kick outs of finishers to create high drama. It worked. Ospreay kicked out of a bunch of close call finishes at the end that got the crowd in a frenzy. The last five to ten minutes of this were really excellent; high drama, hot crowd, excitement, brutal moves. Really great way to end the show...but what's the main event of All In? Will they really not put Ospreay in it? MJF said he wants to face Daniel Garcia at All In. Huh? That probably means MJF won't be in the main event. They could do a re-match with Swerve and Ospreay. And they can still turn Swerve heel, although he's pretty popular so that makes little sense. I was kind of hoping there would be a bigger storyline end to this match but there wasn't. Great match, though, so I guess I can't complain. ***1/2

WWE CLASH AT THE CASTLE

Glasgow, Scotland

CODY RHODES vs. AJ STYLES "I QUIT MATCH" (27:47): The last Clash at the Castle was in 2022 and in a soccer stadium in Wales. I'm not sure why they didn't do a Clash at the Castle last year, nor why this one wasn't in a big, outdoor stadium. It's also amusing that this is the 3rd straight PPV not held in the U.S. Backlash was in France. The King & Queen of the Ring was in Saudi Arabia. This show was in Glasgow in an indoor arena. I guess this arena is used for concerts? I don't know what else they watch in Scotland besides soccer. I don't think they have a basketball or hockey league. What other indoor sports are there? Either way, it'd be nice to finally have a PPV on in prime time, considering I have Peacock and thus would actually watch the show live if it wasn't on at 1 PM on a Saturday. Alas, the next PPV is on July 4th weekend so I probably won't be watching that one live either even though it's in Toronto and my personal favorite PPV of the year (Money in the Bank). This show was okay, but it suffered by starting good early but having two bad last matches. They also sent the fans home sad and angry, which is not the best decision in the world. Why they didn't put this Cody match on last? Baffling, really. This was the best match of the night. Both guys were bleeding, which is shocking to see in WWE since they had banned blood for decades. They did the usual stuff they do in I Quit matches. Chairs. Tables. Singapore canes. Handcuffs. The ending had AJ handcuffed to the ropes and Cody was going to crush him to death with the steel stairs so AJ quit. The crowd was on fire during this match which certainly helped it. I'll admit I was totally appalled at this match even happening. They already did Cody vs. AJ for the title at Backlash. Nobody thought AJ had a chance in hell of winning then so why the fuck do that match again? But this was a good match so I guess it doesn't matter. I'll eat my words. After the match, The Bloodline came out to beat up Cody then Randy Orton and Kevin Owens came out to beat them up. So The Bloodline's still a thing? Yawn. ***

THE UNHOLY UNION (ALBA FYRE & ISLA DAWN) vs. BIANCA BeLAIR & JADE CARGIL vs. SHAYNA BASZLER & ZOEY STARK (12:17): With six wrestlers in this match, it was action packed, which made it at least entertaining. Bianca did a 450 botch and missed but landed legs first on Shana. I bet that hurt. Everyone online was harping about how bad Jade looked and all the botches she did but, honestly, I didn't notice. Maybe I'm just used to her looking terrible in AEW all those years that I understand who she is. Bianca and Jade lost the tag titles to Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn. One of those winning wrestlers is from Scotland, so I guess that's why they won. **1/2

SAMI ZAYN vs. CHAD GABLE (22:13): There's a big storyline involving Otis on the verge of turning on Chad Gable. The crowds everywhere chant for Otis and everyone can't wait until he finally turns. Unfortunately, that's all anyone cared about. The match kept stopping for this storyline to interject itself and Gable to go out and yell at Otis and Maxxine. I'd have rather them just have had a great match with none of these outside shenanigans involved. And Otis still didn't turn. They're sure dragging that one out. Match was good but probably should have been a lot better considering the two great wrestlers involved. Zayn retained the IC title. **

BAYLEY vs. PIPER NIVEN (13:32): Sasha Banks is now in AEW as Mercedes Monet. She hasn't looked all that great in the few matches she's had so far. This surprised me at first because I remember her having great matches in the past...but then I remembered her great matches in the past were matches like the NXT ones she had against Bayley. Those were like ten years ago! Bayley is fat and a boring wrestler now...so it's not really shocking that Mercedes isn't great anymore, too. Bayley retained the women's title. Who's the other women's champ? Liv Morgan, right? Weird how half the roster isn't on these PPV's. No Dominick. No Rey. No Finn Balor. No Liv Morgan. Roman Reigns hasn't been seen since Wrestlemania. After the Cody match, The Bloodline did show up to beat him up, followed by Kevin Owens and Randy Orton making the save. But none of them were in matches. What the fuck, WWE? AEW is having 5 hour PPV's with everyone and anyone. This show felt like a cheat. 1/2*

DAMIAN PRIEST vs. DREW McINTYRE (20:18): At the last Clash at the Castle, Drew McIntyre lost in the main event to Roman Reigns and everyone in the building had to go home sad and mad and disappointed. Why the hell did they do it again? Drew is actually from Scotland. If you're going to have him lose in his hometown...maybe don't do it in the main event on a PPV, especially at a show with apparently astronomical ticket prices. I really ripped the WWE a new one when they had Drew lose at the last Clash at the Castle. I'm not going to rip them again because what's the point? The WWE may be super popular but it's not a great product and these bone-headed decisions happen too much and too often to really care anymore. I guess I am still ripping them. Like Damian Priest is some super-over, popular, rockstar wrestler that needs to be protected and keep the belt? Dude's a B-list, mid-carder. He even got his foot stuck in the ropes doing his over-the-top-rope somersault. That was embarrassing. The big ending had a ref bump and a new ref run out. But the ref only counted to 2 when Drew had Damian pinned. But the ref wasn't a ref...it was CM Punk in a ref shirt! Oh my God! CM Punk then kicked Drew in the balls, leading to Damian winning. They had been setting up a CM Punk vs. Drew match for awhile...and I always figured it was to because of this show. They would have CM Punk vs. Drew in the main event in Scotland. Maybe CM Punk is still injured (he hasn't wrestled since the Royal Rumble...and that was the only time he wrestled since returning to the WWE in November). Or maybe the plan was always to save Drew vs. CM Punk for Summerslam. Either way, it's a shitty way to end a show in Drew's home country. **

NJPW DOMINION

Osaka, Japan

TETSUYA NAITO vs. CALLUM NEWMAN (8:08): I haven't watched much of New Japan lately. No company in Japan is hot these days for whatever reason. It's funny, but today there was an article in The New York Times about how the Yen's worth in Japan is so low that the country is being inundated with foreign tourists and the locals everywhere are complaining. I guess none of those tourists are going to pro-wrestling shows? Maybe they are, who knows? But New Japan is in the doldrums this year, especially after Okada and Ospreay left. You can tell because they've been trying new things to shake things up. They had the finals of the Best of the Super Jr.'s tournament be the main event tonight, which would have been unfathomable at any other point in their history. They gave the IWGP title to Moxley, who isn't even in NJPW. And next week they're doing a cage match for the Jr.'s title with Desperado and SHO. That's the second cage match they've done this year...and before this year the last one was 20 years ago. Tanahashi is the new president, so maybe all of these new ideas are his. He also came out with a 10 point plan for turning NJPW around. #3 in that plan was "reducing/eliminating outside interference." I guess that means they're going to fire Evil. If you want to come up with a plan to turn around New Japan, the first step is not to have your IWGP title match on your 2nd biggest show of the year be Jon Moxley vs. Evil. Even an idiot could figure that one out. Remember how great the main events in Dominion history have been? AJ Styles vs. Okada? Those 2 Omega vs. Okada matches? This used to be a legendary show. Oh, well. At least this show was mostly entertaining. The only great match on the card was Ishii/Cobb. Everything else wasn't anything particularly special. The show opened, shockingly, with a Naito singles match. Wh-wh-what? Naito, if you remember, beat Sanada in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom in January to win the title. What the fuck is he doing in the opening match? Who knows? Naito is wrestling Moxley for the title at Forbidden Door at the end of this month. You would think he would've had a more prominent match on this show to set that match up. Nope! Before the match even started, Newman beat up Naito and did a moonsault off the top rope onto Naito. So the show at least started exciting. Newman kicked out of a Destino. Why is that Naito's finisher if people always kick out of it? Match was fine. **

TMDK (KOSEI FUJITA, ROBBIE EAGLES & ZACK SABRE, JR.) vs. BULLET CLUB WAR DOGS (CLARK CONNORS & DRILLA MALONEY) & LJ CLEARY (9:41): For some reason, earlier this year it seemed like New Japan was heading in the direction of giving Zack Sabre, Jr. the IWGP title. That idea seems out the window. What happened? Did he piss someone off? He's stuck in some stupid, early, multi-man match on the second biggest show of the year. He is wrestling Orange Cassidy at Forbidden Door, but that's not for a title or anything. This match was entertaining. I think the War Dogs are a lot of fun to watch. I don't know who LJ Cleary is, so it wasn't a surprise that Zack pinned him by just kneeling on him. **1/2

GREAT O'KHAN vs. YUA UEMURA (10:36): This was for the KOPW title, which is the stupidest title in all of wrestling. They had a fish eating contest earlier this year for the title. I guess I should, like, probably go watch that. It's probably hilarious. It wasn't shown live but they did tape it and put it on NJPW World later. The thing with this title is that every match has a different stipulation. The problem, as I always lament, is that every stipulation is a dumb one. Why not have a cage match? A ladder match? Nope. I don't even know what the hell this stipulation was, as I always watch the Japanese language version of these shows. There were no rope breaks. I figured that one out. It was called "Storm Break" rules. Eh. Whatever. Match was a bore. One of Tanahashi's points should be to fire Great O'Khan. It should be #1. 1/2*

LOS IGNOBERNABLES DE JAPON (BUSHI, HIROMU TAKAHASHI & YOTA TSUJI) vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI, OLEG BOLTIN & TORU YANO (8:32): Los Ignobernables won the 6 man titles here. So...wait a minute. The random group of Tanahashi, Yano, and Boltin actually were champions? They're, like, an actual team? Odd. The fans at least enjoyed Yano's antics, though he didn't do much. If you remember, Tsuji was in the main event at last year's Dominion. He lost to Sanada, who wasn't even on this show. What happened to Tsuji? He seemed set to be a big star. He had a great match last Fall against Ospreay. He does look a little out of shape. Though, granted, I don't think that's the reason. Maybe he doesn't have the drive or determination or care. Who knows? Tanahashi seemed to do most of the wrestling in this match even though he's an old, hobbling man at this point. Though he does always still do all of his trademark moves. Did Hiromu even enter in the match? I don't recall him doing much. Match wasn't that good. *1/2

JEFF COBB vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII (11:47): This was by far the best match on the show. At one point, the crowd was in a frenzy and the announcers were going ape shit. I mean...this should have been the main event for the IWGP title. It was just all big, power moves and Ishii almost landing on his head multiple times. This was awesome. ***1/2

TMDK (MIKEY NICHOLLS & SHANE HASTE) vs. BULLET CLUB (KENTA & CHASE OWENS) vs. GUERILLAS OF DESTINY (EL PHANTASMO & HIKULEO) vs. BISHAMON (YOSHI-HASHI & HIROOKI GOTO) (16:26): This was an elimination match. Kenta & Chase Owens were the tag champs but got eliminated. TMDK finally beat Bishamon to win the titles. El Phantasmo did a cool rope-walk into a moonsault to the floor. That was probably the highlight. I thought that this match might be better. Chase Owens looks like he found the only Burger King in Japan. The new champs, Haste & Nicholls, are pretty forgettable, honestly. **

SHINGO TAKAGI vs. HENARE (14:35): This was a good match but it ended in a draw when both guys couldn't stand up for a 10 count. Lame. They're doing a re-match next week, so I guess that's the reason for the no decision. This was for the NEVER title, which Shingo has. I guess that's good that the best wrestler in the company at least has a title...but, c'mon, why isn't he the champ? And/or why isn't he in the main event? During the pandemic years they did give Shingo the title. So it's not like they're completely incompetent. And why is Aaron Henare only known as Henare now? Anyway...this was a typical, hard hitting Shingo affair. I kind of thought this would be a lot better actually, but it was still fairly entertaining. **1/2

JON MOXLEY vs. EVIL "LUMBERJACK MATCH" (25:01): I still can't figure out why they made a wrestler not even in their company their champion. I don't really think Moxley is, like, a huge star in Japan or anything. Moxley beat Naito in Chicago in April. Maybe even they realize giving Moxley the title was a bad decision, as this wasn't even the main event. Or maybe it was because he was wrestling Evil. The one thing about New Japan that everyone hates and has literally hated for years is The House of Torture and their constant, over-the-top interference during matches. So...why do they still do it? Before the match, Evil spray painted the one announcer he hates. I still have no idea what the point of that feud is. They've been doing that for years. Usually, Evil knocks over the announce table or rips the guy's shirt. This time he spray painted his face with black spray paint. I mean...it was funny. Is there an end game? It's not like the announcer is going to wrestle Evil. Or is he? In a cage? Where's Vince Russo? As for the match...it was a Lumberjack match. At one point, Moxley was tossed out of the ring and The House of Torture guys hit him with num-chuks. Evil put Moxley through a table. Moxley brought out a barbed wire bat and cleaned house with it, then gave Evil the Death Rider onto it. The match at least held my interest. I'd have rather seen a classic, 40 minute epic for the IWGP title with, say, Shingo vs. Tsuji or Ishii or Uemura or Shota Umino or something. Not this. **

EL DESPERADO vs. TAIJI ISHIMORI (23:36): I was bored watching this match. It's not like it was bad or anything, it just felt out of place and seemed too slow. Early on they were wrestling so slow I wondered if they were about to do a 60 minute draw. They did some cool dives to the floor but for whatever reason the drama and excitement seemed lacking. While the crowd wasn't quiet or anything, they certainly weren't as hot for this as they were during the Ishii match or even the Moxley match. I've seen some great Desperado matches and some great Ishimori matches in the past...and they were all against Hiromu. Maybe they should've put Hiromu in this match. Desperado won the BOSJ tournament with this win and is facing SHO in a cage match next week. I haven't watched much of NJPW lately, but I'm actually pretty excited for that. Maybe Tanahashi's 10 point plan is working! **