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
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