AEW + NJPW FORBIDDEN DOOR

O2 Arena, London

EL DESPERADO, PARAGON (KYLE O'REILLY& RODERICK STRONG) & YUYA UEMURA vs. CRU (ACTION ANDRETTI & LIO RUSH) & THE DON CALLIS FAMILY (HECHICERO & JOSH ALEXANDER) (12:13): This was a really good show, as usual with these AEW PPV's. The only reason that this was in the smaller, inside 02 arena and not outside at Wembley is because, supposedly, Coldplay is doing a weekslong residency at Wembley that they booked years in advance. All In is returning next year this time at Wembley. They really packed every conceivable wrestler onto this pre-show, which was four matches. None of these pre-show matches were particularly memorable, although none of them were bad since they were short and pretty much all action. The crowd in London was pretty good as usual, doing chants, singing songs, etc. Yua Uemura is one of the new guys in New Japan. I watched the entire G1 last year and thought he was one of the better wrestlers of the new bunch, yet it still looks like they're still afraid to push him. Shota Umino, who main evented the Tokyo Dome show earlier this year, wasn't even on this show. Gabe Kidd is one of the newer NJPW stars that seemed to get the biggest push on this show, being in the main event and taking part in the big cage fall moment with Darby. It is weird that AEW has so many wrestlers that are barely pushed and barely wrestle. Maybe they should prune their roster. This match was fun while it lasted. **1/2

GATES OF AGONY (BISHOP KAUN & TOA LIONA) & RICOCHET vs. JET SPEED (KEVIN KNIGHT & MIKE BAILEY) & MICHAEL OKU (9:54): Jet Speed have been a pretty exciting tag team since they put them together earlier this year. They started off as singles wrestlers but just threw them together for no real reason. Ricochet seems to have fallen back into his WWE trap. He's now just a B-wrestler on the undercard. He's fantastic as a heel, very amusing, plus the crowds everywhere chant that he's bald and love reacting to him...but he's lightyears from the main event title picture. Considering he's an exciting, great wrestler, that's a problem. They did at least give him a storyline during this show when he interfered during the tag team match and will be feuding with The Hurt Syndicate. The one thing I remember from this match is Michael Oku going for a top rope dive and being pushed by one of the Gates of Agony members over the top rope and down to the floor. Oku almost landed on his head. There were a few other spots after that where Oku looked sloppy and was falling onto the mat like a rag doll. Maybe that's why he's still in RevPro and not, like, AEW or WWE? Because he's kind of a sloppy wrestler? Match was good. **1/2

MEGAN BAYNE & TRIANGLE OF MADNESS (JULIA HART, SKY BLUE & THEKLA) vs. HARLEY CAMERON, KRIS STATLANDER, QUEEN AMINATA & WILLOW NIGHTINGALE (11:17): Thekla is a new wrestler in AEW. They put her with Julia Hart and Sky Blue and named the trio Triangle of Madness. Every time I hear that name I think of that movie Triangle of Sadness. The one that won the Palm D'or at Cannes. Anyway, Harley Cameron is back from a broken nose. The crowds are still cheering for her. Willow seemed like a break out star recently but they really haven't done much with her. Queen Aminata had her backpack stolen in London and was stuck in the country until she could get a new passport. If I want a passport wouldn't it take me like six months? What, is she going to have to live over there? Match was fine. Thekla and Aminata brawled to the back and later on (after the Sabre/McGuiness match) came back out still brawling. **

THE OPPS (KATSUYORI SHIBATA, POWERHOUSE HOBBS & SOMOA JOE) vs. BULLET CLUB WAR DOGS (CLARK CONNORS, DRILLA MALONEY & ROBBIE X) (10:00): Samoa Joe got some of the biggest cheers of anyone all night (I think Tanahashi actually might've got the most). The War Dogs looked really good here. I guess because they're in New Japan and wrestle more often. Match was short but entertaining. **1/2

ADAM COPELAND & CHRISTIAN CAGE vs. THE MATRIARCHY (KILLSWITCH & KIP SABIAN) (13:46): Edge came to AEW in October of 2023. It took almost two years to finally get him and Christian to team together. Christian is still basically a heel, so this team really makes no sense. Nick Wayne broke his foot so they put Killswitch into this match instead. Killswitch hasn't been around since last year's All In. He had pneumonia and was in the hospital. He looked in great shape here, although he wasn't doing any type of flips or top rope dives. Kip Sabian was put into The Matriarchy because Killswitch was out of action. Kip Sabian never wrestles. He's been literally getting an AEW paycheck by just standing next to Christian and Nick Wayne for the last year. So he's finally doing something now. I guess he's happy. You could kind of tell he never wrestles, though. While this match wasn't anything special, the crowd was really hot for everything Edge and Christian did. They sang Edge's song when he came out. So everyone's happy the boys are back. Hopefully they give them a more interesting match in Toronto at the next PPV, All Out. **

KYLE FLETCHER vs. HIROMU TAKAHASHI (15:27): Hiromu hasn't been that exciting as a wrestler ever since he broke his neck. I think one problem is that New Japan refuses to put him in the heavyweight division, so he's been spinning his wheels with the Jr.'s for five years. Kyle is the TNT champion now, which is something, but it seemed like when he beat Ospreay last year he was being pushed for the heavyweight championship picture. This match was good but nothing fantastic. By the end it got fairly exciting. I suppose they wanted to "protect" Hiromu because they gave him a bunch of kick outs at the end to finishing moves. **1/2

MERCEDES MONE vs. ALEX WINDSOR vs. BOZILLA vs. PERSEPHONE (15:31): This was the only match with CMLL and Stardom wrestlers. Bozilla is from Germany and in Stardom. She's a big girl so she was the star, powering over everyone throughout. Persephone is from CMLL and fairly forgettable (it should be noted that CMLL is the hottest promotion in the world right now...not that I would know, as they put all their Friday night shows on Youtube behind a paywall...I used to watch those shows all the time). Windsor is Ospreay's girlfriend and from RevPro. It was fairly obvious that Mone would retain her TBS title. Mone also won RevPro's title on Friday night on their show. The match never really heated up into anything great. *1/2

ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. NIGEL McGUINNESS (17:01): This was for the IWGP title. Strange that it was just a random match in the middle of the card. I guess even they knew nobody gave Nigel a shot. I'm not sure if these two have ever wrestled, but Nigel was in this match because he's from the UK. Match wasn't particularly great, though Nigel looked decent enough considering he's only wrestled a few times since returning and Zack is one of the best wrestlers in the world. After this match, Queen Aminata and Thekla came out from the back, still brawling (what, they were fighting backstage for two hours?). Sky Blue and Julia Hart came out to beat up Aminata. Then Jamie Hayter came out to return from injury and save the day. It's so funny, but her get-up and hair make her look like she's from the 70's (also like Daphne from Scooby Doo), which I guess is the point. But...like...is that a thing now? Being a Charlie's Angel? She looks cool. I guess. **

BRODIDO (BANDIDO & BRODY KING) vs. THE HURT SYNDICATE (BOBBY LASHLEY & SHELTON BENJAMIN) vs. FTR (CASH WHEELER & DAX HARWOOD) (16:05): Since The Hurt Syndicate won the tag team titles, they've been pretty much destroying everyone but not wrestling any meaningful teams (like The Bucks or FTR). They lost the tag titles here but weren't pinned. Ricochet and The Gates of Agony came out in masks and New Japan jackets and beat up The Hurt Syndicate and took them to the back. Eventually Bandido and Brody beat FTR to win the titles. The final pin was a little off, as Bandido didn't get the cover right and had to do it again quickly. The match was entertaining. It makes sense to give the titles to a new team and Brody and Bandido are exciting. They're not a real tag team, though, and I kind of hate when they give the titles to two singles wrestlers thrown together. Buddy Matthews, Brody's tag team partner, is out with a knee injury, so that's the reason this team was concocted. Bandido is the ROH champion, so he still wrestles as a singles competitor (his ROH title match against Takeshita earlier this year was great...and he's wrestling Hechicero next Friday at ROH's PPV at the ECW Arena). MVP was oddly not at ringside. There have been internet rumors that The Hurt Syndicate refused to lose to Jet Speed and have heat backstage. Out of all of this, The Hurt Syndicate looked fantastic in this match, especially Shelton Benjamin. Their matches have usually been short and mostly squashes, but they're fantastic when they're actually wrestling a full match. Good match. *** 

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. SWERVE STRICKLAND (16:41): I actually liked this match even though all the online comments about this were negative. I think I'm just used to the 2025 Okada. He's methodical, slow, and not as exciting and fast as he once was. I was a little surprised when Okada won and retained whatever the hell this title is (it's a combination of the Continental Classic title and the International title and it's called the Unified title). Afterwards, though, we learned that Swerve is having knee surgery and is out for awhile. The finish makes sense now. Considering Okada doesn't have great matches anymore, will they even bother to push him into a PPV main event title match, though? So he's just going to have this weird title and be in the middle of the cards forever? I did think this match was compelling and pretty entertaining. Afterwards, Okada kept beating up Swerve and then Prince Nana ran out to make the save. Wardlow, who's been in AEW jail forever (the other occupants: Britt Baker & Jungle Boy, both who haven't been around all year for unknown reasons), came out to beat up Nana while a broken Swerve lay on the mat in agony. Wardlow joined the Don Callis family. You know...I guess it's kind of the point to be sick of Don Callis since he's a heel...but I used to find his gimmick kind of funny and amusing but I'm over it. *** 

TONI STORM vs. ATHENA (15:16): Athena's been the ROH women's champ for years now. I guess that's why a lot of people online thought she might win. She didn't. Nobody knows who the hell she is, so why would she win? I guess to make a new star? Considering this match was boring, she didn't achieve that. She is a good wrestler, but this crowd was asleep for most of this match. It started fast, with Toni giving Billie Starks a pile driver at ringside (Starks is Athena's partner in crime these days). The crowds still love Toni Storm. She's probably the most over women's wrestler in any promotion. But the crowd didn't care when the wrestling started. By the end there was some crowd reaction with the near falls but this didn't turn out all that great. *1/2

'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE vs. MJF (31:38): There were a ton of shenanigans in this match...which is probably why half of the reviews of this match were negative and half were positive. It went long so they did just about everything. Both men were bleeding. 'Hangman' gave MJF a Dead Eye off the apron through a table. MJF gave 'Hangman' a running piledriver onto the broken table that didn't break more (that didn't look good). The story was that MJF kept trying to cheat. The ref got knocked out at one point. MJF hit Page with the contract. MJF tried to hit Page with the diamond ring but the ref caught it. MJF pulled the top rope buckel off to reveal the steel. MJF did a low blow. There was a great spot after MJF gave Page a pile driver onto the broken table at ringside and Page had to make it back into the ring at 10. He slipped at 8 and barely made it back in. MJF did pin Page but Page's foot was on the rope but the ref didn't see it. Mark Briscoe came out to complain but security pulled him back. The ref never re-started the match but never rang the bell so it just kept going on. Eventually, 'Hangman' hit MJF with the contract (a title shot contract that MJF still hasn't used by the way...he got this match by threatening to burn Mark Briscoe alive...typical wrasslin'!) when the ref wasn't looking, thus beating MJF at his own game. The crowd got super loud and were on their feet at one point late in this match, which was awesome to see (you kind of want to see that during a title match on a big show). All of the distractions, cheating and ref bumps made this feel more like a WWE title match...but it was entertaining and dramatic. Good match. ***

DARBY ALLIN, GOLDEN LOVERS (KENNY OMEGA & KOTA IBUSHI), HIROSHI TANAHASHI & WILL OSPREAY vs. DEATH RIDERS (JON MOXLEY & CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI), GABE KIDD & THE YOUNG BUCKS "LIGHTS OUT STEEL CAGE MATCH" (32:25): They used the New Japan style cage here...which is a topless cage that encircles both the ring and the ringside area. I think they did this cage match because they didn't do Blood & Guts this year, presumably because they didn't want to have a big match on TV during the lead up to All In in July. This match was wildly exciting. There were a ton of great spots and some awesome wrestling sequences. Kota Ibushi actually looked good in this and Tanahashi probably got the biggest pops from the crowd even though he was hobbling around and doing lame Dragon Screws. There was a blood and comedy. The Bucks came out to the infamous "Hmm Bop" song for some reason or another (the commentators noted that it was their original entrance music...and it should be noted that Bryan Danielson did commentary tonight and was great). Earlier in the show, The Bucks told a crew member to put the most dangerous thing they could think of in a bag for this match. It turned out to be gummy bears. The crowd liked that. Kenny stuffed gummy bears into one of the Bucks' mouth and kicked his face. The gruesome spot of the night was Moxley using a fork to cut into Darby's ear. The got a loud, sickening groan from the crowd. Claudio picked up Darby and tossed him out of the ring into the side of the cage. That was crazy. Darby and Gabe Kidd ended up on top of the cage and crashed down onto four stacked tables at ringside. There was a barbed wire board that Moxley got tossed into. Ospreay did a moonsault off the top of the cage down onto everyone. Darby was taped to a chair at one point and then picked up and slammed. Tanahashi started climbing a ladder but his teammates made him come back down. Tanahashi ended up getting the win after a High Fly Flow. This match was engrossing and super entertaining and wild. There were two negatives, though. It went on a little bit too long. And after the good guys won, Moxley and his crew locked the cage and beat up Ospreay while everyone was outside. There were two reasons for this. One: Ospreay is having neck surgery and needed a storyline to be out of action for a year or more. Two: Moxley lost at All In and the Death Riders lost this match. They needed something to keep them alive as a prominent threat. The problem is that by closing the show with Ospreay, the hometown hero, on a stretcher, you make all the fans go home sad. You don't want to end the show with a downer ending. You want people leaving the arena to smile and high five their friends. I get it: you set up a Moxley vs. Ospreay match whenever Ospreay returns, maybe at next year's All In. But it hurts this show by having a sad end to a great night of action. Match was fantastic, though, so there's that. ***