On August 24, AEW hosts its fourth annual crossover pay-per-view with New Japan Pro-Wrestling: Forbidden Door.
The card currently features confirmed big-time title bouts: AEW Unified Champion Kazuchika Okada defending against Swerve Strickland, and AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm putting her title on the line against Athena.
However, there’s still significant space left on the card, which is sure to be filled out over the next couple of weeks on AEW programming.
Below are five matches we could see added to the card.
5. Jon Moxley vs. Darby Allin
On the 6 August edition of AEW Dynamite, Darby Allin left a message for Jon Moxley.
“Kidnapping” Wheeler Yuta, he left his incapacitated body in a body bag for Moxley to find, with a sign on his head stating, “Forbidden Door.”
It seems like this bout is set to happen in London.
The feud between the pair began last September, when Moxley first beat Allin for the number one contendership for the AEW title, but the question is: will we see its end with Allin securing ultimate victory over the Death Riders at Forbidden Door?
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4. The Hurt Syndicate vs. Brodido
For several weeks now on AEW programming, they have been running a single-elimination tag team tournament, with the winners challenging the reigning champions, The Hurt Syndicate, at Forbidden Door.
With Brodido – the team of Bandido and Brody King – beating The Young Bucks in a standout match on 6 August, they progress into the tournament finals against FTR.
It seems like Brodido could very well be the team to win the tournament, with fans really getting behind the duo.
Brodido has continued to impress as a newly formed team and could likely deliver a great match and finally relieve The Hurt Syndicate of the titles at Forbidden Door.
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3. Zack Sabre Jr. & Ryohei Oiwa & Kosei Fujita vs. Konosuke Takeshita & Kyle Fletcher & Rocky Romero
One of the issues with the build to this year’s Forbidden Door has been the lack of New Japan Pro Wrestling talent – the problem is that, as this year’s PPV is later than previous years, with the show occurring the week after the culmination of the month-long round-robin G1 Tournament in NJPW, it ensured that its stars were not eligible for AEW television.
Nevertheless, IWGP World Champion Zack Sabre Jr. will certainly be on the show in his native country, although there is yet no overt clue as to who he will face.
His opponent – or one of them – could be AEW star Konosuke Takeshita, who is currently the favourite to win the G1 tournament.
While we are unlikely to see them face off in a singles match for the title at Forbidden Door, as that match will likely be saved for NJPW’s big show of the year, Wrestle Kingdom 20 in January, we could very well see a battle between them and their respective factions: The Don Callis family and TMDK.
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2. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Chris Jericho
Hiroshi Tanahashi is fast approaching the final leg of his retirement tour – the legendary career of 8x IWGP Heavyweight Champion is set to end on 4 January at New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s WrestleKingdom 20.
At Forbidden Door, he is set to wrestle his last-ever match in the UK; however, due to the G1, which he is participating in, no seeds have been planted for who he will face on the show.
While there will certainly be many AEW roster members who would want to face the “Ace of the Universe,” we could perhaps see the return of Chris Jericho to face him in a rematch from the bout the pair had at Wrestle Kingdom 14 – a match in which Jericho himself coined the term “Forbidden Door” during its build-up.
While unlikely, given the rough shape that Tanahashi is in to match the classic they delivered five and a half years ago, it would be a big-time match with two of the biggest ever legends in the sport in front of a raucous UK audience.
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1. AEW World Championship – Hangman Adam Page vs. MJF
On the 6 August edition of AEW Dynamite, MJF cheated to secure victory over Mark Briscoe.
It certainly appears that Hangman Page will defend his AEW World Title at Forbidden Door against MJF, although no announcement has been made as of yet.
Given Hangman’s recent title victory at All In, it seems unlikely that we will see the championship change on the show.
However, there remains the possibility, given the finish of the MJF and Briscoe match, that it could be made a three-way at Forbidden Door, with Briscoe added to the mix, which would serve the purpose of keeping the MJF and Hangman feud going.
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