AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2023 Review
Last year’s debut showing of the Forbidden Door concept felt like the Khans had received the Yelnats family curse. Injuries, travel issues and illness all impacted the run-up to the card on what felt like a daily basis. It feels like we saw maybe the 9th choice draft of that show. Despite all that, the sheer talent on the two rosters combined to put together what was considered, by any measurable consensus, the best show of 2022.
This year’s show has had a vastly different path to bell time. The build was far less rocky, with only 2 matches needing to be altered (due to Mercedes Mone’s and Adam Cole’s injury and illness respectively). The storylines have walked the right line of drama and a friendly exhibition feel, which is key to this event’s appeal.
However, the sheer hype based on 2022’s card overdelivering has set a bar that no-show could possibly live up to. Throw in a rematch of 2023’s best match so far, and a long-desired dream match in the main event slot - the show is definitely putting up a fight to meet its expectation. Let’s see how it does.
Pre-Show Rundown
Some quickfire thoughts on the free pre-show matches (available on YouTube) below:
CHAOS & El Desperado vs Mogul Embassy - A fun, fast-paced start to the evening, continuing to build Swerve as a key upper-midcarder. 3.25 stars.
Athena vs Billie Starkz - The crowd didn’t really care until the finish, Athena’s work was sloppier than her recent self. 2.5 stars.
El Phantasmo vs Stu Grayson - A cool little match that over-delivered on its placement, both guys getting to show off their athleticism and interesting movesets in a constrained setting. 3.25 stars.
LiJ vs The United Empire - This was fantastic and well worth a watch. Absolute pandemonium, with a brisk pace. Shingo, Fletcher, and TJP stood out in particular. 3.75 stars. Recommended.
Match #1 – MJF vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - AEW World Championship
There’s no mistaking that Tanahashi’s tradition of bulking up and slowing down mid-year is impacting his work more than we’ve seen before. He’s struggling to move around and is relying more than ever on his bag of tricks and novelties. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Tanahashi is washed (because that conversation happens every year, and every year he proves us wrong come January), but his slowdown is real and his time is limited.
Noting this slowdown, alongside MJF recently working a very schticky angle in his matches, and the card positioning - there was no doubt that this was going to be a smoke and mirrors match full of crowd work, ref involvement, posturing, and cheap heat.
This isn’t inherently bad, there are fantastic matches full of schtick, where pomp and circumstance puts its entertainment value on par with a workrate darling. But knowing the heights that both of these guys can reach with their in-ring work, it’s hard to not to feel like this didn’t quite live up to expectations.
This was, however, a fun enough pure babyface vs heel matchup. MJF kept up his storyline of pulling the wool over the eyes of Bryce Remsburg in big-time matches, while Tanahashi’s ability to get a crowd believing in hope spots is unparalleled, basing his comebacks around taking out MJF’s leg.
MJF distracted Bryce, leading to Tanahashi getting an uncounted visual pinfall followed by MJF hitting a punch with the diamond ring for the dirty win.
3.5 stars – A fun, well-worked opener that didn’t reach either guy’s best effort.
Match #2 – CM Punk vs Satoshi Kojima
Regardless of your feelings around the circumstances of CM Punk’s absence and return, there’s no denying that he gets every crowd remarkably invested, and every show he’s on has far more energy and excitement as a result.
CM Punk is leaning into the heel reception without turning it into a caricature, and Kojima makes for a natural fiery hero. While some feel it is a disappointing on-paper matchup for Punk, Kojima is definitely the member of the NJPW ‘old guard’ who can still wrestle the closest to his peak in 2023 (including Tanahashi).
I particularly loved Punk’s mocking shouts of “LARIAT! LARIAT! LARIAT! KOJIMA!” when hitting Kojima with some lacking clotheslines in the corner. Punk is having the time of his life being allowed to work fully heel and ham it up for the first time in nearly a decade. In retaliation, Kojima hits a top rope diving elbow onto Punk’s nuts. Truly, the greatest night in the history of our sport. CM Punk is doing in this match what MJF thought he was doing in the opener.
This had a very similar dynamic to the opening match but with more awareness of its own silliness. Unlike the opening match, it didn’t feel like these guys were trying their hardest to conjure this reaction from the crowd. It was organic and that is a powerful, fun thing.
CM Punk gets the win with the GTS for a win in a delightful and fast match.
4 stars – CM Punk makes for a great heel (no surprise) and Kojima continues to deliver in 2023. Recommended.
Match #3 – Orange Cassidy vs. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Daniel Garcia - AEW International Championship
This was a fantastic execution of a four-way match. The match largely avoided the tope of “people fight and then it becomes a series of rotating one vs. one matches in small segments”. Most of the match had 3 or more people involved, and it was a series of entertaining and creative spots.
The throughline was ZSJ and Shibata constantly in a duel of bravado, with Garcia playing the role of annoying little brother by frequently (and unsuccessfully) interrupting proceedings, while OC just tries to survive his hand getting mangled. One such highlight had ZSJ and Shibata both on the receiving end of sleeper holds, but still powering through to engage in a lethargic slap battle.
The action was fast-paced and played to everyone’s strengths where they all get moments to shine with too much back-and-forth to recap here. This is exactly what I love about wrestling, a perfect mixture of pace, technical work, character interactions, and psychology that makes sense.
ZSJ and Shibata trade intricate pinfall attempts until Shibata hits the PK, and OC sneaks in and steals the pin to retain the championship. This was incredible, and highly recommended.
4.5 stars – About as good as a midcard multi-man match can get. Highly Recommended.
Match #4 – SANADA vs Jack Perry - IWGP Heavyweight Championship
While this is definitely an easy-win matchup for SANADA, it’s interesting to see the parallels between their current positions in their respective companies. Both guys are adored by their head bookers and consistently pushed in the upper part of the midcard seemingly earmarked as the next big face of their respective companies, despite fairly tepid reactions from the audience.
Jack Perry has clearly been teasing a heel turn against HOOK in recent weeks, and it’s refreshing to see SANADA (who is meant to be a babyface character) finally get to be the more popular man in a match, after having the crowd turn against him in recent defences against Hiromu Takahashi and Yota Tsuji. However, this Toronto crowd seems to be all aboard the SANADA train.
While this started with a slower pace than everything else on the card, it eventually turned into a typical Perry match where both guys trade big strikes, poison-ranas, and finisher attempts. SANADA gets the win after a Shining Wizard and a moonsault for a quick and easy win.
This was a good enough match but definitely didn’t peak the crowd. As expected, after the match Perry betrays HOOK with a stiff lariat - and you can tell the crowd has been dying to boo this guy for months.
3 stars – A completely cromulent match that was a filler defence for SANADA and furthered Perry’s character development.
Match #5 - The Elite (Adam Page, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson), Eddie Kingston & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta), Konosuke Takeshita & Shota Umino
I know I have ranted in past reviews against the strawman narrative that ‘AEW doesn’t tell stories’, so I won’t reiterate it here. But just know that once again this match completely proves that anyone peddling that nonsense is acting in complete bad faith.
There are so many rivalries and allegiances sprinkled across the teams here that every combination feels fresh and exciting. The Mox/Kingston face-off gets a pop from the crowd the likes of which is rarely seen anymore. Takeshita and Ishii prove to be a pairing with electric chemistry that has me begging for a one-on-one match with a good amount of time.
This is chaotic, makes everyone come across as huge stars and completely delivers on the premise of the PPV - words don’t accurately describe the dozens of moving parts that coalesced together to make what was a triumph of the multi-man tag formula.
Ishii gets the pin after a sheer drop brainbuster and one of the best matches of the year is in the books.
4.75 stars – Tag-based master storytelling interspersed with some of the best pure wrestling you’ll see. Highly Recommended.
Match #6 – Toni Storm vs Willow Nightingale - AEW Women’s Championship
Following the 10-man tag, this match was in a hard position as the crowd sounded emotionally spent. They definitely tried to get the crowd to rally, with manager ejection spots, big strikes, and a nasty Death Valley Driver on the apron. But this definitely suffered, not from any lack of skill or effort, but just from the sheer high quality of the rest of the show’s offerings.
Toni distracts the ref, gouges the eyes, and hits the short piledriver for the victory here in a perfectly fine match (which is a bit of a disappointment considering that these are two of the best wrestlers in the division).
3 stars – Competent work for a crowd that took a while to warm back up.
Match #7 - Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay - IWGP United States Championship
This was my most anticipated match on the show, and is a rematch to my current match of the year.
Ospreay working heel not only against Omega, but against the entire nation of Canada, is the right move - flipping alignments and the dynamic from the first outing to provide even further interest.
I’ll admit I’m less than thrilled to have Callis at ringside (who has go-away heat from me dating back to his NJPW commentating days). Thankfully, he is ejected early on and this match picks up dramatically in quality from there.
It starts out quickly in a series of reversals but soon enough becomes a throwback to the brutality of their match at the Tokyo Dome, this time with the roles reversed. Ospreay smashes Omega’s head through the announce table and signage to bust him open. Ospreay follows up with a series of stiff strikes and hits a beautifully sardonic version of Omega’s own V-Trigger.
Ospreay becomes the overwhelming force in this match forcing Omega to work from underneath in a beautiful reversal of roles from January. Ospreay goads the crowd and takes a Canadian flag from one of the fans, which ends up backfiring and turning the tide in Omega’s favour.
Omega retaliates the announce table head smashing by trying to put Ospreay’s head through the steel steps which has Ospreay pouring blood like a water fountain before receiving a DDT on the aforementioned steps, now upturned on its side (calling back the DDT on the top turnbuckle from January). Ospreay’s bleeding has broken past the Muta scale and is at Eddie Guerrero Judgement Day 2004 levels.
Omega gets on a roll, but Ospreay turns it around with a running Spanish Fly, a very Canadian Sharpshooter, and then a crossface to garner immense heat as he loses more buckets worth of plasma.
I won’t continue to recap everything, but this is a back-and-forth affair that gets more and more brutal as it progresses, Omega turning the tide by countering an Os-Cutter with a sick-looking knee to the back of the head.
Callis ends up coming back out and distracting the ref to give Ospreay the screwdriver, allowing him to counter the One Winged Angel and hit a Stormbreaker for a big nearfall.
Ospreay then hits a Kamigoye and a One Winged Angel of his own for a ONE COUNT.
Osreapy ends up hitting a running-standing Hidden Blade, a double underhook GANSO BOMB, another Hidden Blade, and a Stormbreaker for the win in one of the best matches I’ve ever seen.
5 stars – The two best wrestlers in the world at their absolute peak. Highly Recommended.
Match #8 - Minoru Suzuki & The Jericho Appreciation Society (Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara) vs. Darby Allin, Sting & Tetsuya Naito
There’s not much to say here. This was clearly more of a momentum resetter than a match and existed solely to get some entrance pops and easy reactions for the Sting/Jericho and Darby/Suzuki faceoffs.
It ran on too long for what it was and generally was a bit dull all around.
The babyfaces get the win with Naito rolling up Suzuki.
2.25 stars – A plodding match that existed solely so people could use the bathroom before the main event.
Match #9 - Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada
The moment that Bryan Danielson entered the arena to the sounds of The Final Countdown, you could sense that this match needed to deliver in a big way.
This match was frankly too intricate for a play-by-play of key moves to be a worthwhile endeavour to write, nor an enjoyable task to read.
The overall story was the old “anything you can do, I can do better”.
Bryan destroys Okada with hard strikes. Okada returns the favour.
Okada hits big-time offence on the floor. Bryan returns the favour.
Okada traps Bryan in submissions. Bryan returns the favour and taps out Okada for the win.
In short, this was very very good. Bryan finds that the LeBell Lock isn’t working to finish off Okada and hooks both of Okada’s arms with his legs just before the point of breaking to get the submission.
In what might be a bit of a controversial take, I think this match was merely very good instead of incredible. While both men traded wonderful offence and counters, it never got into that higher gear that other matches on this card did.
It was calculated and well-worked, but never hit or teased a climax. Bryan getting an out-of-nowhere submission victory from a hold that no one in the audience saw as a nearfall took the wind out of the audience’s sails. I can see what they were going for, but on-screen it just played off like they were told to go to the finishing sequence 5 minutes before they were ready to.
4 stars – A good match that feels like ‘Part One’ in a series, where both guys still have plenty more in the tank than was shown here.
AVERAGE RATING: 3.78 of 5 stars (or 7.56 of 10)
SUMMARY: This was one of the best shows I’ve laid my eyes on in my few decades of watching professional wrestling. I highly recommend anyone go seek this show out, you’re unlikely to have a bad time.
