AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door | |||
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![]() Promotional poster featuring various wrestlers | |||
Promotion |
All Elite Wrestling New Japan Pro-Wrestling | ||
Date | June 30, 2024 | ||
City | Elmont, New York | ||
Venue | UBS Arena | ||
Attendance | 11,000 [1] | ||
Buy rate | 110,000–116,000 [2] | ||
Event chronology | |||
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Forbidden Door chronology | |||
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The 2024 Forbidden Door was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and supershow co-produced by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and the Japan-based New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). It was the third annual Forbidden Door event and took place on June 30, 2024, at the UBS Arena in the Long Island hamlet of Elmont, New York. The event also featured the involvement of wrestlers from NJPW's sister promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom, as well as Mexico's Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), a partner of both AEW and NJPW.
Fifteen matches were contested at the event, including five on Zero Hour pre-show. In the main event, Swerve Strickland defeated Will Ospreay to retain the AEW World Championship. In other prominent matches, Tetsuya Naito defeated Jon Moxley to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, Mercedes Moné defeated Stephanie Vaquer in a Winner Takes All match to retain the AEW TBS Championship and win the NJPW Strong Women's Championship, Jack Perry defeated Konosuke Takeshita, Mark Briscoe, Dante Martin, Lio Rush, and El Phantasmo in a Ladder match to win the vacant AEW TNT Championship, and "Timeless" Toni Storm defeated Mina Shirakawa to retain the AEW Women's World Championship. The event also featured the return of Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D., who had been on hiatus since September 2023.
Forbidden Door is an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event co-produced by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and Japan-based New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Established in 2022, the event is held in June and features direct competition between wrestlers from the two companies. [3] [4] The event takes its name from the same term often used by AEW when referring to working with other professional wrestling promotions. [5]
On April 11, 2024, AEW announced that the third Forbidden Door would take place on June 30, 2024, at the UBS Arena in the Long Island hamlet of Elmont, New York. [6] [7] Rocky Romero, who is a vice president for both AEW and NJPW, said that wrestlers from World Wonder Ring Stardom, a women's Japanese company and sister promotion of NJPW, would also take part in the 2024 event. He also said that wrestlers from the Mexican partner promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) would be involved. [8]
Forbidden Door featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. [9] Storylines were primarily advanced on AEW's weekly television shows Dynamite, Rampage, and Collision, the YouTube series Being The Dark Order, and also at NJPW, Stardom, and CMLL events.
During the May 22 episode of Dynamite, it was announced that on the following week's episode, a Casino Gauntlet match would be held to determine who would challenge Swerve Strickland for the AEW World Championship at Forbidden Door. [10] The match was won by Will Ospreay. [11]
At Double or Nothing, Adam Copeland legitimately injured his leg in his successful title defense of the AEW TNT Championship. [12] On the following episode of Dynamite, AEW executive vice presidents The Young Bucks ( Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson) stripped Copeland of the title due to the injury. As they were about to award the championship to their Elite stablemate Jack Perry, Christopher Daniels—who had been fired by the Bucks two weeks prior—appeared, revealing that AEW president Tony Khan had reinstated him as an interim executive vice president in the absence of Kenny Omega, who had surgery due to diverticulitis, and that any announcement made by Daniels came directly from Khan. Daniels then announced that the TNT Championship would not be handed to Perry and instead, the next champion would be determined by a ladder match at Forbidden Door and the six participants would come from qualifying matches over the next few weeks. [11] [13] The first qualifying match took place on that week's episode of Rampage, where Konosuke Takeshita defeated Penta El Zero Miedo. [14] Mark Briscoe then qualified on the next week's Dynamite by defeating Brian Cage. [15] Perry qualified next by defeating Dustin Rhodes on the June 12 episode of Dynamite, [16] followed by Dante Martin defeating Lee Moriarty on the June 15 episode of Collision. [17] Lio Rush then qualified on the June 21 episode of Rampage by defeating Action Andretti. [18] El Phantasmo earmed the final spot in the ladder match by defeating AR Fox on the June 28 episode of Rampage. [19]
Following her successful defense of the AEW TBS Championship on the May 29 episode of Dynamite, Mercedes Moné was interrupted by NJPW Strong Women's Champion Stephanie Vaquer, who performs in NJPW, Stardom, and CMLL. The two subsequently stared each other down while holding their respective titles up. [11] The following week, it was announced that the two would face each other at Forbidden Door in a Winner Takes All match for both championships. [15] Before that, however, Moné was scheduled to defend the TBS Championship against Vaquer's CMLL World Women's Tag Team Championship partner Zeuxis on the June 12 episode of Dynamite and it was announced that if Moné lost her title to Zeuxis, then the Forbidden Door match would only be for Vaquer's Strong Women's Championship; Moné retained. [16]
Prior to signing with AEW in November 2023, Mariah May performed in Stardom where she teamed together with Mina Shirakawa as part of Club Venus. After signing with AEW, May became a protege of AEW Women's World Champion "Timeless" Toni Storm, who also previously performed in Stardom from 2016 to 2019. Storm made a surprise appearance at Stardom American Dream on April 4 after a Club Venus match and teased a match at Forbidden Door; [20] in return, Shirakawa made her first appearance in AEW on the April 10 episode of Dynamite, saving May from a post-match beatdown before kissing her. [21] Over the next two months, Shirakawa would periodically appear on AEW shows and compete with Storm for May's affection. During Stardom's June 2 event, Storm, along with May, appeared in a vignette where Storm said she had been observing Shirakawa and while she also considered Shirakawa a friend due to her friendship with May, Storm wanted to challenge Shirakawa to a match at Forbidden Door with the AEW Women's World Championship on the line. [22] Shirakawa accepted the challenge and the match was made official on the June 5 episode of Dynamite, with May listed as the cornerwoman for both participants upon her request. [15] [23]
At Forbidden Door in 2023, AEW's Orange Cassidy won a four-man match which also involved NJPW's Zack Sabre Jr. [24] The following year on the June 8, 2024, episode of Collision, Sabre challenged Cassidy to a rematch as a singles match at Forbidden Door, claiming the two men had unfinished business. [25]
At NJPW's Windy City Riot in April, AEW's Jon Moxley defeated NJPW's Tetsuya Naito to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. [26] After retaining the title at NJPW's Dominion on June 9, Moxley cut a promo for anyone to challenge him. Naito came out to confront Moxley, and a rematch for the title was set for Forbidden Door. [27]
At Double or Nothing, MJF made a surprise return from injury after being out since Worlds End in December 2023. [12] He subsequently made his first appearance back on Dynamite on the June 5 episode where he badmouthed The Elite. [15] Following MJF's match on the June 19 episode, Cage of Agony ( Brian Cage, Toa Liona, and Bishop Kaun) and CMLL's Hechicero appeared on the titantron. Cage subsequently announced that The Elite had a gift for MJF and it was that he would be facing Hechicero in MJF's hometown at Forbidden Door. [28]
The Owen Hart Cup is an annual professional wrestling tournament held by AEW in partnership with The Owen Hart Foundation in honor of Owen Hart. It consists of two single-elimination tournaments, one each for men and women, and the respective winners receive a trophy called "The Owen". Additionally, for 2024, it was announced that the respective winners would earn matches for AEW's men's and women's world championships at All In in August. [29] During the June 19 episode of Dynamite, it was announced that AEW's Bryan Danielson would face NJPW's Shingo Takagi at Forbidden Door in a first-round tournament match. [28]
Role | Name |
---|---|
Commentators | Excalibur (Pre-show and PPV) |
Taz (PPV) | |
Nigel McGuinness (Pre-show and PPV) | |
Matt Menard (Pre-show) | |
Jim Ross (last 2 matches) | |
Ring announcers | Justin Roberts (PPV) |
Bobby Cruise (Pre-show) | |
Takuro Shibata (Pre-show and PPV) | |
Referees | Aubrey Edwards |
Bryce Remsburg | |
Mike Posey | |
Paul Turner | |
Rick Knox | |
Stephon Smith | |
Red Shoes Unno | |
Pre-show hosts | Renee Paquette |
RJ City | |
Jeff Jarrett | |
Rocky Romero |
The main event received widespread acclaim with many calling it the AEW match of the year. Dave Meltzer rated Kyle Fletcher vs Serpentico 1 star, the worst rated match of the night. He rated the main event 5.5 stars, the highest rated match of the night. Elsewhere, the fatal-four way tag, MJF vs Hechicero, and the six man tag between Samoa Joe, Hook, and Shibata vs The Learning Tree all received 3.25 stars. Toni Storm vs Mina Shirakawa and Mercedes Mone vs Stephanie Vaquer both received 4 stars, while Mariah May vs Saraya received 2 stars and Willow and Tam vs Kris and Momo received 3.5 stars. The TNT Championship ladder match and Orange Cassidy vs Zack Sabre Jr received 4.5 stars, Bryan Danielson vs Shingo Takagi received 4.75 stars, Mistico & Lucha Bros vs L.IJ received 4.25 stars, Scissor Ace vs The Elite received 3.75 stars, and Jon Moxley vs Tetsuya Naito received 3 stars. The main event currently has a rating of 9.23/10 on cagematch.
The term "forbidden door" has always been used in reference to companies working together and not signing exclusively with one company.
AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door | |||
---|---|---|---|
![]() Promotional poster featuring various wrestlers | |||
Promotion |
All Elite Wrestling New Japan Pro-Wrestling | ||
Date | June 30, 2024 | ||
City | Elmont, New York | ||
Venue | UBS Arena | ||
Attendance | 11,000 [1] | ||
Buy rate | 110,000–116,000 [2] | ||
Event chronology | |||
| |||
Forbidden Door chronology | |||
|
The 2024 Forbidden Door was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and supershow co-produced by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and the Japan-based New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). It was the third annual Forbidden Door event and took place on June 30, 2024, at the UBS Arena in the Long Island hamlet of Elmont, New York. The event also featured the involvement of wrestlers from NJPW's sister promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom, as well as Mexico's Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), a partner of both AEW and NJPW.
Fifteen matches were contested at the event, including five on Zero Hour pre-show. In the main event, Swerve Strickland defeated Will Ospreay to retain the AEW World Championship. In other prominent matches, Tetsuya Naito defeated Jon Moxley to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, Mercedes Moné defeated Stephanie Vaquer in a Winner Takes All match to retain the AEW TBS Championship and win the NJPW Strong Women's Championship, Jack Perry defeated Konosuke Takeshita, Mark Briscoe, Dante Martin, Lio Rush, and El Phantasmo in a Ladder match to win the vacant AEW TNT Championship, and "Timeless" Toni Storm defeated Mina Shirakawa to retain the AEW Women's World Championship. The event also featured the return of Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D., who had been on hiatus since September 2023.
Forbidden Door is an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event co-produced by the American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and Japan-based New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Established in 2022, the event is held in June and features direct competition between wrestlers from the two companies. [3] [4] The event takes its name from the same term often used by AEW when referring to working with other professional wrestling promotions. [5]
On April 11, 2024, AEW announced that the third Forbidden Door would take place on June 30, 2024, at the UBS Arena in the Long Island hamlet of Elmont, New York. [6] [7] Rocky Romero, who is a vice president for both AEW and NJPW, said that wrestlers from World Wonder Ring Stardom, a women's Japanese company and sister promotion of NJPW, would also take part in the 2024 event. He also said that wrestlers from the Mexican partner promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) would be involved. [8]
Forbidden Door featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. [9] Storylines were primarily advanced on AEW's weekly television shows Dynamite, Rampage, and Collision, the YouTube series Being The Dark Order, and also at NJPW, Stardom, and CMLL events.
During the May 22 episode of Dynamite, it was announced that on the following week's episode, a Casino Gauntlet match would be held to determine who would challenge Swerve Strickland for the AEW World Championship at Forbidden Door. [10] The match was won by Will Ospreay. [11]
At Double or Nothing, Adam Copeland legitimately injured his leg in his successful title defense of the AEW TNT Championship. [12] On the following episode of Dynamite, AEW executive vice presidents The Young Bucks ( Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson) stripped Copeland of the title due to the injury. As they were about to award the championship to their Elite stablemate Jack Perry, Christopher Daniels—who had been fired by the Bucks two weeks prior—appeared, revealing that AEW president Tony Khan had reinstated him as an interim executive vice president in the absence of Kenny Omega, who had surgery due to diverticulitis, and that any announcement made by Daniels came directly from Khan. Daniels then announced that the TNT Championship would not be handed to Perry and instead, the next champion would be determined by a ladder match at Forbidden Door and the six participants would come from qualifying matches over the next few weeks. [11] [13] The first qualifying match took place on that week's episode of Rampage, where Konosuke Takeshita defeated Penta El Zero Miedo. [14] Mark Briscoe then qualified on the next week's Dynamite by defeating Brian Cage. [15] Perry qualified next by defeating Dustin Rhodes on the June 12 episode of Dynamite, [16] followed by Dante Martin defeating Lee Moriarty on the June 15 episode of Collision. [17] Lio Rush then qualified on the June 21 episode of Rampage by defeating Action Andretti. [18] El Phantasmo earmed the final spot in the ladder match by defeating AR Fox on the June 28 episode of Rampage. [19]
Following her successful defense of the AEW TBS Championship on the May 29 episode of Dynamite, Mercedes Moné was interrupted by NJPW Strong Women's Champion Stephanie Vaquer, who performs in NJPW, Stardom, and CMLL. The two subsequently stared each other down while holding their respective titles up. [11] The following week, it was announced that the two would face each other at Forbidden Door in a Winner Takes All match for both championships. [15] Before that, however, Moné was scheduled to defend the TBS Championship against Vaquer's CMLL World Women's Tag Team Championship partner Zeuxis on the June 12 episode of Dynamite and it was announced that if Moné lost her title to Zeuxis, then the Forbidden Door match would only be for Vaquer's Strong Women's Championship; Moné retained. [16]
Prior to signing with AEW in November 2023, Mariah May performed in Stardom where she teamed together with Mina Shirakawa as part of Club Venus. After signing with AEW, May became a protege of AEW Women's World Champion "Timeless" Toni Storm, who also previously performed in Stardom from 2016 to 2019. Storm made a surprise appearance at Stardom American Dream on April 4 after a Club Venus match and teased a match at Forbidden Door; [20] in return, Shirakawa made her first appearance in AEW on the April 10 episode of Dynamite, saving May from a post-match beatdown before kissing her. [21] Over the next two months, Shirakawa would periodically appear on AEW shows and compete with Storm for May's affection. During Stardom's June 2 event, Storm, along with May, appeared in a vignette where Storm said she had been observing Shirakawa and while she also considered Shirakawa a friend due to her friendship with May, Storm wanted to challenge Shirakawa to a match at Forbidden Door with the AEW Women's World Championship on the line. [22] Shirakawa accepted the challenge and the match was made official on the June 5 episode of Dynamite, with May listed as the cornerwoman for both participants upon her request. [15] [23]
At Forbidden Door in 2023, AEW's Orange Cassidy won a four-man match which also involved NJPW's Zack Sabre Jr. [24] The following year on the June 8, 2024, episode of Collision, Sabre challenged Cassidy to a rematch as a singles match at Forbidden Door, claiming the two men had unfinished business. [25]
At NJPW's Windy City Riot in April, AEW's Jon Moxley defeated NJPW's Tetsuya Naito to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. [26] After retaining the title at NJPW's Dominion on June 9, Moxley cut a promo for anyone to challenge him. Naito came out to confront Moxley, and a rematch for the title was set for Forbidden Door. [27]
At Double or Nothing, MJF made a surprise return from injury after being out since Worlds End in December 2023. [12] He subsequently made his first appearance back on Dynamite on the June 5 episode where he badmouthed The Elite. [15] Following MJF's match on the June 19 episode, Cage of Agony ( Brian Cage, Toa Liona, and Bishop Kaun) and CMLL's Hechicero appeared on the titantron. Cage subsequently announced that The Elite had a gift for MJF and it was that he would be facing Hechicero in MJF's hometown at Forbidden Door. [28]
The Owen Hart Cup is an annual professional wrestling tournament held by AEW in partnership with The Owen Hart Foundation in honor of Owen Hart. It consists of two single-elimination tournaments, one each for men and women, and the respective winners receive a trophy called "The Owen". Additionally, for 2024, it was announced that the respective winners would earn matches for AEW's men's and women's world championships at All In in August. [29] During the June 19 episode of Dynamite, it was announced that AEW's Bryan Danielson would face NJPW's Shingo Takagi at Forbidden Door in a first-round tournament match. [28]
Role | Name |
---|---|
Commentators | Excalibur (Pre-show and PPV) |
Taz (PPV) | |
Nigel McGuinness (Pre-show and PPV) | |
Matt Menard (Pre-show) | |
Jim Ross (last 2 matches) | |
Ring announcers | Justin Roberts (PPV) |
Bobby Cruise (Pre-show) | |
Takuro Shibata (Pre-show and PPV) | |
Referees | Aubrey Edwards |
Bryce Remsburg | |
Mike Posey | |
Paul Turner | |
Rick Knox | |
Stephon Smith | |
Red Shoes Unno | |
Pre-show hosts | Renee Paquette |
RJ City | |
Jeff Jarrett | |
Rocky Romero |
The main event received widespread acclaim with many calling it the AEW match of the year. Dave Meltzer rated Kyle Fletcher vs Serpentico 1 star, the worst rated match of the night. He rated the main event 5.5 stars, the highest rated match of the night. Elsewhere, the fatal-four way tag, MJF vs Hechicero, and the six man tag between Samoa Joe, Hook, and Shibata vs The Learning Tree all received 3.25 stars. Toni Storm vs Mina Shirakawa and Mercedes Mone vs Stephanie Vaquer both received 4 stars, while Mariah May vs Saraya received 2 stars and Willow and Tam vs Kris and Momo received 3.5 stars. The TNT Championship ladder match and Orange Cassidy vs Zack Sabre Jr received 4.5 stars, Bryan Danielson vs Shingo Takagi received 4.75 stars, Mistico & Lucha Bros vs L.IJ received 4.25 stars, Scissor Ace vs The Elite received 3.75 stars, and Jon Moxley vs Tetsuya Naito received 3 stars. The main event currently has a rating of 9.23/10 on cagematch.
No. | Results [44] [45] | Stipulations | Times [44] [45] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1P | Kyle Fletcher defeated Serpentico by pinfall | Singles match | 3:10 | ||||
2P | Kings of the Black Throne ( Malakai Black and Brody King) defeated Tomohiro Ishii and Kyle O'Reilly, Roderick Strong and Gabe Kidd (with Gedo, Matt Taven, and Mike Bennett), and Private Party ( Zay and Quen) by pinfall | Four-way tag team match [30] | 8:40 | ||||
3P | Willow Nightingale and Tam Nakano defeated Kris Statlander and Momo Watanabe (with Stokely Hathaway) by pinfall | Tag team match [31] | 10:20 | ||||
4P | Mariah May (with "Timeless" Toni Storm and Luther) defeated Saraya (with Harley Cameron) by pinfall | Women's Owen Hart Cup Tournament first round match [32] | 8:35 | ||||
5P | The Lucha Brothers ( Penta El Zero Miedo and Rey Fénix) and Místico (with Alex Abrahantes) defeated Los Ingobernables de Japón ( Yota Tsuji, Titan, and Hiromu Takahashi) by submission | Trios match [33] | 12:00 | ||||
6 | MJF defeated Hechicero by pinfall | Singles match [34] | 9:50 | ||||
7 | The Elite ( Matthew Jackson, Nicholas Jackson, and Kazuchika Okada) defeated The Acclaimed ( Anthony Bowens and Max Caster) and Hiroshi Tanahashi by pinfall | Trios match [35] | 13:00 | ||||
8 | Bryan Danielson defeated Shingo Takagi by submission | Men's Owen Hart Cup Tournament first round match [36] | 20:20 | ||||
9 | "Timeless" Toni Storm (c) (with Luther) defeated Mina Shirakawa by pinfall |
Singles match for the
AEW Women's World Championship
[37] Mariah May was at ringside in support of both participants. | 11:40 | ||||
10 | Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Orange Cassidy by submission | Singles match [38] | 16:20 | ||||
11 | Samoa Joe, Hook, and Katsuyori Shibata defeated The Learning Tree ( Chris Jericho and Big Bill) and Jeff Cobb (with Bryan Keith) by pinfall | Trios match [39] | 14:00 | ||||
12 | Jack Perry defeated Konosuke Takeshita, Mark Briscoe, Dante Martin, Lio Rush, and El Phantasmo | Ladder match for the vacant AEW TNT Championship [40] | 16:55 | ||||
13 | Mercedes Moné (AEW) defeated Stephanie Vaquer (NJPW) by submission | Winner Takes All match for the AEW TBS Championship and NJPW Strong Women's Championship [41] | 16:50 | ||||
14 | Tetsuya Naito defeated Jon Moxley (c) by pinfall | Singles match for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship [42] | 17:05 | ||||
15 | Swerve Strickland (c) (with Prince Nana) defeated Will Ospreay by pinfall | Singles match for the AEW World Championship [43] | 27:05 | ||||
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The term "forbidden door" has always been used in reference to companies working together and not signing exclusively with one company.