AEW / NJPW Forbidden Door 2023 (Wrestling Review)

AEW / NJPW

Forbidden Door

Toronto, Canada

June 25, 2023

AEW World Title Match
MJF (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

A solid opening match here. MJF sold his knee well the entire match and winning with a cheat helps his heel work and saves Tanahasi. Tanahasi did good but he’s also likely pushing the end of his career. 

3 / 5

Owen Hart Foundation 2023 Men’s Tournament Quarter Final Match
CM Punk vs. Satoshi Kojima

An okay match at best. Punk got boo’d heavy here and looked pretty bad in ring. A lot of sloppy looking moves which should be expected given he’s been out for almost a year. This was easiest match of the night to predict. 

2.5 / 5

AEW International Title Four Way Match
Orange Cassidy (c) vs. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Daniel Garcia

A solid fast paced match. Sabre Jr is fantastic and Garcia here was the odd man out really. Wonder where Orange goes from here with the title. 

3 / 5

IWGP World Heavyweight Title Match
SANADA (w/DOUKI) (c) vs. Jack Perry (w/Hook)

A fine match that just never felt special. The ending was unexpected and not in a good way. This was just a random match and Jack Perry going heel after it was so expected. 

2.5 / 5

Ten Man Tag Team Match
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

As expected a great match. A lot of good spots and nonstop action here. Yuta taking the pin was pretty expected as he was the bottom of the totem pole here. The Kingston / Mox angle was good and the crowd was super into this. 

4 / 5

AEW Women’s World Title Match
Toni Storm (w/Ruby Soho & Saraya) (c) vs. Willow Nightingale

This was fine. Willow got a lot of offense in and took 2 finishers to put down. Toni got to cheat some and in the end neither really win or lose much from here. 

3 / 5

IWGP United States Heavyweight Title Match
Kenny Omega (c) vs. Will Ospreay (w/Don Callis)

Very simply put, a 5 star match and will be one of the years best and one of AEWs best matches ever. Ospreay and Omega have amazing chemistry as everyone knows and this match played on older matches of their and kept the action fast but meaningful. The blood worked so well, the cheating worked so well, Ospreays heel work worked well here, and it was always unpredictable who would win. 

5 / 5

Six Man Tag Team Match
Minoru Suzuki & The Jericho Appreciation Society (Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara) vs. Darby Allin, Sting & Tetsuya Naito

A very average match considering who it was. The fact that this was thrown together so randomly didn’t help much. Sting, for being a legend, looked so out of it here at times. Naito didn’t care much as he never took his shirt off even and Darby was barely in this. Spots were clearly missed and the ending was entirely random and not exciting. 

2.5 / 5

Singles Match
Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada

 A very solid match but an exhausting one. The crowd was tired by this time and it showed. As for the ending though you could tell no one expected or really liked it. It came out of nowhere and unexpected but not in an exciting way, it came off as rushed instead. Still though Danielson and Okada put on a great match. Okada used a mix of speed and strength to try to outdo Danielson and I don’t think this is the last time they’ll face off in AEW or NJPW. 

 4 / 5