AEW x NJPW - FORBIDDEN DOOR - 6/26/2022

[The Natural]

13 hours ago, The Natural said:

One of my favourite moments from the show, Sting no selling Superkick Party. Sting busting out the Senton as well.

Found Sting's Senton:

Seeing Sting's AEW run is so satisfying.

[TheVileOne]

Tony Khan's going about 11 on the hugs. Just make it a quick in and out hug. Closing your eyes and hanging on to guys for dear life does look a little weird.

[Sammo~!]

Counter point: Hugging Claudio is probably Real Good and it might have been an involuntary reaction. 

[TheVileOne]

It wasn't just Claudio.

[Gordi the former AEW fan]

It's stinking hot here right now. Hot enough to just want to stay inside with the air conditioning on. And, given that I spent very close to six full hours marking out over the past few days, I decided to try and do a full @DEAN-style big re-watch of the go home Rampage, the buy in, and Forbidden Door. 

It's really cool for me to see that even people who are decidedly not in the middle of the AEW mark/NJPW mark venn diagram also seemed to really love Forbidden Door. Makes sense, though. It really was a damned good show.

Millioke Rampage

Also a great pro wrestling crowd. They started chanting "Eddie" as soon as Andrade and Fenix started going for the duelling three amigos. How great is that? 

Andrade works the size and strength advantage vs Fenix, but presumably he wouldn't do that if he were facing, say, Wardlow. That's smart pro wrestling. Fenix can work the agility advantage against literally anyone. These guys work at such a high degree of difficulty, as well, but everything lands beautifully. It's truly impressive.

Over on the Navel Gazing thread I am getting into positivity, curiosity, enthusiasm... but here is the mad king showing how anger is also an energy that can get you through the shit to a better place. And I see his point. Kingston is the best.

The Swerve and Lee story is so interesting. I would prefer to see them work things out, but I also kind of want to see them fight. 

It's cool how Deeb & Mercedes are also a "team with issues" but in a different way. Toss in Hook & Danhausen and you've got three distinct variations on that story, which is a lot of fun. 

I'm serious about wanting Serena and Martinez to go full on down the Hokuto and Kandori path. "Mutual respect" stories can be told with a fair bit of nuance, in the ring, when you are as good as those two. 

I think Danhausen is valuable in the way he humanizes Hook and helps keep the "undefeated cool handsome guy" stuff from rubbing people the wrong way. Also, Hook's throws and holds look really intense and believable and so on. that also really helps.

Danhausen:Hook::The Ass Boys:The Acclaimed

Along the lines of how Fenix has the agility advantage against anyone he might ever face, Cobb has the strength advantage. If you brought back young Andre in a time machine, Cobb should still try to overpower him. The dude is a freak of nature!

It makes perfect sense that Cobb should win the singles match but FTR should win the tag match. 

As top-to-bottom great as this show was, I think the post-main-event mayhem match might have been the best thing about it.

The Buy-in

The crowd erupting with boos for The Factory then roaring with joy for Bishamon really set a perfect tone for the whole show. 

A hot crowd can sometimes make a huge difference, and this show is a great example of how that can work. 

If anyone from AEW is indeed lurking here: PLEASE mic up every arena the way you mic'd up this one! The crowd's enthusiasm just added so much to the enjoyment, all show long.

Factory played to it perfectly, as well. Non-stop heeling and cheating. 

I thought that having YOSHI-HASHI and Swerve get hot tags after their larger partners played face in peril was interesting and fun. 

Then it paid off nicely in the main event, with Giant Rockabilly getting the hottest tag of all after his partner took an extended beat-down from The Dojo Boys.

Archer and Comoroto, with their 1980s bodies and 2020s big man agility (rope-walk moonsault! skin the cat!) bring added value because they are always going to look awesome no matter how many hard-fought battles we see them lose. Every time they walk out their sheer physicality is going to win the crowd over. That was a really good BMMSM match. You can't go wrong giving us one of those.

Another cool thing about Swerve in our Glory vs Suzuki Gun was how it was four guys with really distinct styles who all stuck to those styles (crafty, quick and technical, overpowering, smoothly creative) but yet the match flowed seamlessly. You can almost never go wrong using body part psychology as a spine for a match. Lee didn't really yeet anybody, but him hitting  Despy and Kanemaru with one another was a lot of fun.

I can't get over how huge Billy Gunn looks in AEW.

What a show! I'll try to get my Forbidden Door re-watch in soon.

 

 

Edited June 28, 2022 by Gordlow

[The Natural]

[Gordi the former AEW fan]

7 minutes ago, L_W_P said:

 

Strick-Lee Business*


*Bizniss? Biznitch? I'm not down on the cool kid lingo right now...

I think you were right the first time. I believe Keith Lee would prefer to pronounce and spell it "Business."

Edited June 28, 2022 by Gordlow

[Fighting a man with a perm]

43 minutes ago, Gordlow said:

I think you were right the first time. I believe Keith Lee would prefer to pronounce and spell it "Business."

Indubitably 

[The Natural]

[Jrag]

Welp. I picked a hell of a time to go to my first AEW show. Most fun I've ever had in a wrestling crowd. The crowd was so rabid, man. I think even the 2nd multiple german suplex spot got a standing ovation lol.  

Entire show really delivered, but I can not express how perfect Ospreay/OC felt in the arena. Crowd bit on everything they were doing. Some GREAT near falls. Both these guys rule so much. Particularly loved the playing possum sequence that didn't really work. OC baits him into a high risk moonsault, but it doesn't really matter because Ospreay is such an athletic freak. In the end of that sequence OC gets the knees up anyways, but he has to fight to get there. It's that last bit that makes the character work. 

 

 

[(BP)]

6 hours ago, L_W_P said:

I'd like Swerve to say "Hey, let's have a match, get it out of your system Keith, and then we move back into climbing the tag ranks again."

“If it’ll make you feel better you can hit me. I’ll give you one shot.”

Spoiler

 

[Krone]

Also need to give kudos to Kevin Kelly and the job that he does. When I first started watching NJPW a few years ago, he became one of the announcers I gravitated towards. I love is style and approach to commentary.

Probably was a good job saving JR and Tony for specific matches. That definitely helped the card. I can imagine JR shitting on ELP's heel antics had he been commentating.

[Peck]

13 hours ago, John from Cincinnati said:

Please don't be serious please don't be serious

 

Clase Azul… he’s got good taste in tequila.

[Log]

1 hour ago, Jrag said:

Welp. I picked a hell of a time to go to my first AEW show. Most fun I've ever had in a wrestling crowd. The crowd was so rabid, man. I think even the 2nd multiple german suplex spot got a standing ovation lol.  

Entire show really delivered, but I can not express how perfect Ospreay/OC felt in the arena. Crowd bit on everything they were doing. Some GREAT near falls. Both these guys rule so much. Particularly loved the playing possum sequence that didn't really work. OC baits him into a high risk moonsault, but it doesn't really matter because Ospreay is such an athletic freak. In the end of that sequence OC gets the knees up anyways, but he has to fight to get there. It's that last bit that makes the character work. 

 

 

I'm curious, did you see what was happening during the main event that had the crowd distracted?

[(BP)]

1 minute ago, Log said:

I'm curious, did you see what was happening during the main event that had the crowd distracted?

 

[DEAN]

United Empire!

[eikerir]

57 minutes ago, (BP) said:

 

 

It's a work

[Krone]

8 minutes ago, DEAN said:

United Empire!

You know who'd be perfect for United Empire?

Kip Sabian

[DEAN]

Awesome!

 

[The Natural]

I thought Kevin Kelly and Taz did a great job. Two best commentators in wrestling, Kelly is my #1.

[The Natural]

 

[DEAN]

Tay Conti freaking out over meeting Shibata is awesome.

 

[Zimbra]

2 hours ago, eikerir said:

 

It's a work

Security guard has a nice punch, they should sign him.

[NikoBaltimore]

While different in so many ways I was getting All In vibes watching the show.  The crowd was molten and it was a wonderful display of companies working together to put on a stellar show.  I am incredibly hopeful and almost expect another show like this, especially to include those that were injured.  But a big part of me also wants to see AEW folks make their way to the G1.  Of course Danielson would be incredible there but him aside it's hard to narrow down who I would send over.

This also had me missing having NJPW World.  I signed back up but haven't gotten any subscription yet.  I need to see how things have been over there but I think it's time to check them out again.

[DEAN]

THE ASS BOYS ARE HOT AT DANHAUSEN!  I am so looking forward to the Ass boys vs HookHausen.